- Design
The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro not only have a unique look but also offer a unique experience and offer impressive mid-tier value for customers looking for something different.
The new smartphones from UK tech company Nothing – the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro – are impressive mid-tier devices that offer a unique look and feel.
The smartphones feel solid in your hand and have what looks like a transparent rear panel and decent camera bumps.
There’s no other smartphones that look like them.
One thing we found with buttons located on either side was that it was easy to accidentally press something while you were handling the phone.
It took a little while to get used to gripping the device from the lower half to avoid any of those accidental button presses.
Under the hood of the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro is the Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 mobile platform which meant snappy performance, easy and fast switching between apps and the ability to play the latest games faster and smoother.
There is Android 15 onboard that is the bedrock of the system but on top of that is the quirky Nothing OS 3.1 software layer that is anything but boring.
And Nothing will offer software updates for six years from the time of purchase including three years of Android updates and six years of security updates.
Users can customise the homepage to suit their style and their needs.
It’s possible to create and design your own home page which is full of shortcuts and favourite apps
And if you like a dark theme on your device then the Nothing smartphones will be right up your alley.
Each of the Nothing Phone (3a) models has a crisp 6.77-inch FHD+ display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.
The display has a brightness of up to 1300nits and can adjust itself with Auto Brightness to suit the lighting conditions including direct sunlight where it was still sharp and clear.
There is AI onboard the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro and it’s centrally located in a section called Essential Space.
This is any area that allows you to save notes and ideas and other inspiration in seconds say can we call them instantly using the dedicated Essential Space key on the right edge.
This is still in the development stage but we did find it easy to access and easy to gather our thoughts in one place.
In future, new features will be rolled out including Camera Capture, Smart Collections, Focused Search and Flip To Record.
On-device AI is still in its early stages with the Nothing phones and, even when more fully developed, it still won’t match what you get with Apple Intelligence and Galaxy AI.
The Glyph lighting system on the rear panel which can used to identify your different notifications including alerting you about incoming calls and messages. They can also be used as a timer.
On the camera side, Nothing has packed in its most advanced system yet and this comes with the improved 50MP main sensor.
The TrueLens Engine 3.0 brings advanced computational algorithms, AI processing and multi-frame technology to ensure all your images look natural and vibrant.
The 50 MP telephoto camera has 2x optical zoom and 4x lossless in-sensor zoom if you need to get a little closer.
The camera is the main point of difference between the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro.
The Phone (3a) Pro has even more powerful telephoto zoom thanks to the on board periscope lens system.
The Pro’s camera bump is significantly larger than the one found on the Phone (3a) because it needs to make room for the periscope lens system.
We were impressed with the zoom capabilities and were able to get in a lot closer to our targets while still maintaining focus and excellent clarity.
The Phone (3a) Pro 50MP main sensor has 43 per cent faster auto focus and double the pixel capacity so you’re getting much more detail in your images.
The front facing camera on the iPhone (3a) is 32MP while the Pro model has upgraded to 50MP front camera that can record 4K with adaptive IR stabilisation and night video enhancement.
Battery life was one of the strong points of the Nothing smartphones thanks to the onboard 5000mAh batteries which we were able to run for a day and a half before we needed to recharge.
And when it’s time to charge, they support 50W fast charging which can get you back up to 50 per cent in less than 20 minutes. That’s enough charge to get you through an entire day.
The camera is the main difference between the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro along with the camera bump size.
For our money it’s worth leaning towards the Pro model if you want those extra features in your photography tool kit and the more powerful and higher resolution front camera.
But while the Nothing devices offer an impressive performance and produced excellent images and videos, there were some frustrations with a very basic feature.
Connecting the phones to Bluetooth in our car was hit or miss.
Sometimes they would connect and often they didn’t.
We thought this was an issue with one of the devices but, in fact, the same thing happened with both the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro when trying to connect to our car’s Bluetooth which leads us to believe it’s a system or software issue.
And without Bluetooth you can’t run Android Auto which led to an embarrassing situation where I needed to stop and start my car four times before the Nothing phone connected and allowed me to access Google Maps to find directions to my destination.
It’s one thing to have a list of top line features and brilliant design but if the device can’t do the simple things right then that’s a deal breaker for most customers.
We did some research online and found we weren’t alone with these Bluetooth instability issues with Nothing OS 3.0.
But we are running Nothing OS 3.1 so it’s obviously still an issue as our experience shows.
The Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are both on sale now.
PRICING
– Phone (3a) is available in Black, White, and Blue
– 8GB + 128GB – $599,
– 12GB + 256GB – $689,
– Phone (3a) Pro is available in Grey and Black.
– 12GB + 256GB – $849
The devices can be purchased through JB-Hi-Fi online.
VERDICT
The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro not only have a unique look but also offer a unique experience and offer impressive mid-tier value for customers looking for something different.
