Hey community 👋

It’s been 14 day I have been using the newly launched Nothing phone 3a pro as my primary &

Here is my Initial Impression & review of Nothing Phone 3a pro

~ These are the contents I’ll cover here:

🌥️ Unboxing & design

📱 Multimedia

🔥 Performance & haptics

🐞 Software & AI

📷 Camera

🔋 Efficiency

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🌥️ Unboxing & design:

• Unboxing: The box is small but this time we can close the box after unboxing it which is great & yes we don’t get any #charger. I wish Nothing provide charger to midrange series.

[CMF phone is getting charger

• Design:

Design is somehow ‘SUBJECTIVE’…..

But if you ask me then I will say that the design is quite agressive & unique. Yes it doesn’t follow a symmetry but I think that’s what making it unique.Many ppl will notice this device & ask about it.

I have this black variant with me & it do look quite sexy. Though if you want the transperant element to elevent more then go for the GREY one 🩶

The Camera’s are rounded this time & it has got this huge bump. Now the bump has it’s own advantage & disadvantages:

• Pro’s:

👑 You can use it as a support by keeping your index finger on it.

🐞 You won’t be having any wobbling issue while using you phone on desk/table.

• Con’s:

🐛The camera bump really gets many dust particle on it & it’s really tough to clean.

Reminder: If you are someone like me who doesn’t use cover with the phone the I recommend you go for the GREY one cause you will notice fingerprint smudges on the back

📱Multimedia: Now I’ll cover two points in multimedia i,e

• Display & speakers 🔊
1. 📱Display spec: 6.77 inches,1080p (FHD+) display 🔆 800 nits manual | 1300 nits auto brightness| 3000 nits on HDR |HDR10+ 2160hz PWM diming &
  
  Panda glass protection on front & back

📱DISPLAY:

The display is really good 💯

not the great cause there are many brands that’s providing 1.5k resolution panel.

I HOPE NOTHING PROVIDE THESE HIGH RES DISPLAY IN FUTURE🙂‍↕️

The display is quite accurate in term of colours & also the details are really sharp.

💡 OUTDOOR VISIBILITY:

. You won’t feel any issue using this device outdoor as it can goes upto 800 nits in manual & 1300 nits on Auto Brightness

The devices doesn’t support HDR on NETFLIX but you get HDR on YOUTUBE.

BUT…………….

keep in mind that the HDR on YouTube is broken

Let me explain:

🐞while watching HDR content on YouTube the brightness doesn’t reach 3000 nits of brightness as promised by the brand, infact it goes for few seconds & then goes to normal.

🫠Also if you play any HDR content on 4k60fps with 2x then the phone stutters & lags playing the video.

[Most of the issues are considered by the team & they will fix it 😄]

🔊 SPEAKER:

The speaker are quite loud infact I did a side by side comparison with my Nothing phone (2) & it’s clearly superior than phone (2) in term of loudness & clarity.

I felt that the sound seperation of the speakers are 40:60 [front:back] & it should be 50:50 for balance sound.

03. 🔥 Performance & haptics:

Specs:

Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

• 1× 2.5 GHz (performance core)

• 3× 2.4 GHz (balanced cores)

• 4× 1.8 GHz (efficiency cores)

This is the let down part I mentioned earlier !! & This is here the phone deserve better

Now SNAPDRAGON 7sgen3 isn’t a powerful processor but yes it’s a capable one.

Keeping specs aside let’s dig into IRL experience…..

The phone runs really smooth in day to day taskes like:

📱Scrolling through social media apps

🔥 Multitasking like: switching b/w apps or opening multiple windows

📷 Recording video or camera related stuff.[I haven’t faced any]

The phone won’t slow down or stutters in b/w. Yes, maybe sometime you may feel but that won’t be any big issue

                **BUT...........**

There is big issue !!!!🐛

i,e UFS 2.2 …. Now you won’t feel any issue in the initial days but you will notice your phone aged faster.

As of 2025 I think ufs 3.1 should be a standard choice for all the brands launching phone above 22k & also the phone 3a pro comes with not so powerful processor so it’s for sure that the device won’t age like other devices with UFS 3.1.

let me tell you a IRL experience:

I have og Nothing phone (1) & that phone have weak processor compare to 3a pro but it has got a UFS 3.1 storage & it can open apps faster then the newly launched Nothing phone 3a pro.

In the end I will suggest @changename to provide a better storage type atleast for this price range also they should have go for Snapdragon 7gen 3 for more better power & ufs 3.1

Then this phone would also sell like hotcakes ⚡

Taking about 🎮 Games:

This thing is strictly not meant for heavy gaming. If you are someone who plays normal game than it will run smoothly but if you are like me who plays BATTLE ROYALE & GACHA games that you should avoide it.

I played BGMI & it runs good on 90fps few frame drop can be noticed but games like Farlight 84 & WITHERING WAVES I got around 35-45 fps.

• ⏩ HAPTIC:

The haptics are really good it’s crisps & I think it’s somehow matches the level O-haptics but…….

It lacka implementation.

There are many part in the UI where it’s lacks the implementation like:

☀️ Draging the volume bar & brightness bar etc…

🐞SOFTWARE & AI:

Currently my device is running Nothing Os 3.1 based on Android 15 & Nothing has promised 4 yrs of andriod update & 6 years of security update [4+6 years]

Software is one part where Nothing is really serious & also it’s one of the major of considering Nothing Phone 📱 within these 4 year they really nailed their software either it’s UI design language that’s really unique & different from other UI’s

The phone comes with zero bloatware, where other companies are slowly introducing ad’s & bloatware, Nos is quite opposite to that.

On the initial setup the device won’t ask for unnecessary permission & comes with GOOGLE & NOTHING’S first party apps pre-installed.

⚡ Animations are also impressive. Yes, it’s not like parallel animation but yes it’s smoothaj & also I haven’t faced any major stutter on animation wheater it’s app opening & closing or widgets animation. 😊

🐣Widgets: Nothing really focuses on their 1st party widget & they are actually beautiful & minimal. It overall elevates the aesthetic of the UI by its monochromatic approach.

🤖AI:

Nothing don’t have many AI stuffs on their device but yes you get image cutout on gallery & this year they have introduced new key called ESSENTIAL SPACE 🚀

What is ESSENTIAL SPACE ??

Basically there is the extra button call essential key & if you press this button one time it will take a screenshot and you can describe anything, if not long press, it will take the screenshot and activate voice note and later what you will describe, it will transcribed it.

The magic happens when you double tap it, upon double taping, it will direct you to essential space and AI hub where it STORES all your screenshot and data & gives you basic information with the help of AI which is really handy.

📷 Camera:

I know many of you guys are waiting for this & if you have reached this far then thank you 🙏

This year Nothing have really worked on the camera & we can see the results also.

• It has got quite natural colours

• The portraits are really good

• The periscope 70mm lens is actually great.

📷 Main camera

Pro’s:

⚡The colours from the main is actually good & quite accurate.

🐣The HDR is actually on point it doesn’t over processed the whole picture & keep it as natural as possible.

📈 The edge detection is quite impressive, but sometime it messes up but most of the time it’s impressive

🎥 It can record 4k30fps max & the video quality is quite impressive, the OIS actually does it’s job right

Con’s

🐛 The main camera can further takes 50mm shots but the pictures are quite washed out also the colours are off

🫠 Sometimes it’s couldn’t gets the exposure correct & over brighten the subject

📸Periscope telephoto [3x]

Pro’s:

🪶 The tuning of 70mm periscope is great, it’s one of the great in this price range.

🚀 It has got this soft touch to the pictures & the Bokeh effect on 70mm is impressive.

🔥 This lens also acts as a micro lens & the results are great with good details & great Bokeh effect.

Con’s:

💀 We can’t shoot 4k30fps video with 70mm lens, it’s a software & the team is working on this.

💀 Ultra Wide:

The ultrawide is meh, nothing should atleast give 12mp of UW.

Because of 8mp UW you can’t shoot 4k video with it.

🤳 SELFIE:

The selfie are quite accurate & it control the skin tone really well.

Also you can shoot 4k30fps of video with front camera that’s really impressive.

Here is the link of my detailed camera review with many samples 🙏

🔋 Efficiency

Specs:

🐣5000 mah battery

⚡ 50W wired pd/pps charging

Many brands are launching phone with new #Technology called Silicon Carbon battery that pack high density of power in small size & Nothing do missed it but the backup is insane atleast for me 🔥

If you have reached to the end,

I appreciate you patience & if you really liked my review please do tell me , also if there is any mistake point it ❣️

Thank you 🙏 see ya 😄