Phone (3) Really A True Flagship ?🤔 Here's My In-depth Final Review 🫣

KULDEEP_DAS_29

It’s Been 4 Weeks Of Daily Use, Testing Everything From Camera to Battery to Real-World Performance.

📢 This device is a review unit provided by Nothing India as part of the community review program. However, they have had no input on my review everything shared here is 100% honest and based solely on my personal experience with the device.

Don’t Miss My Final Verdict 🫣

🚀 Let’s Start With The Design ✨

Is It The Coolest Looking Phone Out There ?👀

The asymmetrical back design in particular, reminds me of geometric shapes from mathematical diagrams. It features squares, circles, and lines throughout the back panel. The camera placement on the phone looks a bit odd and there’s also a noticeable bump on the main and Ultra-Wide cameras. I wasn’t a fan of the design based on leaked images, but once I finally got to hold it in hand, my opinion completely changed. It looks fresh, unique and I really liked the design. I even completely forgot that the periscope camera doesn’t align with the main camera.And this phone has made me a walking showcase. Everywhere I go people ask, Bro, which phone is this? And I can’t blame them, the design is that unique. Even after all this time, I still turn it over just to admire the back.

Now Let’s Talk About The Build Quality & In-Hand Feel 💎🛠️

Talking about the inhand feel,the phone feels great in hand, just like any other flagship device. The weight distribution is quite good and it doesn’t feel heavy. It doesnt have that big chunky feel and I found it comfortable to use single handedly.The display comes with Gorilla Glass 7i, while the back glass uses Gorilla Glass Victus. They could have gone with GG Victus for the display as well. To test how well it’s built, I used the phone without the provided cover for the first 4-5 days, just as I would normally use my personal phone with a cover. Even after using it without a case during those days, there were no scratches on the back glass, the aluminum frame, the camera bumps, or the camera glass, despite keeping it in my bag and pocket along with keys and coins. I even took it out of my pocket during rain to attend calls and thanks to the IP68 rating, there was no water damage.

The back is glossy, and using it without a case does feel a bit slippery. Due to the “Glossy Transparent” back, it does attract fingerprints. Although they’re not very noticeable on the white variant, they are more visible on the black one and as someone who owns a black Phone (1), I have seen it attract a lot of fingerprints.The phone comes with a pre applied screen protector, which is just a thin layer of plastic and that picked up a lot of scratches in these few days. I’d recommend removing it and applying a good quality screen protector instead.That said, its really well built, and talking about the design, its subjective, some people will really like it, while others may not.

Now How’s The Display ? 📱👀

Coming to the display, its a flat 6.67″ inch AMOLED panel with a 1.5K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate,support for 10-bit colors and HDR10. It has a peak brightness of 4500 nits and 1600 nits HBM.However, its an LTPS display, which can only switch between 30Hz and 120Hz. At the ₹80K price point, this is genuinely disappointing, an LTPO display should have been included, as it significantly impacts overall battery performance. Another downside is that it comes with an “Optical Fingerprint Scanner”, which is typically found on Mid Range phones. While it feels fast and responsive and even works well with a wet thumb, but the placement could have been better, and its not the fastest out there,especially when i compared to competitors that offer Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanners.

How ever in Real World Usage, the display looks sharp and crisp. It produces punchy, vibrant colors with deep blacks, just the way I like them. Unfortunately it misses out on HDR video support for Netflix.The bezels are thin, not the thinnest in the segment but symmetrical on all sides, giving it a clean Full Screen look. It feels bright enough and remains clearly visible outdoors under direct sunlight, and the auto-brightness sensor works perfectly. That said, its not the brightest display out there. When I compared the Phone (3) with the iPhone 15 under direct sunlight, the iPhone 15 looked noticeably brighter.I have also used the phone in the rain,and the display doesn’t register accidental touches. It works perfectly fine even with wet hands as well.

Moving On To The Software Experience ⚙️

One of the best things about using a Nothing phone is the software. The Phone (3) comes with Android 15 out of the box, running on Nothing OS 3.5 . ( Nothing OS 4.0 based on Android 16), is just around the corner.Based on my experience with the Phone (1), Nothing has maintained a fairly steady update cycle, delivering bugs fixes, feature enhancements and security patches regularly.And this time, they have promised 5 years of major Android updates and 7 years of security patches which is really impressive.

Coming to the UI, It’s clean, fluid and completely bloat free no unnecessary Third-Party apps or ads.Preferences may vary, but this custom UI manages to strike a good balance between design and usability.What I really liked is the Animations, ‘HomeScreen and Lockscreen’ Customizations,which lets you add quick toggles and widgets to the homescreen and Lockscreen, adjust the layout, change the icon pack,and customise it to your taste.Use a minimal icon pack,arrange apps your way,there’s a plenty of options to make your homescreen truly unique and the ‘Smart App Drawer’ which organises all your apps into different categories and places them in separate folders, so you don’t have to keep swiping up and down to find the one you want.

However, I do want Nothing to optimize social media apps. On platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, you can’t use the Ultra-Wide or Telephoto cameras,only the main camera works.This is something that needs to be fixed in future updates. As a flagship phone, these basic features matter a lot.

Some people say Nothing OS lacks features, but for someone like me who loves Stock Android yet gets bored of it over time due to its lack of basic features Nothing OS is a must try. It’s simple, minimalistic and easy to use. Honestly, it feels like the cherry on top of the cake.

Also the New ‘Glyph Matrix’ is a significant upgrade over the Glyph light, they are well integrated into the OS like from call and notification alerts, third party app support and Glyph toys adding a fun and functional layer to the overall software experience.

I Have Already Made A Detailed Post Covering All About Glyph Matrix Features And How It Works, here’s the link Below 👇🏽

https://nothing.community/d/37041

Coming To The Camera Department 📸

To see how it truly performs, check out the “Detailed Camera Review”, here’s the link below.👇🏽

https://nothing.community/d/39576

Now Let’s See How’s the Performance ?🧠⚡

So, after the design, the processor became the most talked about part of the Phone (3). It comes with the Snapdragon 8sGen4 and honestly, it’s a solid chipset. But for the price, I feel Nothing could have gone with the Snapdragon 8Elite instead. Now, in day to day use whether it’s multitasking, scrolling or regular tasks, you won’t notice much difference between the 8sGen4 and the 8Elite. It never disappointed me in normal usage. I didn’t face any issues at all.

But Here’s The Twist.🫣

When I pushed the phone with some heavy tasks like gaming and running multiple benchmarking apps, the story changed. It started getting really hot,and there was noticeable battery drain,despite of having a 4300 mm² VC cooling system.This Chipset is definitely capable, but what it lacks here is proper optimisation. Nothing seriously needs to work on thermal management and power efficiency.

Starting with the Antutu Benchmark, I got a score of a little over 1.8 million which is impressive for this chipset. But during the test, the phone reached a peak temperature of 49°C, with a 12% battery drop and a 12°C rise in device temperature.Then I ran a CPU throttling test, and the CPU throttled to around 84% of its max performance. That clearly indicates that the phone reduces performance to keep temprature in control.During this test, the phone felt very warm around 45-46°C.

Now,talking about BGMI 🎮

It supports 120fps gameplay, and the Phone (3) does deliver that consistently. I played for around 55 minutes, and in between, the battery dropped by 20%, which is fair. However it did get noticeably warm, especially around the alluminium frames, which i can easily feel while holding the phone.

One thing I really appreciate about this phone is its RAM management. It’s LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage and the way it handles multitasking is just insane. Apps open in a snap, transitions are super smooth, and it keeps everything alive in the background for hours. I have literally had BGMI and around 10 other apps open for over 5 hours, and they all stayed loaded.

Coming To The Battery Department🔋

The phone comes with a 5500mAh Si/C battery, and I have been using it heavily right from day one. Im talking long calls, clicking lots of photos, switching between different social media apps, chatting on WhatsApp, gaming, and even editing on Lightroom. Still, by the end of the day, I usually have around 10-15% battery left.

I was always on 5G mobile data and hotspot turned on most of the time, brightness set at 60-70%, Always-On Display enabled, and the glyph matrix set to “Always On.” Considering it has an LTPS panel, I was still able to get a consistent 6.5 to 7 hours of Screen On Time, which is pretty impressive for such heavy usage. Overnight battery drain is barely 2-3%. With normal Day To Day use, you can easily get 8-9 hours of Screen On Time and the phone will last you a full day or even more.

Now Let’s See How Quickly Can Phone(3) Hit Full Charge? 🔌⚡

The Phone supports 65W wired and 15W wireless charging. I tested the charging speed using the 100W CMF GaN Charger that was provided to me with the phone.Nothing claims a full charge in around 56 minutes, but in real world usage that can vary depending on factors like idle temperature, room temperature and background activity. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the charging speed test I conducted -

• Charging session time: 2 :20 PM - 3 :17 PM

~Plugged in at : 1% charge

~Initial phone temperature: 33°C

~Average room temperature: 25°C

~Airplane mode was enabled !!

• Charging Breakdown:

~20% in 10 minutes

~50% in 22 minutes

~80% in 38 minutes

~100% in 57 minutes.

(similar to what Nothing claims)

However, during the charging session,the phone’s temperature gradually rose to around 37-38°C, with a peak of 40°C at one point.Interestingly, once the battery hit 90%, the temperature quickly dropped back down to 33°C.But sometimes I got inconsistent results as well. At times, it took around 1 hour 10 minutes to fully charge which is a bit slower than expected.

For Wireless Charging, I didn’t use it much, just occasionally with my wireless power bank while travelling. And honestly, for emergency situations it gets the job done. But yes, the phone does start to heat up within 15-20 minutes of wireless charging which is kind of expected.

Now Let’s Talk Connectivity 📶

I tested with my Jio 5G SIM, and the experience has been excellent. There were no issues with connectivity, zero call drops, and VoNR worked smoothly everytime. The phone always stayed on 5G+, offering me strong signal and fast speeds. On the wireless side, it supports NFC, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.I faced no disconnection issues while using my TWS earbuds, and pairing was always quick. Wi-Fi performance was also stable and fast, though I haven’t used it much since, Im mostly on mobile data.However, it comes with USB 2.0 which is quite surprising, especially at this price point. I don’t think there’s any other phone except the iPhone 16 still using USB 2.0 in this segment. Nothing definitely could have gone with a better and faster USB generation.

Now let’s get into the speakers and haptics 🔊📳

The Phone (3) comes with dual stereo speakers and this time Nothing has added a separate dedicated speaker at the top apart from the earpiece which makes a noticeable difference. The sound quality from both speakers is genuinely impressive. Vocals are loud, crisp, and clear, with no distortion even at 100% volume, making it a great experience for media consumption, gaming, or video calls.

When it comes to haptics, Im absolutely loving it. Typing feels super satisfying, the feedback feels strong and tight, thanks to the X-axis linear motor, which is now 14% larger than the one in Phone (2).Honestly, it’s one of the best haptics I have experienced on a phone so far. Even the feedback from the Glyph Matrix’s pressure sensitive button feels fantastic.But there are many parts in the Ul where it lacks the implementation like dragging the volume bar, brightness adjustment slider,etc.

Now Let’s Talk About The ✅Pro’s And ❌Con’s.🫣

✅ Pros:

•Big camera improvement for photos over the Phone (1)&(2), delivers great results most of the time.

•Clean & minimal Nothing OS with smooth performance and basic customization options.

•Solid battery optimization despite having an LTPS panel and a 5500 mAh battery.

•Good exposure control & natural colors in videos when lighting is good.

•Premium & unique design that feels better in hand than it looks in photos.

•Smooth 4K 60 fps video recording with good dynamic range and color science in Daylight.

•Silicon Carbon battery tech gives good efficiency.

❌ Cons:

•Video quality needs more fine-tuning in challenging conditions.

• Thermals, device heats up under heavy load, needs better thermal management.

•LTPS panel instead of LTPO, which lacks more flexible refresh rate adjustments.

•5500 mAh battery is good, but with Silicon Carbon tech, 6000 mAh would have been ideal.

•USB 2.0

•Some basic video features missing Like

-No 4K 120fps.

-No Pro Video Mode.

-No Portrait Video Mode.

Final Verdict 🏁

So, is the Nothing Phone (3) really a True Flagship like Nothing says?

In their view, maybe yes because this time they have fixed a lot of things that were missing in the Phone (1)&(2), but the biggest drawback is the price.

Nothing usually prices their phones a bit higher than others but this time at ₹80K, it’s hard to justify, especially with the processor they have used. If this was priced around ₹50-55K, it would’ve been a killer deal.Overall, I really enjoyed using the phone. If the price drops to ₹50–55K, I’d easily recommend it to anyone.

Put a lot of time and energy into this one. If it helped you out, show some Love.🫶🏽🤍

PruthveshGavali

In Flipkart BBD sale i got this phone at 38500 Rs.

It’s good Deal?

NileshKanahaiya

PruthveshGavali then you have to celebrate party with rest of money of 50k.

😀😀

hmdimitrov

Great review!

I got my P3 a few weeks ago.

The short and simplistic answer is - it's not a true flagship. But it also comes to appropriate comparisons too. Some view the vanilla galaxy s25 as flagship. In my part of the world the s25 and P3 are priced in the same ballpark. And I see absolutely no reason to prefer an s25. In fact I have an s25 ultra - I got sick of it pretty fast even though I use the s-pen a lot. I'm selling it now and happily using the P3. The reasons are: s25 ultra still charges slower than it should for the price; it's damned boring - it feels like a workhorse rather than a flagship; and most importantly - the cameras are horrible from a photographer's point of view, they pump out such godawful images it's insulting (and yes, I do know how to use cameras). I also have Xiaomi's 14 and 15 ultra (I prefer the 14 ultra) - fantastic cameras that to a degree and within their usability envelope may easily compete with micro 4/3 camera systems. But I can't stand everything else about these phones.

So if you compare specs, the P3 isn't a flagship, but if you compare the experience and enjoyment of using it, I'd argue that it is actually a flagship and that it is pretty much fairly priced. Because it doesn't really hold you back in any way in real life. It's not the best at anything but it is a good mix of everything, while also being unique.

CMF1_hacker

hmdimitrov I agree. This is the best all-around phone per £ in the UK.

MujahedHussain

To be honest… I've used other flagship devices and it all comes down to user experience and the part of it is missing with Nothing os 3.5, The wallpaper customisation doesn't surprise me neither the lock screen customisation, I am already regretting switching to Nothing.