Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro Review: Maturing Perfection

Budget phones often don’t carry the charm, or the looks and come with a lot of compromises. But last year’s Nothing Phone (2a) changed this perception with its transparent lights, good internals, and glyph lights. Now the brand is out with two new A-series successors, building on what was already great and fixing the flaws. After using the two phones continuously for a week, I will discuss what’s new and has improved in this Nothing Phone (3a) and the Phone (3a) Pro review.

Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro: Key Specifications

Before moving on with the review, let us take a quick look at the key specifications of the Nothing Phone (3a) and the Phone (3a) Pro.

Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro: Box Contents

No matter which device you pick, the unboxing experience will be underwhelming. That’s because neither the Phone (3a) nor the Phone (3a) Pro come with a lot of stuff inside the box. Here’s everything you get:

• Nothing Phone (3a) or Nothing Phone (3a) Pro
• USB Type C to C charging cable
• SIM Ejector tool
• Paperwork

Let’s Talk Essentials: A New Key

The Nothing Phone (3a) series features a new button called the Essential key. This glossy presser sits right below the power button making it prone to accidental clicks. When pressed once it takes a screenshot of anything on your screen, and holding down records a voice note.

Then you can jump into the Essentials Space app, and watch as the AI uses context from the screen grab and the voice note and generates a transcript or summary of it. We tried it out in the office, where we took a photo of the digital thermometer, and asked “remind me to pick up the battery for this”. The intelligent AI soon added the reminder to pick up batteries for the thermometer. Nothing has also included three widgets allowing you to check your reminders and to-do list at a glance.

Not only does it pick up context from the screen capture, but it neatly organizes them for you. This way you can quickly browse through them when needed. However, the AI takes a while to derive results and asks you to come back later. This is to be expected as Nothing itself mentions that this is an early access experience exclusive to the Phone (3a) and the (3a) Pro for now.

Honestly, I did enjoy my limited time with the feature and would love to see how it matures. I can’t help but wish Nothing would make the side key remappable to open more customization possibilities.

Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro: Which One Takes You Closer

Now let’s talk about the other big change which is the camera department. The company has given priority to not only the camera hardware but the software and its algorithm as well. This is why, both the (3a) and the (3a) Pro pack additional lenses and come with Nothing’s new camera app.

The Phone (3a) includes a 50MP f/2.0 Samsung 2x telephoto camera. However, the Pro model receives a heftier 50MP 3x periscope lens. Other than that, they both have a 50MP main shooter and include a measly 8MP camera for ultrawide shots. With the specs out of the way, let’s look at the samples.

The 25mm primary lens takes good photos with enough light in the day on both phones. The pictures look clean, almost natural, and sharp. While the viewfinder tells a different story, more often than not, the results in the gallery were far better than expected. Nothing has done an excellent job when it comes to photos and it shows in both day and night situations. Although there is noise at times, the algorithm does a decent job of fixing that area.

Now let’s come to the zoom lenses. The 50mm x2 telephoto on the Phone (3a) captures rich and detailed shots. I really enjoyed using it when clicking photos of my friends and other Beebom colleagues. It offers clarity that I quite like. But the fixed focus lens finds itself in trouble when we get up close and personal with the subject for macro shots. Take a look at the photos I clicked from the Nothing Phone (3a).

Taking things one step further, the (3a) Pro gets the chance to flex its muscles. The 3x periscope lens really does wonders in the areas it is meant for. It does a great job capturing the natural appeal of the subject, along with the texture of clothes and other finer details. This is something expected out of a flagship phone, but Nothing bought it to midrange. The macros also come out detailed and crisp to look at. I am very satisfied with the results I have got with the Phone (3a)Pro.

The 8MP ultrawide lens on these devices does an apt job of capturing the wider perspective of the image. While this is certainly a downgrade from what we saw with the Phone (2a), it still manages to capture good results with enough light. Take that away and you get slightly grainy night photos but that is to be expected here. Both phones produce similar results as you can see in these shots.

The selfie shooter on the base Phone (3a) has a 32MP lens, while the one on the (3a) Pro gets an upgrade to 50MP. No matter which phone you go with, you will get some good results. However, I did notice that it has some difficulties handling exposure at times. That said, I overall liked the clicks that I got from these devices, even in bokeh mode. The 3a Pro gets an edge here as the 50MP shooter captures more details and does a bit better in indoor lighting situations.

As for videos, you get 4K 30 FPS recording on both the Pro and non-pro models. This is a limitation of the chipset, but you can lower the resolution to 1080p if you want to enjoy 60FPS videos. The (3a) also caps out on 1080p 60FPS videos on the selfie shooter meanwhile the (3a) Pro can do 4k 30FPS.

Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro: Design and Display

If we talk about the design, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro definitely looks like the odd one out. It has a more bulky, and boxy design out of the two with the weird camera placement and the huge circular bump at the back. The Nothing Phone (3a) goes with a traditional route, keeping things more or less similar to its predecessor, the Phone 2a. The difference in design is also apparent in weight as the Phone (3a) weighs only 201 grams, meanwhile the Pro model weighs 211 grams.

Both have a more edgier design this year, with completely flat sides which I am not a fan of. This along with 8.35 and 8.39mm thickness makes the two new Nothing Phones difficult to hold for too long. The Phone (3a) Pro is surely the thicker of the two, and it isn’t pocket-friendly either thanks to the massive camera plateau. This was a necessary addition to house the 3x periscope lens which takes up more space hence the added bulk.

Honestly, the Phone (3a) Pro’s design reminds me of the Vivo X200 which was the best camera phone of last year. It also had a large circular flat disc on its back and the same trend goes here. However, the camera placement is something only a mother could love. It’s weird, it’s busy and it creeps me out with the spiraling pattern in the back. Reminding me of the artwork from Junji Ito’s manga series, Uzumaki.

If you can look past that or go with the (3a), then I am sure you will praise the design language of the Phone (3a) and the Phone (3a) Pro. The transparent back is made of glass now. There’s the usual placement of the volume buttons on the left, and the power and Essential key on the right side. The bottom houses the USB Type C port, SIM card tray, and primary speaker. Nothing has fitted both models with IP 64 protection, which should do well against splashes, but don’t be taking these fellows for a dunk in the pool.

On the front, you’ll meet with a large 6.77-inch AMOLED panel with Full HD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR 10+ support. The 6.7-inch screen size on the Phone 2a was already large enough so I am not sure why they went with an even larger display with the new devices. They output great visuals with sharp colors. They are not too over-saturated, which I applaud, and manage HDR content quite well.

I have been catching up to Better Call Saul lately, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching an entire season of it on the Phone (3a) Pro’s screen. However, music lovers will question the speaker’s quality. The stereo speakers included in the Phone (3a) and the (3a) Pro are plenty loud, but sound hollow and murky at max volumes. Set them to 80% and you can enjoy a decent listening experience.

Performance, Software and Battery Life

Besides the design and the cameras, there’s everything pretty much identical on the two smartphones. The Nothing Phone (3a) and the (3a) Pro come with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor inside. This offers a minor boost in performance compared to the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro used in the Phone 2a last year. It is coupled with 8 or 12GB RAM and UFS 2.2 storage.

This midrange CPU offers decent numbers in benchmarks and remains quite stable through and through. I am showing results from the Phone (3a) Pro, but they are more or less the same on the (3a) too. It is a capable chipset, but I do wish Nothing went with the regular 7 Gen 3 instead.

I played PUBG Mobile, Call Of Duty Mobile, and Genshin Impact on these devices. The first two games ran buttery smooth with low graphics and max framerates that topped off at 90FPS. The performance was consistently good and there weren’t any major heating issues to speak of. However, Genshin Impact did give it some trouble. I played it at 60FPS but it kept fluctuating between the low 50s and high 40s. Seeing this, I didn’t bother pushing these phones any further.

With that out of the way, you wouldn’t come across any hiccups in day-to-day usage. That’s all thanks to the clean and lightweight Nothing OS 3.1 running on these devices based on Android 15. You get the typical Nothing OS treatment here with no ads, or bloatware that is sure to spoil you in days. While we have tried out the Nothing OS 3.0 update, the version running on the Phone 3a and the (3a) Pro felt oddly smoother, during my review period.

It’s snappy, quick, and works like a charm. Plus you get all of Nothing’s own quirks like the Glyph interface support in the OS. Or their wallpaper space that I quite enjoy, and the dot matrix theme and widgets. The 3.0 update has only uplifted what was great about Nothing devices, and it is in full display with these phones.

Finally, let’s go over the battery specs. The Nothing Phone (3a) and the Phone (3a) Pro come with a 5,000mAh cell, the same as last year’s model. This can last you up to 7-8 hours depending on your usage. However, there is an upgrade in terms of charging tech as the two devices now come with 50-watt fast charging support. But you’ll need to pick up the charging brick on your own arrangments.

Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro Review: Is it a No-Brainer?

We’ve now come to the conclusion of our Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro review. The new series clearly shows a more mature route the company is trying to take with their new phones. And I for one am stoked about it. These are some of the better camera-centric phones I have seen in this price segment, and they offer a great photographic experience you won’t regret no matter which phone you decide to pick.

That said, I think if you want a lighter, and less bulky device and don’t care much about the super zoom, then you should save some bucks and get the Nothing Phone (3a). However, if you want to go all out on what Nothing has to offer, and want to have one of the best midrange cameras in your pocket then I don’t need to convince you to get the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro.