Time for me to share my first impressions of the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite, which I new have exactly 7 days. The impressions will be a bit limited though, because I'm unable to use it as my daily driver because of the lack of esim. I got the phone just in time before a left on a long weekend trip. So I used that time mostly for some photography. All photos I shot, were taken with my (3a) Pro as well (framing the same scene) so hopefully this will provide some more insights in how these 2 phones compare camera wise.
As mentioned in earlier phone reviews: I'm not a photographer, I'm a point-and-shoot guy with 0 technical knowledge what a good photo looks like, I already struggle with finding an interesting composition. So bare with me!
Learning about the (3a) Lite surprised a bit to be honest, as far as I know the (3a) series was earlier announced as 'complete', so a new addition to the family was unexpected. I always thought the CMF phone range would fill the gap to the entry market for Nothing, but probably after the earlier announcement regarding CMF and its future, the Lite would now fill this for Nothing.
A second surprise for me was the little Glyph on the back on the phone. Although it's just a dot, it still brings some additional functionality like we used to (like: Flip to Glyph notifications and Essential notifications). After the introduction of Phone (3) and its Glyph Matrix I didn't expect seeing another Glyph light in newer models.
The design on the back feels just a little too minimal for me to really get that Nothing feeling. If you look quickly you barely notice it still has some extra details. So it doesn't have that same 'standing out' feeling for me.
Another topic that brought a lot of discussion in the past week was the introduction of Lock Glimpse and the pairing ads, which I experienced the first time while setting up the (3a) Lite. Although this is not a feature I would use myself or am happy to see it being added, I do have some understanding why it would fit a Lite model phone (but only Lite). Due to the entry market pricing of this phone, Nothing is not there yet to make up for these profits with their other models.
Lastly what I noticed during these past few days is the lack of stereo speakers. I often watch some YouTube on my (3a) Pro and compared to the Lite you clearly hear the thin mono sound while watching videos. Due to the lack of a sim, I'm not able to see anything useful regarding battery life. That wouldn't be fair.
So, let's move on to the photos!
Note: all photo's were shot on NothingOS 3.5 | Galaxian-V3.5-250927-2253
Shot 1:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 2:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 3:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 4 - 2x zoom:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 5:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 6:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 7:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 8:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 9:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 10:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 11:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 12:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 13 - 2x zoom:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
Shot 14:
(3a) Lite:
(3a) Pro:
