Though the official launch event for the Nothing Phone (2) is set to take place on July 11th, YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) got his hands on the device early and shared a preview of what’s to come.
In a video recently uploaded to YouTube, Brownlee talked about the upcoming device. However, he primarily focuses on the device’s rear glyph, which is likely the feature most people want to see.
The way that the rear glyph LEDs are set up on the Phone (2) isn’t that different from its predecessor, though it now includes more LED lighting zones. The Phone (1) features five strips of LEDs, whereas the Phone (2) includes 11 strips, although they’re in the same shape and location on the phone.
“These are still White LEDs, no colour or RGB or anything crazy,” said Brownlee. “But the main improvement is actually just that there are more addressable LED zones inside each of the strips.” For reference, the Phone (1) features 12 different LED lighting zones on the rear, while the upcoming device will have 33 across the back.
Out of 33, the top right curved glyph gets 16 lighting zones to itself, allowing it to show a progress bar of different sorts, like a timer or display the phone’s volume level. Third-party developers will also be able to use the glyph progress bar. For example, the progress bar can show you how long it will take until you receive your food delivery or when your Uber will arrive (see the screenshot below for reference).
For now, Uber and Zomato (an Indian food delivery company) are the only two third-party apps using the feature.
Further, while it is still impossible to discern which app the notification is from by looking at the rear glyph, NothingOS now allows you to set up “essential app” notification. For example, if you set up Instagram and Twitter as the essential apps and receive a notification from either app, the entire glyph will light up once, the top right glyph remains illuminated until the notification is addressed. This won’t happen when you receive a notification from an app that hasn’t been selected as ‘essential.’
The feature should provide some clarity as to which app the notification is from.
We’ll learn more about the device on July 11th. Keep an eye on the MobileSyrup home page, Twitter and/or Facebook for all the latest news about the device.
Image credit: Marques Brownlee
Source: Marques Brownlee
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