The solely situation is that from the primary Glyph settings web page it’s not instantly clear how granular you’ll be able to go in notifications. You can definitely choose notifications from, say, Instagram Direct Messages (and not Direct Message Requests), however in apps like Telegram and Facebook Messenger, you’ll be able to select particular conversations. These don’t all the time present up within the Glyph settings, so when a notification comes by means of, you’ll have to press and maintain the down arrow on the notification itself to mark it as an “Essential Glyph” notification.

Glyph lights additionally work with the Glyph Timer, which you’ll set to your most well-liked size and begin by turning the telephone face down. One of the LED strips will gentle up and start fading in correspondence with the timer. No want to take a look at your telephone! The LEDs can now even be built-in with third-party apps, though Nothing solely labored with Uber at launch. Right now, should you name an Uber driver, you gained’t need to preserve checking the app to see how distant they’re—simply take a look at the LED strip to see the driving force’s progress. It labored completely on the few rides I booked final week, although I inevitably needed to verify my telephone to verify I knew my driver’s identify and license plate.

Still, these little options are intelligent methods that can assist you keep current and keep away from unnecessarily checking your telephone. One drawback? It’s laborious to erase years of muscle reminiscence of placing a smartphone face up. Too typically I simply … forgot that Glyph lights are a factor. You’ll want time to get used to it. Also, if Nothing desires me to place its telephone face down on each floor possible, the least it might do is embody a transparent case that might preserve the Gorilla Glass 5 display contact-free. I don’t see any scratches but, however they appear inevitable.

Not utilizing the telephone is a giant a part of Nothing’s ethos—the corporate desires to make its software program and {hardware} extra “intentional” so that you simply’re solely utilizing your handset if you want it. Its new monochrome interface is a part of that play. It takes a web page from Google’s “Bedtime Mode” in Android, which converts the telephone’s software program to grayscale to discourage you from doomscrolling earlier than mattress. There aren’t any app labels both.

However, after utilizing a completely grayscale interface for just a few weeks, I don’t assume this works. I’m already utilizing my telephone much less as a result of my favourite third-party Reddit consumer shut down (and I cannot be downloading Reddit’s official app, thanks very a lot), however when your complete telephone is monochrome on a regular basis, I don’t essentially get that Pavlovian jolt that it’s bedtime and I ought to actually fall asleep. Instead, it simply looks like a very elegant design.

Looks are the place I’ve to provide Nothing props. Nothing OS 2.0 is attractive, significantly with lots of Nothing’s personal widgets. Even extra amazingly, you’ll be able to put these widgets on the lock display, and it appears much better than something I’ve ever seen on every other Android telephone. The notification and ringtone sounds are additionally distinctive. Nothing has additionally launched a “Glyph Composer,” and I spent far too lengthy making just a few customized ringtones and notification alerts. It jogs my memory of the great outdated days of Android, which fostered a “do-whatever-you-want-with-your-phone” mentality.

All or Nothing

The fundamentals of the Nothing Phone (2) are fairly nice total. The 6.7-inch AMOLED display has a fluid 120-Hz screen refresh rate that appears glorious and will get comfortably brilliant on sunny days. The 4,700-mAh battery cell simply lasted me a full day—after 4 hours of display time, I normally had over 40 % left within the tank. It can simply final a full day and a half.

It’s now powered by final yr’s flagship processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, with 8 GB of RAM (128 GB of inner storage). It’s snappy and looks like one of the crucial responsive telephones I’ve ever used, with speedy animations and fast app launches. It’s tremendous easy.