Nothing makes its way into the smartphone market with some clear philosophies. First, the company wants to be about more than performance and is releasing smartphones that focus on experience rather than always having the latest possible hardware. This year, Nothing launched its first mid-range phone in the form of the Nothing Phone (2a). It costs less than the flagship phone (2) and has some unique aspects when looking at the mid-range market. Nothing now want to take a bold step to highlight its community focus and capitalized on the Nothing Phone (2a) ad.

Nothing invites fans to co-produce a special edition Nothing Phone (2a)

Today, Nothing is launching a new initiative that invites its community to design, package and customize a special edition Nothing Phone (2a). This unique and innovative co-creation initiative is called The Community Edition Project. The project will last six months and four stages. During this period of time, Nothing will collect community input on the design of the special edition Nothing Phone (2a). Stages of participation include hardware, wallpaper, packaging and marketing. Creators of the winning entries at each stage will “have the chance to collaborate directly with the Nothing team as they bring their creations to life,” the company says.

Fans won’t help with hardware, wallpapers, packaging and marketing

The campaign begins on March 26 with the hardware design stage. Interested parties can submit entries to this website from this point on. The winner will collaborate with Nothing’s London-based industrial design team to bring the idea to life.

Phase two starts in May and it’s all about the wallpaper design for the special edition phone. The winning wallpaper collection will be delivered with the special edition phone software. In June, Nothing will begin Stage Three with the package design. According to Nothing, this is the change to create a special unboxing experience that unites hardware and wallpaper design”.

The final stage will start in July and it’s all about marketing. This is perhaps one of the most intriguing steps, as the device will be ready at this point and Nothing will be relying on ideas to promote the special edition. To participate, users will need to come up with and submit creative marketing proposals to the Nothing Phone (2a) Community Edition. Winners will receive support from Nothing’s Brand & Creative Team. All four category winners will be hosted by the Nothing team in London for the launch of the phone, demonstrating how the winning ideas are combined to create the project.

You can see Nothing co-founder and CEO Carl Pei’s statement about this initiative:

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“We believe in a future where the boundaries between what is a company and what is a community will be erased and hopefully become the same thing.” In the future, maybe the community can also contribute code to Nothing OS, or maybe they can build other products with us. We must believe in people and in the democratization of information and knowledge. I think this will be a great opportunity to grow our community. This is a design and marketing co-creation project that I think will attract many new creative minds. I’m excited to see what we build together.”

Specifications summary

While Nothing is inviting fans to design the special edition hardware, we don’t think it will make major changes to the original device. Nothing Phone (2a) has a 6.7-inch Full HD+ OLED flexible AMOLED with 30-120 Hz adaptive refresh rate. The display has a 240Hz touch sample rate, 2160Hz PWM dimming, HDR10+, 10-bit color, 700 nits typical / 1100 nits outdoor brightness / 1300 nits peak brightness. The display is covered with Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

Under the hood, the Nothing Phone (2a) packs a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro 4nm chipset with a Mali-G610 MC4 GPU. The device has up to 12 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256 GB of UFS 2.2 memory. It runs Android 14 with Nothing OS 2.5 out of the box.
Nothing Phone (2a)
Image credit: CNET

In terms of optics, the device has a 50 MP primary camera with an aperture of f/1.88, which is joined by a 50 MP ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.2. The device also features a 32 MP front camera with f/2.4 aperture. The phone has an in-display fingerprint scanner.

The Nothing Phone (2a) also has a USB Type-C port, stereo speakers and the company’s GLYPH interface on the back. It is splash resistant with an IP54 rating. The device also has a huge 5000 mAh battery with 45W fast charging support.

Nothing Phone (2a) Summary of specifications

  • 6.7-inch (2412×1084 pixels) FHD+ OLED flexible AMOLED display, 30-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, 240Hz touch sample rate, 2160Hz PWM dimming, HDR10+, 10-bit color, 700 nits typical / 1100 nits on outdoor / 1300 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
  • Up to 2.8GHz Octa Core MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro 4nm processor with Mali-G610 MC4 GPU
  • 8 GB LPDD4X RAM with 128 GB UFS 2.2 storage, 8 GB / 12 GB LPDDR4X RAM with 256 GB UFS 2.2 storage
  • Android 14 with Nothing OS 2.5
  • Dual SIM (nano + nano)
  • 50MP main camera with f/1.88 aperture, 1/1.56″ sensor, OIS, 50MP 114° ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, 4K at up to 30 fps, Action Mode
  • 32MP front camera with f/2.4 aperture
  • Optical in-display fingerprint scanner
  • USB Type-C audio, stereo speakers
  • Dimensions: 161.74x 76.32x 8.55 mm; Weight: 190g
  • Splash-proof (IP54)
  • 5G SA/NSA (bands n1, n3, n5, n7, n8, n20, n28, n38, n40, n41,n66, n77, n78), dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax (2.4GHz/5GHz) MIMO, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, USB Type-C, NFC
  • 5000mAh battery with support for 45W wired charging

Conclusion

The new community initiative is really interesting and seems to be a smart way for Nothing to attract more fans to its new ecosystem. We are curious to see how the project will develop and what special edition we will get.

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Nothing Invites Community to Design, Package, and Customize Special Edition Nothing Phone (2a)