Phone (3) - Gone from hating the design to buying in pre-order

Dan_ie · 2025-07-07T21:33:38+00:00

When I first saw the Phone (3) I didn't like the new design at all! I thought what a pit and was ready to order the Phone (3a). But then as each day went by I found myself looking at it at least twice a day and started appreciating the little details. Now I think that phone is short of a work of art! I know it's been very controversial, and a lot of people saying it's not a true flagship. But what is a flagship anyway? Is the latest Pixel a flagship, I don't think so! Each brand has it's own flagship, and for Nothing this is certainly a flagship. Just my opinion. In any case, it's probably not a phone for everyone. But a phone for those who are not after the latest of every component and appreciate design and uniqueness. It'll be my first Nothing phone (after years of Pixel devices) and I think I'll enjoy this. I like the idea of supporting this company, they bring a breath of fresh air to this dull and saturated market. Anyway, just wanted to share. Anyone else on the same boat? EDIT: Forgot to mention, for those who haven't noticed, buying on pre-sale gives you a free upgrade to the 16+512GB configuration which you could see as a €100 discount.

cedzad1

I wonder what is the manufacturing cost of phone 3 ?

KamiKaze

Bandano The 8 elite uses custom core designs which have power efficiency curves which are better than the heavy cores on a18 which used to lead the industry when it came to power efficiency.

Meanwhile the 8s gen 4 uses reference arm designs from a couple of years ago. Cortex x4 was always a power hog so was the a720 that isn’t the case for oryon as an ISA most of its lineage can be traced back to apple m1 from the nuvia acquisition.

Regarding your comments about BOM being lower, They already cut back on everything else to equalise for that display, display protection, usb even the cooling solution so your argument that the BOM costs are higher for nothing because of economies of scale is a moot point because they already compensated for nerfing everything else to add insult to injury wasted money on the atrocious design by punching a hole through the pcb for making the third lens not stick out, Oh gee what about the other two that do 😂.

9nine "Fair criticism I was under the impression that the pixel used ltpo but evidently it’s only the pro variants. But if I had to wager After apple makes the switch in 3 months or so it will become industry standard as with most things, But regardless of industry standards phone 2 came with a LTPO panel the successor and so called true flagship does not.

cedzad1 If I had to wager lower than phone 2. Whatever they saved on with the SoC and the display over phone 2 they might have spent on the cameras and gimmicks that they added instead.

If you go by BOM and that the poco f7 sells for 350 add 50 for economies of scale another 50 on the cameras in guessing 450 and these are extreme high balls as far as estimates are concerned. Realistically a the camera sensor would costs 20 dollars at most even at nothing’s scale of production and I’m not even accounting for the fact that they use the cheaper options when it comes to camera sensor suppliers like omnivision and samsung, Nor did I account for skimped cooling or smaller battery size over that phone, Not to mention I’m adding to the BOM costs not even accounting for the removed sensors from the BOM for the F7. All the while assuming that the BOM for the F7 is what it sells for to say these are overestimations are a gross understatement 😂.

9nine

KamiKaze Just to clarify, not all manufacturers excepts Apple use LTPO in their base flagship models—Oppo Find X8, Vivo X200, and Google Pixel 9, for example, also use LTPS.

(Notes: My point is not about the appropriateness of using LTPS, but rather that it is still not widely used enough to be called an industry standard.)

Bandano

KamiKaze Smaller companies (thus smaller order quantities) typically get quoted higher prices for materials. For instance the SoCs, screens, etc… would be more expensive for Nothing than it would be for Samsung, Google, Apple, etc. So by all means, their BoM will likely be higher than any of these companies. This is like, basic knowledge and common sense lol

Edit: The 8 Elite also doesn’t use any efficiency cores, so by your own definition, the 8 Elite is also a joke of a chip?

Bandano

KamiKaze Have to repost and change my comment cause the previous one was too harsh for the moderator’s delicate sensibilities.

Phone 3’s BOM can be estimated to be around $360, which is 45% of its retail price. However that’s just the BOM, it doesn’t account for marketing, overhead, distribution, R&D, etc. Nothing barely made money on Phone 2, and considering how much other companies spend on advertising, that alone will probably eat a big chunk of whatever revenue Phone 3 can generate, especially since this is mainly a product for western markets and Nothing is relatively unknown.

There’s also a wild concept that may be surprising to you: Companies exist to make money! Can you imagine? So even then, they need to keep some revenues as profit so they could continue to exist and make products. Wow. Wild.

And let’s also consider this: Nothing sold a total of 7m units by mid 2024 across all devices including wearables and CMF, so yes, by all means, while Phone 3 was being developed I doubt they got favorable pricing at all.

As for the comments on the SoC’s, these are plain overstatements, the Cortex-X4 and A720 are not “power hogs”, and the efficiency difference is not drastic. Hell we don’t even have enough data to know the difference, and don’t quote me numbers from unoptimized Chinese garbage. Plus the 8 Elite isn’t “better” than the a18 in terms of efficiency either, with a lot of conflicting claims and each leading in a different way.

Anyway, if you’re so concerned about the BOM or the price, go buy the F7. Why are you here? We don’t go to Apple forums to bad mouth their products.

Nothing was never meant as a spec monster brand, and regular users don’t care about browsing IG 1ms faster (literally no one cares about the SoC besides some ‘enthusiasts’ online), so if you’re so concerned about getting the best bang for your buck, no one is forcing you to be here. Go buy one of the billion Chinese phones being released every year.

Coldpaw

KamiKaze You must have seen and read other reviews than I have. Most are actually rather favorable, especially when it comes to camera performance. There is essentially nothing actually wrong with the device itself.

Price of course is another topic and has always been pointed out to be either too high or not quite offering enough “flagship” stuff in return.

By the way: Two years ago I paid the exact same price for my 512 gig Nothing Phone (2) as I just did now for Phone (3) and it is a clear upgrade:

Display is brighter and of better quality. What use is that LTPO of NP2 ifthe brightbess on sunny days just isn’t quite enough? Additionally color calibration has been stated as being very good. Something I care more about than LTPO.
True IP68 rating
A dedicated telephoto camera
Overall camera quality has been improved, that’s something I have read over and over again, I also downloaded some original files and from what I have seen, these reviewers say the truth.
Five years of major Android updates means this phone can easily be used in years to come if you want to stay up to date in terms of software.
Never had an issue with NP2 performance as I don’t play any games, but the selected chipset seems to be a decent overall upgrade. Yes it runs hot, which is unfortunate. Maybe getting a Mediatek could have been a better overall choice.

From everything I have seen so far, pretty much all the gripes I’ve had with my NP2 - and don’t get me wrong, I really love this phone - seems to have been fully sorted out. Not saying the NP3 is perfect by any means, nor it is a great deal, but I think people are trashing it way too hard. But I am not a spec head anymore, time’s long over. I just want a good overall performing phone, with great build quality and an interesting design I can connect with - NP3 delivers.

Dan_ie

But I am not a spec head anymore, time’s long over. I just want a good overall performing phone, with great build quality and an interesting design I can connect with - NP3 delivers.

Coldpaw

This is my point exactly! People get way too worked up because a flagship doesn’t come with the latest of everything. The vast majority of people don’t need a super fast phone were you can play the most demanding games and mine bitcoin. In fact, most people would be perfectly fine with a 4 or 5 year old flagship, that would deliver enough performance for standard tasks and a bit more

KamiKaze

Coldpaw Interesting assessment, I bought the same sku as you at the same price you did 2 years ago but that phone was an acceptable compromise for what was available at the time, Just for the software, But time as you know waits for nobody if you want a good stock android experience you have pixel, build quality has gone up a notch, And there are things you expect to be getting for that price point.

Honestly speaking if it weren’t for the atrocious camera placement and the joke of the chip paired with the joke of the cooling solution, Hell i’d even take a mediatek instead or ideally came with a 8 gen 3 I’d might have bought one but there are things which are norm now that aren’t accepted at the price point. And mind you the margins on phone 3 are much higher than they were before because nothing grew in the last 2 years. Despite that they still chose to price it as such, Whatever goodwill they cultivated as a brand in my eyes went straight to the trash.

VineetChawla

My biggest obstacle for buying phone 3 is that my phone 2 is working perfectly fine. I’ll go to the drop to once at least use the phone and then decide.

Rhino_oqVzBbAOHh

ive also thought of buying this phone, i initially hated it at first only because of the glyph matrix and messy design, never cared about the components that much because the cpu is pretty ok (im not a heavy gamer and nothing already admitted their phones arent focused on gaming), the screen isnt bad since its amoled but i wish it could be 144hz. other than that i dont have any other problems with the phone. i wish the glyph matrix was a bit bigger tbh

CMF1_hacker

bah, too many “spec racers” here … this is similar with the car community.

I think the design is bananas, which is great.

99.999% percent of usage won’t matter whether it’s a 8g4e or an 8sg3.

The best way to view this is:

excellent design detail (flashing red light as an example)
decent specs (8sg3), 12/512 for £799 currently, great screen (not best)
dedicated ES button
dedicated MG with SDK released

So, in essence, I’m trading a 8g4elite for an 8sg3, less glass protection, lower waterproofing, lower USB specs, slightly smaller camera sensors for the GM, dedicated ES button and BRILLIANT design philosophy/execution. I’d make that deal everyday and twice on SUNDAY.

GREAT NEWS THOUGH, if you’re a “spec racer” or find the phone not aesthetically pleasing, there’s a ton of boring look-alike phones with better specs ranging from the POCO X7 PRO (£500) through top end Apple/Samsung/Google offering.

You can blend in with the crowd then 😃

HAVING SAID ALL THAT:

the SDK needs massive uptake by the community
ES needs to have some excellent offerings and work well in practice

Dan_ie

CMF1_hacker

the SDK needs massive uptake by the community

Excellent point! Do you know if this has been published yet? I’m a software developer myself and wouldn’t mind having a look and see if I can come up with something.

NickLeung

CMF1_hacker Can’t wait for mine! I’m just impatiently waiting for them to ship 😃

CMF1_hacker

Dan_ie yeah, it’s been published here:

https://github.com/Nothing-Developer-Programme/GlyphMatrix-Developer-Kit

LarryFy

KamiKaze Like nobody is forcing you to upgrade.

A benchmarking software is literally meant to push the processor to it’s absolute limit, most users won’t even use anything close to that level of processing power from processor.

Now I have a couple of questions for you since you care more about specs so much. What is makes ltpo displays so much better than ltps displays aside from the efficiency

And solely blaming the chip for bad battery life without even considering optimisations, says a lot.

Anonymous994

I’m probably going to get it, but I’m not pre-ordering or getting it at launch.

I’d planned on pre-ordering so I have the funds at the ready but it’s really not worth that price IMHO, but obviously that’s subjective as we all have our own priorities.

If I pre-ordered / bought day one then that would be signalling to Nothing that I approve of their design and the compromises that they have made with this device when I really don’t.

Personally, I couldn’t care less about the lack of the Elite (though the reviews mentioning how hot it gets are worrying) I’m happy with a CPU / GPU that’s “good enough”. Same goes for screen, but the USB2 is a bit of a kicker in this day and age. Improved cameras is the upgrade I really wanted and they seem to have mostly delivered.

Saying that, as long as I have decent performance for day-to-day use; camera, some photo editing, web, YouTube, remote desktop and VNC then I’m fine.

However I do care that the price doesn’t reflect that this isn’t a flagship phone and while I get that you pay a premium for design as they pay more for nonconventional parts etc. I actively dislike the design, so that’s not worth the increased price for me.

While I don’t dislike it as much as I did, I doubt I’ll ever enjoy looking at it.

I’ll also never use that glyph matrix in a million years. It goes against everything Nothing intended with Phone (1) and (2) and is the last thing I want on the back of my phone. (Remember when we turned the phone over for LESS distractions, not pointless “glyph toys”?)

As I fully intend to cover the back entirely in a case, I’ll wait for a price drop and buy it at a cheaper price, hopefully signalling that I’m ok with the compromises they made at a more sensible price point.

If I’d liked the design choices, then yeah, I’d have paid full price but they haven’t done enough to earn my £800, but £650. Yeah, that I’ll pay for a phone I’m going to cover up.

So why get it at all? Because (up until the last update) I love the Nothing OS software experience and I want to see where they go next. Plus I’ve had my Phone 2 for a couple of years and I want the updated cameras.

If you’re ok with the premium price for the design then more power to you,. Enjoy it!

If I liked the design (and I really wish I did) I’d be right there with you.

VedB

Dan_ie this is EXACTLY the thinking of every Nothing consumer. Nothing just ensures there are no complaints overall, the product runs smoothly.

GrzegorzTrybus

Dan_ie

The biggest downside of the new design is that the glyph matrix is so small. With the Glyphyfi on my Phone(1) I can spot the essential notifications from different people and apps from across the room or even garden. With the tiny matrix you have to be really close to the phone probably in arms reach distance to spot what is on that tiny screen, or to spot the glyph pattern when the phone is in glyph mode … when I’m right next to the phone I’m just gonna look at the screen who is calling.

Additionally I also really like the glyph flashlight.

pollenjh

Dan_ie I’m not the type to switch phones every 1 or 2 years, so I’m probably going to stick with my Phone (2) until the security patches stop rolling in. But this design definitely grew on me, and I think it’s almost prettier than the Phone (2). Maybe we’ll see a Phone (4) by then? 🗣️🗣️

Dan_ie

Five days using my new Phone 3 and I have to say, I’m impressed. Fantastic quality, fantastic design, fantastic software.

« Previous Page Next Page »