Phone (3a) Pro Teardown

Rob ⚡️ · 2025-03-20T11:45:00+00:00

![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206525-572598-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-08-large.jpg "banner") We’re back once more for a peek at the internals of our latest smartphone! Phone (3a) Series brings a host of upgrades over the Phone (2a) Plus, so what better way to visualise those than to lift the lid and see some of that new hardware. In this post, I'm digging into Phone (3a) Pro in Grey. As you probably already know, smartphones are built in layers, almost like a sandwich, so let’s look at the 3 biggest components before focussing in on the internals that fit between them. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-435299-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-02-large.jpg "banner") **🔴 Display** On the front of (3a) Series you’ll find a FHD+ AMOLED flexible LTPS display. At 6.77” this is our largest to date, delivering a 91.43% screen-to-body ratio. With an adaptive 120hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and a 1000 Hz touch sampling rate (+316% faster than (2a) Plus), Phone (3a) Pro brings near instant responsiveness when gaming. There are improvements to brightness too, with 3000 nits peak, (3a)'s display is up to +131% brighter compared to (2a) Plus. Just like the (2a) Plus display, you can see that the rear of the screen features a large heat spreading copper surface. Near the top you’ll spot the selfie camera and proximity sensor cutouts and the slanted square cutout near the bottom is for the in-display fingerprint sensor to see through. The long black flexible printed circuit (FPC) is how our screen receives a display signal; it trails to the top of the device via a hole in the midframe and connects to the motherboard. **🔵 Midframe** On (3a) Pro, the midframe and buttons are produced using 100% recycled aluminium, a more premium material that is equally elegant and durable. As with our (2a) Series, (3a) devices have antennas embedded around the midframe to ensure great reception. In addition, (3a) Series features an additional high-performance gaming antenna in the middle of the frame. This means that when holding horizontally for gaming, the signal won't be blocked by your hands, ensuring stable and smooth gaming network connectivity. Compared to the (2a) Plus this improvement can reduce lag by over 50% when using a mobile network. The big rectangular space in the middle of the midframe is for our 5000mAh battery, with the space above perfectly shaped to house the motherboard. The long, thin space at the bottom is where the daughterboard sits, along with the speaker, optical fingerprint reader and SIM tray. **🟡 Rear Cover** The premium materials found on the midframe continue onto the rear of Phone (3a) Pro where we find a 2.5D rear glass panel, a significant change from the plastics used on our (2a) devices. Integrated at the top is the housing for our triple rear camera system along with the LED flash - let's zoom in a little closer to this part, there's lots to see… ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-937220-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-05-large.jpg "banner") Above, we get a great look at the space inside the camera bump of (3a) Pro. The lenses of each camera are positioned as close together as possible and positioned precisely to ensure a smooth transition between them when you’re zooming in and out. At the very top is a small diffused aperture for the flash LED to fire through. Speaking of cameras, we have some macro shots of the sensors themselves: ‎ **Phone (3a) Pro Camera System** (3a) Pro hosts our best camera system to date, featuring a versatile array of lenses for portraits, macro, long zoom shots and more - it's super versatile. Paired with our new Camera app which enables sharable, Personal Presets and even allows for the use of LUTs via the .Cube format, there's infinite possibilities to explore. Take a look at some of our recent community reviews from [Palmix](https://nothing.community/d/27843-phone-3a-pro-what-no-one-tells-you "Palmix Art"), [Juse](https://nothing.community/d/27910-3a-pro-a-new-dimension-of-photography-for-nothing "Juse") and [Bubi](https://nothing.community/d/28315-phone-3a-pro-review-is-it-worth-upgrading "Bubi") for some example images. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-741210-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-04-large.jpg "banner") ‎ ‎ 🟡 Primary - 50 MP Samsung, f/1.88, 1/1.56” sensor, 84.5° FOV, OIS & EIS 🔵 Ultra Wide - 8 MP Sony, f/2.2, 1/4" sensor, 120° FOV 🟢 Periscope Zoom - 50MP Sony, f/2.55, 1/1.95” sensor, 33.6° FOV, OIS & EIS 🔴 Front - 50 MP Samsung, f/2.2, 1/2.76" sensor, 81.2° FOV ‎ **Phone (3a) Pro Periscope:** (3a) Pro features a flagship periscope zoom, a first for any Nothing smartphone. A prism, paired with a horizontally stacked lens assembly, is able to offer 3x optical zoom and up to 60x ultra zoom. In the above image, you can see how much larger this component is compared to a regular camera module - our teams worked hard to implement these segment-leading zoom capabilities with the least possible impact on overall device thickness. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206525-224505-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-06-large.jpg "banner") 🔴 Prism - reflects light towards the lens assembly and shifts to deliver OIS 🟡 Stacked assembly of 4 lens elements - directs light to the sensor and shifts to attain focus 🔵 Sony LYTIA 600 sensor - turns light into a digital signal which informs the image ‎ ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206912-939407-teardownbts.jpg "banner") *BTS image showing the periscope alongside (3a) Pro's camera system housing* **‎ (3a) Series Chipset** We heard our customers asking us to bring a Snapdragon chip to our midrange lineup, so for (3a) Series, we used the 7s Gen 3. A powerful chip that can handle gaming or multitasking with up to 33% faster CPU and 11% graphics improvement compared to (2a). It’s also more efficient, meaning there’s an overall improvement in battery life. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206524-548020-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-03-large.jpg "banner") We’ve cropped in to the motherboard in the image above, as a bonus, you can see the proximity and ambient light sensors at the very top, helping to illustrate where these chips sit within the device. Shoutout to our photographer David Wilman for removing all of the thermal material so we can get a good look at these components in all their glory! 🔴 Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 5G (SD7635) - Up to 2.5 Ghz built on TSMC’s 4nm process. * 8-cores: 1x 2.5GHz (Cortex-A720), 3x 2.4GHz (Cortex-A720), 4x 1.8GHz (Cortex-A520) * GPU: Adreno 810 * NPU: HTP2 🔵 UFS2.2- Storage + LPDDR4X RAM - learn more about this [in a recent post](https://nothing.community/d/29023-why-we-chose-ufs-22 "UFS 2.2") by @"Raymond"#2947 ‎ ‎**The underside of the Glyph Interface** And finally, the eagle-eyed fans will have spotted that (3a) Series has had a Glyph update, with an adjusted arrangement, all 3 of the Glyph segments are now addressable, with a total of 36 zones. Below we look at the rear of the top left Glyph (Internal notation: Glyph ‘C’), used for our Glyph Progress feature - counting the dots you’ll find 20 addressable segments for a smooth progress animation. ![](https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2025-03-17/1742206525-387294-nothing-phone3a-product-teardown-07-large.jpg "banner") We hope you enjoyed diving into Nothing Phone (3a) Pro’s fresh look and internals with us - as always I had a lot of fun peeking inside our latest product to bring a fresh perspective to you all! > EDIT: Giveaway now closed. Like this post and drop into the comments below and tell us your favourite spec or feature of Phone (3a) Pro for a chance to win one! ⬇️ Click through to view the [full entry requirements and giveaway terms and conditions](https://nothing.community/p/3-phone-3a-pro-teardown-giveaway-terms-conditions). Entries close **April 3, 2025, at 11:00 GMT.**

FatmaY_lmaz

Rob ⚡️ That camera setup iş just awesome, one of mu favourite things about the (3a) Pro!

UlrikHaumann

Looking forward working with the cameras. Looks impressive 🙌💪

The rear-design is also awesome w. the glyph.

….so possible switching as a loooong time Iphone user 😜

OmkarKabde

The periscope camera is fire

really want to try it out

zdano

Rob ⚡️

Nailed the design 🔥

DebasisNaik

Rob ⚡️ Nothing 3a is too smooth. It’s as smooth like fluid. The best ever OS I ever used.

A_M_SHORTS

Rob ⚡️ Always love these teardowns, especially seeing the inside of the new periscope lens which really shines on the Phone (3a) Pro. Very interesting how it all works together! Thanks for sharing

BrianLorenzoBoitano_ex50ZWfJws

I have to admit, the Phone (3a) Pro is seriously tempting me. What intrigues me the most isn’t just the premium design or the super-smooth 6.77” AMOLED display, but the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor. Nothing has worked to optimize it for both power efficiency and performance, and it might just change my mind about the potential of this chip in the mid-range segment. If it handles gaming and multitasking well without draining the 5000 mAh battery, it becomes a really compelling option.

Martina_8Od2KZ1E7s

The Phone (3a) Pro has me seriously curious, and a big part of that is the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. Nothing has fine-tuned this chip to balance power efficiency and raw performance, and I can’t help but wonder—could this be the perfect sweet spot for a mid-range phone? If it delivers smooth gaming, snappy multitasking, and great battery life with its 5000 mAh capacity, it might just prove me wrong about mid-range processors

ChristianSauer

Rob ⚡️ For me the highlight and USP is the design and the periscope camera.

But to be honest, I am a bit disappointed with the ultrawide camera. I use it a lot for documenting (not neccessarily artistic shots) . But I do not want to do final judgment based on numbers. My 3a pro is notbhere yet.

proximittee

Rob ⚡️ I would like to receive nothing. Thank you, please!

ChillinPanda

Rob ⚡️ The features that I appreciate the most are: original design, camera compartment above the average of the sector, the fact that it is a European product…and the price 😃

TinkerStinker

Camera off course. Would love to test it. I also like the idea of Essential Space and would love to see where it goes in the future!

MurffMerlas

Rob ⚡️

I love the new design of the 3a pro and the camera system is just superb 🔥

Nothing beats anything 🚀🔥

_nothing_nowhere_nohow

gaming antenna sounds wild wtf lol

ARUNSANKAR_XMMiKouP4T

Rob ⚡️

Hi Nothing Team,

The specific wise the periscope camera is really good i didn’t expect under is the budget and the feature wise the essential key is rolling his play that is very very Nice No one add in this budget….you’re doing something different than others keep it…

rohan9

@Rob ⚡️ Curious as to why you guys didnt go for a slightly better ultrawide.

Curious as to why you guys didnt go for alteast somthing like a 4k 12 mp ultra wide ⅓ inch sensor, seems like you had a lot of room too. It would have paired well with all the other sensors better in terms of image quality.
The UW seems to have very little detail.
The 2a had a good ultra wide and like it this could have been a really good well rounded setup, seems like a bit of a miss.
Lovin the rest of the phone though. the specs, cameras, design, ui lovely.
PS please bring back the IR, sd card n 3.5mm jack lol

ARUNSANKAR_XMMiKouP4T

Whenever you launch mobile I’m existing for that because of your signature design, camera specific, especially the OS… I’m really addicted… 🤣

WoodenBlock

@"Rob ⚡️Wow, the camera system looks so advanced, also BTW follow you guys on YouTube. 😉

Looking forward to see who wins this giveaway.

SUTANUSAHOO

Rob ⚡️ Already have the phone(2a) , but really want the 3a pro, periscope looks amazing😀😍❤

MeilJeriFrias

Rob ⚡️ The Camera design is unique and I liked it, especially the Periscope inside the camera, and also the chipset which is Snapdragon.

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