Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition defies convention

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition, available from nothing.tech from 12 November 2024

(Image credit: Nothing)

Nothing continues to push the boundaries of what a tech company can do with the launch its first ‘co-created smartphone’. A limited-edition version of the acclaimed Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, just 1,000 examples of the Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition will be made available via Nothing’s website. The project stemmed from an open invitation to the Nothing community to suggest and shape every facet of the phone, from the OS to the packaging.

Interestingly, the Community Edition emphasises something that Nothing has tended to overlook – the unboxing process. This one-shot event is a big deal in certain tech circles, buoyed by the sharing of the ceremony on social media. Up until now, Nothing devices have come in minimal cardboard packaging with a seal broken via a pull-tab, like a wedge of processed cheese. The Community Edition adds another step to this process, with the inclusion of a new glow-in-the-dark finish.

To experience this, the phone now comes in a larger, heavy duty cardboard box with a magnetic clasp and the all-important UV torch. The company issued careful instructions to those keen to get their own take on the process, including the suggestion that ‘content is filmed in a dark room’. If this is your thing, we’d like to direct you to Nothing’s social channels.

The phone incorporates glow in the dark green paint — The phone incorporates glow-in-the-dark green paint

There were over 900 entries into the open competition to shape the phone. The winners were Astrid Vanhuyse and Kenta Akasaki, Andrés Mateos, Ian Henry Simmonds and Sonya Palma, all of whom were invited to work with Nothing’s London design studio and creative teams. In addition to Vanhuyse and Akasaki’s UV sensitive, green-tinted phosphorescent paint, which was refined in collaboration with Nothing’s design director Adam Bates and CMF designer Lucy Birley, Mateos was responsible for the new suite of six wallpapers. These build on the signature inside-out Nothing aesthetic.

The Community Edition covered wallpapers as well as the phone itself

Packaging graphics were guided by Simmonds, who was also able to incorporate the glow-in-the-dark elements seen on the phone itself. Finally, there was the sauce that brought everything together, the marketing. The ‘Find your light. Capture your light’ tag campaign was conjured up and steered by Sonya Palma.

Phone (2a) Plus is a powerful mid-range smartphone, a device that stands apart from the conventional Apple/Android hegemony with a fresh custom operating system and hardware design. If you miss out, don’t worry – more community projects are on the near horizon.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition wallpaper designs

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition, £399, strictly limited edition available via Nothing.tech and at London’s Soho Nothing Store, 4 Peter Street, London W1F 0AD, Nothing.tech, @Nothing

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Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.