Goodbye, Nothing Phone (3) 👋 — 10 Months of “Innovation”

DenkLaut

malutki7 Why “whiner”? I’ve owned every model since the first Nothing Phone, and I completely agree with the criticism. The Nothing Phone 3 causes no end of trouble and generates enormous heat, which has permanently damaged the battery.

On top of that, taking portraits in low-light scenes is an absolute disaster.

Im very disappointed with the Nothing Phone 3 and hope the Nothing Phone 4 comes out soon.

The Nothing Phone 3 has so many bugs that simply haven’t been fixed for months that, as a Nothing Phone 3 owner, you really feel like you deserve some compensation.

grepGander

DenkLaut generates enormous heat, which has permanently damaged the battery.

Highly unlikely because “enormous heat” is not that much higher than pretty much all other brands in the same performance spectrum. The phone would shut down/turn off if it was dangerous, anyway. The problem with the battery is - the battery. It’s silicon carbon, and there’s a good reason why barely anyone uses them. The reason is that they age rapidly.

“A battery engineer speaking to David Imel (shared on the Waveform podcast) explained that silicon-carbon batteries age more quickly than traditional batteries, losing more capacity over their first 2-3 years compared to more broadly available battery tech.”

https://9to5google.com/2025/07/16/silicon-carbon-battery-problem/

DenkLaut

grepGander

That’s just not true. I’ve even worked as a chef, so I can cope with the heat just fine. But at times it was so hot that you couldn’t even touch it. This problem was particularly bad this summer.

The battery had discharged so much that you could actually watch the percentage figures plummet

hauntedwolf

The whole point of these complaint threads is pretty simple: to make the company realise that people who actually bought their $$FLAGSHIP$$ device are facing real problems.

We all know companies don’t sell phones at cost price. So if customers are spending their hard earned money on a flagship, expecting the basics to work properly isn’t exactly asking for the moon.

There’s a simple saying: “The baby who cries gets the milk.”

That’s exactly the point. If something is wrong, people need to speak up. If nobody complains, the company can simply assume everything is fine. Complaints aren’t necessarily hatred towards the brand. Sometimes they’re exactly what pushes a company to acknowledge and fix things.

And yes, acknowledgement is happening. But acknowledgement without an actual fix eventually becomes just a polite way of saying “we know.”

So please don’t blindly defend a company just because you like its brand, vision or products. Being a supporter doesn’t mean pretending everything is perfect.

Don’t be a blind believer in anything. Support the brand when it’s doing right, and call it out when it’s doing wrong.

That’s not being a hater. That’s being a customer.

gineok2

hauntedwolf

I’m totally okay with you. And nothing really broke my heart with Nothing Phone (3). I mean, this is a super phone on the paper, but in reality, I’m a bit disappointed by the hardware.

grepGander

Do you Mean the Pixel 9 or 10 is better in all points ?

What do you think about the linear OS on the Nothing Phone? And do you try to connect it on the screen to use it like a mobile pc ?

UpawNothing

Something, i feel like maybe i push the wrong button or something because the screen becomes black, but when I restart it, it works really well. So maybe it is me. I do not know.

UpawNothing

gineok2 My screen will go black when I answer a call with the phone still on my desk. I have to push the power button to bring the screen back on so I can select speaker for a hands free call.

grepGander

gineok2 Do you Mean the Pixel 9 or 10 is better in all points ?

What I wanted to say is that Pixels are like Nothing phones in all regards - but better and more 😁 Including the mentioned privacy aspect, which can also be mostly disabled like with all Nothing phones, or completely disabled with custom ROMs (a much larger choice of those than with Nothing). Bootloader is unlocked too, you can root them just fine… They’re not being advertised as such anymore, as when they were Nexus, but they’re still very much developer phones.

gineok2 What do you think about the linear OS on the Nothing Phone? And do you try to connect it on the screen to use it like a mobile pc ?

Lineage OS? Officially it’s available only on two Nothing devices, sadly:

All Nothing phones use USB 2.0 (😑) so that rules them out for any normal (and serious) usage as mini PCs. Pixels (and other phones too, Samsung with their DeX for example) can do that perfectly fine because they use USB 3.1 or faster. USB 2.0 has insufficient bandwidth.

gineok2

grepGander

And for that, nothing just modedit: redacted her own phone.

Without including 3.2 USB, the company seems to choose to be like any other company.

The hope I have is Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, they include the modification they don’t include in Nothing (3) (exept USB 3.2 but its not a flagship)

grepGander

gineok2 And for that, nothing just fucked up her own phone.

Without including 3.2 USB, the company seems to choose to be like any other company.

The funny thing is that their reasoning for 2.0 was “keeping cost in check”. Which is completely fair, I agree…

…if the 3.x wasn’t slightly cheaper 😁

gineok2

UpawNothing

The article in question mentioned software issues with the Pixel 10 model that have since been resolved.

I don’t think I have much to worry about by purchasing its predecessor—which is a proven device, to boot.

From that same article:

“This brings me back to what I said in the introduction: the Pixel 10 Pro is a better phone today than it was at launch, and not just because Google added numerous new features. It’s also because the company didn’t hesitate to remove useless features, only to reintroduce them once they had been improved.”

Thanks for sharing, though; my own research hadn’t turned up that particular flaw.

grepGander

I found this on Reddit (it worth what it worth):

"No, I tried my NP3 with the Dell dock featuring DisplayPort output.Strangely, the NP3 kernel is built with a redriver for DisplayPort—and we’re talking about a release-type kernel here, not a debug

one:CONFIG_USB_REDRIVER_NB7VPQ904M=mhttps://www.onsemi.com/products/signal-conditioning-control/redrivers/nb7vpq904m

And it’s odd that it’s actually USB 3.1, yet the kernel was built assuming a USB 2

PHY:CONFIG_USB_M31_MSM_EUSB2_PHY=m

Maybe it’s electrically USB 2? The Phone 3a doesn’t use this configuration line, but the SD 7s Gen 3 also supports USB 3.1 with DisplayPort output capabilities.I recall that all iPhone 15 models support DisplayPort output, even though the base model is limited to USB 2 transfer speeds. Perhaps Nothing tried to do something similar but couldn’t get it working."

So, from what I gather, the feature was implemented but not finalized. It’s a real misstep.

gineok2

Damn, what a bad choice…

I just managed a phone video call just right now and the surface of the Nothing is quite hot.

So is another black dot in the test list… I’m so sad, actually 😥

grepGander

DenkLaut That’s just not true. I’ve even worked as a chef, so I can cope with the heat just fine. But at times it was so hot that you couldn’t even touch it.

DenkLaut This problem was particularly bad this summer.

Because it’s summer. You can’t expect to have a 30°C device in a 35°C ambient temperature. The test above was at 22°C room temp. Add at least +10°C more for a 32°C room temp. Shutdown temperature is when a battery controller reports 65°C.

DenkLaut

grepGander

Which has happened on several occasions. I then installed BatteryGuru, which confirmed the extreme temperatures.

I don’t know why you’re accusing me of lying.

It was simply never like that with the countless mobiles I’ve had before.

I’m just incredibly disappointed and am looking forward to the Nothing Phone 4, which I hope won’t be such a disaster.

grepGander

DenkLaut I don’t know why you’re accusing me of lying.

Never said that. Read again what I said. There won’t be Nothing Phone (4) though.

lilmeh_3LjZEMSb42

Got mine on day dot..was overheating..then a beta update came and bricked it completely for Australian networks. Went to store, instant replacement..and no heating issues.

Im just saying if it’s that bad,and your country has these options, just get a refund?

Anyways, technically mine now costed me $1.

gineok2

lilmeh_3LjZEMSb42

Its what im gonna do actually. I am just waiting for the vendor to respond.

The NP3 is very fun, i can’t accept the overheating problems and the USB issue.

grepGander

gineok2 the overeating problems

Please don’t correct/edit this typo, I love it 😁

gineok2

Yeah… im not really good in english 😅

By ze loo of mailself, Ive edithing hit. 😜

Sirius_EU

gineok2 Yeah… im not really good in english 😅

That’s what Google Translate is for… you can use it too. 👌

Mrk_xBzVtZ2aFA

Yeah, getting heating issue on NP3 as well. And some apps are lagging after 4.1.

Sascha2508

I’ve been using the NP3 since its release—having previously owned the 3a Pro and the 2a—and I can certainly understand the frustration. This isn’t an entry-level smartphone where you might easily overlook moderate flaws simply because it was cheap. With any new Nothing device, you initially get bug-fix updates almost weekly, but once a new model launches, the older ones tend to fall down the priority list. Aside from security patches, it’s been quite a while since the NP3 actually received any bug fixes. I’ve learned to live with the shortcomings, though. For me, the camera represents one of the worst examples of computational photography I’ve seen; the extreme post-processing that kicks in immediately after taking a shot ruins a lot of images—something the NP2a actually handled better. On top of that, there’s poor battery life when using mobile data, a brightness sensor that can’t seem to make up its mind (the AOD brightness constantly fluctuates if a light is on in the room), and various other software quirks. Of course, I’ve reported everything, but I always get the same standard email with the usual runaround—“try restarting it,” and so on. At a price point of around 800 euros, that simply isn’t good enough. Regardless of the company’s size, they really should have focused heavily on fixing bugs and addressing user feedback to make the device perfect. As it stands, unfortunately, it serves as poor publicity.

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