Powerful device for the price with long battery life and good reviews. $70 extra for double the storage and 4GB of RAM.
Edit, my bad
Honestly, who cares what MKBHD says? He was always a great videographer but terrible reviewer
but terrible reviewer
and driver 😆
We need more Louis Rossmans and less Marques Brownlees in this world.
https://youtu.be/gJYIhLQJtTs?si=55l1wiQRd-6UWNgG&t=80 😂
you need to give the guy a brake
the way he drives, bro will not survive 3 days in Australia
Apparently nearly 20M subs, and every time there’s a new Apple product review, it instantly appears on the Trending page.
I do value his reviews not as an actual, objective “review” of the product itself, but as a summary of his subjective journey with the product and how he has integrated it (or tried to) into his day-to-day life. He presents himself as relatable to the average blue-state American, even though we have seen that he is FAR from trustworthy at times.
But if I want a more objective review, I’d probably look at Short Circuit, since the LTT Labs team tests phones, including iPhones, which is a rarity to find nowadays from reputable testing outlets.
If I wanted a combination of a “review” and a journal, I’d look at Mac Address, but that’s gone for the time being.
TL;DR, MKBHD has a VERY large niche with subjective “reviews” that instead aim to tell stories about the products he features, and then determine whether he would keep using the device and recommend it to others, and if so, how. If you want a more objective review, look elsewhere.
and then determine whether he would keep using the device and recommend it to others,
If they pay him enough, he will
Exactly. Can't rely 100% on his reviews.
All these big YouTubers you wouldn't trust their reviews. Most of his videos come across as adverts.
Unfortunately I don’t really trust any reviewers after my experiences with a Pixel 7 and Pixel 8a, and their woeful mobile reception, ‘overheating’, and battery life issues that almost everyone but users fail to mention.
Through deeper research I found out some cool review facts such as gsmarena battery life tests being far from reality due to their testing methodology, for example;
For the screen-on tests:
And;
“Call test
The Call test remains a staple in our suite of battery tests. Even though it will be running over a 4G network from now on (with VoLTE), the outcome remains largely consistent with our past tests.
For this test, we aim to provide a consistent network quality environment and consistent call volume.”
At no point is 5G calls tested and at no point is 4G or 5G used for any of the screen on tests, which include web browsing, video streaming, and gaming.
Agreed, also Australia's unique mobile reception issues are rather neglected by reviewers. Anyone who has to travel or live outside major cities gets screwed.
@ronnie, @TekniqAU, ALL
Read widely, look for negative reviews & track them down via specific-searchs, favour written words over video, search forums/users experience etc.
Many reviews we read are likely paid &/or bias.
Edge 50 for $448 is a better deal.
Mediocre battery life, curved screen, updates until Android 16 and security updates until 2027 for $21 more. Much better…
Likely that you'll post a Moto-Edge-50 (or similar) deal < $400…soon ish ?
Nothing I'm aware of
@shxhshzhz: I'm crystal balling 🔮
People treated that Neo deal terribly
May ask your source to provide the quantify on offer, or if the deal is good, put a caveat to warn buyers of likely sell-out in seconds 😭
I heard the Motorola has 3 android updates now…? So guaranteed until Android 17…
Or is that just the edge 50 pro?
Much better… Honestly debatable. But I agree better.
Better than the edge pro 50 though?
It's allor Nothing
Can anyone recommend this if they own one?
I need an upgrade and missed out on the Edge Neo deal of the century and the edge 50 pro the other day.
Thats the market im looking at.
My son owns one. He loves it.
Yeah got one recently for my wife. Great value - it's really smooth with great software and the camera is actually pretty good. Not Pixel level - but I was pretty happy with it. Battery life is great too. Tempted me to look at Phone 3 when it comes out!
Hey Mate, I'm using one now. Have the 12 / 256gb version. Great phone, fast, 120hz screen with great battery life (2 days) Stereo sound also. Can recommend :)
I've had my 12/256 for about a month. Bought for the same price. Very happy with it. I come from Samsung galaxy, then Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 and 12. This Nothing phone is great and is the only one I do not have to charge at all during the day. It may even last 2 days, not sure. The Samsungs and xiaomis never made it thru a whole day.
Minimal bloatware. Multiple timers. Dual apps (not for everything, but for many). Camera not as good as the Samsungs but better than xiaomi.
HODL.
EdgeNeo was a marketing-stunt @ that price: a handful or 2 offered, & Edge50-Pro likely to be RE-offer for < $450…a few months ?
You need 32GB in your phone?
All those 2012 phones with 8gb of ram. The memories…
Honestly dude, 8gb is totally fine.
None of those things are ram intensive, with the exception maybe being the Reddit app, and having more ram may at best keep something open in the background for a little longer if you are swapping between apps extremely frequently.
As you say more is better - but why pay more for more if you don't need more?
Bro thinks he’s using a PC.
i make calls, use maps, listen to music, browse the internet, reddit, youtube, i control all my smart devices and use all my messaging apps AND social media.
My phone has 4GB of ram. I do all of the things you listed (and more) and it runs just fine. I even went out for my morning bike ride today and used my phone for Strava recording whilst listening to music connected to my Aftershokz Aeropex via Bluetooth.
@smartProverble, @nikoris: Turn-on Developer_options, go to Running_services & see which APPs are chewing up HEAVY-ram ?
If your preference is to have many HEAVY-ram APPs open in the background, consider 12Gb ram phones…each to their own ?
My Android14 is using 3 - 3.5Gb ram: system 2Gb ish…light-user.
This ain't a MacBook post
Try 4 gigabyte's in 24 , it works for me.
Great phone for the price but no esim is a deal breaker for me sadly
It was ticking all the boxes for me while watching reviews, then I read your comment
Deal breaker
Just to play devils advocate, i tried eSIM and it screwed me. The phone i had the eSIM on died completely, and it was SUCH pain transitioning to another phone and keeping my number. I'll always opt to have a physical sim wherever possible after that painful week of no 2FA (banking, logins etc)
Agree. I naively removed one from my phone thinking I could just re-add it later (like popping out a physical sim and putting it back in). Took 3 days for my service provider to get it sorted…
100% really surprised to see a pro-esim supporter. I dislike esim and does nothing for most use cases, and certainly not user centric it seems to be more benefit to the telco.
May i ask why it is?
esim is sooo convenient for travel etc
Best way to make use of sim deals that give to ample data for less price. Switching esim. On the a phone is very easy unlike switching sim cards.
Two minutes work ⁉️
@Murkymerv: you need to carry a sim ejector tool and remove sim tray to swap and store sims all the time on the go. But again if you have time and patience you can always prefer simcards
@hopper: That Sim tool is so heavy, how could you possibly carry it? I keep one in my wallet, I wouldn't even know it's there.
was thinking to get this as a spare phone, then read about no esim which is a deal breaker for me too.
you can buy an esim card..works in anyphone..
currently use it for the 2a, works great
it's called 5ber eSIM, it gets mentioned on every non esim capable phone, would recommend
does it cost 25USD for the unlimited esim 5ber card?
So you buy the 5ber sim and it's a physical sim that works as an esim?
Ive never used an esim. I would assume a lot of terms and conditions on redeeming to get best value.
I'm always scared of losing my phone number 😭
Are emsims cheaper for data?
You will find a lot of free data deals here
I have one. Really good!
If you had $500 for another phone would you buy the same with how good it is?
Absolutely the same. Battery is way better than my edge 50
I'm waiting on my Pixel 7a to come back from warranty, and they said its possible it'll get replaced with a Pixel 8a.
Thoughts on whether the Nothing2a is better than the pixels?
This is the gsmarena comparison https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=12937&idPhone2=…
Honestly I like the Pixel AI processing of images, they come out so good on the first take often.
Pixels also have the 80% bypass battery charging feature. Look into it. It makes for long lifetime batteries, it's amazing
Thanks for the info!
But honestly considering my 7a was only 1.5 years old and i had to send it off for warranty because of battery bloat, I'm not too sold on the bypass feature rn…
Oh, that's crap lol. I guess it's all still hit and miss anyway
Pixels also have the 80% bypass battery charging feature.
I can confirm that the Nothing Phone 2a has this also. I've been using it for several months now.
Oh! Just saw that the Nothing Phone 2a has added the battery 80% charge limit feature. That's amazing. I wish more android's had this feature tbh. Under the hood the apple products seem to do all sorts of smarts with battery to prolong life, why don't the damn androids do the same!
@aaronsd: Apple have always had issues with battery life except for the pro max range , that's why they've always had work arounds .
@aaronsd: My Asus phone from 2020 have this feature.
Apple is more sneaky, instead of giving you a customised option to change they used to downclock your cpu and keep your battery charging at 100% to give you the illusion that battery life is better on iPhones than androids while in reality, your iPhones just gets slower with time.
I love pixels because of the camera, the excellent included apps and the lack of bloatware that can't be removed and the user experience is brilliant
live in the tropics, rely on my mobile for internet, the phone sits on a stand where a fan blows on it to keep it cool as it's constantly on charge, with all that and the battery saver option kicking in to save the battery the battery still swoll up and pushed the screen off in less than 2yrs, moved onto a phone that has a user replaceable battery as this is the 3rd pixel to suffer this, the other 2 had the screens destroyed by the battery and were beyond economical repair, a pensioners nightmare is what those are!
From my experience, having a phone or portable wifi router on charge constantly has most likely been your
biggest problem with battery swelling issues. I have similar internet use as you, for many years using portable wifi
and second dedicated hotspot phone, with only one battery (out of more than 10 devices) swelling, and that was
one of my portable wifi's most likely swelling caused in hot summers with it plugged into charger for more than 4
hours too often (did not care too much as had few spare batteries anyway). Last four years, prefer to not use my
best phone for too much hotspotting, and use 2 other cheaper phones for that main and back up service, have not
had battery issues as charge whilst I use, then take off charge when 80%-90% of charge mostly when hot.
live in the tropics, rely on my mobile for internet, the phone sits on a stand where a fan blows on it to keep it cool as it's constantly on charge
Interesting comments.
Heavy users & warm climate: for those you want minimal battery degradation, observe AccuBattery-APP charging-information, BatteryUniversity knowledge & the heat generated by your phone during warm days, say 30°C.
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-…
which would you rather have, this or the Moto Edge 50 Pro?
NP2a. No curved screen. Tasteful OS additions to Android, but still mostly stock. Good performance and battery.
Moto edge 50 pro has better display ,better camera ,better processor ,better build quality ,the os is literally stock and have Samsung dex like ready for
The only downside is the curved screen
Why does everyone hate curved screens? Maybe I'm not picturing them correctly. I think my previous phone had a curved screen and i don't remember any issues from it
@Salmando: Screen protectors don't properly adhere to them, so you have to buy pricier ones that use glue and UV light. It's just a PITA.
Accidental touches are an issue on some phones.
They are just more fragile, more prone to breaking.
@Salmando: I can't figure out the hate toward the curved screens myself. Have been using one on my Moto Edge 40 for the past year or more and it's caused no issue. Dropped the phone a couple of times, even face down onto concrete from 1.5m, and it's still fine. I just use one of those flexible screen protectors rather than a glass one, which stops the issue with false touches on the edges.
Now they put down their price, bought one about 3 weeks ago from the Nothing website for $449 because they were cheaper than JB .
Does anyone own this and can confirm it works with Optus WiFi calling?
We have to wait for their CEO to make a youtube video to confirm this
I own the 2a and WiFi calling works for me on Circles.life
YMMV
No esim if that is something you need
Pixel 9 pro is on sale for 1300. Is it a good deal?
Was about to jump on a Pixel 7 Pro 128gb for $660. Hard choice.
Quality of camera/pics/videos? Looking at something to upgrade Mrs UWH from an A32.
Not fantastic, you can side load gcamera but I found they were saving really low resolution.
If you buying this for a birth of a baby or something, and needed critical photos. Would spend a bit more on a older pixel
Have you been looking at my OneDrive? Haha
"Strictly a city and suburbs phone where there is good tower coverage.
I have always been impressed with MediaTek’s single-tower coverage, but that does not reflect Australian conditions. You need multiple tower coverage to guarantee access, particularly in black spot areas."
https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/nothing-2a-a-nothing-speci…
Thanks for the link, after scanning various articles, it looks like this thing might have better reception than a Pixel 9, worse coverage than a Galaxy S24 FE (but the S24 FE only gets 4G in their tests), but still pales in comparison to something with a Snapdragon modem like the Motorola Edge 50.
https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/google-pixel-9-9-pro-and-9…
https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/samsung-galaxy-s24-fe-the-…
https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/motorola-edge-50-strong-ph…
P.S. they really like Motorola's and recommend them at almost every price point, probably because they use Snapdragon chips across their range;
https://cybershack.com.au/featured/best-android-phones-july-…
And they also mention the following in the above article;
MediaTek modems are generally good in cities and suburbs or where you have good tower coverage.
Samsung Exynos modems (in many Samsung A-series and Google Pixel Tensor phones) tend to have lower signal strength. They are fine for cities and suburbs but not for black spots, regional towns, or rural areas.
Qualcomm modems find more towers with mid-to-high signal strengths. These invariably make a city, suburb, regional, or rural CyberShack tick
Personally I can't use Exynos modems where I live and work, if I do I get signal blackouts and massive battery drain, and I'm in suburbia only 25km from a major city.
I'm not sure how well MediaTek would work for me, I would have loved to give this phone a go, I've played with a display model and they're pretty nifty, but I just don't want to risk it after my Exynos experience.
Thoughts on this vs Moto G84?
Has anyone on Optus got one of these which is still working post their whitelist? I.e. Is it on the Whitelist?
I'm on Optus and can confirm it works.
Thanks mate!
This won MKBHD's best value phone of the year award. https://youtu.be/E76CUtSHMrU?si=zxc1uuM7DIs0lqfi