Nothing Phone (3a) Pro - Comprehensive review

A no-nonsense mid-range smartphone that doesn’t pretend to be “Flagship - Killer”.

So, I have been using the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro for about 28 days now, and today marks the end of my journey with the device. Let me start with my initial impressions. To set some context, I have been using flagship devices since 2022. I am also detail-oriented. So, my expectations and observations may not necessarily agree with everyone. However, I will try to keep my review fair, considering the price bracket.

I was given the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro 8GB RAM 128GB Storage variant, which costs Rs 28,999 / ~337$ at the time of writing this review.

Disclosure: This device was provided by Nothing for review for a duration of 28 days. There has been no input from the brand, and all opinions and thoughts expressed below are my own. This will be the first time this review will be read by Nothing as well.

Quick Pros and Cons

Pros

NothingOS 3.1 - Zero Bloatware experience
NothingOS 3.1 - Unique UI, Design, and Experience
Excellent thermals and performance stability - 99.4% Stability in 3DMark Wildlife Stress Test. Practically no thermal throttling.
Solid Cameras for Photography - Capable 3x Periscope Telephoto. The cameras offer excellent value and performance for the price of this device.
Thoughtful UI - Some UI experiences are well thought out, such as the beautiful AOD, widgets, and Camera interface.

Con

UI aesthetics and smoothness - The UI is more traditional in terms of fluidity, transitions, and animations. Users coming from smoother UIs with ease-in / ease-out animations and background blurs will find those missing here.
Handicapped Video Mode - No switching between 1x and 3x cameras while shooting videos, which breaks user experience despite having 2 good cameras.
No included power adapter. Requires a PD power adapter if you don’t have one and need fast charging.
Noisy Haptics - Strong motors but noisy haptics in quiet environments.
Camera needs Better Tuning - Camera Colors are slightly inaccurate, and HDR Exposure in Auto mode doesn’t handle outdoor exposure well at all times.
Average in-hand comfort - The flat edges and sides are not as ergonomic as devices with curved edges around the back. The flat display at this width also makes your wrists open wider to hold the device, leading to slight fatigue with extended usage. A slightly slimmer width with slightly rounded backs/edges could help significantly with this.
Thick Bezels - Despite uniform Bezels, the thick appearance gives it a close resemblance to the entry-level CMF Phone 1 from the front.

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Design, In-Hand Feel, and Build

Design

Visual Appeal

I own a CMF Phone 1, so the moment I took out the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro from its box and turned it on, I was immediately reminded of it. While I have always appreciated uniform bezels, the relatively thick bezels at this price point gave me the impression of a CMF-segment device from the front. The relatively large camera cut-out on the front also added to this impression.

However, once you look past that initial impression, holding the device immediately tells you that this is a Nothing device with a nice little heft to it. The aluminium and glass sandwiched design makes a return here, and it feels quite premium to the touch. More about the in-hand feel in the next sub-section.

On the Rear, you are met with the undeniably Nothing, transparent back design language covering the entire back glass panel. The tinted glass is a nice upgrade from the plastic back panel that the previous generation (2a) offered.

The (3a) Pro noticeably has a huge camera island centered in the top half of the back of the device. It houses 3 cameras with a flash and is surrounded by 3x Glyph LED strips bending around the camera island. The cameras are however, arranged asymmetrically, possibly due to the horizontal length that the periscope telephoto lens requires.

Personally, I find the camera layout odd, but this could just be my subjective taste. However, objectively speaking, the camera island itself is noticeably thick and might feel slightly top heavy depending on your grip. But this wasn’t a concern during the majority of my usage.

My concern was how the device stuck out when placed flat on a surface with the screen facing up. The camera island raises the device in a way that it always feels that the top of the device is inclined toward you. Again, not really much of a deal breaker, but I found it needing some getting used to when placed at my desk. Typing on the device while it was flat on a table was fine with no noticeable wobble under normal usage. But if you are curious, pressing down either of the top corners significantly wobbles the device.

While these may not be major concerns for most users, for a brand that focuses on Color, Material, and Finish and how a user interacts with their device, I think it would be nice to include attention to details like these as well. For example, an included clear case that partially levels out the tilt could’ve helped.

I also want to add that while this isn’t about the hardware, the AOD has some elegant looking options that just go really well with the OLED panel on this device. I absolutely love checking the time on the AOD of this device, and it just feels like a really beautiful piece of hardware while it sits on your desk. The AOD just feels like a natural part of this hardware. I particularly missed it since there is no option to keep it always on, on my CMF Phone 1 (which is a very weird thing to do, Nothing).

In-Hand Feel

Now this one is a mixed bag. As I mentioned, the device has a nice heft to it, and it feels premium and really solid in hand. The frame has a matte black finish, and while I love matte black, I feel the finish could’ve felt more metallic. It is only after I referred to JerryRigEverything’s video that I realized that it wasn’t just the finish but the outer frame itself was made out of plastic and that made sense considering how the frame had a fully seamless finish without the antenna lines which is otherwise present on devices with metal frames.

Now, the device does use Aluminium, but that is for the internal mid-frame assembly. This gives it the extra rigidity and the well-built construction. I just wish that the frame was also metal, which would have added to the overall appeal and immediately leveled up to look like a premium device. The current matte black finish makes it visually too similar to the CMF Phone 1.

The glass back panel is tinted, and I have always liked the transparent look of Nothing devices. Even though there is no wireless charging coil unlike its flagship brethren, it has a pattern closely resembling the actual ribbon cables underneath the battery.

The only problem that I have is that the back glass is reflective and has a glossy appearance. This makes it a fingerprint magnet and adds slight friction when you are holding the device and the back panel rests on your fingers. On one hand, this adds grip, but on the other hand, a non-reflective smooth surface would have felt nicer to the touch along with significantly reducing the fingerprints. While the fingerprints can be quickly wiped off with a cloth, this is an added step for a device that encourages turning the phone around.

Build

Even though I have mentioned it above, I really do appreciate the build quality of this device; it is beautifully built despite the minor issues I had with the other aspects. While I generally avoid using phone cases, this is a device that I would feel relatively more confident using than the devices I have had to use without a case. It also passed JerryRigEverything’s durability test quite impressively.

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Display

The display is a nice 6.7in 120Hz 10 bit OLED Panel with the only major con being a slight warmth across the display. Nothing boasts that the (3a) series has its largest and brightest display. In day-to-day usage, the display gets quite bright when needed, and I had no complaints in this regard. It practically keeps up with my OnePlus 12 under direct artificial light in my testing (it’s cloudy these days, coudn’t check in the Sun).

It also has a UI feature that I liked, which helps increase the contrasts of the UI elements in a more natural and pleasing way than just a forced high contrast implementation for the sake of it. I feel that this can be particularly useful for light mode users.

Colors

The colors on the display are vivid and contrast-y as expected of an OLED panel but it is slightly on the warmer side and is quickly noticeable against my OnePlus 12. Every White space just feels a tad yellow. I tried the color temperature adjustment in the display settings, but that was quite unhelpful initially. The temperature change was either too cool or too warm, with just one point to either side. I ended up playing with it some more, and it appears that moving the slider around 3/4th to the right (cool) largely removes the yellow tint. My CMF Phone 1 also seems to have the same warmth, so this might also just be Nothing’s preference. The color temperature slider could use some fine-tuning.

HDR Brightness

When I heard that this device had up to 3,000 nits brightness in peak HDR windows (which means parts of the display can get extremely bright while playing HDR content), I was excited to test it out. It was only recently that flagship devices started offering 2,000+ Nits, and a lot of them still don’t achieve them despite claims of higher nits.

Now I couldn’t verify the 3,000 nits, but in its current state, as visible to the eye, the brightness in HDR Content is suspiciously low. Comparing it against the CMF Phone 1 confirmed my suspicions, and it looks like there might be a bug that needs fixing. As seen below, the CMF Phone 1 stands out fairly brighter in HDR content playback.

The Exposure and White balance were locked for the above shot to repeat similar conditions later.

I call it a bug and not a false claim because the display does get brighter in regular menus and overall content (SDR). It is only in HDR content that it is noticeably dimmer. For some reason, enabling the HDR to SDR Ratio in developer mode enabled the HDR on the YouTube app correctly, and the video was quite bright now, comparable to the CMF Phone 1 or slightly better. If you aren’t chasing numbers, once that bug gets fixed, this should be a decent HDR experience. I haven’t been able to report most of my findings, except one or two feedback due to time constraints.

Shot at the same exposure and white balance locked as above.

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Refresh Rate

The 120Hz Panel is adaptive, and the user gets to choose between

**Dynamic - Auto switches between various refresh rates based on the content displayed.

This was mostly true, and I could see that the refresh rate changed from 120Hz in the OS Menus to 90Hz when on Chrome, 60Hz on the Camera app etc. If the brightness is above 50%, it also reduces the refresh rate down to 60Hz when the content is stationary. From experience however, it is also dependent on the brightness.

Hence, if your display is 50% or less, the refresh rate remains at 120Hz. I am not sure if this is a technical limitation or if it can be fixed via an update. Either way, this mode is likely to help you save some battery only if you are constantly using the device at higher than 50% brightness. For the rest, it is the same as running at High as of now. I’d also add that I would have liked the refresh rate to drop to 30hz while viewing videos instead of the current 60hz.**
High - Stays at 120Hz whenever possible for a smooth experience. While it drops to 60hz when you stop interacting/when the contents stop moving, it immediately jumps back to 120hz when the content moves again.
Standard - This locks it down to a “standard” refresh rate of 60hz. I’d argue that this is the power saving mode refresh rate, and “High” should have been the standard.

But hey, when all that is said and done, this is still a smooth 120hz display and has a large enough battery (5,000 mAh) and other software optimizations to last you all day. But if you wanted to know more about them the way I did, you know it now.

I’d give it a solid 8/10 with just 1 point taken off for lack of app specific refresh rate customisation and another for lack of 30hz for video playback.

Touch Response Rate and PWM

Typing on the Google keyboard was immediately satisfying, this is likely due to a high touch response rate. I have no objective measurements, but it’s quite responsive and a great typing experience.

I am generally sensitive to color bleeds and PWM, but I have no complaints on this display. It looks great the majority of the time, whether dim or bright. Additionally, there is no noticeable color bleed in white-on-black content in dim environments, as seen on some OLED panels such as the one on my OnePlus 12.

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Performance - Everyday Use and Gaming

Day-to-Day Performance

TL;DR - This is one device where you don’t have to worry about your device heating up over a casual gaming session. Performs well under extended usage and handles day-to-day tasks efficiently for all-day battery life.

This is a reliable, bloat-free and ad-free experience. The (3a) Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, the same as on the Nothing Phone (3a) but as we have seen in the past, Nothing isn’t a brand that focuses on being the best in one particular aspect but rather to offer a more complete experience. The device may not have the fastest processor or the fastest storage standards in this price segment, but the UI is light, clean, and fast.

Texts, social media apps, Browsers, all your day-to-day activities are as reliable as any device at this price bracket. The device is adequately equipped to handle the 7s Gen 3 chipset and that can be clearly seen in the thermal performance and stability seen in daily usage, also backed by a 99.4% stability in the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test.

In other words, the device perfectly handles the performance and power consumption of this chipset such that you can use it for an extended period of time without worrying about it heating up or dropping in performance. What is impressive here is that this stability is showcased on a benchmark that is designed to test the sustained performance along with pushing the processor to its limits. For reference, lots of flagship devices often drop to 65-80% of their initial performance during this same benchmark / stress test. While the power consumption could be different in flagship, this is still worth appreciating regardless.

And to be fair, for reliable usage and in hand comfort, I would prefer a thermally efficient smartphone over one that significantly throttles over tasks that require performance for an extended time (such as gaming).

I also ran Antutu Benchmarks which scored an overall score of 755k+ points and CPU score of 241k+ points. A respectable CPU score comparable to flagship processors from 3-5 years ago (Tensor G2, SD 870) but in a much more thermally efficient package. Combine this with the lightweight nature and optimizations of NothingOS and you’ve a good reliable experience.

Gaming Performance

I can’t talk much about the gaming performance, but from my limited time playing Rocket League Sideswipe, the experience was unsatisfactory. While the touch experience is great for typing, I couldn’t say the same for gaming. This game, when played competitively, requires instant response and reaction time. The device was however, unable to keep up with the touch input. The touch reaction is either delayed, or the display is not constantly polling for touch input as much as it should, particularly when an app is running in gaming mode.

For those unfamiliar with this game, the user primarily drives a car around, shooting goals. The touch experience on this device made it feel like the car was dragging behind my touch input. It felt lazy or heavy in a way, as opposed to the smooth movements when playing on my other devices. Granted, both of those other devices had 1 and 3 year old flagship processors and displays, respectively, but I expected better at this price segment.

However, it does one thing better than my OnePlus devices. It is able to run the game full screen without covering the front camera if you force it in the app-wise fullscreen settings. This is something where OxygenOS fails for this particular app. My guess is that it is probably due to the app being installed outside of the Play Store.

If mobile gaming is important to you, I’d recommend checking out reviews focused more on that use case. I only tested this briefly, and your experience may vary depending on the title you play.

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UI - NothingOS and Hardware

[Redacted due to size constraints] - Refer Part 2

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Camera

Disclosure - I have not been able to extensively test the camera, so all areas may not be covered. Here are my limited thoughts.

Photography

First, the front camera is huge, it doesn’t try to be subtle about it either. It is a 32MP shooter and supports 4K 30fps recording which is very welcome and nice to see on a mid range device. Some of the more expensive devices sometimes tend to limit the Front cameras to FHD 30/60 fps. The low light performance is pretty decent and social media usable. In good lighting, it takes excellent details.

Now, on the rear - You get 3 cameras here - an 8MP 15mm Ultra Wide setup at f/2.2, a 50MP 24mm Wide (Primary) setup at f/1.9, and a 50MP 70mm Telephoto at f/2.5.

These aren’t exactly flagship grade cameras and neither is it a flagship tier price. Hence keeping expectations accordingly, Ultra Wide is decent, it won’t blow your mind with its details but for a quick ultra wide landscape shot, this can come in handy. Personally, this has never been a feature that I use much, so I don’t feel strongly positive or negative about it.

The 50 MP Primary camera on the other hand performs quite well. It captures a lot of details and looks generally good. The Auto HDR captures HDR photos fine the majority of the time but once in a while you may have to adjust the exposure or focus on the subject to get the lighting right. Nevertheless, I feel the HDR performance could be better tuned for more balanced results. Some of my shots still ended up having clipped highlights. Simply said, in challenging lighting, the HDR might overexpose or underexpose certain parts of the photo.

For the majority of users, the majority of the time, the shots are going to come out great. In fact, they are even better than what you see on your Nothing device. Shots taken on this device when transferred to my OnePlus 12 looks better with a more neutral temperature as well as slightly better saturation. The display tuning on this device gives you a slightly underwhelming look in comparison.

As for the 3x Telephoto on this device, this is probably my favourite part of this device. The periscope zoom lens has been a staple for flagship devices these last couple of years and now Nothing is bringing them to sub Rs 30,000 segment. In my OnePlus 12, the 3x optical camera is my go-to camera for portrait shots or whenever I want to simply zoom in without losing quality. And in its first attempt on a mid range device, I would say that Nothing has absolutely nailed it considering that it can hopefully only get better from here.

I took both the (3a) Pro and the OnePlus 12 with me out on a short trip and the 3x telephoto on the (3a) Pro consistently kept up with the OnePlus 12 the majority of the time. Initially, I was mildly disappointed thinking that the colors seemed slightly off.

**It felt like an overall yellow tint to it and it wasn’t until I send the same image to my OnePlus 12 that it started to look much more neutral. The skin tones didn’t just look yellow now, it had the a balanced tone with the right amount of redness to it. I hope Nothing can fix this display tint over an update. Until then adjusting the display color temperature to the cooler side can be a work around for users who may be bothered by this.

Here are some of the samples that I have shot with the (3a) Pro. The fact that it can be comparable to a flagship device is a testament to how well the hardware performs.**

Videography

I haven’t tested much of this but I can see that it supports 4K recording, front and back, which is quite nice to have, particularly for creators and users who tend to use their front cameras a lot. I just want to state my disappointment in also finding out that the camera cannot be switched between primary and telephoto once the recording has begun. This seems like a missed opportunity when you have a camera setup like this.

Camera UI - For beginners and enthusiasts

This deserves a nice little subsection in this review because the effort that Nothing has taken in creating an entire experience here is worth highlighting. The minimal UI and interface was expected but what surprised me is the introduction of Camera Presets and LUTs.

Initially, I was skeptical about Camera Presets. I thought of it as another gimmick with just a set of filter presets that can be created and shared. And for the LUTs, that was certainly cool by itself but might not interest casual photographers much.

But then I used it and understood that this wasn’t just another filter. While you can load LUTs and directly use them in to your app, The Camera Presets does an interesting job of giving users complete control over creating a preset that doesn’t just apply a filter or a LUT but also sets the lens being used, the shooting mode (photo/portrait/video/slow-mo etc), the focal length, Resolution, watermark and pretty much all settings you get while in the viewfinder. I think for those who use their camera a lot and have a preference for their camera settings which they repeatedly use while shooting something, then this is an extremely personalized way of being able to quickly jump into your favourite shooting modes and have it color graded with your favourite LUT all at once making the experience just extremely convenient.

I haven’t seen anyone else do this before and I think this is a great step and in the right direction.

Battery Life and Charging

I haven’t tested the charging or battery life in particular because it feels fast enough and it lasts long enough to get me through the day (I’d expect around 7 hours SOT easily). Depending on your usage, ambient temperature, network usage/quality, background apps running etc, the SOT (Screen On Time) can vary significantly.

Since there is no included power adapter, I have been using my laptop’s 100W PD 3.0 power adapter which charges the device at 26-30W on average with peaks up to 45W. This is close to the 50W charging that Nothing says the device supports. If you are unfamiliar with wattages, this is exactly how it works with all charging standards, the device smartly adjusts its charging speed optimizing it for safety and longevity. So don’t be surprised that it doesn’t charge at 45-50W constantly. Neither does any of your favourite fast charging smartphones.

From my usage so far, I’ve seen it get fully charged in around 1 hour and while that is fairly fast by 2022 standards, it could definitely be faster. Not a deal breaker but not something that should be ignored either.

Even though the device has been launched near the price tag of the Nothing Phone (1), this device lacks wireless charging support. But we are getting a better set of cameras here, so I am okay with that trade off this time considering the overall specifications and pricing. Moreover, as a mid range device, this isn’t an industry standard and majority of the users are likely to want a telephoto lens as well.

Speakers, Mic, and Call Quality

The speakers get loud and are pseudo stereo which is pretty common these days even in flagship devices. I think most people who want a good balanced listening experience would and should probably use their speakers or earphones. But for the times when those aren’t an option, this works as a solid substitute. It’s a good phone speaker.

The call quality seems adequate but I think that it might filter out your audio on calls if you talk at an extremely low volume. This might not affect 99% users but for those of you who tend to talk in a lower volume in general might not have the best experience. To be fair, majority of the devices I have tested do a poor job at it in including my OnePlus 12. The OnePlus 10 Pro is the only device that has consistently done a great job at this so far. I’ve rarely seen other users (except for one redditor in my review’s comments thanking me for mentioning it) speak about this however, hence my comment on how majority of you are unlikely to notice.

Essential Space

I was quite skeptical about Essential space and the introduction of the new button - Essential Key. And while I am not happy with the placement of the Essential Key right below the power button, I think this is a feature that has a really solid potential to become a quick memory bank for the user. It does feel like it is in its initial stages now where it packs enough to show you that it is interesting and something you want might want to try and look forward to

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To give you a quick understanding of what it is, the essential Key quickly snaps the content on your device as a screenshot and gives you a field where you can record a voice note or add a written note or simply save it to your essentials space. Double press the button to enter into your essential space where you can see your screenshots neatly sorted along with useful and helpful information extracted from the screenshots. It can also set reminders contextually.

I think if I had used it more, it would have grown on me. But the lack of cross device support makes me reluctant to have important info on it since I tend to work across devices.

Final Thoughts

For a smartphone brand that is just 3 years old, Nothing has done a solid job at maturing its NothingOS. Despite the minor critiques I had for the polish, that is a standard that I have been chasing only in the last year or so. Not to mention NothingOS has some of its own features that are ahead of the implementations found in other Android UIs.

I’ve been following them for a while now and they have their Nothing preferences but I also see them listening to the users because they understand that is who they are catering to. And that is also why I have mentioned suggestions in this review because I think they look toward feedback if that can help them make their devices better for everyone.

As far as I can tell, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro’s largest strengths are its cameras and its unique Nothing identity, whether that is through the Glyph, Essential space, the theming or just the overall look and feel. And Nothing does that distinguishably well in both software and hardware. When most devices look quite similar these days, it is easy for Nothing to stand out with its personality and unapologetic Nothing design language.

Even though I have been critical about a lot of things, I don’t think there are any major issues that would break the user experience. It has been more about the finesse and polish that NothingOS sometimes lacks which can be said for any other OS as well.

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Who is this for?

If you are looking to carry a smartphone that lasts all day, doesn’t heat up, has a reliable set of cameras, can handle your day to day activities and has a clean and minimal design and a lot of personality, then this is the android for you.

Who should skip?

If you are looking for buttery smooth animations, or a gaming device or instant response times for games, you might want to look into alternatives that focus primarily on the raw performance aspects.

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Link to Part 2 - UI - NothingOS and Hardware