I have been using the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite as my primary device for the past 30 days as part of a Community Review Program. In this thread, I am going to give my experience of using this device for a month.
So let’s get started
📦How’s the Unboxing Experience:
The unboxing experience on this phone is premium just like the other Nothing Phones with a sleek box with a part of the phone printed on the box. The unboxing itself gives a premium and a flagship-like vibe. Nothing is amongst some brands who pays so much attention to its packaging which makes the unboxing experience very nice.
🔍What’s inside the box?
a. A Phone,
b. A sim ejector tool,
c. A case,
d. Documentation,
e. C-C cable
✨How is the the Design and the Build Quality?
The device has a premium in-hand feel due to the glass back and a plastic frame. The device is slim and light with a weight of 199g and feels comfortable to hold the device. It offers an IP54 splash resistance rating to protect the device from splashes. All the buttons are also placed perfectly not feeling awkward when clicking any button. This device is 8.35mm slim compared to 8.44mm on the Nothing Phone (3a) which makes gripping the device better and easier.
👁️How is the Display?
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite supports a 6.77-inches Amoled LTPS Flexible display offering a great experience for content consumption and a great viewing angles. It supports a max of 120Hz refresh rate offering a smooth software or gaming experience. It supports 60/90/120Hz generally and for AOD it supports 30Hz reducing the battery consumption when the device is in AOD mode. It has a peak brightness of 3000 nits which shows in small portion of a screen when viewing in HDR mode only. The high brightness in the device is 1300 nits and normal brightness is 800 nits providing a good visibility outdoors. This is a 10bits panel and has a HDR10+ certification. In Netflix, HDR still doesn’t work. Overall, it has a great viewing experience
📳How are the haptics?
This device uses X-axis linear haptics motor which provides nice haptic vibrations. The vibrations are premium when interacting with the device
⚙️What about the System?
The device is powered by the Mediatek Dimensity 7300 5G processor which is nicely tuned with the software and is a capable processor. It has 2 variants 8 + 128/8 + 256 RAM options with RAM type as LPDDR4X and UFS 2.2 as storage type. It has quick and responsive optical in-display fingerprint. It has all the options like WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS and network bands. Like all the other nothing phones this one is also India locked. So, without a valid Indian sim card the phone won’t boot up. It supports Dual Nano sim card slots and one is a hybrid sim card slot so SD card can also be used to increase the storage. And it doesn’t have NFC support.
✨How’s the Software Experience?
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite was launched with Nothing OS 3.5 based on Android 15. It will support 3 years of major updates and 6 years of security updates which is great. So, it will receive major updates till Android 18 which will be till 2028 and security updates till 2031. It doesn’t support Dolby Atmos. Nothing OS offers a smooth and fluid User Experience without any lags or jitters. One new thing they have recently added in their OS, Lock Glimpse. Lock Glimpse is basically like Glance which shows ads. And the best thing is it is turned off by default in all the devices and now recently in Phone (3a) Lite also they rolled out an update to set it off by default. And during the setup now this device comes with 3 built-in apps TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and then depending on the countries. Like India doesn’t have TikTok. And in this also best thing is all the 3 apps can be uninstalled and flagship devices won’t get these apps. Also, they are again promising security updates every 2 months with this device as well
💡Does one Glyph LED perform the actions well?
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite comes with a single Glyph LED in the bottom right corner and it performs all majority of the functions so well. It has Flip to Glyph animation, notification animations, call animations well synced with the ringtone nicely implemented. And for the glyph developers, since this is only a single LED notification LED it doesn’t have SDK support.
🚀How is the Performance and Gaming Experience?
The Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Pro is a midrange powerful chipset which can handle all my daily tasks gracefully. It is well-integrated with the Nothing OS with a smooth User Experience. I have tested it under high conditions and the device performs well. I have played longer sessions of Call Of Duty Mobile and BGMI. Both the games are smooth with BGMI supporting 120FPS of a great gameplay. The FPS in a short 1V1 match was between 100-110FPS and in a long battle royale session it was 120 FPS for a long time and then 115 FPS which is great. The device was dissipating heat so well. I could just feel the warmth of the device. I wasn’t overheating.
Overall the device is well optimized and smooth
📸How is the real world camera experience of the device?
Now about the camera. Phone (3a) Lite has 3 rear cameras and one front camera. The main camera is a 50 MP Samsung GN9 sensor with Aperture f/1.88 and sensor size as 1/1.57″. And it supports EIS stabilization. The 2nd is Wide angle camera Ultra Wind Angle Camera with a 8MP lens which has Aperture of f/2.2 and sensor size as ¼″. The third rear camera is a Macro Camera. Now the front camera, the front camera has a lens of 16 MP with Aperture f/2.45 and sensor size of ⅓″. The cameras support Ultra XDR mode.
🖼️How is the Wide Angle Camera?
The landscape shots are doing a decent job by preserving the details without blowing out too much. The photos look natural in daylight conditions. It doesn’t get over-saturated. There is a good amount of separation between the object and subject in the images. There is also some drop in sharpness of landscape shots
🌟How does the Main Camera perform?
In daylight conditions, the photos produces natural color tones without making it over saturated. The portrait shots works well and subject is separated from the object or the background very well. It doesn’t over sharpens the texture shots. The landscape shots have a good dynamic range and a good balance between the objects. In night light, the camera struggles making the shadows completely black with no details and it has some noise in the images. Night photos under artificial lights shows some light glare which makes the image produce brighter colors.
🔎How is the Extra Zoom (50mm+)?
These shots offer a good amount of details till a extent and after that there is a bit of noise in daylight conditions. And after that level it sharpens the edges.
🔬Macro Camera Samples:
🤳How are the Selfies processed?
In daylight scenarios, the skin tones processes accurate and natural colors without over-processing it. In night light portrait, the edge detection is spot-on separating the subjects and the background very well and the subjects are not darkened when the background has bright light. The background is also vibrant. And the details are also good in daylight selfie shots. In night shots, there is some amount of noise and lack of sharpness and the dynamic range is limited.
🎥How’s the video quality?
🎬Rear camera:
The 4K recording shows high details and natural colors. The 1080p video is smoother than the 4K recording. The daylight videos handle the dynamic range well. The 1080p video looks more fluid as compared to the 4K one as that has 60FPS compared to 30FPS for 4K recording. In night light, 4K shows some amount of noise which increases the exposure level. In pure dark scenarios in night light the shadows are black. In direct light scenarios, there is a slight glare in the video.
🤳Front camera:
The daylight shots show natural skin colors without over-whitening the subjects. The EIS works well and keeps the movement stable and doesn’t make the video too much jittery. The lens is capable of capturing a wide area in the video. In night light recording, there is some noise especially when the background is dark. Phone (3a) Lite is limited to 1080p recording using the front camera. In this, 60FPS is smoother as compared to 30FPS
📢Are the speakers good at this price in the device?
The device has a mono speaker at the bottom not a dual speakers. And it doesn’t support dolby atmos as well. The speakers are clear to understand the output coming out from the speakers. And depending on the music they are loud as well
🔋How is the battery performance?
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite comes with 5000 mAh battery with 33w of fast charging. The battery backup is great consistently giving a good SOT. For 15-90% it took around 2:30 hrs. While for 15-50% it took around 30 minutes. And now discharging from 90-50% it took almost 15 hrs with a good SOT. And 100-15% took around 34hrs to drain. Once charged, the device could last a day before I charge another time depending on the usage. It doesn’t support wireless charging or reverse wireless charging but reverse wired charging is 5w. And it doesn’t have NFC support as well.
📶How is the network connectivity?
I have been using the device for over 30 days and I have not faced any network connectivity issue. All the connectivity features are available and correctly working like Bluetooth, Wifi, Hotspot. All the connections were stable and no disconnections noticed which is exceptionally well. And no call drops or issues with 5G connections as well.
🏆 Final Verdict: Is it worth it?
The Nothing Phone (3a) Lite is a great device with a premium glass back at this price and 120Hz display with a smooth and fluid Nothing OS and its well-optimized. There are some jitters here and there otherwise its smooth. This device can be used as a long-term device as it support 3 years of major updates and 6 years of security updates which is great with a promise of security updates every 2 months. Its overall a good entry level smartphone from Nothing. It is well optimized and balanced.
✅What are the pros?
a. Good design and build quality
b. Software Experience
c. Thermals and heat
d. Display
❌What are the cons?
a. There is Mono Speaker
b. Charging is a bit slow
c. Night light photography
Thanks a lot Nothing India and @Deepanshu_Saini_ for giving me the opportunity to review this device.
