Nothing continues to push the envelope in crafting affordable powerhouse Androids that look anything but ordinary. The newly released Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro build on the success of the Phone (2) and Phone (2a), and don’t let the “a” fool you—these models bring serious upgrades.
The Phone (3a) Pro boasts an updated three-camera system, better performance, faster charging, eSIM support, and a dedicated button for the new AI-powered Essential Space, designed to streamline creativity and organization. And whether you love it or hate it, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is easily one of the most striking non-foldable Androids on the market right now.
Design
The design of Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is an eye catcher, even for Nothing Phones. The clear exposed back and interactive LED strips are always a hit, but now the talking point is the massive circular camera bump. It’s raised more than your average camera bump and is centered on the top of the phone. The large bump also has a transparent backplate but no glyph LEDs.
This edgy design will not be for everyone, but we can all agree that it makes a bold statement. While this massive camera bump can make the phone a bit top heavy, we found that it’s a good ledge to rest against your fingers for a more secure hold.
The (3a) Pro is a bit larger than the Phone (2) with it’s 6.77″ screen, and weighs 10 grams more at 211g. The only detail on (3a) Pro that feels less premium is the grey plastic frame running around the phone. The phone is large enough with the camera bump that it may not fit perfectly inside every pocket.
Other than the plastic frame, it checks all of our boxes for durability and build quality. It’s IP64 dust and splash resistant (but not water proof). The old polycarbonate back was replaced with tempered glass, to match the front.
The LED strip “Glyph” interface is still one of our favorite details, even if it’s a bit gimmicky. We give Nothing credit for trying to make it a usable feature, helping to communicate notifications, volume adjustment, and as a progress meter for a couple 3rd party applications. The Glyph lights can now be used as a music visualizer, if you’re looking for a light show.
Screen
The screen on Nothing (3a) Pro is near-perfect. It’s a 6.77″ AMOLED screen (that’s advertised as “flexible”, despite being flat with no flex) and covered in Panda glass. It has a Full HD+ resolution of 1080×2392 and 387 pixels-per-square-inch. It’s beautiful, bright, and crisp. The brightness is another nice improvement with outdoor brightness hitting 1,300 nits and a peak HDR brightness of 3,000 nits. The refresh rate goes up to 120hz and the auto-changing “dynamic” refresh rate works perfectly for reducing the refresh rate and conserving some battery when you don’t need it. It will only go down to 30Hz, unlike some phones (including Nothing (2)) which goes down to 1Hz.
Our only real criticism of the “screen” is that the factory-applied screen protector is thin and plastic and easily scuffs. Thankfully this is easily fixed with a cheap glass screen protector. This will help with added protection to the Panda Glass, which is good, but doesn’t match the superior hardness of Gorilla Glass 5.
Specs and Connectivity
Under the hood, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, a solid mid-range processor that balances performance and efficiency. While it’s not a flagship powerhouse, it’s capable enough for smooth day-to-day use, multitasking, and gaming at moderate settings.
Paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the phone feels snappy. However, based on a storage test showing read speeds just over 1000MB/s, it appears to use UFS 2.2 rather than the faster UFS 3.1 or UFS 4.0, meaning load times and app launches may not be as fast as on premium flagships. Even so, Nothing OS’s lightweight design ensures a fluid experience.
On the connectivity front, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro brings all the essentials but lacks some higher-end extras. It supports sub-6GHz 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.3, ensuring solid wireless performance. However, mmWave 5G is not supported, which may be a drawback for those in regions where it makes a difference.
There’s no headphone jack, which is expected but still worth mentioning. eSIM support is now included alongside the dual-SIM slot, making it easier to switch carriers or travel without swapping physical SIMs. NFC is present for mobile payments, and the haptic feedback remains sharp and satisfying, in line with Nothing’s previous phones.
For biometrics, an in-screen fingerprint reader provides reliable and rapid unlocking. The face unlock is also very fast, though not as secure as the fingerprint scanner. Using both together makes unlocking the phone feel truly effortless.
Battery
The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro houses a large 5,000 mAh battery with 50W wired fast charging, promising a full charge in 56 minutes and 50% in just 19 minutes. In my testing, charging speeds hovered around 30W, but the results were still impressive—hitting 22% in 10 minutes, 46% in 20 minutes, and 99% in just under an hour. The phone displayed “Charging Rapidly” throughout, and real-world use should see similarly fast top-ups.
With regular use and without any battery optimization, I’d get well over a day on a single charge. A light or battery-conscious user could see close to two days on a single charge, and heavy users should have no problem getting a full day.
Nothing includes a branded USB-C cable, which adds a stylish touch, though there’s no wireless charging. Reverse wired charging is supported at 7.5W for powering up other devices in a pinch. There’s no USB charger included.
Performance, Usability, and OS
The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro runs Nothing OS on Android 15, which sticks close to a clean, near-stock Android experience with no bloatware while still injecting its signature design language. From the minimalist icons to the dot-matrix aesthetic, the software feels cohesive with the phone’s hardware. While it doesn’t offer as much deep customization as some other Android skins, it excels in usability, especially with customizable toggles and controls that can be added directly to the home screen and lock screen for quick access.
Day-to-day, the phone feels snappy and well-powered, handling multitasking, app switching, and general navigation without hesitation. It scored 798K on AnTuTu, putting it ahead of most midrange competitors and making it capable of running demanding apps smoothly. In Geekbench 6, it delivered a single-core score of 1,154 and a multi-core score of 3,218, which suggests strong general performance but falls short of flagship-level chipsets. The OpenCL compute score of 3,299 means the GPU is solid for casual gaming and graphics-heavy apps, though users looking for sustained high-performance gaming may notice some limitations.
The phone also introduces the Essential Key, a new hardware button meant to streamline productivity and the management of your thoughts and ideas. A single press captures a screenshot, a long press records a voice note, and a double press opens Essential Space—a dedicated hub for organizing and interacting with captured content.
Essential Space leverages AI to categorize screenshots and voice recordings, offering contextual suggestions, summaries, and potential action points. The idea is to reduce friction in managing spontaneous thoughts, notes, and inspirations, making them easier to recall and act on later. In theory, Essential Space could be a powerful tool for managing your creativity and life, but I wasn’t able to figure out a useful way to incorporate it into my day-to-day over the last couple of weeks. On the other hand, upgrading Google Assistant to Gemini immediately improved my voice assistant experience, providing advanced AI-powered functionality that felt more immediately useful.
Nothing is committing to offering Phone (3a) three years of Android updates and six years of security updates.
Camera
The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro debuts Nothing’s first triple-camera system, featuring a 50MP main sensor with advanced AI processing, a 50MP telephoto lens offering 3x optical zoom and up to 60x digital zoom, and an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 120° field of view. Optical image stabilization helps maintain clarity in various lighting conditions, and the 50MP front camera supports 4K recording with AI-enhanced stabilization.
For its price point, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro does an impressive job keeping up with premium phones. In well-lit conditions, it captures sharp, detailed images with vibrant colors and solid contrast. While its color accuracy and dynamic range aren’t quite at flagship levels, it handles most everyday photography scenarios very well. Some images may lean slightly toward oversaturation, but overall, the results are appealing. Low-light performance is respectable, though some noise can creep into more challenging scenes.
The camera system is straightforward and easy to manage, making it accessible for casual and experienced users alike. There’s a macro mode for close-ups of 15cm, but this was one of the few camera features you need to toggle a separate setting for. It’s not enabled automatically. We also were sad to see you can’t take wide-angle videos; you can only zoom between 1x and 8x. Videos can be shot in 4k at 30 fps; if you want 60 fps you’ll need to shoot in 1080p.
Nothing Phone (3a) Pro verdict
The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is part of Nothing’s strategy to bring flagship-like features to a more affordable price point, making it a standout in their affordable lineup. While it maintains a focus on budget-conscious consumers, it still offers many high-end features, such as the striking Glyph lights, a well spec’d camera system, and smooth performance that rivals more expensive devices.
This phone marks a significant step forward for the company, not only in terms of pricing and performance but also in aesthetics. With its unique design language, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro successfully combines style and substance, offering a premium experience at a fraction of the cost of higher-end competitors.
The Nothing (3a) Pro starts US deliveries on March 25 for $459 in black or gray (pictured). It’s a lot of phone for under $500, and if the improved camera features aren’t important to you then the non-Pro Phone (3a) is just as powerful for only $379.