Nothing Phone (3a) Price, Specs, Features and Best Deals

The Nothing Phone (3a) has officially launched alongside the Phone (3a) Pro, succeeding last year’s Nothing Phone (2a) and Phone (2a) Plus. While it doesn’t offer the premium features of the Pro version, the Phone (3a) impresses with enhanced cameras, a sleek transparent glass design, fast charging, a larger display, and long-lasting battery life. Powered by the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, it runs on Nothing OS 3.1 based on Android 15, with a promise of up to three major Android upgrades, making it a solid choice for users looking for a balanced mix of performance and design.

Design

The Nothing Phone (3a) continues to showcase the brand’s signature transparent design, with a fresh update to a premium glass back instead of the previous polycarbonate.

This new glass finish gives the phone a more sophisticated feel while maintaining the distinct look of the Phone (2a), featuring a nano-coating and metallic finish that resembles technical machinery. The middle frame is made from 100% recycled aluminum, highlighting Nothing’s commitment to sustainability. The phone measures 163.5 x 77.5 x 8.4 mm and weighs 201g, offering a solid yet sleek build.

On the back, the Android phone features a semi-transparent polycarbonate panel with three Glyph LED light stripes arranged in a circular pattern around the camera. Inspired by the Vignelli subway map, the Glyph lights provide visual notifications that can be customized.

This Glyph system offers visual cues and illuminates for notifications. You can always turn off the Glyph light using the Glyph interface if you don’t want to use it. The Glyph lights are unchanged from the Phone (2a).

The three Glyph lights were arranged in a circular style around the camera cutout. Inside the circular-shaped camera cutout sits the pill-shaped camera module, which slightly protrudes from the surface. The module hosts the triple camera lenses.

The front of the Nothing Phone features the same 6.77-inch display as the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, with thin bezels and a punch-hole cutout for the front camera. For added security, the phone also includes a responsive under-display fingerprint scanner. This thoughtful combination of design and functionality ensures the Nothing Phone (3a) stands out as a stylish and practical device.

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The Nothing Phone (3a) features a sleek and functional design with four key buttons: the standard volume buttons, power key, and the new Essential Key, located just below the power button. This small, subtle addition serves as a shortcut to activate Nothing’s AI functions, enhancing the device’s software experience. With this key, you can easily access various software functions, such as quickly opening the Essential Space app (which collects and organizes screenshots, voice notes, and text).

Additionally, pressing the button once allows you to capture and send content to Essential Space, while long-pressing it records voice notes. This feature adds a layer of convenience and customization to the user experience, making it easier to interact with the phone’s advanced capabilities. The bottom of the phone houses the SIM card tray, USB-C port, and speaker grill.

Display

The Nothing Phone 3a display has been upgraded from the previous year’s 6.7-inch screen, offering a larger, more immersive experience. It now has a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a 1080 x 2392 pixels resolution, which ensures crisp and clear visuals, with a pixel density of 387 ppi, making text and images look sharp and detailed. This display maximizes its size by measuring 88% screen-to-body ratio, thus providing plenty of space for watching videos, playing games, or browsing.

Furthermore, this display supports 1 billion colors and HDR10+, delivering rich, vibrant colors and deeper contrasts. Whether you’re streaming high-definition videos or playing HDR-supported games, the screen brings content to life with impressive clarity and depth.

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Nothing Phone (3a)’s brightness performance is also top-notch. The display offers 800 nits of typical brightness, ensuring good visibility in normal lighting conditions. When outdoors or in bright environments, it can boost to 1,300 nits in high brightness mode. For HDR content, the screen can peak at an impressive 3,000 nits, allowing you to enjoy fine details in both bright highlights and deep shadows.

The display is protected by Panda Glass, which offers reliable protection against everyday wear and tear, though it may not be as tough as other premium glass options like Gorilla Glass. It also uses DC dimming above 50% brightness for an eye-friendly experience, switching to 2160Hz PWM dimming below 50% brightness to ensure accurate colors and no eye strain for most people.

In addition, for a smooth, responsive experience, the display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, making scrolling, gaming, and transitions buttery smooth. You can customize your refresh rate with options for 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz, with settings that include Dynamic, High, and Standard. In Standard mode, the refresh rate is locked at 60Hz to save battery, while High mode ensures the fluidity of 120Hz at all times, though it doesn’t adjust dynamically.

Camera

The Nothing Phone (3a) brings notable camera upgrades, with a primary highlight being the inclusion of an optical zoom lens, enhancing versatility and image quality.

The main camera features a 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL GN9 sensor with an f/1.9 aperture, offering crisp, sharp images with excellent detail. The camera is equipped with PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus) and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), ensuring clear, steady shots even in low light or while moving.

Additionally, the 5G phone has a 50 MP telephoto lens with an f/2.0 aperture, providing 2x optical zoom for more detailed close-up shots. The 8 MP ultrawide camera with a 120° field of view captures expansive scenes with a wide perspective.

In terms of video recording, the camera system supports 4K video at 30fps, and 1080p video at 30/60/120fps, with the help of gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) and OIS for smoother, more stable footage.

On the front, there is a 32 MP front camera that captures detailed selfies with an f/2.2 aperture, making it perfect for clear self-portraits or video calls, offering 1080p video recording at 30fps.

The camera system is powered by TrueLens Engine 3.0, an AI-driven image processing pipeline that enhances your photos by intelligently adjusting settings like tone mapping and scene detection across multiple shots. This results in more accurate, vibrant, and professional-looking images, allowing the Nothing Phone (3a) to deliver impressive photography performance with the latest tech advancements.

Hardware and Software

The Nothing Phone (3a) features the same processor as the Phone (3a) Pro model. It offers a great balance of performance and efficiency, powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset. This modern 4nm processor, released in Q3 2024, features an octa-core CPU with a combination of high-performance cores and efficient ones to ensure smooth multitasking and power efficiency.

Specifically, it includes a 2.5 GHz Cortex-A720 core for heavy tasks, three 2.4 GHz Cortex-A720 cores, and four 1.8 GHz Cortex-A520 cores for lighter, background operations. This setup allows for an overall performance that can handle everything from basic tasks to more demanding applications with ease.

The chipset is coupled with an Adreno 710 GPU, running at 940 MHz, further enhancing the device’s ability to handle graphics-intensive tasks, such as gaming, video playback, and smooth navigation of the user interface. Whether you’re playing high-definition games or watching videos, the GPU ensures a fluid experience without stutter or lag.

One of the most significant advantages of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is its impressive improvements over previous generations. According to Nothing, the CPU is 33% faster, the GPU is 11% quicker, and, most notably, AI processing is 92% more efficient. This means that tasks relying on artificial intelligence, such as real-time image processing and camera enhancements, are significantly faster, improving the overall responsiveness and functionality of the device.

In addition, the Nothing Phone (3a) comes with several storage and RAM configurations to suit different needs. It offers 128GB of internal storage with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage with 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of internal storage with 12GB of RAM. Unfortunately, there is no support for expandable storage via a microSD card, so users will need to choose their preferred storage option at the time of purchase based on their usage needs.

Running on Nothing OS 3.1, based on Android 15, the Nothing Phone (3a) benefits from a clean and intuitive user interface. Nothing OS has a distinct look, particularly the Dot Engine, which makes the operating system easy to navigate.

The system comes with custom apps and widgets, including updates to the Gallery and Camera apps, optimizing them for a better user experience. The phone also includes behavioral learning algorithms, which help speed up load times and improve file system efficiency when the phone is idle, making the device faster and more responsive over time.

Another standout feature of the Nothing Phone (3a) is the Essential Space app. This AI-powered tool acts like an intelligent digital notebook, organizing various types of content, from text to screenshots and voice notes. By analyzing and organizing this information, the app makes it easier to retrieve important content, improving productivity.

Battery life is another highlight. The 5000mAh battery ensures the phone lasts throughout the day, while 50W fast charging brings it from 1% to 100% in just 56 minutes. This makes it incredibly convenient for users who need a quick recharge during the day.

According to Nothing, the Phone (3a) offers impressive charging speeds, reaching 50% charge in just 19 minutes and 100% in 56 minutes, making it one of the fastest-charging phones in its class. This rapid charging capability minimizes downtime, allowing users to quickly power up their device and get back to using it, making it a convenient choice for those with busy lifestyles who need their phone charged quickly.

In terms of connectivity, the Nothing Phone (3a) is equipped with up-to-date features like Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC, ensuring fast and reliable wireless connections for browsing, streaming, and pairing with other devices.

Nothing Phone (3a) Price and Availability

Nothing Phone (3a) price starts at around $388.00 at leading retailers. The model offering 12GB RAM and 256GB ROM retails for $440.00, 345.00 GBP and 329.00 EUR on Amazon stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The Nothing Phone (3a) price in Nigeria starts at around ₦725,000 for the model with 12GB RAM and 256GB ROM. The smartphone costs 35,000 BDT in Bangladesh, 24,999 INR in India, and 1,669 MYR in Malaysia.