Nothing has announced a new version of its Phone 2A Plus with a custom glow-in-the-dark design and packaging designed in part by some of the company's “most talented devotees.” The Phone 2A Plus Community Edition is the result of a competition run by the company that challenges its community to “build a smartphone of their own imagination.”
The Phone 2A Plus Community Edition is Nothing's first “major hardware co-development pilot,” the company says, and resulted in over 900 entries from the community that customized everything from the look to the way it is marketed. The phone will be available on the Nothing website starting November 12th for $399, but is limited to just 1,000 units.
The concept for the updated design of the Phone 2A Plus Community Edition was created by Astrid Vanhuyse and Kenta Akasaki and implemented in collaboration with Adam Bates and Lucy Birley from Nothing. The phone's functionality, including the three light strips around the rear cameras, hasn't changed. But the back of the phone is now tinted with a green phosphorescent material that “emits a soft glow for hours in dark environments,” says Nothing, and requires only daylight to charge.
The glow-in-the-dark accents carry over to the new Phone 2A Plus Community Edition packaging, reimagined by Ian Henry Simmonds with reflective elements and a macro cutout of the phone itself.
Inspired by the original phone's hardware, Andrés Mateos and Nothing's software designers used a mix of design tools and AI to create a new set of six matching wallpapers called the “Connected Collection” that will be bundled with the Phone 2A Plus Community Edition. Finally, Sonya Palma has a new “Find your light. “Capture your light” marketing campaign promoting the Community Edition.