So, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, ever since my best friend bought a nothing Phone 1 and the brand grew on me, it has been a goal in my mind to get a Nothing phone for myself and it led to me exploring the brand and mobile phone tech in general. Since then I have been recommending nothing and CMF products to friends and family as I genuinely feel that it’s just better than other devices with similar specs. Some very well known brands offer killer specs for cheaper but it’s always off putting whenever someone is buying a new phone and they go, the specs are nice, the price is great, but it’s xxxxx brand so I have to think about it as I’m not confident with my choice, it just shows that they want the specs but not the brand, Nothing fulfills that expectation where people feel like they’re getting quality equal to the big 3 (I,S,G) brands. I am looking forward to upgrading my lower- midrange phone to a Nothing Phone 3 along with a friend of mine and potentially more people who are not very familiar with the brand. I have had first hand experience with the Nothing phone 1, Nothing phone 2a, CMF phone 1, and the CMF buds.
A little bit about me, I’m almost 21 years old, recently graduated and set to start working soon. I have been waiting for this launch from ages, so many good launches in between but I wanted the best. This is the best Nothing is giving us now. Excited? Yes. Am I going to purchase it? Well, let me explain, not just from my perspective, but around 20 more who are close to me. Family, friends and people who I think have good tech related opinions.
All these speculations and expectations are purely opinions from people who I consider to be rational and are very much valid. I’ll only be discussing details about the components people have special expectations or something that is a deal breaker as this already feels too long. So here we go:
Size: phones are getting too big in almost everyone’s opinion so anything between 6.3-6.5 inches would be ideal, not small, not huge compared to other phones. And thickness wise, as my friend says, “not too slim that the durability is affected but not too ‘chonky’ that it feels like a brick”
Display: As long as it’s 120hz+, has enough brightness for use under intese sunlight, and other standard specifications, no complaints and special expectations from people whatsoever as long as it’s similar to the competition.
Battery: 6000 mAh would be ideal, leaks suggest 5150 mAh but with the newer silicon carbon batteries this might seem small as phones have been coming out with insane batteries, 7000 mAh is overkill in a bunch of people’s opinion, but 6000 feels like a sweet spot considering longevity and battery health dropping over time.
Charging: 65 watt wired+15-25 watt wireless is good. Reverse charging support, both wired and wireless would be ideal but it depends on the battery size and how much there is left to spare after a normal days’ usage.
Cameras: No special expectations as long it matches competitors standards and has good software. A standard 3 camera setup with good ois, good low light photography, good portraits and video capabilities with processing that doesn’t overdo/change the whole result will give us all we need.
AI features: Overall opinion: “It’s nice to have, but wouldn’t call it a deal breaker”
Glyph/matrix: Overall opinion is that it should feel as if it’s a part of the phone, the same way the other nothing phones incorporated it well into the design and it stood out enough to make it different, but wasn’t an eyesore. Personally I feel that the placement of the matrix on the top right would work out great if it blends well with the camera module and doesn’t leave the rest of the phone feeling plain.
Chipset: Well the snapdragon 8s gen 4 is not what we had in mind when we thought flagship but hey, on the bright side, it helps cut costs and as long as it reflects on the price tag, everyone would be happy to compromise on that performance difference between this and the 8 elite. Some might say 8 gen 3 would’ve been better, not us people, we will take 5 years of OS updates and 7 years of security updates any day. To remind people, this is not a gaming phone and the chipset is more than enough for 99.9 percent of the population. Just because it’s not the highest performance doesn’t mean it’s not good enough for a ‘flagship’. As long as it’s balanced, doesn’t throttle and is optimised well, it is more than good enough.
OS/UI/UX: High expectations as always because of how well it has delivered every single time. This is one of the biggest deal breakers and as long as things are going as they are, I see no reason why anyone might be disappointed.
Price: Well, the Indian market is one of the most price sensitive markets, and it being one of the biggest markets doesn’t help this case much when we are seeing snapdragon 8s gen 4 phones at around 30k INR, it’s just a question of how much more people are willing to spend comparatively. The biggest deal breaker and the question in everyone’s minds is: “Is it worth paying xxxxx rupees for the Nothing phone 3 while I get similar specs for 30k?”. It’s all going to come down to what more can Nothing provide to justify it’s price point, because let’s face it, it’s not going to be priced at 29999. 800 pounds (~90000 rupees) is definitely not going to work well for the general public in India, yes a few enthusiasts might get it but definitely not the price sensitive and spec hungry Indian market. The phone is made in India which is good news.
Price expectations: The expectations for the price are far from the 90000 rupee initial idea, especially after the reveals and leaks about the chipset, battery, camera etc. the price range around which people are and will be ready to spend for the specs given above are:
12+256gb: 44999-49999 rupees
16+512: 54999-60000 rupees
The range depicts ‘price which would be ideal - maximum I would pay for it’
***
What are your opinions, expectations and any other details that you would like to discuss? Thank you all for reading my post and any suggestions and ways I can improve would be highly appreciated. Once again, Thank you.
—
