Nothing's Phone 2 will light up the US on July 17th for $599

The first Nothing Phone 1 never made it to the USA, at least officially, but the follow-up to the attention-grabbing light-strip-adorned phone will. The Phone 2 comes from Nothing, led by Carl Pei (the guy who built OnePlus into a much-loved Android enthusiast brand) and carries over much of what was liked about the first Nothing Phone, but now with new 5G bands and certifications for sale in the United States.

While there are plenty of upgrades over the first version light a much brighter screen, top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, and a slightly larger and faster-charging battery, the standout feature of the Nothing Phone 2 remains the "glyph" lights on the back panel. The LED light strips are set around actual components of the phone like the camera module and wireless charging coil under a transparent back cover, and can light up in user-customized patterns for notifications and more.

It's a very familiar look to the first Nothing Phone, though with more segmentation to the light bars for more customization, and more individual lights within the bars for more granular display of things like countdown timers and volume control. Of course, all of this still requires that you place your phone screen down, and not wrap it in a case, but that's kind of the idea with this phone anyway. MKBHD went hands-on with the Nothing Phone 2 to show what the new back is all about.

Nothing's minimal customizations to Android are still around, with a mostly stock experience that defined early OnePlus phones and the Nothing Phone 1. Nothing's customizations revolve mostly around the launcher and a suite of interactive widgets.

The Nothing Phone 2 is launching in the US on July 17th, with a starting price of $599 for the base version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. If you want to upgrade, the next step up is $649 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, or $749 for 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Spec-for-spec, it's a heck of a deal — kinda like the first OnePlus phones were back in the day.