From a uniquely punched out midframe to an all new Glyph Matrix, today we take a closer look at the Phone (3) than ever before. Phone (3) is our first ever flagship smartphone and that meant stepping into a new space while making sure we produce a smartphone that is uniquely Nothing. We knew we had to make the flagship space fun again.
Our teardown of the Phone (3) starts with the screen, midframe, and rear panel. While these may seem typical at first, the midframe and rear panel pack in a few secrets that we take a look at below.
🔴 Display
The Phone (3) is equipped with a 6.67” FHD+ LTPS Flexible AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7I. A 92.89% Screen to body ratio keeps the bezels even and slim around the edges of the display. With an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of 1000Hz, the Phone (3) is just as quick gaming as it is responsive when typing out a message. At 4500 nits of peak brightness and HDR 10+ certified, the Phone (3) is bright enough so that you can always see things clearly, rain or shine… but especially shine.
The rear of the display features a full copper surface to assist with heat dissipation. The top end shows off the front facing camera cut out while the bottom diagonal cut out is for the fingerprint sensor passthrough.
That long black cable on the left hand side is the flexible printed circuit (FPC) which is how the signal makes its way to the display, it flows through a hole in the midframe and connects to the motherboard.
🔵 Midframe
An aluminium midframe and aluminium buttons are brought upward from the Phone (2) series for the most premium feel in our Smartphone line up while remaining the most sustainable option by utilizing 100% recycled aluminium. This time around we added our Essential Key for a more natural approach to AI assistance while making sure AI remains part of our signature smartphone experience.
The top of the midframe includes a small cut out with a square black gasket to the right of the camera, this is where the front facing speaker will slot in. At almost two times the size of the portion that is actually exposed, it makes sure those phone calls come through loud and clear and contributes to a great stereo effect when watching content.
You can see here that the midframe has cutouts on the left hand side near the top. This is a first time technique for a Nothing smartphone to push the camera through the midframe itself. This allowed for larger camera sensors to be used as well as the periscope lens to be presented with as compact a camera bump as possible.
🟡 Rear Cover
The glass rear makes sure that the premium feel wraps fully around the device while allowing a smooth experience when wireless charging or reverse wireless charging. On the right hand side you can see the touch point for the button to control the Glyph Matrix.
The 5150mAh battery of this EU model is housed in the centre of this mid frame along with a wireless charging coil that supports both wireless charging as well as reverse wireless charging.
With each phone we learn and evolve with every step. Phone (3) is the culmination of years of experience and in the image above, you can see a great example of some of the adaptations that were made to make sure everything works in such a compact space. For example, the wireless charging coil was actually curved on the right hand side as to allow for the button that operates the Glyph Matrix.
Behind the Glyph Matrix
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many words is a Glyph Matrix heart worth? In this macro shot you can see the individual pixels that deliver those notifications and are suspiciously good at Rock, Paper, Scissors.
🔴 489 individual LEDs offer a low resolution interface that replaces the Glyph lights of our previous model. This makes notifications more accurate, alerts more customisable, and adds a bit more fun to your daily use.
🔵 The Microcontroller (MCU) powers the Glyph Matrix through the Glyph Toys and icons while also helping with generative notifications to make sure the animations run smoothly.
Phone (3) camera system
This time around the full suite of Camera modules on the Phone (3) are packed with 50MP. With video quality up to 4K at 60fps on the main lens and a 60x digital zoom on the periscope, Phone (3) has a camera for any situation.
🔴 Front- 50MP Samsung, f/2.2, ½.76“ sensor, 81.2° FOV, EIS
🔵 Periscope- 50MP Samsung, f/2.68, ½.75”, OIS & EIS
🟡 Ultra Wide- 50MP Samsung, f/2.2, ½.76“, 114°FOV, EIS
🟢 Main- 50MP Omnivision, f/1.68, 1/1.3″, 85.5° FOV, OIS
Phone (3) chipset
We knew when making the Phone (3) that our first flagship smartphone would have to be our best performing device to date especially after the wait from Phone (2) it had to be noticeable. So that’s exactly what we did.
Phone (3) comes equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and when coupled with either 12Gb or 16Gb of RAM, the Phone (3) quickly makes its way through content creation, photo editing, or a long gaming session.
In this image the Processor is actually tucked right underneath the RAM module to provide the power for a flagship while remaining as compact as possible.
🔵 UFS 4.0 ROM Storage
🔴 Chip- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 (SM8735), up to 3.2 GHz, 4nm TSMC construction + LPDDRX5 RAM
- Cores- 1 x Cortex-X4 + 7 x Cortex-A720
- GPU- Adreno 825, 1150 MHz
- NPU- Qualcomm Hexagon NPU
🟡 Qualcomm WiFi chip with WiFi 7
To finish up we have a simple breakdown of the lower portion of the Phone (3) to see a part of the phone we interact with every day.
🔴 On the left we have the haptics motor. Always excellent at getting your attention for the essential notifications in your life, this tiny motor certainly packs a punch throughout the whole phone.
🔵 The centre shows the dual SIM tray housing along with the USB-C charging port that is assisted by the 5 amp charging cable, helping to deliver up to 65W of fast charging.
🟡 The final piece on the right side is the lower speaker for phone calls on speaker or enjoying a quick episode of Nothing TV.
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As all good things, this teardown has come to an end! Thank you for taking a look at what makes the Phone (3) a truly unique device and seeing how much work we put into bringing it to the community.
A special thank you to our man @Rob ⚡️ for letting me take a brief break from working in our Soho store to help the community bring such a fun project to life! Make sure to stop in to the store and say hello!
