Nothing Phone 3 (dust under back panel)

ChrisHansen

Hey guys,

Was excited to purchase the Nothing Phone 3 however upon inspection I found dust under the back panel of the phone. Anyone else having this issue with this model? I understand things like this can happen but when paying premium money for this I would have thought the QC would be better than on the Nothing phone 3.

SudharsonJ

ChrisHansen so far no, but it has an ip68 dust should not enter 🙁

JP

ChrisHansen contact support..

You might get replacement or some fix for free.. as other person said .it has ip68… so it should have not happened… there are some people who also faced this problem is other models also with clear back

Coldpaw

pollenjh I fully agree with this. Carl Pei mentioned dust during production of these transparent products is quite an issue and although it seems like they managed to handle this, dust could still creep inside some products during production. Since all of these are mass produced, I am not surprised every now and then a phone ships out with a speck of dust inside.

ChrisHansen Personally I’d get it replaced. Depending on your country, you could do this either directly via the place you purchased your phone at (here in EU consumers have a 14-day “no questions asked” return window), which most likely would be the easiest method or you could try contacting Nothing support. However on a brand new phone I’d take the most obvious route and go via the vendor directly.

I also have the white NP3 and inspecting mine for any dust was pretty much the very first thing I’ve done with my new phone even before powering it up the first time. Mine is dustless, as it should be.

DaveCooper_HWVV3BTd2B

ChrisHansen mine is being replaced because of foreign body beneath back panel. It’s quite noticeable in bright light and messes with my OCD 🤣. It just shouldn’t be there.

Dan_ie

Did the dust get in after you received the phone under normal use, or was it already there from manufacturing?

ChrisHansen

Dan_ie Came like that

CMF1_hacker

I just checked mine with the torch from my CMF1 and I have quite a bit of detritus from the beach and general usage under the TPU case and around any elevation (beach sand particularly) on the rear.

However, I didn’t see any under the rear cover.

pollenjh

Dust got in during assembly probably, it happens. You should be able to get a replacement.

CMF1_hacker

the question is do want the hassle of waiting for a replacement. how long will you be without a phone? I only buy phones when my old one’s break, so I usually don’t have a spare.

ChrisHansen

Thanks for advice appreciate it.

CMF1_hacker

I just got some dust under mine today here with a lot of plaster dust around.

Such is life.

Smii

I’m not sure how dust could get in after manufacturing, the rear panel is glued on?

CMF1_hacker

Smii that’s what I thought but I checked at the beginning of this thread and this morning used my phone is a very high plaster dust situation and have a few dust particles in there (all white so it stands out from the black background). I don’t personally care as like I said before that I use everything I have to the fullest, but they’re new from today. Maybe there was some ingress through the speaker or something else?

In theory it could be ground into the outer surface of the rear cover, but it is glass right? I can’t remove it or feel it with my finger.

The ISO testing for IP ratings is for talcum powder that is reduced to a particular maximum volume as shown here:

Plaster dust is smaller in diameter and also agglomerates which would describe the odd shapes of one of the dust particles.

Please note observable dust in the IP68. It might be surprising what passes for “observable” (how it is observed and how many tests?)

Plaster dust size:

Just my thoughts, “dust tight” or IP6X must be easier to attain than people think. Are phones fully disassembled after the test, if not, NOTHING with a clear back faces a serious handicap compared to others. (Especially, dust during the manufacturing process might result in an automatic fail).

CMF1_hacker

DaveCooper_HWVV3BTd2B I’m had stuff enter into that area after opening it new. I hardly notice it with the cars on it, to be fair.

Kris

ChrisHansen Yeah my Nothing Phone (3a) Pro got dust inside the Periscope Lens😭😭