I’ve owned Nothing devices since 2021 and picked up nearly every Nothing Phone release along the way. I was part of the community mostly as a concept designer and I also dabble in software. Here’s my take on the Nothing Phone (3).
What I care about (and what this is not)
This is not a specs flex piece. What matters to me is design consistency, the software experience, and solid real-world performance. I tend to keep with OS for long stretches - roughly four years on iOS, then four years on Android - so long-term OS feel and update strategy matter more than headline benchmark numbers.
Design and software feel
Nothing’s identity has always been about transparency and glyphs. The Phone (3) keeps the transparency but replaces the glyph system with a matrix screen. That change worried some people, but in daily use it works well. NOS (Nothing OS) feels intentionally constrained in places, which I like - it gives a cohesive, designed experience while still letting the open nature of Android shine through where it counts. The result is a phone that feels deliberate, not chaotic, and that has been my biggest draw.
Build quality feels excellent. Everything on the Phone (3) comes together solidly and thoughtfully. For contrast, I recently had to exchange an iPhone Air at the Apple Store because of a manufacturing defect, which made the Phone (3) fit and finish stand out to me.
Performance
There’s chatter online that if a phone is not using the 8 Elite, silicon it must be “not good.” I don’t buy that. In everyday use the Phone (3) is perfectly adequate. I played games without stutters and even ran Blender on the device - it handled heavier workloads better than a OnePlus Open I’ve used, which positioned itself as a performance beast at launch. In short, you can expect smooth real-world performance that matches how most people actually use their phones.
Final thoughts
Letting this phone go felt a little bittersweet. It’s a polished, well-designed device with a coherent software identity and real-world performance that matters more than benchmark bragging rights. I appreciated being part of the Nothing review program through this release, and I’m glad the team made the choices they did with the Phone (3).
