I am very thankful that I was selected to get to test and review the Nothing Phone(3).
To start this is a review from a Nothing Fan from the USA. I have used and reviewed a lot of phones out there. Many from OEM’s that no longer make phones anymore sadly. I’m very thankful to have reviewed and tested phones from HTC, LG, Google, ZTE, Samsung, Huawei, Apple, OnePlus, and now Nothing. I’ve had a chance to flavor so many different offerings from OEM’s. I guess you could say I’m a little Addicted to Smartphones. Or maybe just Tech in general. This is all a hobby to me. My day job is of the boring variety as an Accountant!
So to start, I’ve been following Nothing since the Ear(1) was announced! Then the Phone(1) came as a beta program offering in the USA. SIGN ME UP! Then the Phone 2 came out! SOLD! I actively own 3 pairs of Nothing Open Earbuds(I know I’m insane but I love than and can’t go back to in ear buds now, Thanks Carl!), also a pair of Ear(a) earbuds. So I’m pretty familiar with the company. I might sound like a Fanboy but I have no issues with being critical about a company I feel attached to and care about and wish to see them succeed and especially expand into the USA at some point more!
I have loved everything about this company from the start, but I might just be their toughest critic. The Marketing, Carl Pei, the aesthetic, the desire to be different, the community on Discord, and just their overall willingness to open the curtain and let customers see what’s going on behind the scenes is what makes Nothing special to me. I was a huge fan of their Discord Workshop videos, to Carl Pei doing phone reviews on YT, to Rob starring in their quirky videos himself. The Company has such a rich amount of Character to it. It just pulls me in. I know its a lot of marketing hype by design but its addicting. And it works. Something Apple and Samsung do not have.
So when the Phone 3 arrived I was so excited to watch the launch reveal. All the leaks being revealed before hand had me on the edge. I wasn’t sure how I felt. I was excited to see the marking hype for the dot matrix display. It look so cool and unique. The leaks with Pokémon characters in dot matrix design didn’t help tone down my excitement either as I’m a big Pokémon fan all the way back from the Red and Blue Gameboy Games.
But then it started to be apparent that the Glyph lights might be gone. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this at all. It was THEE brand identity of Nothing. That was THEIR calling card. You knew it was a Nothing Phone from across the room or you wanted to know what it was if you didn’t. That was the spark of the brand. It caught iPhone users eyes from, What phone is that? to What kind of case is that on your iPhone?
That’s gone now sadly. I’m not okay with that. I’m still salty. I still think they could have fit it in with the Glyph Matrix. I actually thought from the leaks that we might still have a Glyph light in the middle of the top of the phone, but alas its just aesthetic and doesn’t function as a light. By the end of my Review you’ll know if I’m okay with the Glyph Lights being dead or if they need to be resurrected.
Phone(3)
This is Nothing’s First Flagship Phone. At least that’s what they are deeming that it is. But to me, Its kind of its own category. It feels wonderful in the hand. A terrific flat display, a nice hefty premium chunky feel, and put together in a premium way. I love the weight of it. And we know its made well after watching JerryRigEverythings video on it, it doesn’t flex at all.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too hot on the back when I first saw it. The cameras are off center and not aligned like we are all used too. But Nothing likes to be different, and play by its own game so lets roll with it. In person its much better. I’m not used to it but I love it now. Especially in the White color way. The black color is nice but Fingerprints show up way too easy. I love the power button being on the right side with volume buttons on the left. This is the way I think it should be on all phones. Below that is the Essential Space button. Which I’m a big fan of also. Buttons all feel super premium. I love the transparent back. I do wish that the back looked more like the actual internal components like the Phone 1 and 2 did. But its still really good looking and breaks the mold of pretty much all other smartphones. I just love the design of the back. It screams character.
I do wish there were more cases available. I hate not having a lot of case choices, especially rugged cases.
The Display is gorgeous and gets really bright, its very sharp and super vibrant. I’m perfectly happy with the display. I have no complaints. My only requirements for a good display is, gets really bright, sharp, vibrant, and 120hz refresh rate and it has all that. I’m not going to nitpick specks that don’t really affect me like LTPO or LTPS.
The speakers on the other hand, for me let me down a little. There’s one at the top of the phone and one at the bottom. The Sound seems more split between the two which is great watching videos in landscape. The speakers get really loud but seems to lack a good amount of Bass. I’m not sure what it is about them but they sound odd. I’ve tried using PowerAmp’s Equalizer for whole phone audio and it helps setting it to a higher bass setting. The speakers seem to be tuned more for say, TikTok or Instagram reels where voice is more important. The speakers do sound much better with a more bass heavy PowerAmp EQ, so I believe Nothing could make them much better. Will they? I’m not sure. The phone has been out for 4 months and they haven’t tweaked them at all. I’ve also seen other owners mention they don’t sound the greatest so I hope they listen and make some tweaks.
The Haptics are pretty great. They got even better with some updates. I’m super pleased with them. Are they the best? No that still belongs to OnePlus with the 13. There pretty on par or close to Samsung’s haptics on the S24 Ultra I’d say. Which is a good bar to be compared to IMO.
Now on to the Camera. Now I used the Phone(1) and (2) and also the (2a). Nothing has come so so far in the Camera department. Its kind of crazy how good the camera now is. Its very close to Samsung in the Photo department and the iPhone 16 in photos. In video its not bad. I would save its good with video. Samsung and Apple are still better with taking videos. The Phone (3) is probably on par in video with the OnePlus 13. Over all I’m very happy with the camera. It looks like from social media that the Camera is excellent with Macro photos. I don’t really take Macro Photos myself but for those that do they look EXCELLENT.
The battery in the USA is the 5150mah battery version. Would I have rather had 5500mah like the other version, heck yes! But so far the 5150mah battery has been great. No issues at all.
Performance has been great also. Is the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 a flagship processor? I don’t consider it one, that’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite. I’d put the Nothing Phone(3)'s Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 in the same category as the Google Pixel Tenser 4 and 5. Its a great chip, I don’t really notice any slowdowns at all. Would I pay $100 more for the 8 Elite? No lol. Would it have been nice to have? Yes. But its honestly not an issue. I’ve heard others say it can get warm, which if true could be an issue if you are a gamer but I am not. Honestly the NP3 probably has better graphics performance than the Pixel Tensor 4 and 5, so I honestly think its fine.
The Network capabilities are all great also. I do wish this phone would support Verizon here in the USA. It works with T-Mobile fully from what I understand. I’m using it on AT&T(which I switched to just to use Nothing Phones). It works good on AT&T but it is missing Wi-Fi calling which I am not really thrilled about but I can live with. Wifi and cell signal has been great tho no issues.
Glyph Matrix… Oh the Glyph Matrix. Look, it is pretty cool. I do like it a lot. But it is without its issues. Out of the box it feels unfinished. Generative glyph ringtones and notifications are cool but they feel like they could be better. I wish there were a lot more animations for the glyph matric notifications. There should be more. Because the ones that are there are so cool, I just want more lol. I also would like to see more ringtone sounds and animations for calls. Maybe another generative style would be nice too. I guess I just don’t like the phone coming out of the box with very little Glyph Matrix options.
I love the community making and creating all these wonderful Glyph Toys but part of me feels, out of the box, it should be more fleshed out. To me it feels like a beta. When its such a big feature of your flagship phone it should be more polished, especially at this price. While it does do a lot more than the Glyph Lights, it just doesn’t feel as special and unique.
Part of the problem is its size. It needs to be at least double the size. The resolution on the matrix makes it hard to be super detailed in what it shows also, which if it was double the size it would be easier. Is it cool? yes. Is it more useful than the Glyph lights, kind of? But it still feels like a gimmick. For me to use it I have to keep turning the phone around to see it. So it kind of loses a lot of its usefulness. And if I’m supposed to lay my phone down face down, then couldn’t it just be face up and some of the glyph matric features just be an AOD? Its a odd feature for me.
Glyph Notifications on it also appear and disappear so fast that sometimes you can’t even tell what they are. So at this point, who is it for, me or the people on the other side of my phone? I’d say its more for the people around me.
So it brings me back to, is it cooler or better than the Glyph Lights? No. Its not. The Glyph lights are better to me. I love them. The patterns of flashes of light are so iconic and cool, especially paired with Nothings glyph composer and the wonderful electronica sounds. Nothing beats that. At least with the small size of the Glyph Matrix we have now. If it was double the size then maybe it would be better. What would have been amazing would have been to have at least the same amount of lights that the 2a and 3a have on the back in addition to the Matrix. That would have been outstanding.
Nothing OS
Its wonderful. I love the aesthetic. But I just want more. More unique features. More Nothing Character. Dial it up to 500% Carl. Give us all the Nothing design that we have loved over the years. For one I love the font used on the Community website and would like to see that more in Nothing OS4.0.
I also want more unique ringtones, and notification sounds. I want better Status Bar icons, similar to the Pixel ones or even unique Nothing ones. I want to use more of the Notification shade, there’s too much wasted space at the top on the left and right padding. I love what you guys are doing with the Essential branding. I was also a huge fan of the Essential Phone when it launched. Keep that also dialed up to 500%. Essential Space has so much potential. Its one of my favorite features of the phone. I want to see more AI generative wallpapers, there’s too little choices in the AI generative wallpaper section. Love that feature though we just need 3 times as many choices. I guess what I’m trying to say is, take AOSP and stock android theme and give us more of the Nothing quirks and dna.
Animations need to get much better. Looking at what OnePlus is doing, I know Nothing’s dev team can do that and more. I’ve seen the Animations in Nothings videos and reels and even when you save something to essential space. Nothing is really great at animation. We just need more more fluid and unique animations and not just fast animations. On Nothing OS4 it did get better but I want even more improvements.
Things I love about this phone
- The back and looks of it. As much as I was unsure I love the sci-fi look of it all.
- The camera is really good, not the best out there but very good and runs with other flagship cameras
- The speakers with tuning are pretty good and could be even better with some tweaks}
- Battery life for me has been great. Better than my Pixel 10 Pro XL
- Premium feel is truly flagship
- Nothing OS is one of my favorite themed version of Android I just want more Nothing specific features
- Nothing Playground looks really great! Can’t wait to see more
- Nothing Widgets are excellent, just let them work better in 5 column setups
Overall I think this phone is fantastic. Maybe not at the price it launched at but maybe at $599 and 699 on both models and I think it would be great. I think the phone disappointed people at launch for 3 reasons. Price, No glyph lights anymore and calling it a flagship but then not giving us the 8 Elite had people let down. Everyone was hyped for the Phone 3 because they thought they were getting the 8 Elite and glyph lights and when those 2 things were not there, it was a let down, they couldn’t overcome. So for the next Nothing Phone, please bring back the Glyph Lights, we love them. We also like the Matrix but not in exchange of the Lights.
Overall I do love this phone, the looks, the character, the Team behind it. It screams everything I want in a phone, I want to be different, this phone is different. Keep it up guys. We love what the team has created here in spots. The Camera, the display the battery, the software its all wonderful. At $599 its an instant recommendation. Keep up the Nothing Aesthetic don’t let that die, don’t stop engaging with the community, keep opening the curtain and showing us your thinking and why you guys think the way you do. I hope I’m not too harsh on this phone. I do love the Phone 3. I’m only harsh because I care so much. We need saved in he USA from Samsung and Apple. We have no character here in phones. Nothing has that character. Especially in the Phone(3) and what’s to come. Can’t wait too see what Nothing OS4 holds in the updates. Hopefully Nothing blows us away!
Thanks @Deepanshu_Saini_ and the Nothing team for letting me review this device. It was a wonderful experience!
Also protect @Rob ⚡️ at all costs. Don’t let that man leave Nothing’s Social Media and Community Team Ever… lol His videos are so great and he comes off as so genuine in the videos he is in.
