Well, well, well. It’s finally in my hands, somewhat unexpectedly, and I thought I’d discuss my experience so far with it.
BACKGROUND
I was contacted by NOTHING and they asked whether I wanted a chance to receive and review a NP3. Quite simply, I provided contact details and that was it with an expectation that it would arrive on Friday, which it did. I’m quite busy and it required a signature, so I decided to work-from-home that day. Just like all deliveries in Britain, it was supposed to arrive at 09:45-11:00 and there was no sign of it arriving. That was OK as I had about 100 emails to respond to, a few papers to mark, and some lectures to polish for the academic year. However, as time rolled on, I realised that my son (4 yo) had his first settling in session as school at 12:30, which I couldn’t miss. Luckily, the package arrived just in time, to leave at get him from nursery to school for that session and back to nursery.
As I was returning my son to nursery from school (the settling in day was a success), I released that I had no idea what was in the package from NOTHING. All I saw was that it has some NOTHING ® branded tape holding the package shut. What colour would it be (white/smoked?) what size (256/512)? Would there be anything else in the package (yes there was, and perhaps these are some of the freebees/schwag being given out tomorrow).
OPENING THE PACKAGE:
Finally, at around 2pm, I had a chance to open the package. Honestly, it was very reminiscent of my One Plus One when it first arrived back in 2014. Great design. Very nice clean NOTHING ® cable. Very nice PIN ejector. A phone and a soft cover. I love soft covers. With children you will love them too. (My previous phone (Mi 10 Youth Edition from 2020 with a 5X optical periscope) met its death at their hands, even with a cover, but at least it likely lasted longer).
I must also admit that I’m a fan of industrial design and architecture and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Chandigarh Capitol Complex in India and the library quad at UNAM in Mexico City are the first structures that I’ve seen in real life that come to mind when I pulled the phone out of its sleeve. It’s so stunning, the NP3 itself, those structures just immediately flashed into my mind. There’s something about interacting with your environment and trying to understand what the designer(s) wanted you to feel/perceive and that definitely happens with you hold the NP3. The last thing it is, is simply a mobile phone.
Luckily the NP3 was of the smoked variety and man, is it beautiful. I sat there for a few minutes as I’m a decent amateur photographer with about 100k snaps on my dSLRs and I don’t understand how the form doesn’t translate in still pictures. I sat and stared at it and pulled up the top of this forum and still am confused at how it photographs so poorly. Some of the TikTok videos of it looked OK but in person, damn, it is sexy/gorgeous. I slapped the soft cover on (see above) and then realised that if I wanted it to last, it had to have the cover, sadly, as is it stunning, especially in the smoked variant.
FIRING IT UP FOR THE FIRST TIME
The screen is bright, the sounds are great and it’s “snappy.” My stuff pulled over from my CMF1 in about 30 minutes. Then it’s the part I hate about new phones. I have four professional email address (I work at one uni with Google, one with Microsoft) and a school with Microsoft and have a personal gmail account. So, it took a while to get all of the tweaking done with work/personal profiles. I also had to get my earbuds and Garmin watch connected (as I need these tomorrow). And some of the apps need to be logged into and accessed to ensure they function when I press the button. It feels great in the hand. It has heft, the metal frame is great. It’s not too slippery (but I’ll keep the plastic case on for obvious reasons) and really looks/feels the business. Certain car/bicycles/clothing get the ergonomics correct, and man, this NP3 is spot on.
NEW THINGS EXPERIMENTED WITH (GLYPH MATRIX)
I replied to some of the threads on the forum here to test out of the GM and looked at the SDK, which is very detailed. And in a few minutes created this for fun and tried the counter. This is similar to the invention of the laser. It is a very viable solution looking for problem to solve. I’ll love clowning around with it in the meantime.
https://nothing.community/d/36918-bngc-supports-phone-3/10
(ESSENTIAL SPACE)
I find the button far away from accidental touches and once I remap my neurones to push slightly higher on that frame-side, compared to the CMF1, it should be pretty easy to avoid accidental button pushes. I do use a rowing machine daily (TechnoGym Skillrow), so we’ll see how it works with the holder. I recored a bunch of family members shouting ingredients that we needed for dinner into a recording but I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to parse them into text and use ES to create a list. I also haven’t use the chatGPT integration at all.
I will need more time with this.
(CAMERAS)
I did try the default cameras options and it’s was OK. I fired up the EXPERT setting and that’s what I really wanted. Very easily accessible full control (auto/manual switches easily) and I can rapidly control the ISO/WB/SS/etc… and it’s quite nice. I’m taken over 100k photos on dSLRs and I need that manual control and here it was effortless.
I need to more time to test this fully and produce some reviewable photos.
(CHARGING)
I use a third-party 30W PD/PPS-enabled charged and the NP3 pulled 25W+ through it (AccuBatteryPro) and charged pretty quickly. It calibrated at roughly 5250mAh with a stated capacity of 5150mAh.
(HONEST FIRST DAY)
- It is a stunning phone. It looks great (especially in smoked) and runs great. The picture is bright and crisp with detail. I usually flip between SKY/BBC/ZDF/RT/NPR live news streams and listen while I cook for the fam and it sounds great/looks good over the fans in the kitchen. It is beautiful to hold and use.
- The cameras hold promise but I haven’t had time to “learn the lenses” yet. I need to figure out where it’s good/poor and work to extract the most out of the conditions. I won’t post any serious attempts yet as it wouldn’t do the hardware justice.
- Essential space could be extremely interesting. I need more time with it.
- The GM is already interesting. There will be uses for it. The SDK is detailed.
(MY TAKE ON THE CURRENT REVIEWS)
I think most reviewers reviewed it somewhat OK but I don’t see a lot of people doing detailed reviews. There’s a lot of comparisons of specs for money. (If a piece of hardware is simply a list of specs, then why review it at all? just compare the lists and be done with it.) I don’t feel that most reviewers really use the phones and provide detailed responses. I did find one German reviewer that sees it similar to me here:
(FUTURE REVIEWING)
I like to play to with technology, hence I’ve liked NOTHING ® back to the days when I bought a One Plus One on a Tuesday (or was it a Wednesday) without an invite. I really feel the NP3 is onto something VERY, VERY interesting and it’s really up to the community to decide what direction it heads.
I will continue to provide reviews, once I get the Essential Space working and will test all GM ideas that come about. I will likely be outside the remainder of the weekend and be testing the phone (especially the cameras and zoomed videos) all weekend.
(CURRENT ADVICE)
If I needed a phone and I was in this £700-£1000 bracket, it would be the only choice. It’s very different and will stand out. I like things because they’re interesting (phones, cars, furniture, etc…) and I usually need at least one to function as a human (sofa/jacket/phone/bicycle/etc…), so it’s hard to negate the promise that this NP3 has. I hope that NOTHING ® and the community fulfils that promise and a very long and detailed test of the NP3 is a good place to start.
