In February of this year, we were suddenly inundated with high-resolution renders of the then-upcoming Nothing Phone (2a). The new designs featured radical differences, most notably the absence of the popular Glyph interface system with LEDs on the back. It turned out that these renders had been faked and leaked by the company itself in a large-scale operation to troll the entire leak community. The idea was to get revenge for leaking certain products prematurely and ruining the surprise that had been in the works for a long time. It was nothing serious or malicious, just something for Nothing to laugh about while the internet went crazy.
The first clue that these were fakes should have been the missing glyph interface. Why on earth would Nothing remove the most iconic element of its phones? We realized almost immediately that the leaks were fakes, but not before a large number of consumers were misled into thinking Nothing was taking a drastic turn.
The glyph interface is definitely present on the Nothing Phone (2a). | Image credit — PhoneArena
The whole thing also reminds me of the somewhat peculiar nature of Nothing. The company's phones are designed with the philosophy of being used as little as possible. This approach has resulted in the company's products standing out from the competition every year. Not to mention how unique their other products look, like the Nothing Ear (a).
If Nothing keeps this design language and these gimmicks, it will definitely result in some of the best phones worth buying today.