Hi everyone, I’m Sanju, a tech enthusiast & tech savvy. Recently, I got the opportunity to review the newly launched Nothing Phone (3a) series as part of the Nothing Community Review Program. Here’s my experience with it. Let’s dive in and uncover the reality.

So I’ve been using this device for almost 2 weeks and here is my experience with the device. I won’t say it’s a full review as I feel 14 days is still less time to judge a phone for longer term! So without wasting any time let’s dive into the story!🥰

As you all know about the box contents and about the whole packaging of the device! For those who don’t know it just comes with a cable, a sim ejector tool , some paperwork & a beautiful message along with the device. There is no case and stuff but the packaging is improved.

Design - Polarising yet Impressive.

The phone comes with a unique design which is a key thing in the Nothing Phones. No matter what you think of the design but whenever I went outside with this many people asked me about it: “ Which phone is this?” I would say the device looks premium & big at the same time!

Display - Well tuned

The display here is very well tuned. The color gamut is as per the one of the best for most of the audience , 100% sRGB , 81% of AdobeRGB, 92% of P3 & 80% of NTSC. The display is very bright and is also easily visible outdoors.

The speakers here are loud enough and are good for the price. I haven’t felt any distortion till now but yes I feel the BASS to be a little lacking here.

It comes with 7s gen 3 & UFS 2.2 which is exactly the same as their own 3a. Now coming to the real life performance it runs smoothly with all the daily tasks you throw at it.

The OS is bloatware free and light which helps it a bit to run the tasks smoothly but yes it stutters a bit when you throw heavy loads to the device. I wish Nothing could’ve provided the UFS 3.1 and a metal frame for the 3a Pro and priced it at ₹32,999 (if possible) this could’ve differentiated the Pro with the regular 3a model.

Cameras - Impressive yet Inconsistent

50MP 1/1.56″ Samsung + 8MP UW + 50MP LYT600 Periscope 1/1.95.

The Biggest plus point of the periscope here is the 15cm Minimum focusing distance. When this device came I had low expectations with the periscope and was a bit worried how well it performs considering Nothing’s previous models. But oh boy, when I tried the 3x periscope here my perception about the same changed a lot. The new algorithm has done some magic here.

The Main sensor here shoots well in daylight and has good colors & details. It does shoot well most of the time but becomes a bit Inconsistent when the light starts to drop.

The color reproduction and the light balance is on point as per my testing and the natural blur at 3x is also good.I might say the 3x lens is one of the best in the segment without any doubt.

LUTs - one of the biggest plus points here. This opens a wider range of experience for those who know how to use it. This might be the game changer. Selfies here are better than I expected and it’s actually good for the price

Battery life on this has been more than phenomenal.

Without gaming it was easily providing 10-11 hours+ SOT With gaming it’s 7.5-9 hours in my usage.The battery 5000mAh might sound low but it lives up to the expectations, 7s gen 3 is indeed efficient. The details and HDR is better than most of the chinese brands available in this segment.

Essential Key

I was not sure what was the use of this key but after using it for a while I can say this has a lot of potential in the near future. As of now it’ feels like a beta version but still does it’s work very well. For me it’s a lifesaver from “Mummy’s chappal”.

It comes with NothingOS 3.1 with Android 15 out of the box and will get 3 +6 OS Updates which is a good thing IMO. NothingOS has been one of the favourite skins for many people & the glyph lights add a charm to its uniqueness. There are no parallel animations here but the situation is much much better than realme 14 pro+ and redmi note 14 pro+. If you compare the device to the offline centric devices it gives a much better experience than those devices for sure. The Consistency is better here but it could be improved via future updates and i hope nothing will do that soon.

Conclusion:This device comes with its own pros & cons & hey no device is perfect. If you ask me to rate it out of 10, I’ll give it 7.5/10 due to software, design and the cameras. Definitely few of the choices are weird here but the improvement over the previous gen is just a lot more if we compare and actually use the device in real life.

Thanks for reading ♥️ and special thanks to Akis & Carl “NothingIndia” for this opportunity.

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