Does HDR really work?

Sakumo

Switching HDR Display option ON/OFF from display settings has no effect on HDR video playing (youtube).

According to the description, it should enable peak brightness when a HDR video plays. However, there is no change in brightness or colors of the video whether it HDR Display is ON or OFF.

Any clarification would be helpful. Thanks.

Gun_Put

Sakumo Ive also noticed that there’s no change while playing YT videos whether the HDR toggle is on or off.

Can anyone from the N team please explain what this toggle is for?

shayansom007

Sakumo

The HDR in Nothing 2 is only evident in the camera app , making photos that are clicked reducing light exposure , also brightens up automatically , while the HDR mode is off..

Nothing has taken things slow & now they are also in a race of launching products then serving their mistakes that is ruining the over all user experience.

HDR is not in effect except the camera …

Sakumo

As far as I understand, the display panel is certainly capable of HDR playback. The software is most possibly responsible here for the issue.

Gun_Put

Sakumo I wonder if there’s any point in raising this issue thru the feedback form.

Nothing has done so far despite the flood of complaints, not even a response.

Feeling let down…..

Sakumo

This HDR issue was present in Phone 1 also. I don’t know what is the meaning of this. I guess I’ll switch to Samsung or Pixel.

AshisMondal

Sakumo

This HDR brightness issue still persists in 2025 on the Nothing Phone (3a).

Toggling HDR Display ON or OFF from Settings > Display makes no visible difference—at least based on testing with HDR videos on YouTube, though you get watchable brightness while watching HDR videos on YouTube regardless of the setting.

However, the problem becomes very noticeable, worse when streaming HDR content on the JioHotstar app using a 4K UHD subscription.

Movies like Jungle Cruise and Mufasa: The Lion King appear extremely dim, making them almost unwatchable.

Strangely, when using the same device but logged into a 1080p-only Hotstar account, the same movies play with normal brightness and are perfectly watchable.

This issue seriously affects my multimedia experience, and it’s becoming extremely frustrating on a phone that is supposed to support HDR10+.

Please — if anyone has found a fix or workaround, I’d be truly grateful for your help. This is genuinely disappointing for an otherwise excellent device.

lexlexus

We all hope that camera software will be better. Low light pictures are not something to brag about.

Sakumo

They just don’t know how to improve it

Gun_Put

Sakumo I agree, N doesn’t appear to have a competent camera team else they would have fixed it a long time back, considering the every reviewer, every owner has commented on the subpar camera performance.

Methinks they should hire an outside consultant to do the job.

There’s no reason why the NP2 shouldn’t perform as well as OP 11 since they both have IMX 890 main camera sensor.

DGillies

Google has a very special custom neural-network chip to help improve their low-light photographs (I know one of the designers I was roommates with his brother many years ago). Apple has been working furiously on their camera for 15 years to stay ahead of the rest of the world. So it’s not easy to do a good camera on a smart phone.

Just because the OnePlus 11 has the same sensor that does not mean it has the same lens (f1.8) nor does it mean it has the same (optical + digital) image stabilization. Optical stabilization involves building a suspension around the lens and is not cheap to implement.

The reason I am thinking of trading my OnePlus 6T for a Nothing 2 is that although the camera quality is decent, the 6T UI is very, very (incredibly) slow. On an Apple phone you can start the camera app and take a shot in 2s, max. When you press the shutter the picture is taken in under 0.25 seconds. On my OnePlus 6T it often takes 10s just to start the app, and 2s each time you press the shutter for the phone to MAYBE take a picture.

I hope that the Nothing Camera app is better than the OnePlus 6T app otherwise I am going to make a mistake in buying a Nothing 2 phone. I had to give up on the OnePlus app and download a 3rd party camera app from the android store but it’s still not great and cannot leverage my 2x zoom.

Gun_Put

DGillies Suggest you try before you buy at a store, if possible.

Also Google for sample pics of the NP2 in comparison with the Oneplus 11R.

Surprised to read about your 6T.

My Oneplus 5 never had such lags.

lexlexus

DGillies

The Phone 2 I have respond as fast as I can press the button and take reasponable pictures as long as there is light enough. If camera is a main thing of buying a phone and you want great pictures outdoor the Phone 2 is OK, in low light not really.

Sakumo

DGillies Yes, I understand those constraints regarding camera performance. Nonetheless, there is a big room for improvement in camera . Consider a very common scenario where there is high contrast like sunlight and shadows. The camera fails to control the highlights. Install a mod gcam app and see the difference. That’s just one example. Anyway, regarding the app loading speed, NP can launch the app and take a photo in 3 sec max. Your OnePlus 6T can still perform fast if you rollback to Android 10. There is no other way. I have switched from OnePlus 7 to NP2.

lexlexus

When Nothing buy SONY hardware maybe SONY could / would help so the hardware does not seem like low quality.

Sakumo

Gun_Put My OnePlus 7 was slightly slower in response after OOS 12 update but still it was never that slow. OnePlus has a history of plaguing old phones and leaving.

Sakumo

lexlexus Yes, Phone 2 is fast but there is a compromise between fast response and smooth animations. I wish the animations were a little bit faster than the current. Still, it’s fine.

Gun_Put

Sakumo I do agree about Oneplus ’s habit of not bothering too much with bugs in updates.

Carl Pei has carried the same habit to Nothing 😉, which maybe is the reason why there is zero effort to fix shortcomings( camera, speaker distortion) & numerous bugs.

That’s why I didn’t update my Oneplus beyond OOS 9.0.11,ran buttery smooth till the time I switched to NP2.

lexlexus

Gun_Put

If founder of the company has a story of not caring to fix problems, I have bought a phone I should not have bought.

Looking at all the permissions to accept functions in the phone given to almost all system apps, I can see why phone is not as fast as it could be.

Why all system apps need permission to camera, microphone etc. is hard to explain.

Gun_Put

lexlexus Getting the same sinking feeling.

I fell for the hype.

lexlexus

Gun_Put

Wanting to try something new, when what we have is good, can often go the wrong way.

When wife tell me OK to get a new phone, I probably will go back to Samsung with all the bloat that is obvious, where the bloat and possibly spying is more well hidden in the Phone 2.

95% of the bloat in Samsung can be blocked/removed, but with all the permissions given to the system in Phone 2 it is less easy to see what can be removed and what could brick the phone.

Hardware and built is fine so maybe just root the thing and see what is possible to get out of it.

Not that I believe that my wish will be given, but would make me like the company more:

Inform users what we can safely remove permissions to without bricking the phone. No reason at all, why so many things need to be permitted to control the hardware in the phone in order for it to function.

AyushmanHota

lexlexus Samsung’s flagships are good (except bloatwares) but upper midrange or midrange phones (like s21 FE, etc.) run too hot and from past few months have been looking at screens of various samsung devices (S20, S21 Ultra, S22 ultra) mysteriously turning white and it’s a hassle to get it replaced as they charge quite a hefty amount for screen replacements. And the software experience is kinda meh… you get a lot of customisation but I kinda find it useless

lexlexus

AyushmanHota

Samsung phones can be adjusted so they do not charge to more than 85% of full battery. Samsung has a lot of bloatware, but more than 95% of it is easily removed with “Package Disabler”. When all bloatware is gone the phone looks fine.

S20 was fine here, never had problems with screens. Never heard about problems.