Lounge
Nothing Phone 3a, 3a pro: Nothing boring about this design
Summary
Nothing's phones have always been high on style, and with unusual AI features, these two new phones from the brand present a solid option for Android users
In a sea of incremental phone designs propped up by samey AI accoutrements, Nothing stands alone. With a self-avowed mission of “making tech fun again", Nothing continues to forge its own path, delivering interesting if somewhat polarizing designs right up and down the price spectrum (starting at ₹24,999 for the Nothing Phone 3a and ₹29,999 for the 3a Pro.)
This holds true with the Phone 3a and the Phone 3a Pro, both of which bring a level of refinement mixed with quirkiness to the mid-range segment. And since it’s 2025, a dash of AI too… but with a difference. Gotta hand it to Nothing—love ’em or loathe ’em, you simply cannot ignore ’em.
It starts from the moment you unbox either—you know this a Nothing design, transparent glass back, flashing lights and all, and it solidly differentiates both the 3a and the 3a Pro from just about anything in the space. The 3a is available in gray, white and a very fetching blue, while the 3a Pro is more business-like, in either black or gray.
In the hand, both feel roughly identical, discernibly premium if a little top-heavy for one-handed use, the latter a direct consequence of Nothing packing in large 6.77-inch AMOLED displays. It’s when you turn them around that you spot the big changes—a triple camera system, via an elongated pill design on the 3a and a large, circular camera island on the 3a Pro, the latter with a dramatic, asymmetrical layout that bound to be divisive for some—and quite honestly, feels a bit excessive for a 3x optical zoom setup.
Also read: Why Google’s new Bengaluru office is built like a web of neighbourhoods
Nothing retains the 2a’s three-stripe Glyph interface across the top half of the rear for its distinctive blinking-flashing notifications, timer countdowns and custom ringtones—you can go full-on party mode each time your phone has a notification, or keep it discreet, your choice. There’s also a new dome-shaped Essential Key, found right below the power/wake button on the right, that triggers Nothing’s new AI organization system (more on this later), but the placement does take some getting used to and I found myself unintentionally activating it all too often in the first few days—great hack to encourage usage, though! Both phones sport glass backs with front and rear Panda Glass protection, and the IP64 certification handles water splashes but not an all-out dunking.
Once you get past the differences in design, you’re getting essentially the same core phone hardware, save the camera of course. Both get identically sized flexible AMOLED panels with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz and full-HD+ resolution, and 3000 nits peak brightness— visuals are sharp and colors well handled, even in direct sunlight. Powering both phones is the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 with the same base 8GB of LPDDR4X memory and 128GB of the slower UFS 2.2 storage, going up to 256GB of storage on both and an extra 12GB memory variant on the Pro.
It’s a strong everyday package, although as with previous Nothing ‘a’ series phones, if you crave more performance for heavy duty gaming, you’ll want to look elsewhere. And finally, both the 3a and 3a Pro pack in the same 5,000mAh lithium-ion battery that charges at 50W speeds with a compatible charging brick, which is not included in the box. Nothing’s hardware-software optimization yields good battery figures, even compared to the larger silicon-carbon-toting peers, and you can regularly see it go past a full day of mixed usage.
Nothing’s ace up its sleeve, particularly in this price segment, is Nothing OS 3.1 atop Android 15. It remains the most purpose-built Android skin around, with next to no bloatware, slick tuning and a strong attention to detail, right from the ‘Nothing’ dot-matrix look in the widgets to the revamped Quick Tiles. You’re assured three years of Android updates and six years of security updates, which keeps the mid-ranger relevant till at least 2031.
Yet, I was here to see how big a leap forward Nothing’s overtures in the AI space were, by way of the Essential Space app that is triggered by the Essential Key. Tap the key once, and it will capture your screen and send it to Essential Space to AI-analyze the content and extract any useful information out of the screenshot. Long pressing the key does the same but with a voice note that can help you remember important details or create a follow-up task around that item. Say you’re browsing the web and come across an article about Interstellar’s re-release this Friday—you hold down the key to take a screenshot and record a voice note reminding you to book tickets.
Think of it as an AI-enabled hub, a personal note-taking app on steroids even, where you can store your social media screenshots, memories and follow-up items instead of being lost across your X bookmarks, Insta-saves, Pocket reads and your photo gallery. Nothing has till now steered clear of the commonplace AI features like object erasers, text summarizers and image generators, and the Essential Space feels like a solid idea, but one that has a long way to go— including integration with other apps like emails, reminders, calendars. For now, everything resides in the Essential Space, and you have to actively choose to use this feature.
It really comes down to the cameras—upgrading to a Nothing Phone (3a) Pro gets you a better main rear camera sensor with faster dual-pixel phase detection auto focus, an upgraded telephoto camera with a 3x periscope lens and a much larger Sony sensor with OIS, plus a markedly larger and higher-resolution 50MP selfie camera. Oddly though, the 3a series downgrades the ultrawide to an 8MP sensor from the 2a Plus’ 50MP ultrawide, but the move is likely to make space (and cut costs) for the addition of the telephoto to both phones. In general, shots captured on both offer excellent detail and quality, both in good light and in night mode, though the star of the show is the periscope telephoto lens. Not only is it practically unheard of at these price points, but that added reach is worth it for portraits and for street photography.
Verdict
For phones that start at Rs. 24,999 (3a) and Rs. 29,999 (3a Pro), both of which go lower with offers, the 3a and the 3a Pro undoubtedly deliver the goods (and a refreshing sense of Nothing cool) at rather compelling price points. Granted, they’re not for the spec-obsessed, but the package—strong displays, solid cameras and smooth daily usage—is an excellent choice for those seeking value and quality both. Extra points for walking a path unwalked on AI.
