Nothing Phone (2a) vs Apple iPhone 12
63
out of 100
VS
60
out of 100
Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.7-inch Nothing Phone (2a) (with MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro) that was released on March 5, 2024, against the Apple iPhone 12, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 3 years and 5 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Nothing Phone (2a)
- Comes with 2185 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 2815 mAh
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Has a 0.6 inch larger screen size
- Shows 41% longer battery life (29:55 vs 21:15 hours)
- Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
- Modern USB Type-C port
- Delivers 51% higher peak brightness (974 against 643 nits)
- Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 18W)
- Fingerprint scanner
- Has 2 SIM card slots
- The phone is 3 years and 5 months newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12
- 36% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1341K versus 985K)
- Handles wireless charging up to 7.5W
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Slow-motion recording at 240FPS
- 17% higher pixel density (460 vs 394 PPI)
- Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
- 76% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1997 and 1133 points
- Weighs 26 grams less
- The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
- Ready for eSIM technology
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.7 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2412 pixels | 1170 x 2532 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 394 ppi | 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (30-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 700 nits | 625 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 1300 nits | - |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Touch sampling rate | 240 Hz | - |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | - |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 87.8% | 87.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 99.3% | 99.4% |
| PWM | 90 Hz | 226 Hz |
| Response time | 1 ms | 16 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
Phone (2a)
6.7″ (20:9 ratio) = 16.8 in2
iPhone 12
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~18% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 161.7 mm (6.37 inches) | 146.7 mm (5.78 inches) |
| Width | 76.3 mm (3 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.6 mm (0.34 inches) | 7.4 mm (0.29 inches) |
| Weight | 190 g (6.7 oz) | 164 g (5.78 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP54 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Plastic | Glass |
| Frame material | Plastic | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black | White, Black, Blue, Green, Red |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro | Apple A14 Bionic |
| Max clock | 2800 MHz | 3100 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (2 + 6) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 6 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715 |
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm - 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm |
| L3 cache | 4 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | MediaTek APU 650 | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Mali-G610 MC4 | Apple GPU |
| GPU shading units | 256 | 256 |
| GPU clock | 1130 MHz | 1278 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~578.6 GFLOPS | ~654.3 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 4085 | 17099 |
| Single-core score | 1133 | 1997 |
| Multi-core score | 2581 | 4665 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 363418 | 402035 |
| GPU | 172332 | 336490 |
| Memory | 158940 | 153915 |
| UX | 290571 | 449135 |
| Total score | 985261 | 1341575 |
| Samples | [16 tests] | [10 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 98% | - |
| Graphics test | 3 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 449 | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | - | 76% |
| Graphics test | - | 10 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 13 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 10 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 7 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 2651 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | 99% | 74% |
| Graphics test | - | 12 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 2155 |
Recent User Tests
Nothing Phone (2a)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-30 (Kaiser) | AnTuTu 12 | 1001163 |
| 📘 2026-09-19 (Vedurijuht2425) | AnTuTu 12 | 1045921 |
| 📘 2026-07-12 (note8techh) | AnTuTu 11 | 984744 |
| 📘 2026-05-06 (legusk) | AnTuTu 11 | 1025139 |
| 📘 2026-04-13 (Divyanshu Raj) | AnTuTu 11 | 1006410 |
Apple iPhone 12
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-10-12 (Z0tacxyz) | AnTuTu 11 | 1294739 |
| 📘 2026-10-04 (Timur) | AnTuTu 11 | 1199214 |
| 📘 2026-06-26 (Hellomt) | AnTuTu 11 | 1334721 |
| 📘 2026-03-25 (🇷🇺010) | AnTuTu 11 | 1384982 |
| 📘 2026-03-23 (Roma) | AnTuTu 11 | 1326030 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR4X | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 2133 MHz | - |
| Channels | 2 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 64 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 2.2 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) | iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27) |
| ROM | Nothing OS 3.0 | - |
| OS size | 21 GB | 7 GB |
| OS updates | 3 years | - |
| Security updates | 4 years | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 5000 mAh | 2815 mAh |
| Max charge power | 45 W | 18 W |
| Battery type | Li-Po | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | No | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | No | No |
| Bypass charging | - | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (59% in 30 min) | Yes (58% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:03 hr | 1:30 hr |
| Web browsing | 11:32 hr | 08:00 hr |
| Watching video | 18:30 hr | 12:09 hr |
| Gaming | 06:26 hr | 04:35 hr |
| Standby | 148 hr | 112 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#47th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Digital | Digital |
| Flash | LED | Quad LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | No | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 120 FPS (1080p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 114° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Ultrawide: 50 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.9 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 24 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung ISOCELL GN9 | Sony IMX372 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 1.4 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | - | 13 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KJN1 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | - | 55 |
| Preview | - | 74 |
| Zoom | - | 60 |
| Samples | - | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 32 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 6528 x 4896 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | - | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX615 | Sony IMX514 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.74" (≈ 0.36 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.8 micron | - |
| Autofocus | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
DxOMark front camera
| Photo | - | 127 |
| Video | - | 140 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5.3 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | No |
| USB version | 2 | - |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode |
| DisplayPort | No | - |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | - |
| eSIM support* | No | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | - | 18 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | No | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Mid-range | Flagship |
| Announced | March 2024 | October 2020 |
| Release date | March 2024 | October 2020 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $329 | $800 |
| Successor | - Nothing Phone (4a) | - Apple iPhone 17 |
| SAR (head) | - | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | - | 0.99 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
| Bundled charger | Not included | - |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
If the display, battery life, and connectivity are more important to you, then choose the Nothing Phone (2a). But if the performance, gaming, software, design, and sound are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPhone 12.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 68