Nothing Phone (2a) dramatically unveiled ahead of launch, Glyph Interface confirmed

The Nothing Phone (2a) won't be officially announced until 5 March, but following a flurry of speculation about the actual design of the handset, the company has staged a dramatic AR unveiling of the new mid-range handset in London.

The giant unboxing shows the phone being lifted from a billboard advert and neatly revealing the phone design, confirming the previous round of leaked renders. The unveiling also confirms the much-debated Glyph Interface on the rear of the phone.

When Nothing launched its first phone, there were two distinctive characteristics about it. Firstly, the company loves transparency in design; rather than having a solid rear to the phone, it's a clear panel revealing some of the technical parts of the phone. The second aspect of the design is the Glyph Interface.

On the Nothing Phone (2a) there are three Glyphs centred around the camera unit on the rear of the phone. Within Nothing OS – the software layer on top of Android – you get a controller for the Glyph Interface so you can customise what it does, and when. It can be used for custom alerts for example, combined with Nothing's ringtones and vibrations, to ease caller identification.

Nothing Phone (2a) specs and features

The Nothing Phone (2a) has a centralised rear camera which is said to be composed of two 50-megapixel cameras. There's reportedly a 5,000mAh battery supporting 45W charging - but these specs are unconfirmed and come from leaks. There's said to be a 7.6-inch AMOLED 120Hz display and launch with Android 14.

What we have had confirmed is that the Nothing Phone (2a) runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro, a customised version of the mid-range MediaTek hardware announced in 2023. Nothing has confirmed that it's an upgrade over the Nothing Phone (1), which itself launched on the Snapdragon 778G+.

The big play here is for an attractive phone in the mid-range segment, but nothing faces strong competition. The Google Pixel 7a is a solid choice - and soon to be updated by the Pixel 8a, while we're also expecting Samsung's next round of Galaxy A devices to launch soon as well.

All of the details about the Nothing Phone (2a) will be confirmed on 5 March when the unveiling takes place, but certainly, this phone could be in the running for the best cheap phone of 2024.