Nothing Phone 2a: In-depth Review

Nothing phones are the most hyped phones, and I was really not sure why there is so much hype for a particular brand, so I decided to give it a try and got Nothing Phone 2a in Drop 100 Sale (Early Sale with perks), and my first impressions were not that good, with mixed feelings about the phone, but after using it for more than 3 months, I am writing this review covering everything, so stay tuned until the end.

Packaging & Design:

I hardly speak about packing, but this phone is outstanding (sarcasm). since a new brand, they should focus on include a charger in the box and providing a pleasant unwrapping experience that ensures nothing is lost, since the pull tape on the box is so tight that ripping the tape tears the entire box.
In terms of design, the phone looks good for the price, but the build quality is a problem because it is made of plastic and has a transparent back that scratches easily. The glyph light and accent button on the white model are the only things that make the phone stand out, but other than that, the design has nothing to brag about.

Performance:

The Nothing Phone 2a is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro, which has a clock speed of up to 2.8 GHz and an 8 core 4nm Gen 2 processor with an ANTUTU score of 707,408, making it suitable for lite gaming and daily tasks. I've had a lot of jitter and lag while launching apps. I have the 12 GB + 256 GB variant, which performs everyday chores fairly well, but animations and playing games like PUBG, COD, and Asphalt 9 lag a lot and have too many frame drops.
Cooling system- The 3,200 mm² vapour chamber provides quicker and more equal heat dispersion. The 12,000 mm² cooling surface features a thick 0.11 mm graphite layer for efficient heat dissipation, keeping the device cool during intense workloads like as gaming, editing, and streaming.

Display:

Phone 2a features a flexible amoled display with 1100 nits of brightness, an optimised refresh rate of 30-120 Hz, and a touch sampling rate of 240 Hz, all protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The display is vivid and has vibrant colours, and it is buttery smooth. The quality is excellent.
Symmetric bezels are rare in mid-range phones, giving them a premium impression. Additionally, the Phone 2a display supports 10-bit colour depth natively, resulting in rich and realistic colours with improved detail reproduction.

Operating System:

Nothing OS 2.5 comes pre-installed in Phone 2a and features a monochromatic UI that appears minimal; however, NothingOS is by far one of the greatest UIs in a short period of time while maintaining a stock Android experience.
Phone 2a has three years of major Android upgrades and four years of security updates.

Battery:

Phone 2a equipes with whopping 5,000 mAh battery which gives more than 1 day battery life with heavy usage gives screen on time of 8+ hrs battery backup. Has max charging capacity of 45W Fast Charging which takes 1 hour 10 minutes to fully juice you device.

Camera:

Nothing phone 2a comes with 2 rear cameras & 1 front camera, 50 MP Ultra Wide (Samsung ISOCELL GN1 114° FOV) & 50 MP Main Camera (Samsung ISOCELL GN9 OIS & EIS), 32 MP front camera (Sony IMX615) Also Phone 2a comes with TrueLens Engine which has various awesome modes like: Ultra XDR, Motion Capture, Night Mode, Portrait Optimize & Action Mode.
Camera performs a decent job of taking amazing photographs, but it lacks contrast, saturation, and overexposes the image. I've been using it for the past three months and have had several difficulties with the Camera UI while using it as a daily driver.
The camera is not properly adjusted, as you can easily see the difference in the sky colour of the wide photo. There is also a "4 seconds" wait when hitting the shutter button. Every time you take a photo, there is a wait. As you can see in these photos, the colour, contrast, blown-out highlights, and details appear to be much more balanced than in the sky shot. Still nothing. The Phone 2a struggles to Auto Focus on things, forcing you to manually focus.

/Camera samples are attached at the end.

Conclusion:

The phone is not very good, and I would not suggest it if you are looking for high performance, camera, or build. This phone is a balanced phone for those who want stylish looks. I am not a fan of the glyph lights on the phone, but it is a personal choice, and other people may enjoy it. After more than three months of use, the phone slows if you play games or edit for more than 40 minutes at a time. The camera is acceptable for the price point.
There are a few aspects that need be addressed, including build quality, smoothness, and camera quality.