Nothing Phone 3a Review: the new champion of value

The puns write themselves but there’s something truly special about Nothing phones. In the same way that folding phones stand out for their unique form factor, the Nothing Phone 3a stands out for its iconic design.

It’s been a core ethos of Nothing and it’s easy to see why. In a world where smartphones are mostly boring in design, the Nothing Phone 3a helps you stand out with its see-through back, unique colors and camera layout. I love the blue Nothing Phone 3a, but the white version I’ve been sent looks far more premium than its price.

Unlike Nothing’s flagship devices without the ‘a’ branding — like the rumoured Nothing Phone 3 — the A-series devices get far fewer glyph stripes. Despite having fewer LEDs and commands, glyphs on the Phone 3a never fail to stand out. I’ve had numerous people ask me “what phone is that’, in the same way as when I’m using a folding phone or the Clicks Keyboard.

At 8.4mm thick and 201 grams, it’s not the most svelte phone to use at first, but you quickly get used to it. It’s only IP64 dust and water resistant, which means it will withstand some light splashes and getting caught in a rainshower, but lacks the full waterproofing of rivals such as the Pixel 8a.

For the most part, the Nothing Phone 3a design is enjoyable, but there’s one design choice that still confuses me a week later. Nothing chose the 3a to debut the new Essential Key, which adds a new AI-powered way to save and recall the things that matter most to you, but it rearranged a lot of keys to do so.

The Essential Key is placed right beneath the power key and both are located lower than on other phones. The same applies to the volume keys, and when you’re used to the key layouts on most phones, the transition to the Nothing Phone 3a is considerably jarring. I would expect it to become second-nature eventually, but there’s a considerable learning curve, and even simple tasks like taking a screenshot feel much more awkward.

The ideal phone would feature every spec imaginable and cost under $500, but from my personal experience with building a phone, I know that’s not feasible. When building a phone that costs less than $400, phone makers inevitably have to make a series of compromises, but the Phone 3a shows that Nothing truly understands this market.

Nothing approached this challenge in the right way, focusing on the key specs that matter to its target market. An older mid-range processor, but a vibrant and fantastic display? Check. Great for casual gaming and average usage, but less focus on premium materials like titanium? Check.

Remember those compromises I mentioned above? Alongside an excellent display, Nothing decided to prioritize battery life and charging. The 5,000 mAh battery is bigger than many phones that cost $1,000, and 50W wired charging is faster too.

The Phone 3a runs Nothing OS 3.1 on top of Android 15 out of the box. Unlike many companies, Nothing doesn’t heavily modify the core OS and instead focuses on visual elements that add a splash of style and customization. The result is that it’ll feel very familiar to anyone who’s used a Google Pixel phone in the past.

If you like minimalist or simplistic styles, you’ll love Nothing OS 3.1. It removes colors and shapes, instead focusing on a dot matrix theme that reduces graphics to iconography. The core NothingOS theme is mostly black and white, while there’s also a full monochrome mode you can enable.

I found the homescreen to be a little confusing to get used to at first, but thankfully, there’s also a regular Android homescreen interface if you prefer that. This is not your average Android interface, and that means it is polarizing. I like the look of NothingOS 3.1, but there’s still a small learning curve after a week of using the Phone 3a.

The Phone 3a is the launch of Nothing’s new Essential Space. Press the Essential Key and it takes a screenshot of anything you’re looking at and pulls up an interface that lets you scribble or type a note. If you long-press the Key, you can do the same except it’s saved with a voice note. Once done, double press the Essential Key to enter the Essential Space.

Only the screenshots you capture via the Essential Key end up here, which can be confusing, especially if you haven’t gotten used to the positioning of the Essential Key yet. You can still take a screenshot the old fashioned way — if you can locate the power button and volume down keys — but this goes into your Gallery as normal. It’s confusing, but I wish Nothing had either moved this key, or we had the ability to reprogram it.

I like Essential Space, or at least, I like the idea of Essential Space. Like any first-generation feature, it’s rough around the edges, but the idea of using AI to decipher everything you save and make it searchable has a lot of promise. Nothing is using AI in a smart and useful way, as it can provide summaries of content you capture along with the date-bound to-do list items that it recommends, but the latter can’t be edited which makes them significantly less useful.

When Nothing first told me about the Essential Space, I remember being extremely excited. It’s the type of AI-feature that I think could be the future, and being able to find anything you’ve needed to save sounds like a great feature. It doesn’t quite deliver, but I’m excited for the possibilities here and this feature idea has a lot of potential. The Essential Space isn’t perfect, but it is a great idea.

There was a time not too long ago that companies compromised the camera in affordable flagship phones. 2025 is not that time, and the Phone 3a promises to push the affordable segment forward in a big way thanks to a triple-camera setup.

Yes, this sub-$400 phone has three cameras, and they all feature decent specs. The 50MP main camera features f/1.9 aperture, has OIS and uses phase detection autofocus, while the 8MP ultrawide features f/2.2 aperture and has a 120˚ field-of-view. The third camera is the 50MP telephoto which offers 2x optical zoom, a 25cm minimum focusing distance and 50mm effective focal length.

How do these cameras fare in the real-world? Let’s find out, starting with the good: the Nothing Phone 3a can take great photos. They say the best camera is the one you have on you, and the Phone 3a is a great companion, even in somewhat challenging conditions like restaurants, low-light and bright flashing lights.

Restaurants can be notoriously varied in the quality of their lighting, ambiance and even crockery when taking photos to post on social media, but I was quite impressed with how the Phone 3a handled this. Some photos can be blurry — more on this later — but otherwise, it takes photos that would be easy to post on social media, albeit perhaps with some editing.

Under the dull street lights of Barcelona, the Phone 3a does fairly well but like many of its photos, it lacks a little contrast. This is the current trend, but it does make the photos feel a little flat. However, in other low-light conditions, it delivers an excellent photo, even handling the harsh red lighting in a nightclub well.

The Nothing Phone 3a also stands out for its third-lens, the 50MP telephoto that offers 2x optical zoom. Let that sink in: for under $400, you have a flagship feature. It’s not the 3x periscope (or more) used by other flagships, but the Nothing Phone 3a Pro has you covered if that’s what you’re looking for.

The 2x telephoto is a great addition to this price point, as the two lenses work in tandem and aim to offer parity between the lenses. However, there are times when one lens takes more or less exposed photos than the other, so there’s a lack of consistency.

Of course, any zoom lens needs to be tested thoroughly, and I put the Phone 3a through my favorite test: the airport departures board. We’ve all been there where you’re sitting too far from a departure board, and can’t see it clearly. Can your phone get you out of this pinch?

Even at 10x, which is five times the zoom offered by the hardware, the Phone 3a can probably help you decipher. It’s not completely legible, but it is still usable and I can see more than I could with my eyes at that distance.

The zoom is also pretty capable in different lighting conditions, and it’s a feature that is more often usable than not. Photos will sometimes have motion blur, as the camera does take longer than other phones to finish capturing a photo, but it’s a frustration you learn to live with given the affordable price.

One of the other big camera differences between the Phone 3a and 3a Pro is the front facing camera, with the latter featuring an upgraded 50MP sensor. How does the 32MP sensor in the Phone 3a fare? The answer is surprisingly well, in most lighting conditions.

Across a range of scenarios, the front facing camera has proven to be very capable. Like the rest of the camera, there are some photos where there’s motion blur, is completely blown out or lacks detail, but there are a lot of photos where the Phone 3a just delivers. This camera wouldn’t be out of place in a more expensive phone, and that’s testament to how great the Phone 3a is overall.

The Nothing Phone 3a is available in Black, White and Blue, with different variants available in different configurations. In the US, you can buy the version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $379 directly from Nothing as part of its Beta program.

It’s only officially sold via Nothing’s website, but if you choose to buy it via Amazon, the pricing is higher. The top version now costs $459, but you can also snag the 8GB and 256GB version which isn’t otherwise available in the US.

If you judge the Nothing Phone 3a by flagship standards, it falls short in some areas. However, look at the price and you quickly realize just how good this phone is. We’ve used Pixel a series devices in the past, and it always felt like a lot of compromises, but the Phone 3a feels more like a flagship that’s almost double the price than a typical mid-range phone.

NothingOS is refreshingly different, the glyphs help you stand out and even the Essential Space has some good ideas. The camera is capable, yet inconsistent, but the battery life is outstanding. Achieving a low price point requires making many compromises, and Nothing has made the best combination of compromises at this price point.