Nothing tries to justify why the Phone (3a) series uses UFS 2.2 storage

The Nothing Phone (3a) series has been available to buy for more than a week now, and while there's a lot to like about the new phones, there are also a few sore points, one of which is the type of storage used in both devices.

Both the Nothing Phone (3a) (available on Amazon for $459) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro use UFS 2.2 storage, whereas many expected them to feature at least UFS 3.0 which is faster. This has caused a lot of chatter online and has prompted Nothing to release a statement justifying the decision.

According to a post on its official community page, the decision to use UFS 2.2 instead of a faster storage wasn't about cutting costs, but about putting resources where they matter most. Nothing continues its defense by saying that while a faster UFS storage such as UFS 3.1 sounds great on paper, in daily use the benefits are small compared to when a phone has better software, battery life, and a superior display.

It also adds that a phone's performance isn't dependent on storage speed alone but also includes RAM, CPU performance, and software optimization. Interestingly, optimization seems to be better on the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro according to GSMArena's review which says the pro model records 50% faster random read and write speeds than the standard model even though they both feature UFS 2.2 storage.  

The post even includes a benchmark result showing the Nothing Phone (3a) holding its own against the Realme 11 Pro Plus which has a UFS 3.1 storage. There are other points about the Nothing Phone (3a)'s performance in multiple scenarios, but the post concludes with the assurance that the Phone (3a) series will continue to offer reliable performance as it ages thanks to Nothing OS updates which will continue to bring optimizations.