The one challenge is that from the principle Glyph settings web page it’s not instantly clear how granular you’ll be able to go in notifications. You may actually choose notifications from, say, Instagram Direct Messages (and not Direct Message Requests), however in apps like Telegram and Fb Messenger, you’ll be able to select particular conversations. These don’t at all times present up within the Glyph settings, so when a notification comes by, you’ll must press and maintain the down arrow on the notification itself to mark it as an “Important Glyph” notification.
Glyph lights additionally work with the Glyph Timer, which you’ll set to your most popular size and begin by turning the telephone face down. One of many LED strips will mild 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. Proper now, should you name an Uber driver, you gained’t should preserve checking the app to see how far-off they’re—simply have 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 examine my telephone to verify I knew my driver’s identify and license plate.
Nonetheless, 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. Additionally, if Nothing needs me to place its telephone face down on each floor possible, the least it might do is embrace a transparent case that will preserve the Gorilla Glass 5 display screen 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 needs to make its software program and {hardware} extra “intentional” so that you just’re solely utilizing your handset once 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 are not any app labels both.
Nonetheless, after utilizing a completely grayscale interface for a number of weeks, I don’t assume this works. I’m already utilizing my telephone much less as a result of my favourite third-party Reddit shopper shut down (and I cannot be downloading Reddit’s official app, thanks very a lot), however when your entire telephone is monochrome on a regular basis, I don’t essentially get that Pavlovian jolt as I do with Bedtime Mode that I ought to actually fall asleep. As a substitute, it simply appears like a extremely elegant design.
Appears to be like are the place I’ve to provide Nothing props. Nothing OS 2.0 is attractive, notably with a lot of Nothing’s personal widgets. Much more amazingly, you’ll be able to put these widgets on the lock display screen, and it seems to be 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 a number of customized ringtones and notification alerts. It jogs my memory of the nice previous days of Android, which fostered a “do-whatever-you-want-with-your-phone” mentality.
All or Nothing
The basics of the Nothing Telephone (2) are fairly nice total. The 6.7-inch AMOLED display screen 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 screen time, I often had over 40 % left within the tank. It may possibly simply final a full day and a half.
It’s now powered by final 12 months’s flagship processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, with 8 GB of RAM (128 GB of inside storage). It’s snappy and appears like one of the responsive telephones I’ve ever used, with speedy animations and fast app launches. It’s tremendous clean.
