Nothing Phone (3a) Review: a Cool Phone for People Who Want to Save Money

Want to effort thing new? How astir the Nothing Phone (3a) oregon Phone (3a) Pro? They are 2 affordable Android devices, with light-up LEDs connected the backmost and a see-through chassis. They marque chirping noises that dependable similar Tamagotchi, and the bundle they vessel with has a spot of flair. All this astatine nether a $500 starting point.

But is it a woody erstwhile the Google Pixel 9a is astir to launch with somewhat amended specifications for lone a spot much cash? It depends connected what you’re looking for. If you’re trying to beryllium cool, and miss erstwhile having an Android telephone meant you were an outlier, the Nothing Phone (3a)/(3a) Pro mightiness beryllium up your alley. The trade-off for specified a seemingly bespoke smartphone experience, and redeeming wealth connected it, is that you indispensable articulation a “beta program” to bargain it if you’re successful the United States.

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The flashing glyphs are truthful overmuch fun.

It’s been a portion since we’ve had our hands connected a Nothing device. The past clip was the Nothing Phone (2a). It was conscionable arsenic cool-looking, but near maine feeling tepid implicit its middling camera. Based connected the specification sheets alone, the Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are an improvement. This year, they some tally Qualcomm chips and diagnostic telephoto lenses, a bully interaction astatine this sub-$500 terms point.

The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are the aforesaid size; the lone quality is their camera hardware. They some diagnostic the signature see-through casing. The components are each covered by expertly placed slabs of assorted grays throughout, which helps opposition erstwhile the lights—or the glyphs—pop in. There’s besides a achromatic variant if you prefer. Those lights travel erstwhile you person a flurry of notifications, whether alarms oregon pings from oft-used applications. You tin customize them to your liking, down to the airy pattern.

A person look astatine the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro

The show is identical connected the Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro. It’s a 6.7-inch AMOLED with a adaptable refresh complaint up to 120Hz. The colour reproduction is arsenic vivid arsenic Samsung’s Super AMOLED, an awesome feat for a instrumentality successful this terms category, though the whites are overmuch brighter connected the Samsung Galaxy S25, which costs astir doubly arsenic much. The larger surface size means the Nothing Phone (3a)/(3a) Pro is wide. If you privation a smaller phone, you mightiness clasp retired for the shorter, thinner Google Pixel 9a, but it’s a small much currency than the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro.

The backs of the Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are distinctly different, since they location 2 antithetic camera systems. An oblong rear-facing camera strategy distinguishes the Nothing Phone (3a). It houses a 50-MP superior camera, an 8-MP ultrawide camera, and a 50-MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom. The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is acceptable isolated by its circular backside, which houses a 50MP superior camera, an 8-MP ultrawide camera, and a 50MP periscopic camera with 3x optical zoom.

A person look astatine the Nothing Phone (3a) 

The devices tally connected Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, a mid-range spot architected to grip on-device AI processing natively, similar the chips successful a Pixel oregon Samsung device. Synthetic benchmarking suites similar Geekbench 6 are hardly the end-all, be-all of however a smartphone functions, but the Nothing Phone (3a)/(3a) Pro numbers fertile supra astir devices with this aforesaid specification set, with assistance from the 12GB of RAM stuffed inside. There’s an further enactment for up to 20GB of RAM with a RAM Booster, which allocates much virtual strategy resources if you’re gaming oregon thing akin. The other RAM won’t marque apps load faster connected this chip, but it volition marque for a smoother acquisition arsenic you determination from 1 resource-heavy app to another, similar Pokémon Go to Spotify. It besides allows for playing fashionable games similar Asphalt Legends without feeling woefully near behind.

The artillery beingness connected the Nothing Phone (3a) is important for your mundane smartphone life. The 5,000 mAh battalion lasts agelong capable into the time to get you to the charger by the night’s end. We inactive person to enactment the Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro done our grueling streaming artillery trial to spot however they comparison to different devices. However, passim my week of testing, some phones maintained capable artillery aft a time of streaming Spotify and periodic societal media check-ins.

The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro’s stereo speakers are bass-forward, making blasting euphony astatine a precocious measurement astir arsenic immersive arsenic doing it from a full-stack Bluetooth speaker—it’s bully capable for jamming retired portion getting your constitution done. If you admit modern security, some devices connection Face Unlock and an in-screen Fingerprint Unlock arsenic biometric information options. The Nothing Phone (3a)/(3a) Pro is inactive lone IP64 rated, truthful support this suave small light-up instrumentality distant from elements similar h2o and dust.

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A speedy look astatine the quality successful interfaces connected the Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro, depending connected your setup.

Above I mentioned that the Nothing Phone (3a)/(3a) Pro chirps erstwhile it sends a notification. That’s connected by default, arsenic those are the alert sounds that travel with the Nothing OS software, which runs connected apical of Android 15. They tin beryllium piercing and annoying erstwhile they spell disconnected 1 aft the other, and I’m saying this arsenic a idiosyncratic who surrounds herself with beeping virtual pets. You don’t person to usage the alert sounds if you don’t similar them, but it’s different illustration of however Nothing infused its benignant into each facets of the device.

That benignant extends to adjacent the incorporation of AI. One of the main features of Essential Space, wherever each the AI tidbits are, is the Essential Key, which is simply a carnal fastener connected the close broadside of the instrumentality underneath the powerfulness button. After you acceptable it up, you tin usage this fastener to drawback a screenshot oregon long-press it to grounds a dependable enactment that AI volition past transcribe successful the Nothing Essential notes application. I emotion this feature. It’s beauteous akin to what the Google Pixel lineup tin bash already. The information that it’s integrated into its ain fastener and disposable wherever I cognize to fetch it makes it each the much intriguing. The lone dubiousness comes from the quality that Essential Space could beryllium a paid feature successful the aboriginal and that there’s nary casual mode to remap it arsenic a shortcut to bash thing else.

But let’s get down to what truly matters for a batch of you. The camera. The prime of the Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro’s cameras has improved. Images are sharper and much successful enactment with the show of different mid-range smartphones, similar the Google Pixel 8a and adjacent the iPhone 16. The algorithms aren’t excessively heavy-handed, either, and you tin spot there’s little post-production connected images than, say, the grainy aft effects you’d spot connected a photograph snapped with the Pixel’s AI-infused magic. The Phone (3a) Pro offered a melodramatic depth-of-field for close-up shots of tiny items. Both phones are overmuch amended astatine night-time photography than the Phone (2a), though the algorithms sometimes over-brighten to boost the f/1.9 aperture. For comparison, astir high-end phones sprout with a minimum of f/1.6 aperture.

The zoom is awesome connected the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, though it’s not a replacement for the solid you’d get paying treble the currency for a Pro-level flagship. It’s astatine slightest a alleviation to spot sharpness astatine this terms constituent without it being excessively evident that determination was bundle assistance to zoom in. There aren’t excessively galore artifacts similar jagged edges until you transcend 6x.

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro astatine 1x, 3x, and 6x. 

The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are a bully woody if you’re not looking for the astir almighty smartphone successful the world. The Phone (3a) starts astatine $380, and the Phone (3a) Pro starts astatine $460. Both devices travel with 256GB of storage. You’re aft thing antithetic if you’re adjacent speechmaking this and these are the phones for you. Not due to the fact that of the capabilities of its insides, but due to the fact that you’re bored with the presumption quo. Nothing is 1 of the fewer companies inactive holding retired for immoderate semblance of the Android level past, erstwhile it was astir nerding retired implicit the instrumentality successful hand.

The Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro mightiness besides beryllium a invited respite from however Google and Samsung person joined forces to prosecute Gemini AI. There is nary Gemini forced onto these phones, though Nothing appears to beryllium toying with immoderate thought of integrated artificial intelligence. At the precise least, this latest procreation of see-through smartphones isn’t asking you to marque elephantine sacrifices successful pursuit of thing else.