The Nothing Phone (2a) is the company’s first mid-ranger, so there will be some design changes. The original phone (1) and the high-end phone (2) have aluminum frames between sheets of Gorilla Glass on the front and back. The (2a) has Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and an aluminum mid-frame, but the back is plastic.
Does that make it less sustainable? A drop test by PBKreviews shows that the phone is tough as nails, even though it’s not made of nails — it’s made from 100% recycled aluminum, with more than 50% recycled plastic. In fact, Phone (2a) uses leftover materials to make Nothing Years (2) buds.
There you have it, after a few drops and no damage other than a few scuffs and scratches. The front-facing Gorilla Glass 5 isn’t the most recent formulation (it was released in 2016), but it’s advanced in testing.
And the mid-frame can be aluminum, it is covered with paint (preferably in the white version). The paint held up very well. And even the plastic backing stops it colliding with the pavement.
