Review verdict on Nothing Phone (3a): The powerful mid-range smartphone has all the right features
The Nothing Phone (3a) did well during our test. You can't criticize much about the 6.77-inch smartphone: It doesn't support eSIMs or wireless charging, and you'll have to find a 50-watt power supply elsewhere. And although the phone is IP64-certified, making it better protected against the elements compared to the Nothing Phone (2a) predecessor model, it isn't completely waterproof.
Introductory price of $329
Measured against its official purchase price of a maximum of $379, for which you can get the Nothing Phone (3a) with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage (8/128 GB for $329), the list of negatives remains fairly manageable. Its other features are also more than impressive.
Highlights include its high-quality case, which, unlike the Nothing Phone (2a), has a glass back, as well as its bright 120 Hz display with a 1000-Hz sampling rate. This makes the Android 15-based Nothing OS 3.1 runs very smoothly.
The Nothing Phone (3a)'s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 can also run GPU-intensive games such as Genshin Impact smoothly. In our test, the Nothing Phone also impressed us with its long update period of 6 years and above-average battery life. It can be fully charged in around an hour.
Instead of a dual camera like the Nothing Phone (2a), the Nothing Phone (3a) now has a triple sensor. A new feature is its 50-MP telephoto lens, which has a 2x optical zoom and captures lots of details up to 5x magnification. Its main camera still has a resolution of 50 MP and shoots good photos, while the resolution of its ultra-wide-angle lens is still 8 MP.
When it comes to AI, Nothing takes a somewhat more conservative approach than its competitors. The Nothing Phone (3a) does also rely on artificial intelligence and even has its own physical key, the Essential Key, which is located next to the power button. However, this AI runs completely locally on the smartphone and doesn't share any data with the cloud.
Read our full review of the Nothing Phone (3a) here.
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