Hi community!
My name is Fran, and here’s my final review of the Phone 3a Lite.
First of all, I just want to say that I am very thankful for being a part of the Community Review Program for this phone. It was an amazing experience to get in touch with other members of the community and discuss our thoughts about the new device.
In case you missed it, I already did a post with my First impressions, where I share my concerns about the macro camera and the preinstalled apps. However, in that post I also addressed the best qualities of the phone such as the screen or how fluid the software is.
So for this review I want to focus on how it feels to use this phone after one month, and how my first impressions evolved into what is my final opinion about the device.
Design
I like it. That’s it. Every time I look at it, I think “this is a cool looking phone”.
My friends and family, however, had mixed opinions about the design. Either they love it or hate it, there’s no in between. But in any case, they all agree that it looks better than my 3a Pro, or than the Phone (3). I guess this is the norm with Nothing products and what makes them so unique.
Funny enough, some people who are not familiar with the brand thought that the design was a case and not the phone itself. Has this ever happened to any o you?
So I must say that the design of the phone grew up on me even more over the last month.
Hardware
Okay I am going to be honest here: The hardware sometimes falls a bit short for what I am used to (coming from a 3a Pro and Phone (2).
Of course, for a phone in this price segment, the performance is more than enough. I would not use this phone for hardcore gaming, but sometimes I can feel it falling a bit behind when using the camera.
This is not noticeable while using the phone for “normal” stuff: scrolling through apps, texting, watching videos, social media and so on. In that sense, the performance is a 10/10.
I understand that this performance will be more than enough for an average user, whereas some more “techy” demanding users will surely notice it.
Oh, and the battery performance is amazing. Most times, one charge would last me two days with a normal usage. And in situations where I would use the camera a lot, I could still manage to get to the end of the day with more than 20% of battery left.
About the Glyph interface, I must say that, while I like the idea of a “minimal” glyph layout, I do miss a lot having more customizable options, like I have on my 3a Pro or my Phone (2).
Software
Since I got the phone, I have updated it twice, and as I said before, the usage experience has been awesome generally speaking. Sometimes I struggle to remember that this phone costs 250€.
Another strong point of this phone (or about Nothing) is the essential space. I read mixed opinions about it, but I have to say that for me it’s been a game changer, especially since integration with google calendar was added. It is so useful and brings so much value into the device that I am a bit surprised they didn’t reserve it to the upper budget options. For sure it takes some time to get to know how to use it and unlock its full potential, but when used right, it can be a key (no pun intended) element in your life.
I also saw that some companies have already started to copy the idea (ehem Oneplus) but I guess it goes to show that Nothing are doing something good with the Essential Space.
I already spoke in my first impressions post about the bloatware situation, and after one month my thoughts are pretty much the same, but I also developed more understanding on Nothing’s side.
I am still against any kind of pre-installed apps, but I am glad that at least we can uninstall them. Surely, it’s disappointing to see Nothing taking this road, but I think that it is a bit naive to expect companies to remain fully true to their founding principles, especially when they’re built upon being different.
Camera performance
In my first impressions post I could not really try the camera as much as I liked, but now after one month I can say that the main sensor performance is a total banger at this price range.
The TrueLens Engine 4.0 process the pictures in such a way that they look straight out a much more expensive phone. However, I must say that I’ve been experiencing some inconsistencies regarding the treatment of light in the post processing.
Here you can see two pictures: One taken in auto mode and another in manual (pro) mode.
The auto picture messed up a bit the white balance and made the picture darker, even with XDR activated.
In the manual picture I tried to have the colors and exposure more similar to what my eyes could see, so we can observe a comparison.
I had several times the situation where I would take a picture, open the gallery and think “it turned out nice”, just for the post processing to kick in and completely change how it looks.
I think there should be a way to choose if we want to keep the unprocessed picture or not, because it can be a bit frustrating to take several shots in the same location and not getting the right picture just because of the post processing.
I also don’t think that the target user for this phone will comfortable using the manual mode, since it requires at least a bit of experience to take decent pictures with it.
A highlight of the main sensor is the night performance. Both in auto and “night” mode, the pictures turn out to be pretty good (again price range). Surely they are not at a flagship level when it comes to sharpness, detail or whatever, but they are enough to capture memories, post them on social media and send them to people over whatsapp.
I still had some inconsistencies taking low light pictures, but overall I a very satisfied with the night performance. Here are some shots I took having a walk around my city:
And some extra shots with the main sensor:
About the video capabilities I must say that I don’t really like the blurry effect from the EIS, but again, it is enough for a casual use recording memories and sending stuff to your friends. But definetly not for content creation, in case anyone had any doubts.
My opinion about the ultrawide sensor did not really change since my previous post: It’s barely enough.
Surely it can have a decent picture in good light conditions, but there is no sharpness, no definition and the colors are usually way too different compared to those on the main sensor.
And, of course, in low light situations, the quality drops to the floor. Here’s the same picture taken with both sensors:
For me it’s a bit sad, because when I had my Phone (2), I used a lot both cameras. Then, I switched to the 3a Pro, with a worse ultrawide, and I basically stopped taking ultrawide pictures, because the quality was just not good enough. I have the same feeling with this 3a Lite model: it’s not worth the hassle.
And talking about hassle: it is extremely hard to take a good-looking picture with the 2MP dedicated macro lens.
I’ve said it in my previous post and I’ll say it again: This phone would be better without this camera.
I tried so hard to make it useful, and to take decent shots with it, and the closest thing I got were photos that look good from far away, but look bad the moment you zoom in a bit or start looking at the details.
You need really good lighting to be able to have some details in the pictures, and supposing that you do have good light, have the phone at the exact focus distance (no autofocus here), your hands steady and everything, the picture is just 2MP so the details will not be visible.
I am going to include here the same comparison I did in the first impressions post between a macro photo and a cropped picture from the main sensor. Take your own conclusions whether it is necessary to have a dedicated macro camera or not.
And this takes me to think about the macro pictures we’ve been seeing around that were taken with this phone. Surely they look good when they are 4 images put together in a post on X or here in the community, but the moment you open one of them, you inmediately notice the lack of sharpness.
Now I understand that the main reason to include this camera was because Nothing used the same PCB as in the CMF Phone 2 Pro, so they had to put some kind of camera there. But I would’ve preferred a depth sensor, or even no camera there, instead of having a near-useless macro lens and claiming that they did it because of how many good macro pictures the community have been posting.
Conclusion:
This phone has been a bit controversial, mainly because of the bloatware and the macro camera. While I agree with most of the critics, it still doesn’t change the fact that this phone costs 250€ at launch price.
From my perspective, the quality/price ratio is among the best on the market. Surely you can get better hardware for that price tag, but a better software? I don’t think so. Nothing has really cooked with this one, because this phone will allow people to experience the Nothing OS, the essential space and the True Lens Engine. All of this with 5 years of updates. It’s a very solid deal for someone who only wants a phone that works good and can ocasionally take some good pictures.
This is not a phone for enthusiasts, but for the masses. And the masses don’t care much about having Facebook pre-installed, or the fact that the macro camera does not have good detail. They care about having something that works and looks good, and this phone does both.
I really, really hope that nothing listens to the critics and think about it twice before putting useless cameras on their devices. But in the meantime, I’ll be recommending this phone to the people that want something on the affordable price range.
Thanks for reading until here, and leave a comment giving your opinion about the phone or any questions you have!
