Why I haven't ordered the Phone (3)... yet.

RichardMulholland

Like everyone here, I really like Nothing . I switched from the Samsung Ultra to the 3A pro and while the phone was a spec downgrade, it was a fun and feeling upgrade. The phone brings me joy, and at the price point I get to feel a bit smug.

I think this is where I’m struggling. I like the (3) and dig it’s polarising looks. However by shifting to the 699 price point, it’s now become a decision for me. I also think there’s a loss.

The 3A pro felt like business class on a budget airline the (3) feels like premium economy on Virgin Atlantic.

This is a strange psychological space. I was first amongst quirky equals before, now I’m second amongst the elite.

I worry if Nothing has devalued their current price point phones a lot here.

The camera upgrade feels good, I’m indifferent to the Glyph Matrix (possibly a bit underwhelmed). The specs are fine, but TBH it’s not like I have really noticed any difference going from the s24 Ultra, to the 3A pro. Or at least I notice them, but they don’t bother me.

At the higher price though, I have options, and those options give me pause every time I go to hit the buy button.

Last week I thought I was an insta-buy customer and was fully ready to buy the (3) even knowing the price. Now though I’m hesitant. It feels to me that what has happened is that it has gone from being an emotional buy to an intellectual one. And intellectually, it’s just not that clear cut.

Look, I imagine in a few weeks FOMO will kick in and I’ll pull the trigger, but I was just curious if any of you are in the same headspace.

👊💥

KamiKaze

RichardMulholland I’m actually in the same boat as you, The only difference being I went and bought an S25 Ultra instead because of the joke that phone 3 is, Even though I was a preorder Phone 2 customer and was waiting for phone 3 for 2 years. The design not to mention the price tag just seem like a slap in the face for what the phone offers.

JeffreyLopez

RichardMulholland

NO, i would have been happy if it looked just like phone 1, but with max out hardware, i would have paid $1000 (no problem) for a true Nothing flagship!!!!

Kyubendo

RichardMulholland If you want a flagship you need to be ready to pay flagship price.
If you’re looking for a cheaper phone you can wait for the 4a.
Also, you said that you have the 3a pro. Are you really considering phone 3? Are you really switching you phones every 4-5 months?

AbsoluteRainbow

RichardMulholland everyone, hear me out.

To be fair and honest, 799$/799€/799£/₹79,999 is actually fine overall when you consider… everything. A true flagship doesn’t necessarily have to be powerful and feature-rich all around, it just has to be premium across the board.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is actually well in-between the 8 Gen 3 and 8 Elite, using the modified version of the former’s CPU and cut-down version of the latter’s GPU. Its die is smaller so it’s cheaper, and it’s down-clocked compared to either chip means it no less efficient than 8 Gen 3, provided the optimizations. (4nm and Kryo cores makes it less efficient than the Elite’s 3nm Oryon). The newer chip, like 8 Elite is, provides more headroom for software updates, explaining (3)'s above-average software support. Besides, as Carl Pei suggested, who but the most hardcore users do want more power? Even a similarly-priced Pixel vanilla or normal-size Pro models (sub-6.4-inch ones) have Google Tensor which are even weaker.
The camera are larger, with larger sensors and extra processing power. Aside from the shrinking of the telephoto sensor (compared to (3a) Pro), everything is improved (yes, even the front camera). Whether or not it’s improved enough to fully justify the extra premium over all previous models are subjective to your eyes and taste, but one thing is certain: the image quality, on both photos and videos, are noticeably improved.
The only thing anti-flagship (I would’ve called sub-, but this is a hated change I noticed) about the display is that it’s LTPS, not LTPO like previous models. This appears to be a cost-cutting measure and costing the display efficiency, especially around the variable refresh rate which now only ranged at 30-120Hz instead of 1-120 that LTPO would. The rest of the display are clearly flagship-level though.
The design is out there, unique to Nothing but all over the place technically. The camera layout is very weird, and looks ugly, but the rest of the design are fine. The metal rail, transparent back with plastic panels, even the little red recording light, are all nice.
USB 2.0 but 65W of wired charging - but you guys wanted at least USB 3.0. Guess what? 1) iPhone 16 and 16e has only USB 2.0, and 2) people are primarily using the port to… y’know, charge the phone. Also, the battery is actually 5,500mAh (larger than Samsung and iPhone and most non-Chinese flagships) and has silicon-carbon technology; it’s reduced to 5,150mAh outside of India because of the extra shipping cost.
Gorilla Glass 7i instead of Victus is the only questionable cost-cutting measure; in addition to what I explained earlier, the under-display fingerprint scanner aren’t focused on as much as before, and while the phone is quite heavy (218 grams), these aren’t as heavy has stainless steel framed phones.
Phone (3) starts at 256GB, not 128GB like its contemporary competitors, both mid-ranges and flagships. The full-LED display that is the Glyph Matrix also adds some more cost. And besides, Nothing OS barely has any bloatware.

You’re getting a whole package, and while Nothing Phone (3) may seem underpowered/under-spec and overpriced - it may appear to be merely a higher-end mid-range than the true flagship it’s touted and priced to be - but when you think about it, it’s not as simple as it looks. There’s a reason why Nothing chose such compromises at such price. They’re doing their own way (they’re still trying to be anti-iPhone, for starters), and (3) is meant to be the cheapest flagship with jack-of-all-trade spread of specs where it matters. Chinese yen are weak, so those trying to compare Asian price are less likely to get a true apple-to-apple comparison. The TL;DR is that Nothing Phone (3) doesn’t have obvious value proposition that previous models had, as it’s positioned as a true flagship but is specced in a rather watered-down way, especially when you all wanted Nothing up go all out even with said price. P.S. this is not meant to be defending the phone, but is rather a completely honest take on the phone’s spec and pricing.

Your mileage may vary, and it’s on you.

Tushar

KamiKaze

KamiKaze And how on Earth is the S25 Ultra different from Nothing phone 3. It also offers a lot less than its price and you can literally buy the same phone with different name (S24 Ultra) for a lot less price

Dan_ie

I can relate. I’ve been on the brink of buying the Phone 3a since it came out, but have been holding off just to see what Phone 3 would be like. But I was not prepared to the 3 being more than double the price of the 3a! In my location the 3a is €399 (12+256GB) and the 3 is €849 (12+256GB). And I think I prefer the previous design language, the 3 is nice and looks cool but yeah I’m just not sure. It’s very likely I’ll just end up buying the 3a.

vovan-v

I suggest you to stay with 3apro until phone 4 release.

RichardMulholland

JeffreyLopez I don’t think that we disagree Jeffrey. I’d have paid more for a true flagship. The problem is paying more-ish for a flagship-light.

Kyubendo yeah, that was always my plan. I was going to keep the 3aPro until the 3 came out, then give the a-Pro to my son who has the 2aPlus (I HATE the naming convention so much).

KamiKaze

Kyubendo This isn’t a flagship it’s a phone masquerading as one with a price tag to match and fyi phone 3 costs as much as a S25 or iphone 16. There’s nothing justifying picking up this phone with ugly design over what their competition offers. Wait 3 more months and you’ll even get a LTPO display on the iphone 17 unlike the downgraded ltps panel on phone 3 from ltpo on phone 2.

shafi_22

I’ve got my 3a Pro and will keep it until at least 2027.

Otherwise I’d give phone 3 a shot.

100hzpanic

Check my post about phone 3 too

Womey

RichardMulholland I pre-ordered Phone 3, and I already own a 3a and CMF phone 1. Happy to post my experience, across the Nothing/CMF devices I own, especially as I get the Phone 3 in.

Shubh

AbsoluteRainbow I agree but the problem is other manufacturers are giving a lot more for the same price.

So by default, people will consider the one with better specs. Nothing has a great software but it can be experienced only after buying the product which people will not do at the first place due to the price.

Out of 5 points, 2 were clearly mentioned as cost cutting but if you look at the big picture, this cost cutting should really cut the cost as well.

If you are making a true flagship, then it should be a true flagship. At least better camera better screen and advanced tech.

Kyubendo

KamiKaze iphone 16 and pixel 9 have arguably worse cpu and smaller battery size. iphone 16 has 60Hz refresh rate, what are we even talking about?
I can understand that you could dislike the design (personally I think it’s great), but phone 3 is objectively a flagship, or you should stop calling latest googles and apples flagship a “flagship” as well

RichardMulholland

Tushar I don’t think you understand the word literally.

KamiKaze

Tushar By that logic you could just buy the previous year iphone on discount as well, I actually value iterative refinement, But I digress. My point being that the price tag commands a certain level of upped feature set be it the titanium frame anti reflective coating or enhanced shatter resistance. Nothing offers none of those things that even the smaller s25 siblings or iphones offer (except the 16 for display and that isn’t for long). I’d be fine paying that much if phone 3 was deserving of that price point and buy it in a heartbeat. The simple fact of the matter is whether it be BOM cost or materials, It doesn’t command the price it’s launched at and that’s ignoring the design altogether.

Tushar

RichardMulholland

RichardMulholland I dont think that you think “practically”

Dan_ie

Something weird is happening, the more I see the Phone (3) the more I like it. So I’m going from disappointed that looks so weird, to wow I might actually be starting to like it. This is so interesting, perhaps Nothing did know what they where doing.

KamiKaze

Kyubendo the 16 doesn’t have a worse cpu, With regards to the pixel I half agree with you since it’s just an Exynos but with google’s TPU and secure enclave bolted on. 60Hz on iphone 16, Yes for 3 more months the 17 has ltpo unlike phone 3. With regards to your comments about pixel 9 that logic applies there as well because they’re moving to a fully custom core design and manufactured on TSMC N3E which is the same node that the iphones chipset is manufactured in which is a bleeding edge node, And its also slated to release is in 3 (maybe less) months time. In both cases you’re getting what you pay for the costs with designing your own chips and then manufacturing them on a bleeding edge node are immense. That same research and development efforts also means both of these dev teams have full system knowledge the kind you’d not have if you didn’t design both in house. In both cases you’re comparing to devices which were launched almost a year ago nearing the end of their upgrade cycles.

I didn’t even begin on the cost cutting in terms of display or glass protection. If your assertion is that the nothing phone 3 is objectively a flagship then by your very own logic if you slapped the camera sensor suite from the Xiaomi 15 to the Poco f7 and slapped on leica branding, It would be classified as a flagship by your own logic because functionally in terms of components it would be identical if not superior to phone 3.