Nothing Phone (2) Review vs S23 Ultra - Speed, Sound and Gaming Test! 🔥
The Phone (2) is the first premium tier flagship device from Nothing as opposed to the Phone (1) which was comfortably mid-tier. This is Nothing taking aim at the premium range of competitors from Samsung, Google and others.
I’m hoping this review brings you some value because I’m going to talk about stuff that may not be covered on the bigger sites like, does its speakers sound good for gaming and watching videos, and how fast does it open apps compared to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, along with some other tests. But first, a little bit about the hardware.
It looks largely similar to the Phone (1) with some minor touches that improves the look and feel of this device. It’s all glass and aluminum now. I’m liking how the 3D glass at the back looks like the phone’s sitting under a thin sheet of water which gives sort of like an optical pop to its design. There’s a bit of curving off to the sides here so the phone feels less like a brick and more like a polished pebble. Some redesign to the Glyphs too which ties into the new features it’s got, more on that later.
Specs
On the internal hardware side, as opposed to the Phone (1), we are looking at some flagship specs. Instead of a mid tier 7 series processor, the Phone (2) uses the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 which is much faster, it gives a boost to the snappiness when opening apps, and a more responsive fingerprint sensor.
It’s got a slightly bigger battery now, and a better screen that’s got LTPO technology which varies the screen refresh from 120hz to as low as 1 hz to extend battery life further.
Otherwise it’s the typical FHD+ resolution, and in terms of screen brightness we’re looking at around 1000 nits outdoors. One complaint I had about the Phone (1) was the screen wasn’t very bright, so outdoors it can be hard to see. The Phone (2) is much brighter, you do have to go to full brightness if you want to use it under direct sunlight which is comparable to the Samsung, but in most other cases full brightness is too bright. Feel free to turn it down to save battery.
What really made the Phone (1) special is the Glyph interface. Same thing here, but some additions were added to make it more useful, things like a countdown timer, a dedicated light bar for important apps; my favorite part though, is the ability to create your own Glyph ringtones. Takes me back to the Nokia 3310, one of the first dumb phones that did allow me to create custom tones. Similar vibes here, you can create your own custom jingles, and you can even share them. Check out my custom tones here
A camera deep dive is coming soon so if you don’t want to miss out on that one, get subscribed to the channel and tap the bell button to stay notified.
Speaker Sound Quality
It’s got a stereo speaker setup, and these are pretty loud, about as loud as the S23 Ultra. And in terms of quality, you can tell that the speakers were tuned to sound more smooth in the mids even at max volume when listening to music or watching videos. Listen to the samples here.
I actually prefer its tuning compared to the Samsungs which had a whole other emphasis on crisp mid-range vocals. It did make vocals sound louder, but it also sounded more sharp and scratchy. Borderline annoying. The Phone (2) also had a bit more low end.
Overall, the Phone (2)’s onboard speakers are way above average. But it would have been nicer to have global custom sound options like the Samsung that allows you to create your own EQ for your phone and external audio like speakers and earbuds.
Speed Test
Opening PUBG on both phones at the same time, the Samsungs were just a little faster in the beginning, but the tempo of the boot up process was similar. Keeping in mind that the Phone (2) costs a lot less, it’s looking pretty good right now. Watch here.
Gaming
When running PUBG on High settings without HDR. gameplay and framerates on the Phone (2) felt very smooth. I pushed it up to Ultra settings with HDR, then Extreme settings, and the game still ran like butter. Watch here.
As for thermals, on High settings there was a bit of heating in the middle of the screen and to the sides, but it was quite mild. It was only when I pushed it to Extreme settings, that’s when the sides got even warmer. A few more games at this heat and my palms will be getting sweaty.
But overall, it handles thermals pretty well. And it was extra enjoyable because the speakers were loud and quite spacious sounding, and its curved bezels made it more comfortable to hold than the Phone (1).
So far I am enjoying the Phone (2). Compared to the Phone (1) the whole experience here just feels a lot more snappy, more polished, and the camera is also looking pretty decent, something that I’ll cover in my next video coming soon, so if you haven’t already, get subscribed and tap the bell to stay notified.
