UK tech startup Nothing has announced the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, an Android phone that’s a minor update to the firm’s Phone 2a that launched just four months ago. The 2a Plus has an improved chipset, front facing camera and comes in two slightly different colours but is otherwise identical to the older model with a plastic back and plastic side rails.

The new phone sees the debut of a News Reporter widget that uses AI to synthesise the voice of Nothing’s British CFO to read you the headlines from various online news sources.

The Nothing Phone 2a Plus costs from £399, an £80 increase on the £319 Phone 2a. The new device is the company’s fourth phone, with the Phone 1 coming in July 2022 and the Phone 2 in July 2023.

The 2a Plus is an odd addition to the line up, as it sees Nothing changing just three things and making its budget phone considerably more expensive. The 2a Plus uses the MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro “for an even smoother and faster experience”, the 50MP front facing camera “has been implemented for superstar selfies” and the new metallic black and grey colours “have been developed to reflect superior specifications”.

Otherwise it has a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, 5,000mAh battery with 50W fast charging but no charger in the box, and dual 50MP main and ultra-wide cameras. It also retains the three flashing ‘Glyph’ lights on the back to alert you to incoming calls, text, notifications and a few other fun functions.

We’re not sure if a slight bump in processor and a new camera warrant this upgrade. The design still looks fresh and unique though with the dual cameras on the back and a transparent finish showing some of the phone’s internals (though the metal is purely decorative).

Express.co.uk has had the phone in hand for a week or so and while we quite like the silvery grey look and the software, this is a carbon copy of the Nothing Phone 2a for all intents and purposes.

Granted, Apple sometimes releases a new colour of iPhone midway through the year to keep things fresh, but it feels different here. Nothing is a small company with a loyal enthusiastic fanbase, and those keen buyers who snapped up a Phone 2a in March might be a bit miffed the Phone 2a Plus is upstaging it. Then again, it’s not much different at all, making us wonder why Nothing has bothered. I guess it’s to do with that infamous hype cycle.

“Following the success of Phone (2a), which was a breath of fresh air in its market segment and became our best-selling smartphone, we’re thrilled to introduce Phone (2a) Plus,” Nothing CEO Carl Pei explained, going on to use this new phone’s release as a chance to tease an upcoming phone.

“This upgraded variant features a world-exclusive processor, an improved front camera, and a new metallic design. With Phone (3) launching in 2025, Phone (2a) Plus is for those who are excited about Phone (2a) but are seeking even higher performance.”

What did we just say about hype cycles?

The software on the phone remains excellent, with Nothing OS 2.6 able to turn all your Android app icons to monochrome. This genuinely stops us using distracting apps less by taking away their alluring bright colours, though as journalists the News Reporter widget was of interest. It’s available on all Nothing phones via the Nothing Widgets app.

Stick it to your home screen and a British male voice, that of Nothing’s CFO Tim Holbrow, sardonically reads you the headlines for the day. Express.co.uk asked Nothing how it all works.

“We use ElevenLabs’ technology for sound synthesis and output. We used some of Nothing CFO Tim’s sound materials in Nothing YouTube videos for synthesis,” a Nothing spokesperson told us.

“News sources are aggregated by a third-party provider, News API. It collects public news from open news sources from the internet.”

This means AI is using samples of Holbrow’s voice to read out short news pieces it picks from various sources. It works, and for the most part sounds natural, but a lot of the stories had a US focus. Nothing did not expand when asked about the specific news sources used. The open source large language model used is Llama by Meta.