Nothing Phone 2a confirmed to arrive soon but US availability is tricky

Nothing has been announced that the Phone 2a will be officially released on March 5 with design and features that are unique to the company.

Nothing, the young smartphone brand led by Carl Pei, has confirmed that its next smartphone, Nothing Phone 2a, will launch on March 5.

In a bid to build hype by releasing information in bits and pieces, the company confirmed the launch date but there was no mention of price or specs. Nothing revealed that the upcoming phone will continue to feature the transparent design we’ve seen in all the products released under the Nothing brand.

Additionally, the Phone 2a is confirmed to come with the Glyph interface that makes the transparent design more practical and a core feature of the device. That said, the Glyph LED lights have been tweaked, and we might see fewer LED strips, which could also be moved around a bit to make sense of the new design.

Confirming the rumors, Pei confirmed that the Phone 2a would be affordable and would sit somewhere in between Phone 1 and Phone 2. He confirmed that the key focus is to offer the bloatware-free design and user experience.

Nothing Phone 2a brings a fresh design

There has been much discussion around the Noting Phone 2a’s tentative design. We’ve come across multiple leaked renders hinting towards different designs.

The initial leak hinted at a centrally aligned rear camera setup. This leaked render shows the phone’s transparent back and horizontally placed dual camera setup with a few Glyph LED strips around it.

The second leak, however, suggested that the company may do away with the Glyph interface. However, several people questioned the accuracy of this design, and Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka OnLeaks, later confirmed that this leak was indeed incorrect. Given his accurate track record, a blip here and there is acceptable.

A closer look at the teaser video embedded above and the tagline that the brand has been using suggests that the initial render could be accurate. This means the upcoming Nothing phone will not have a strikingly new design and is confirmed to have stripped-down features.

Nothing availability in the US might be tricky, though

Nothing’s team has confirmed that the Phone 2a will be available in the US via a “Developer Program” only. Unfortunately, this means the phone will not be widely available to everyone in the country.

It’s worth noting that Nothing made the Phone 1 available in the US in a similar “Beta” mode. In contrast, the Phone 2 was regularly released despite its incompatibility with Verizon.

The Phone 2a is expected to be a mid-range phone offering the same flagship-like experience but with affordability as a key highlight. This is similar to Google’s Pixel A series. These phones are designed for developing markets where cost vs. specs is a crucial parameter of evaluating the phone.

This is probably why Nothing is only releasing the Phone 2a in limited quantities in regions like the US. That being said, let us wait for the official launch to get clarity on this.