What you need to know
- Nothing has released its first major update for the Phone (2).
- The update includes new features such as Glyph Composer, improvements to the camera, and more.
- After the update has been installed, you'll also be able to add Quick Settings tiles right to your Home or Lock Screen as a separate widget.
It's been a busy week for Carl Pei and the rest of the Nothing team, as the company's latest device, the Nothing Phone (2), was announced. The Phone (2) is now available for pre-order from the Nothing website, and the company is already rolling out its first update for the device.
The update changelog is actually quite a bit longer than we initially expected, adding multiple new features along with making a few improvements. You can see the full changelog in the screenshots below, but here are some of the key highlights that we're excited about:
- Glyph Composer is now available on the Play Store, allowing you to "create and record your very own Glyph ringtones."
- Widgets can be added to the Lock Screen and even the Always-on Display.
- You can also now set Quick Settings toggles as traditional widgets on your Home or Lock Screen.
- Portrait mode now supports 2x zoom.
- Optimized photo clarity when shooting between 4x and 10x zoom.
As we mentioned, there's a surprising number of changes in an update that is only 105MB in size. With this many additions and improvements, you would think that the update would be larger, but it took no time to get it downloaded and installed on our own Phone (2).
Just earlier today, Android Central's Nick Sutrich published his "initial review" and mostly had good things to say. Namely, with a phone that's priced at $599, the only real competition is Google's Pixel 7, but the Phone (2) handily outperforms one of the best Android phones in performance and battery life.
It's exciting to see that Nothing is already releasing a "day one" update to fix issues and add new features. We can only hope that this continues into the future, and it will be interesting to see how long the wait is between the release of Android 14 and when the Nothing Phone (2) gets it.
The Nothing Phone (2) is an affordable flagship with a unique design that incorporates a translucent back and built-in LEDs that can be used for notifications and other functions. It comes with a dual 50MP camera setup and is powered by one of the best Snapdragon chipsets to date, all for a low price of $599.
