Nothing Phone (3a) Pro Review: Unique Features, But At What Cost? Check It Out!

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Nothing recently shocked its fan base by unveiling not just one, but two new budget-friendly smartphones. We had the chance to review the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, and it faces some unexpected competition.

Ever heard of Nothing? For those not closely following tech news, Nothing is a young company created in 2020 by Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus. The brand’s mission is simple: to make tech fun again. With this philosophy, Nothing has carved a niche in the tech world by offering smartphones and wireless earphones at affordable prices, featuring distinctive transparent designs.

Following the success of its previous Nothing Phone (2a) earlier in 2024, Carl Pei’s company is eager to continue its momentum by launching not one, but two new smartphones! We tested the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, designed as an upgraded version of the new Phone (3a), but it left us feeling somewhat frustrated. Here’s why in our review.

Summary of our Nothing Phone (3a) Pro review
Excellent software overlay with lots of customization options. Very good performance, especially for gaming. Decent photo capabilities under good conditions.	Impractical design, especially when used with one hand. Essential Space is a bit too gimmicky. Not enough differences compared to the Nothing Phone (3a)

A Design That’s a Bit Too Bold

Let’s address the elephant in the room: the design of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is unique. For its first “Pro” model smartphone, Nothing decided to shake things up a bit by adopting a bold design.

The back of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is fully transparent, covered with a sleek glass that reveals some components. Even though we’re accustomed to Nothing’s transparent devices, it still impresses people around us. The biggest new feature is the circular and bulky camera module, a first in Nothing’s history.

According to the company, this design choice was made because many users associate a prominent camera with a good quality device. While this might make sense, it’s not necessarily true (otherwise, iPhones wouldn’t be considered high-quality). Whether you like the camera block of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is subjective. However, we must say that the design didn’t please everyone during our test period. The camera block is a bit too bulky, which complicates handling the phone with one hand as our index finger tends to slip over the lenses. It’s somewhat better when using both hands, especially for gaming or landscape mode photography.

On the back of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, you’ll also find three small LEDs that belong to the Glyph system. This is a key feature of the company’s smartphones, which we will discuss in a dedicated section.

The edges of the Phone (3a) Pro are covered in a plastic that feels nice in hand, but might feel a bit cheap if you’re used to aluminum or titanium from other brands. The buttons, however, are well-placed with the power and Essential Space (more on this later) on the right and the volume buttons on the left. These are easy to reach and respond well in everyday use.

The front of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is much more conservative than its back. Here, you’ll find a display with symmetrical borders and a small selfie camera centered at the top of the device.

A Smooth and Bright Display

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro features a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 3000 nits and a typical brightness of 800 nits.

As expected, the display of the Phone (3a) Pro is quite impressive. During our weeks of testing, we really enjoyed consuming content on this responsive and bright screen. Its peak brightness ensures good visibility whether you’re using the smartphone in bright sunlight or in a dark alley where the brightness automatically adjusts to protect your eyes.

The display of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro offers two color settings: active and normal. While the former provides very vivid colors, they can be somewhat unrealistic. The normal mode is closer to true colors but also less warm and sometimes a bit too dull. We prefer the active mode.

In terms of smoothness, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro has a refresh rate that can switch between 60 and 120 Hz. Three options are available: lock the phone at 60 Hz, at 120 Hz, or allow it to adjust automatically based on the displayed content. This choice will inevitably impact the phone’s battery life, so it’s best to leave the automatic display enabled by default. It adjusts very well when we launch a video game or switch between multiple apps. The overall experience is particularly smooth.

The Glyph System, Still As Geeky

The small LEDs on the back of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro are called the “Glyph system”. This gimmick has been present since the very first Nothing Phone and is a hallmark of the company’s smartphones. Essentially, the Nothing Phone is designed to be placed face down when not in use. Any notifications received on the phone will then light up the small LEDs on the back to alert you.

These LEDs also have several other very smart functions. They can serve as a flash or a diffused light source to brighten your photos. The Glyph system is also compatible with certain apps like Uber, where the light gradually dims to indicate the remaining time of your ride. While not particularly groundbreaking, it’s a very original touch that always impresses our acquaintances.

Surprisingly Strong Performance

In our test of the Phone (2a) last year, we were pleasantly surprised by its performance, powered by a Dimensity 7200 Pro chip from MediaTek.

For the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, it’s a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor from Qualcomm that powers the phone. We naturally put it to the test on highly demanding graphic games like Infinity Nikki, Honkai: Star Rail, and Genshin Impact. All these games automatically start with the graphics quality set to “low,” which is quite harsh on the eyes. However, by pushing the graphics to the max and choosing the 120 FPS option, we get a much more pleasant image.

Although the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is a mid-range phone, its performance is impressive. All our games run smoothly, and we hardly felt any heating from the device during our gaming sessions. While there are some slowdowns during texture-heavy scenes, our overall impression remains very positive.

A Surprising and Original Software (But Maybe a Bit Too Much)

The new smartphone from Nothing runs on Android 15 with a custom software overlay, NothingOS 3.1. This is certainly one of our favorite overlays at the editorial office, featuring several small customization aspects. Whether it’s the lock screen or your home screen, NothingOS 3.1 allows you to have all kinds of useful and original widgets. To name just a few: a voice recorder that can be activated directly on the home screen, a compass that automatically changes direction without having to launch the app, or the media player that displays your currently playing music and allows you to control it by swiping the widget…

The essence of NothingOS also revolves around pixels. These are omnipresent on the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro and can appear to illustrate the current weather in a widget or to group several apps in a folder that will benefit from your choice of emoji in pixels. In short, lots of little ideas that make NothingOS very enjoyable to use every day. Some regrets regarding the news widget that launches an audio summarizing some current news, only in English and obviously very focused on English news.

Regarding updates, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is announced as compatible with six years of security updates and three years of Android updates. The Nothing smartphone will therefore be able to go up to Android 18, which is supposedly available in 2029.

As its official announcement approached, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro intrigued its community with the presence of a brand-new chromed button. Button action like at Apple? Launching an AI like at Samsung? Nothing wants to be original, and its new button is exclusively used for Essential Space.

Essential Space: A Good Idea in Theory?

Essential Space is a standalone app that acts as an assistant/dashboard. By using its dedicated button, you can record some voice or written notes from your daily life as well as take screenshots that will be directly stored in Essential Space.

Boosted by artificial intelligence, Essential Space therefore groups all your thoughts in one place so you can find them when you need them. Nothing describes this space as follows: “organize all the moments of your day through your camera, screenshots, voice notes, or social posts and organize these last ones.”

In itself, Essential Space looks a bit like a large Pinterest folder. An interesting idea on paper, but one that you will quickly abandon as its use proves to be not very intuitive or sufficiently explained by the small tutorial on the phone. We would really have preferred to have a configurable button to launch Essential Space or any other app of our choice (ChatGPT or the camera, for example).

For example, we used Essential Space to take a screenshot of a football match article. The feature automatically created a note and a reminder about this match even though we hadn’t asked for anything. A thoughtful artificial intelligence, but one that will take initiatives even when you don’t necessarily need them.

Very Decent Photo Performance

If the Phone (2a) established itself as a good photo phone given its low price of 349 euros, Nothing thought it wise to offer a (3a) equipped with a new sensor dedicated to zooms. The configuration of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is almost the same as for the (3a), namely:

Main sensor of 50 MPx

Ultra-wide sensor of 8 MPx

Telephoto lens of 50 MPx

The only difference between the Phone (3a) and its Pro version lies in the telephoto lens, which here is from Sony (against Samsung for the classic Phone (3a)).

When the lighting is decent, the photo performance of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is generally good. The phone manages to produce pretty results despite a small lack of detail on some more difficult subjects to capture and if you zoom into the image. Nothing too alarming, though, and your shots will be completely usable on social networks. A small mention to the integrated photographic styles that allow you to quickly apply a portrait, black and white, or macro style to your photographs by swiping the camera upwards.

Nothing boasts the zoom capabilities of its Phone (3a), which is equipped with an optical zoom x3 and a “lossless” zoom x6. We obviously tested the latter, and the results are quite correct although the smartphone tends to slightly exaggerate the light present during scenes and to lack details on certain elements, notably text.

At night, the results are generally quite disappointing for entry-level and mid-range smartphones. The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro manages as well as it can by offering fairly decent shots, but they rely too much on artificial light. Our first photo looks like it was taken in the middle of a cloudy afternoon, although it was almost 8 PM and much darker. The second is a bit better, but moving subjects then become completely blurry. Other indoor low-light shots also lack a bit of detail on certain book writings.

Finally, let’s mention the presence of an integrated macro mode on the Nothing Phone (3a). This is ideal for capturing close-up subjects and performs quite well in this area, even if we would have liked to be able to zoom in a bit more.

For video, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro can film in several configurations: 1080p/30 FPS, 1080p/60 FPS, and 4K/30 FPS. The results are convincing, even if the stabilizer, highly promoted by Nothing in its latest communication videos, turns out to be quite disappointing. Too bad.

Excellent Battery Life and Fast Charging

Unplugged at 8 AM, our sample of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro still showed 51% battery in the evening around 6:30 PM. A nice autonomy score during a typical day of use that includes calls, SMS, browsing websites and social networks, YouTube, and a bit of gaming. We were even able to use our Phone (3a) Pro the next day until it turned off in the afternoon. Depending on your usage, you should therefore be able to use the phone for nearly a day and a half, if not two days by using the battery saver.

Once our Phone (3a) Pro turned off, it was time to charge it! The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is compatible with fast charging that can support up to 50 W. Here are our findings:

3:45 PM: 0%

3:55 PM: 29%

4:05 PM: 51%

4:15 PM: 70%

4:25 PM: 86%

4:39 PM: 100%

Count on just under an hour to fully charge, but only 20 minutes to get a half-full battery. A rather respectable score! The Phone (3a) Pro is, however, not compatible with wireless charging.

Clear Communications

We were able to use the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro for a little over two weeks and use it as our main smartphone. At no point did we notice any issues during our calls or sending SMS. Conversations in a noisy environment can sometimes be difficult to appreciate, however.

In terms of connectivity, the Phone (3a) Pro is compatible with Wi-Fi 6 and the 2G/3G/4G/5G communication bands. The Nothing smartphone is also compatible with Bluetooth 5.4, which allowed us to pair it with all kinds of connected devices without experiencing any latency or loss of connection.

Our Conclusion on the Test of the Nothing Phone (3a)

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is definitely a good phone. For its price of 479 euros in France, it offers a somewhat original alternative to mid-range stalwarts like the Samsung Galaxy A55 or the Google Pixel 8a. We especially appreciate its performance, daytime photo capabilities, software overlay, battery life, and fast charging, which are very pleasant in everyday life. Conversely, the Phone (3a) disappoints us a bit with night photos and its big new feature, Essential Space.

But it’s especially the comparison with its little brother, the new Nothing Phone (3a), that harms this first Pro phone from Nothing. The differences between the two smartphones are very few outside of the design, a camera module (not additional, but different), and a slightly improved selfie sensor. Small improvements, but not really interesting according to us to justify adding 120 euros. If you are looking for a better value for money, we encourage you to look more at the Nothing Phone (3a), whose test is already available.