Nothing’s pursuit of the mid-range segment of the smartphone market continued today with the announcement of the Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. The heavily-teased handsets left little to the imagination, with master of hype Carl Pei making sure that buyers were suitably tantalised prior to announcement.
The Nothing Phone (3a) Series follows the Phone (2a) Series from 2024, with the Pro model switching one of the camera lenses, while shifting the rear design to be more focused on the camera.
Nothing Phone (3a) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: What’s the difference?
The periscope telephoto lens on the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro offers 3x optical zoom, compared to the 2x optical zoom of the regular phone. There’s a compromise in taking that bigger zoom though: the camera array on the rear is substantially redesigned and while the Nothing Phone (3a)’s camera looks sleek and integrated, on the Pro it stands out a lot more.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE DISCONNEKT
That’s not the only difference in the cameras on these phones: the Phone (3a) has a 32-megapixel front camera, while the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro ups the resolution to 50-megapixels.
The Nothing Phone (3a) comes in Black, White and Blue, while the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro comes in Grey or Black colours.
The Nothing Phone (3a) costs £379 for the 12/256GB model, while the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro costs £449, so there’s a £70 price differential, netting you a couple of camera changes, different colour choices and a slightly tweaked design.
What else does the Nothing Phone (3a) Series offer?
The Nothing Phone (3a) sticks to Nothing’s now familiar design aesthetic, using transparency and making as much of the internals as the externals. It features Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 hardware, putting this phone firmly in the mid-range segment, but as we’ve experienced from previous hardware on this sort of platform, it should offer great performance.
It’s a healthy upgrade over the Nothing Phone (2a) too, better at AI tasks, more efficient and with more capable graphics, and now cooled by a larger vapour chamber. Both phones have a 5,000mAh battery, with wired charging at 50W – and the promise of 2 days of life.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE DISCONNEKT
There’s a 6.77-inch display on the Phone (3a) Series. It’s an AMOLED display, with 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness of 3,000 nits.
Of course the defining thing that graces Nothing’s phone is the Glyph system on the rear. This provides a full range of interactions, allowing for custom notifications, alerts and other elements while accompanied by Nothing’s beeps and chirps to make it a little more unique.
The Nothing Phone (3a) Series runs Nothing OS 3.1 – based on Android 15 – and there’s updates for 6 years, although you’ll only get three Android OS updates in that.
On the software front, there’s a new AI-hub called Essential Space. This can be accessed via the Essential Key, a button on the side of the phone. The idea is that you can store things like notes and screenshots here; Nothing is calling it a second memory.
Essential Space is opening up as an early access programme, with the company saying that it’s going to evolve over time, with added features coming soon.
The Nothing Phone (3a) Series is now available to pre-order from nothing.tech.
