Hello Community!
My name is Fran and I had the opportunity to test the new Phone (3a) Pro during the last few days as part of the Community Reviews Program.
I have been a Phone (2) user for the last year, and I was very happy with it, so when I received this phone, I had some questions in mind:
- Will Phone (3a) Pro be so good that it makes me change my daily driver phone?
- Are the cameras on Phone (3a) Pro better than on Phone (2)?
- Would I recommend someone to upgrade from Phone (2) to (3a) Pro?
If you don’t feel like reading the whole review, here are the short answers to the questions:
- Yes, I barely miss any features from Phone (2), and most things I did not like from Phone 3a Pro are very likely to be solved with software updates.
- The photography experience felt very similar between both phones, with Phone (2) having better ultra wide camera and definitely a better video quality. However, the periscope lens is an absolute game changer for me. It highly depends on user preferences, but I would stay with 3a Pro.
- I would not recommend Phone (2) users to do an upgrade because both devices seem to be at a very similar level. Of course this depends on user’s needs, but I would only recommend the change if the user is into photography and would desperately want a periscope lens.
Here are the points I will be discussing in this review, as I personally consider them to be the most important factors when buying a new smartphone.
- Unboxing experience
- Design of the phone
- Use of the phone and NOS 3.1
- Essential space
- Cameras
- Camera comparison with Phone (2)
- Conclusions
Unboxing Experience
I have three Nothing products and one CMF, and clearly, Phone (3a) Pro had the best unboxing experience.
I did not really like the “tear” opening that had to be done with previous Nothing products. I understand that it was to give the user a feel of “One time only unboxing experience”, but I like to keep my boxes and I did not like seeing them broken.
It was a pleasant surprise to see that Phone (3a) Pro’s box includes a sticky tab that just allows the box to be open without breaking anything. Kudos to the team for this.
Inside the box, we can find the phone, a charging cable and a SIM card extractor. The cable design is different from the one that comes with Phone (2), as this is plain white with no transparent elements. I personally like more the transparent cable, but I don’t consider this to be too important.
Overall, the unboxing experience was clean and satisfying, just what I would expect from Nothing.
Design and feel
I’ll be honest: I did not like the phone when the first renders were shown to the public. The lack of symmetry on the cameras was a bit unsettling at first. However, over time the design grew up on me and now I kinda like it. For sure it’s different and polarizing (half my friends say it’s horrible and the other half find it cool), but I like it more and more over time.
I personally like that the back is made of glass, just like in Phone (2). I think this gives the phone a premium feel, which is exactly how I would define the feeling of the Phone (3a) Pro: Premium.
However, there are two elements that I don’t like too much: First, the plastic sides don’t have that premium feel that I would get with the metal sides from Phone (2). Second, the dark color, along with the glass, turn the phone into a fingerprint magnet, so keeping it clean has become a bit of an obsession to me. In any case, I always have my devices with protective cases, so all this problems will disappear when I put a case on the phone.
The Glyph interface is very similar to the one in Phone (2a), and I would describe it as “minimal”, but I surely miss having more Glyph segments. With my Phone (2), I had the Glyphs mapped to a lot of functions thanks to the app Glyphify, developed by the community member @Fr4nKB . I can’t wait for him to update the app and make it usable on Phone (3a) Pro, because I consider it to be a must on any Nothing device.
Use of the phone and NOS 3.1
If you ever used a Nothing device, you will understan what I mean when I say that NOS is the ultimate smooth experience. I could clone my data from my phone (2), and in some minutes, I was already using Phone (3a) Pro as if I never changed at all. The OS feels super smooth as it’s normal in Nothing Phones. Nothing OS 3.1 doesn’t bring huge changes, but rather some tweaks and improvements that I won’t discuss in a lot of detail.
Experience and customization are almost the same as in NOS 3.0, with the addition of essential space (more on that later), and a new camera processing software. There are also some additions like the request of a password to turn off the phone.
Overall, I would describe NOS 3.1 as an incremental improvement over NOS 3.0, and some steps in the right direction of what users want.
Essential space
When this feature was teased, my thoughts were “Here’s another useless AI feature that nobody asked for”, but damn I was so wrong.
I think it’s harder to explain the Essential space than to actually use it. It takes a bit of learning how it works and how to make the most out of it, but I find it to be a true game changer.
When you press the essential button, the phone takes an screenshot and allows you to write a note, or, if you keep it pressed, to record a voice not that is later processed and transcribed.
if you press the button twice, you open the essential space, when you can see all your notes processed and organized. To me it feels a bit chaotic sometimes, but since the feature is still in beta, I expect it to improve in the future.
But for me the key feature are the Essential space widgets: I have a widget that is basically a “To Do” list, which automatically updates with the new tasks I write into the essential space, so whenever I remember something, I can just leave a note in the essential space and I don’t have to worry about anything else, as it will automatically go into my “To Do” list. I am a very forgetful person who relies heavily on notes, to do lists and so on, so this feature has proven very helpful. I even stopped using any notes app because it’s so much easier to use the essential space.
I only have two requests for Nothing:
- Make it a feature in older phones: I’m sure it’s completely possible to do it, and it would increase the value and usability of older phones.
- Don’t make it a subscription service: Since it’s AI based, and a lot of AI stuff tends to be based on a subscription, I’m a bit scared that Nothing would turn this into a paid feature, but I truly hope this doesn’t happen.
Cameras
Time to address the elephant in the room: The camera performance. Overall I’m very satisfied with the performance of Phone (3a) Pro on the photo side, besides from some aspects that I felt could’ve been better.
I enjoy photography as a hobby, so this is maybe the most important element of a phone to me. With that said, I’ll talk about each one of the cameras, how they perform and then I’ll show a comparison between the Phone (2) and Phone (3a) Pro.
Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to test the phone camera during the night, with low light conditions, but as soon as I do it, I’ll post the results on this thread for those who might be interested.
Note: All pictures posted here are taken at 12MP, since that is the default mode in the camera app, and the Community website has some issues when trying to upload 50MP pictures.
Ultra wide angle camera: Only 8MP?
I was very disappointed to see that the ultra wide camera got a downgrade from 50MP to 8MP. If you know something about photography, you’ll know that the megapixel amount is not a good way to measure the quality of a camera, but for sure it is helpful to understand it.
The ultra wide camera on Phone (3a) Pro actually surprised me for good, despite having some obvious limitations. The image quality in good lights conditions is acceptable, and it is definitely possible to do some great photos with this lenses, if the conditions are right.
Both photos are taken with Phone (3a) Pro’s ultra wide camera in a sunny day in Augsburg, Germany.
I also like the fact that it is possible to use the “expert” mode on all three lenses. This was not possible on Phone (2) as far as I remember.
However, the ultra wide camera cannot record video at 60 fps. This is very disappointing, and makes the ultra wide camera only useful in a very limited number of situations.
My guess is that Nothing cut down on the ultra wide camera to bring down costs, and I can understand that, but it feels a bit sad that Nothing Phones always had two very good cameras, compared to other phones in the same price range.
Main camera: Stable improvement
Coming from a Phone (2), the main camera feels almost identical. The camera software has been updated and now the interface looks a bit different, but overall I had the same experince in the process of taking pictures.
The quality feels good, and the image processing is more consistent than before (more on that later). I like the XDR capabilities, and how the phone handles different types of lighting. This totally feels like a Nothing device camera and I like that.
What interested me the most was to try the HDR capabilities of the camera, since it features a new sensor with an increased full well capacity. I visited the BMW museum and I found it to be a perfect ground for testing the cameras in all kinds of light conditions. The camera delivered good results and overall it turned out to be very satisfying.
There is only one downside to this camera: the video performance. I was used to a very smooth and high quality video capturing with my Phone (2). Sadly, I did not have such experience with Phone (3a) Pro.
First, I noticed some stuttering issues when starting to record a video. This happened most of the time, and I think it might be a software bug that should be fixed with updates.
Second, the camera does not support 4k 60fps. Surely, in most situations, using 1080p 60fps should be enough, but I don’t really understand why, on an upgraded sensor, it’s not possible to record at 4k. For me, this was the biggest disadvantage in the camera system of Phone (3a) Pro.
3x Periscope camera: A game changer
Nothing did a really good job on this one. This periscope lens opens a new world of possibilities that were not there with Phone (2). Being able to “get closer” to the subjet I’m capturing is so convenient and makes everything just easier.
Also, the AI enhanced ultra zoom had some good results that I was not expecting. It’s not something that I would use on a daily basis, but it’s good to know it’s there.
Here are some pictures I took with both 3x and 6x:
Overall, I find the images very sharp, with the HDR processing doing a solid job. The zoom capabilites allowed me to isolate details in the frame, making for more minimalistic shots. Before this, I would have to rely on cropping the images, which results in a lower quality.
As for the macro capabilities, I must say that I was never good at taking macro shots, and I still have a lot to learn. It is surely more convenient to use the 3x lens for macro shots than using the 0.6x, as I had to do on my previous phone.
In this picture I was able to get the details of how the traces the manufacturing process left on the gears, which is cool.
I still want to try the macro mode with a tripod and a bit more patience, so I’ll post my results here if I get to do that.
Regarding video capabilities, the periscope lens provides a smooth video at 1080p 60fps, but sometimes the image stabilization creates some blur effect then the phone moves. This camera is also capable of recording at 4k, but only 30fps. Overall I would define it as a satisfying experience, with good results for a non-hardcore use, such as keeping memories, or posting things to social media.
Comparison with Phone (2)
Since I have another Nothing device, I wanted to compare how both phones perform, and see the improvements made on the camera. I could summarize the differences in three aspects:
- Ultra wide sensor: Phone (2) has a better sensor overall, with better performance in high dynamic range situations, and a higher resolution that brings more detail to the pictures when zooming up in the gallery. However, at plain sight, the difference between both is not so obvious, as the image processing does a good job improving the image quality.
- Image processing: I found the pictures on Phone (2) to have a more extreme post-process, with brighter highlights and darker shadows. As for Phone 3a Pro, the image processing appears to be more balanced and as opposed to Phone (2), more consistent. I think this was an issue that Phone (2) users were complaining about, and I’m glad Nothing finally addressed it with the new camera software.
- Video performance: The lack of 4k 60fps support is disappointing, but besides from that, I found both devices to perform in a very similar way with its main sensor.
Of course, it would be unfair to compare the zoom capabilities of both phones, since Phone (2) doesn’t have a periscope lens, but needless to say, Phone (3a) Pro wins in this field.
Here are some picture comparisons that I could make at the same place with both phones. Please note that the definition capabilities are not noticeable here, as I took all pictures with 50Mp mode and I am unable to post those in the web.
I personally like the processing of Phone (2), but it’s true that sometimes can have some inconsistencies. It is also worth noting that Phone (2) had a price of 700€ at launch, compared to the much affordable 459€ of Phone (3a) Pro.
Thoughts and conclusions
I’ve decided that I am going to keep Phone (3a) Pro as my daily driver, mainly because of the 3x periscope camera and the essential space. I think those are really nice improvements that make this phone a very good deal for its price tag.
I am confident that future updates will make this phone even better, and that the lessons learned with this 3a model will bring great features to the upcoming flagship, Phone (3).
On my Instagram account (@bubi32des) I have a highlight story where I will be posting pictures I take with Phone 3a Pro. Feel free to follow if you would like to see more 🙌 I also have a photography dedicated account, where I also post pictures I take with my camera: (@bubi.jpg)
Thank you if you read all the way until here, I really appreciate it. I hope this review helps you understand how Phone (3a) Pro works. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I will gladly reply.
I would like to thank @Rob ⚡️ and @Natalie ✨ for giving me the opportunity to take part of the Community Review Program.
See you in the comments below!
