Phone (3a) Pro Teardown

Rob ⚡️ · 2025-03-20T11:45:00+00:00

![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206525-572598-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-08-large.jpg "banner") We’re back once more for a peek at the internals of our latest smartphone! Phone (3a) Series brings a host of upgrades over the Phone (2a) Plus, so what better way to visualise those than to lift the lid and see some of that new hardware. In this post, I'm digging into Phone (3a) Pro in Grey. As you probably already know, smartphones are built in layers, almost like a sandwich, so let’s look at the 3 biggest components before focussing in on the internals that fit between them. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-435299-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-02-large.jpg "banner") **🔴 Display** On the front of (3a) Series you’ll find a FHD+ AMOLED flexible LTPS display. At 6.77” this is our largest to date, delivering a 91.43% screen-to-body ratio. With an adaptive 120hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and a 1000 Hz touch sampling rate (+316% faster than (2a) Plus), Phone (3a) Pro brings near instant responsiveness when gaming. There are improvements to brightness too, with 3000 nits peak, (3a)'s display is up to +131% brighter compared to (2a) Plus. Just like the (2a) Plus display, you can see that the rear of the screen features a large heat spreading copper surface. Near the top you’ll spot the selfie camera and proximity sensor cutouts and the slanted square cutout near the bottom is for the in-display fingerprint sensor to see through. The long black flexible printed circuit (FPC) is how our screen receives a display signal; it trails to the top of the device via a hole in the midframe and connects to the motherboard. **🔵 Midframe** On (3a) Pro, the midframe and buttons are produced using 100% recycled aluminium, a more premium material that is equally elegant and durable. As with our (2a) Series, (3a) devices have antennas embedded around the midframe to ensure great reception. In addition, (3a) Series features an additional high-performance gaming antenna in the middle of the frame. This means that when holding horizontally for gaming, the signal won't be blocked by your hands, ensuring stable and smooth gaming network connectivity. Compared to the (2a) Plus this improvement can reduce lag by over 50% when using a mobile network. The big rectangular space in the middle of the midframe is for our 5000mAh battery, with the space above perfectly shaped to house the motherboard. The long, thin space at the bottom is where the daughterboard sits, along with the speaker, optical fingerprint reader and SIM tray. **🟡 Rear Cover** The premium materials found on the midframe continue onto the rear of Phone (3a) Pro where we find a 2.5D rear glass panel, a significant change from the plastics used on our (2a) devices. Integrated at the top is the housing for our triple rear camera system along with the LED flash - let's zoom in a little closer to this part, there's lots to see… ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-937220-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-05-large.jpg "banner") Above, we get a great look at the space inside the camera bump of (3a) Pro. The lenses of each camera are positioned as close together as possible and positioned precisely to ensure a smooth transition between them when you’re zooming in and out. At the very top is a small diffused aperture for the flash LED to fire through. Speaking of cameras, we have some macro shots of the sensors themselves: ‎ **Phone (3a) Pro Camera System** (3a) Pro hosts our best camera system to date, featuring a versatile array of lenses for portraits, macro, long zoom shots and more - it's super versatile. Paired with our new Camera app which enables sharable, Personal Presets and even allows for the use of LUTs via the .Cube format, there's infinite possibilities to explore. Take a look at some of our recent community reviews from [Palmix](https://nothing.community/d/27843-phone-3a-pro-what-no-one-tells-you "Palmix Art"), [Juse](https://nothing.community/d/27910-3a-pro-a-new-dimension-of-photography-for-nothing "Juse") and [Bubi](https://nothing.community/d/28315-phone-3a-pro-review-is-it-worth-upgrading "Bubi") for some example images. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-741210-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-04-large.jpg "banner") ‎ ‎ 🟡 Primary - 50 MP Samsung, f/1.88, 1/1.56” sensor, 84.5° FOV, OIS & EIS 🔵 Ultra Wide - 8 MP Sony, f/2.2, 1/4" sensor, 120° FOV 🟢 Periscope Zoom - 50MP Sony, f/2.55, 1/1.95” sensor, 33.6° FOV, OIS & EIS 🔴 Front - 50 MP Samsung, f/2.2, 1/2.76" sensor, 81.2° FOV ‎ **Phone (3a) Pro Periscope:** (3a) Pro features a flagship periscope zoom, a first for any Nothing smartphone. A prism, paired with a horizontally stacked lens assembly, is able to offer 3x optical zoom and up to 60x ultra zoom. In the above image, you can see how much larger this component is compared to a regular camera module - our teams worked hard to implement these segment-leading zoom capabilities with the least possible impact on overall device thickness. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206525-224505-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-06-large.jpg "banner") 🔴 Prism - reflects light towards the lens assembly and shifts to deliver OIS 🟡 Stacked assembly of 4 lens elements - directs light to the sensor and shifts to attain focus 🔵 Sony LYTIA 600 sensor - turns light into a digital signal which informs the image ‎ ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206912-939407-teardownbts.jpg "banner") *BTS image showing the periscope alongside (3a) Pro's camera system housing* **‎ (3a) Series Chipset** We heard our customers asking us to bring a Snapdragon chip to our midrange lineup, so for (3a) Series, we used the 7s Gen 3. A powerful chip that can handle gaming or multitasking with up to 33% faster CPU and 11% graphics improvement compared to (2a). It’s also more efficient, meaning there’s an overall improvement in battery life. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-548020-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-03-large.jpg "banner") We’ve cropped in to the motherboard in the image above, as a bonus, you can see the proximity and ambient light sensors at the very top, helping to illustrate where these chips sit within the device. Shoutout to our photographer David Wilman for removing all of the thermal material so we can get a good look at these components in all their glory! 🔴 Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 5G (SD7635) - Up to 2.5 Ghz built on TSMC’s 4nm process. * 8-cores: 1x 2.5GHz (Cortex-A720), 3x 2.4GHz (Cortex-A720), 4x 1.8GHz (Cortex-A520) * GPU: Adreno 810 * NPU: HTP2 🔵 UFS2.2- Storage + LPDDR4X RAM - learn more about this [in a recent post](https://nothing.community/d/29023-why-we-chose-ufs-22 "UFS 2.2") by @"Raymond"#2947 ‎ ‎**The underside of the Glyph Interface** And finally, the eagle-eyed fans will have spotted that (3a) Series has had a Glyph update, with an adjusted arrangement, all 3 of the Glyph segments are now addressable, with a total of 36 zones. Below we look at the rear of the top left Glyph (Internal notation: Glyph ‘C’), used for our Glyph Progress feature - counting the dots you’ll find 20 addressable segments for a smooth progress animation. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206525-387294-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-07-large.jpg "banner") We hope you enjoyed diving into Nothing Phone (3a) Pro’s fresh look and internals with us - as always I had a lot of fun peeking inside our latest product to bring a fresh perspective to you all! > EDIT: Giveaway now closed. Like this post and drop into the comments below and tell us your favourite spec or feature of Phone (3a) Pro for a chance to win one! ⬇️ Click through to view the [full entry requirements and giveaway terms and conditions](https://nothing.community/p/3-phone-3a-pro-teardown-giveaway-terms-conditions). Entries close **April 3, 2025, at 11:00 GMT.**

Toby_Gamez

I really like essential space, I have Nothing phone 2a and I wanted to use the space twice XD. Next the periscope zoom, this Nothing has only 2x optical 😥. Plus I really like the idea of camera styles (or something like that), I know it is going to be in older phones, but…

ShreyasNaik

I really like the new essential space button, i really would love it be like when i click on it it would also take a screen shot but also will allow to write the note we want attached to it instead of just the speaking.. but overall i truly love phone 3a pro, just pure fun and innovation. I’m also thinking to enter the community edition round idk maybe i will send in my ideas.

SteffinThomas

I liked the new spec. implemented in display with much better touch sampling rate compared to phone 2a. Now the games like bgmi, Cod mobile will be much better in 3a series.

TarunShukla

Clever how everybody at Nothing is comparing Snapdragon 7s Gen3 in 3a Pro with 2a and then showing us the CPU(33%) and GPU( only 11%) gains respectively; and not comparing it with the 2aPlus which would have shown that Mediatek 7350 and 7s Gen3 almost are similar!

And yes, 7+Gen3 would have actually made a difference!

KeenCake

Rob ⚡️ The cameras are amazing

takenbyejaz

devasur47

Rob ⚡️ the best part is glyph lights

JovinThomas

The camera module design is artistic, along with the snapdragon chipset makes 3a pro, a value for money product.

xsylon

Owner of the phone 1 and phone 3a pro and I’m very happy for my choice that I made, I hope they will make option to change essential button to stop taking 999 screenshots GJ

yukilab🇯🇵

While it’s inevitable that your eyes will be drawn to the functional parts, especially the camera,
I think what really stands out is the splendid exterior design and the beautiful coloring. It’s a really great design!

GylfiTrastarson

My favorite feature is the periscope zoom, can’t wait to try it :-)

tdivyajyotis

The new LTPO display is fire!, especially with the higher screen to body ratio and awesome ui/ux by nothing as always!

J_nJurica

My favourite feature is definitely the camera📸🤳

RefNasr

Rob ⚡️ my fav feature has to be the fact that the gaming antenna is in the centre. So my fingers won’t block the signal. It seems the Devs did a gud job in making the most efficient phone as possible. There’s no wasted space in this. Btw I hope I win I rlllllly need a phone y’all. 3a pro would be amazing 😭 😭

NOTLaQshYa

Rob ⚡️ Everything about the phone is just so amazing

I have no idea where to start

The chip is 🔥3a is tecnically extremely fast with the help of snapdragon 7s gen 3

The cameras are 🔥 digital zoom is sometimes blurry but great work

Display is 🔥

Nothing really went to infinity and beyond 🚀 🔥

It’s amazing how nothing is successfully making tech fun again

And even with their new discoveries like essential space with a little bit of ai

The best part about nothing

Hats off to the people who designed the phone

I wonder how many upgrades will the next phone have and the idea of glyphs is absolutely mind-blowing

Ranger

Rob ⚡️ Honestly my favorite feature is the antennas, with a 2a I have connectivity with my laptop no matter which way I put the phone, unlike my old one, I also get way better reception with mobile networks!

GabrielDeSa

Rob ⚡️ There are several things that make this phone incredible for its price, but I honestly think the best thing is its design. It may be subjective, but I think it looks better than phones that cost three times its price.

G10

Rob ⚡️ Honestly the periscope camera setup is amazing & unique but the essential key is a very genius idea so I’m gonna have to go with that 😎🤓

grand_ventrue

Rob ⚡️

Rob ⚡️ Using recycled materials, more efficient soc and better battery life as a result are the most wonderful features. Not expecting a lot from a mid range camera, but still see some improvements here and there and the most beloved thing is the Nothing OS, as quick and light as it can be, love every moment of using it compared to others.

banton_bg

Rob ⚡️ My favourite specs are the essential space and the colours! Plus the fact that a new colour appears in the ui

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