Nothing 3a Review: Unique Style or Stubborn?

Nothing is proudly an outsider in the smartphone market. The Nothing 3a contains many interesting elements but would be an outcast in a business environment.

Let’s start with a survey: does anyone in your company have a Nothing smartphone? The chances seem slim. Nothing is a new player in the smartphone market. The British company was only founded in 2020 and is a project of Carl Pei, one of the co-founders of the now well-established brand OnePlus.

Nothing still needs to make a name for itself among smartphone users, but the phone is already in its third generation. The brand aims to stand out by putting the classic ingredients of a smartphone in a creative package. The Nothing 3a is our first encounter.

Original Design

At first glance, the Nothing 3a looks like an ordinary smartphone. With a screen diagonal of 6.77 inches, it’s not small. The plastic housing reveals that you’re dealing with a budget-friendly device (349 euros including VAT), and the IP64 rating also raises questions about its durability.

The device contains some creative design elements. The back is transparent, although there’s still a protective layer between the housing and the device’s internals. Another unique feature, which we’re less fond of, is the Essential Key that leads you to the Essential Space: a piece of bloatware. Its inconvenient placement below the power button means you’re constantly pressing the wrong key.

Nothing puts its own stamp on Android with Nothing OS 3.0. We like the simple black and white theme color for widgets and icons. Nothing adds its own accents to the controls, which comes with a learning curve. For example, after several weeks of testing, we still haven’t figured out how to display and close all open apps, something that can often be done with a simple touch on other Android devices.

Light Show

Nothing goes all out with the Glyph interface. Three illuminating strips are placed around the camera island, which you can set to light up when you receive a call or message. Through the settings, you determine how bright the light can be and which light combinations you want to link to which actions. Very original, but not more than a gimmick.

Display

For its price of 349 euros, the Nothing 3a offers very decent display specifications. You get an AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1,080 x 2,392 pixels and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. We measure a peak brightness of 895 nits, which isn’t exceptionally high, but keeps the device readable on sunny days.

Performance

CPU

Keeping the price in mind, you should have realistic expectations of the processor. Nothing puts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s in this device. It’s fast enough for the average applications you’ll use this smartphone for. In daily use, the device runs smoothly, and we can’t catch it stuttering.

However, the processor is not a performance powerhouse, as benchmarks clearly show. The Google Pixel 9a and Oppo Reno 13 Pro are in a higher price range, and it’s only normal that they can deliver better performance. The Motorola Thinkphone 25 and Nord 4 fall more within the same price category and score similarly.

GPU

This extends to the GPU. The Adreno 710 is again made to deliver adequate performance in simple applications but is not a powerhouse. The Nothing 3a is on the border of what’s ‘workable’ for playing games. Games run without stuttering, as long as not too much is happening on the screen simultaneously and you stay away from heavier 3D games.

No Business DNA

The business clientele is not the intended target group, and this becomes apparent when we simulate business applications. The Nothing 3a is the worst in class and cannot entirely hide behind its processor. The difference with the Motorola Thinkphone 25, which is designed from a purely professional perspective, highlights this. It doesn’t have more computing power on board, but optimally utilizes the available resources for business use.

Battery

The Nothing 3a proves to have excellent stamina. The battery easily lasts a day with average use, and even two days is not unrealistic with light use. In two tests where we put the battery under constant stress, the Nothing 3a scores good points. Only the Pixel 9a performs slightly better.

Charging

Nothing advertises a charging capacity of 50 W, but in practice, we don’t get higher than 35 W. We don’t have a conclusive explanation, as Nothing supports the Power Delivery standard. At this actual capacity, we still measure decent charging times, but in theory, this should be faster. Wireless charging is not possible and would be rather exceptional in this price range.

Cameras

For the cameras, we need to have realistic expectations again: you won’t win any photo awards with a budget phone. However, most budget phones today have a decent main camera, and the Nothing 3a is no exception. The 50 MP main camera (f/1.9) takes good pictures. The results are also better than expected in artificial light.

The 50 MP telephoto camera (f/2.0) sounds impressive on paper for a 350 euro phone, but in practice, it won’t blow you away. The optical zoom is limited to 2x, and you can zoom digitally up to 4x without visible loss of quality. Beyond that, the zoom quickly falls apart. That being said, there are few budget phones that can zoom in this far without being able to count pixels.

The 8 MP wide-angle camera (f/2.2) completes the set. Manufacturers like to include this to boast a triple camera, but very often this extra lens plays a minor role. The 32 MP front camera (f/2.2) is excellent for video calls. During phone calls, we notice that the call volume is on the low side. Even with the volume button pressed to maximum, we have difficulty understanding the person on the other end of the line.

Support eSIM

Nothing will provide software updates for the 3a for six years, which is generous for this price range. In a not-so-distant past, budget phones often stopped receiving updates after two, at most three years. Android upgrades will stop after three years. If you’re at peace with not getting the newest features after that, you can use this device safely until 2031.

A disappointing point we should mention is the lack of eSIM. This can be a negative deciding factor for those who travel outside the EU frequently. eSIM offers an easier and cheaper alternative for mobile data than a local SIM card or roaming. eSIM is almost a standard option today, so it’s strange that this wasn’t deemed necessary. The Pro version of the Nothing 3a does support it.

read also

Nothing 3a Review: Unique Style or Stubborn?

Verdict: an Atypical Choice

The Nothing 3a is an interesting device. It has quite a lot to offer for its price. All the necessary ingredients for a good budget phone are present, and Nothing adds its own flavor to it. Whether that style appeals to you is hard for us to judge, but it’s an alternative to consider if you want to try something different.

Will Nothing become your next work phone? That seems much less likely to us. The Nothing 3a doesn’t target a business audience. The manufacturer wants to convince younger generations with its glitter and glamour. This message will resonate less with a professional audience, who are more inclined to choose what is known and loved.

Nothing Phone 3a – from 349 euros incl. VAT – six years of updates – two years warranty