19 hours ago
4
ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- The Nothing Phone 3a makes astute tradeoffs for a fund device, excelling successful design, artillery life, and show quality.
- Essential Space offers a refreshingly subtle AI experience, showcasing Nothing's restraint and wide vision.
- While immoderate spot Nothing's plan arsenic a novelty, hands-on acquisition proves its signature benignant runs deeper than aesthetics.
The Nothing Phone 3a, priced astatine $379, stakes its assertion successful the competitory mid-tier smartphone marketplace with a striking design, slayer display, and a noticeably subdued attack to AI integration. After spending sizeable clip with the device, including a globe-trotting travel to Mobile World Congress 2025 successful Barcelona past month, I tin confidently accidental that Nothing's look works exceptionally good astatine lasting retired from its midrange competitors.
Also: Apple present sells refurbished iPhone 15 models astatine discounted prices (including the Pro Max)
Nothing's hardware plan is the astir instantly evident crushed to bargain into the Nothing ecosystem. In a fewer abbreviated years, Nothing has established itself arsenic a tech marque with an undeniably archetypal aesthetic that centers astir transparent casing that showcases prime interior components.
While the transparency chiefly reveals framing structures and hex screws alternatively than circuit boards and representation chips, it inactive creates a distinctive ocular signature. lol
Distinctive plan successful a oversea of sameness
Complementing the plan are the Glyph LED lights surrounding the camera bar, which elevate the transparency beyond specified aesthetics into functional artistry. These lights creation and flash for incoming calls, timer alerts, and euphony playback, adding applicable worth to the unsocial plan approach.
I peculiarly appreciated however the blinking Glyph helpfully notified maine of caller notifications erstwhile I had the telephone tucked successful my bosom pouch during MWC.
Nothing Phone 3a's transparent plan and Glyph notification strategy is unique.
The camera barroom is simply a distinctive plan element, with its pill-shaped situation elegantly lodging 3 sensors wrong an angled, oblong frame. The 3a's solid backmost sheet is besides a bully premium upgrade from the 2a's integrative backing, adding an other interaction of sophistication.
While the polycarbonate framework feels comfy and creaseless successful the hand, I did announcement a tiny dent from a insignificant driblet that a metallic framework would apt person repelled.
Also: Here's however to get a escaped iPhone 16 Pro from T-Mobile with nary trade-in required
The measurement and powerfulness buttons stock a uniform, level pill signifier that's easy identifiable by interaction and offers satisfying tactile feedback with each press. Setting itself isolated is the Essential Space button, which features a shinier, rounded plan that protrudes somewhat further than the others. Nothing is intelligibly trying to gully users' attraction to this caller button, hoping they'll beryllium tempted to property it!
Overall, the plan is impressive, not conscionable due to the fact that it's unsocial and dissimilar immoderate different smartphone retired determination but besides due to the fact that it's specified a beardown connection for a instrumentality that sits firmly successful the midrange of Android smartphones. Style and distinctiveness aren't qualities that midrange smartphones often exhibit, yet with the Nothing Phone 3a, they're among its astir noticeable selling points.
The Nothing Phone 3a OLED show is gorgeous.
The Nothing Phone 3a show is different standout feature, particularly considering its terms point. The 6.77" LTPO OLED sheet delivers exceptional prime with 3,000 nits highest brightness, affluent colors, and crisp detail. Even nether nonstop sunlight, the surface remains agleam and punchy, portion the 120Hz refresh complaint ensures creaseless scrolling and animations for eyes similar excavation that these premium upgrades person spoiled. This show genuinely rivals what you'd expect from devices doubly its cost.
What's peculiarly awesome is the Nothing Phone 3a's implementation of PWM dimming astatine 2160Hz, a frequence that's practically imperceptible to the quality eye, making it comfy for extended viewing. This is importantly amended than galore premium devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, with its overmuch little 480Hz PWM frequency, which tin perchance origin oculus strain and headaches successful delicate users.
Surprisingly restrained bundle experience
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor is an fantabulous prime for this mid-ranger, peculiarly arsenic it's paired with 12GB of RAM. The processor is designed to bring precocious AI capabilities to lower-tier devices, but considering the Nothing Phone 3a has comparatively minimal AI integrations to statesman with, the processor is much than capable astatine driving the bundle acquisition and gaming.
I lone noticed occasional lag erstwhile capturing definite images with the cameras, and adjacent then, that was mostly detected successful low-light situations.
Also: This $400 Motorola comes with a built-in stylus and doubly the retention of rival phones
The sometimes cluttered Essential Space connected the Nothing Phone 3a.
With Nothing OS 3.1 (on apical of Android 15), the institution adds subtle customizations portion maintaining Android's halfway experience, including the enactment to adhd Nothing-specific widgets to the fastener screen, a nostalgic callback to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. With Google acceptable to reintroduce fastener surface widgets successful Android 16 for each users, it volition beryllium absorbing to spot however Nothing adapts its attack erstwhile the update arrives successful the coming months.
One precise large and notable caller bundle inclusion is Nothing's Essential Space feature. It's truthful important to Nothing that they included the aforementioned hardware fastener to thrust the caller feature. It's besides 1 of the lone signs of modern AI integration creeping into Nothing's OS, astatine slightest for now.
Tapping the hardware fastener takes a speedy screengrab and allows you to append notes with that image. Holding the fastener takes the screengrab and fires disconnected an audio enactment signaling that ends lone erstwhile you fto go. On-device AI transcribes the audio signaling and makes everything searchable wrong the Essential Space thread.
After a dilatory start, I began to thin into this diagnostic arsenic a reminder engine, and that's erstwhile I understood its value. While it took immoderate clip to physique the habit, aft experiencing its benefits, I began relying connected it to papers important moments passim my day.
Also: 6 rumored Android 16 features that are making this loyal Pixel idiosyncratic ecstatic
Though promising, Essential Space inactive has country for improvement. The interface tin go visually cluttered with aggregate entries, and accidental fastener presses passim the time adhd to the disorganization.
I'm genuinely excited to spot however this diagnostic evolves and find myself wishing my Pixel 9 Pro had a akin dedicated fastener to assistance negociate my forgetfulness.
Cameras are thing special
The Nothing Phone 3a camera strategy is 1 country wherever its midrange roots go apparent. Well-lit environments with static subjects tin nutrient prime images, but the lack of optical representation stabilization means adjacent flimsy movements often nutrient smeared, grainy results that don't construe good to larger displays.
Barcelona streets, captured by the 5MP telephoto lens.
While the ultrawide camera passes contiguous scrutiny connected the tiny screen, representation prime deteriorates noticeably upon adjacent minimal zooming, exposing the 8MP sensor's constraints. The 2x telephoto looks bully adjacent erstwhile cropped to 4x, but it lacks dynamic range, which was evident successful immoderate outdoor shots, with the Barcelona skylines becoming a lavation of achromatic against the cityscape below. Portrait mode typically required aggregate attempts to execute acceptable borderline detection astir my head.
Good-quality low-light photography is imaginable but inconsistent, demanding exceptional manus stableness to compensate for the deficiency of stabilization. Ultimately, the camera show is the astir evident motion that this instrumentality is simply a midrange smartphone.
Boats successful a Barcelona harbor astatine night, captured by the 50MP main lens.
For a sub-$400 instrumentality with galore premium-like features, the 5,000mAh artillery proves to beryllium the icing connected the cake. With the Nothing Phone 3a, achieving a time and a fractional of artillery beingness is consistently easy.
Also: The champion phones for artillery life
50W accelerated complaint enactment is an awesome bonus arsenic well, particularly compared to my Pixel 9 Pro, which charges astatine astir fractional that velocity contempt costing much than doubly arsenic much. While wireless charging fans mightiness lament its absence, I firmly judge this is simply a coagulated omission for devices successful this terms range.
Battery anxiousness was ne'er an issue, arsenic the telephone seldom dipped beneath 30% connected my heaviest usage days. This show held existent adjacent portion navigating Barcelona during Mobile World Congress, which speaks volumes astir its reliability erstwhile you request it most.
ZDNET's buying advice
Despite uncommon and understandable compromises successful camera quality, the Nothing Phone 3a makes each the close tradeoffs for a fund device. It stands retired with its signature design, delivers awesome artillery performance, and features a phenomenal display.
The Essential Space diagnostic is refreshingly subtle successful its AI implementation, dissimilar astir competitors, who aggressively showcase their AI capabilities. Nothing's Phone 3a reflects singular restraint and a wide imaginativeness from a young company. While immoderate whitethorn disregard Nothing's plan choices arsenic axenic novelty, experiencing their devices firsthand reveals their unsocial signature is much than superficial.
This nonfiction was primitively published connected March 24, 2025, and was updated connected May 9, 2025.
English (US) ·