Nothing OS 2.0 will reach the Nothing Phone (1) in August

Nothing is all set for the release of its upcoming Nothing Phone (2). Carl Pei, CEO of Nothing and OnePlus Co-Founder, has been teasing the smartphone for quite some time now. Upon examining all the teasers, the company is keen that its next device will be a remarkable step in the brand's story. The Nothing Phone (2) will be a determinant step for the brand's future since it will compete with big flagships from larger brands. The company is betting on high-end hardware with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and also on the software experience with Nothing OS 2.0. The update promises a series of improvements and long-term support. Nothing Phone (1) owners need not worry as they are also set to get the new software experience shortly.

The Nothing Phone (2) will debut on July 11 and will come with the latest Nothing OS 2.0. Similar to the current Nothing OS 1.5 iteration, it will be based on Android 13, however, we expect some big changes. According to Carl Pei, owners of the last year's phone can expect the update to reach their devices in August.

Earlier this month, Software Creative Director at Nothing, Mladen M. Hoyss, gave an interview with the XDA-Developers and talked about Nothing OS 2.0. According to him, the company had a minimal team of five people and outside contractors building up its operating system. This explains why the initial iteration of Nothing OS resembled a simple launcher on top of vanilla Android. With the release of the Nothing Phone (1), the company scaled up the team to nearly 100 people. The result was Nothing OS 1.5 which brought significant changes, new features, and a distinct look from Google's Android 13. Now, the company is moving to Nothing OS 2.0, which should be their biggest move so far.

As per the developer, with Nothing OS 2.0, the company will "start almost from scratch" in terms of looks. The company sees the Nothing Phone (2) release as the best "opportunity" and the right "momentum" for this. According to Hoyss, the key concept behind Nothing OS 2.0 is "functional aesthetics", which is a data science term that relates to taking a lot o data and trying to visualize it and make things easy to digest.

The Creative Director also states that Nothing "wants the user to be productive, and at the same time, to have fun". Their intent is to be immediately recognizable as part of the Nothing ecosystem, fitting the hardware at the same time. The team aims to fully respect Android and its philosophy. Nothing OS 2.0 won't go against this principle, but wants to "uplift" the best parts of the OS and make them easier and more productive for end-users.

In my experience with Android, I can say that I prefer vanilla over heavily customized UIs. However, there are a lot of features on custom UIs that make Android better. For that reason, I've been using custom ROMs for the past few years. They offer stock Android with a bunch of features to customize it and make it more productive. At the same time, I have the freedom to fully customize Android to my personal tastes. I believe that Nothing OS 2.0 should walk through the path of custom ROMs, but at the same time, it needs to offer something different, something original. That basically was the principle of OxygenOS in its first days. It brought everything good in stock Android and added features and customization options that made it better than vanilla.

According to Hoyss, their goal is to take the best of Android and figure out how to "build on top of that", making a product that is "undoubtedly nothing".

The future seems to be the Nothing Phone (2), but it's great to see that Nothing plans to offer long-term support for its users. Upon the Nothing Phone (1) release, Carl Pei promised three years of major Android updates. The phone launched with Android 12 and was updated to Android 13 with Nothing OS 1.5. Nothing OS 2.0 will be the next big update, but should still be based on Android 13. In theory, the phone will be eligible for future Android 14 and Android 15 updates. So we assume it will also be eligible for a bunch of future Nothing OS updates.

The same long-term support will be given to the Nothing Phone (2). The next flagship will come with Android 13 and will be eligible for three major Android updates and four years of security patches. The Nothing Phone (2) will be equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 making it much more powerful than the Phone (1) with its Snapdragon 778G+. Carl Pei states that the choice for the new chipset involves more than a mere "performance leap". The flagship SoC has a better ISP (Image Signal Processor) which could lead to better photographs. Similarly, it has modern 4nm manufacturing which provides more performance with improved power efficiency.

The Nothing Phone (2) will also bring a 4,700 mAh battery which has been confirmed by the CEO himself. The phone should keep the 45W fast charging available on its predecessor but will bring a new USB Type-C cable with a transparent design. The phone itself should also keep its transparent design, which makes it look unique in the smartphone market. Yesterday, Carl Pei teased Nothing OS 2.0, and apparently, leaked an interesting detail.

According to recent leaks, the Nothing Phone (2) will cost more than its predecessor with a price tag that starts around €729 for the variant with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of Storage. With that alleged price, the Nothing Phone (2) will be competing against the big ones like the Galaxy S23 and the OnePlus 11.