Table of Contents
Launched on March 4, 2025, Nothing has reinforced their devices with a zoom lens for the first time. I have used the Nothing Phone 3a Pro for two weeks, and there’s a lot I have to say about it—the good, the bad, the cameras, the new button, and whether this device is worth it.
If you want to know about this device, then you’ve reached the perfect place.
This is a review unit provided by Nothing as a part of the Nothing Community Review Program, and is a loaner device. I am not being paid to write this review, and there has not been any editorial input from Nothing. This is the first time this review is being published.
DESIGN
Right out of the box, the first thing to notice is the camera module. It is relatively huge, such that it acts as a grip for your index and middle finger. I would describe this like an in-built PopSocket. This device will completely change the way you hold a phone.
I like the camera module, it has grown on me very much. It’s refreshing to see something different from phone manufacturers. One thing to notice is that the entire camera bump is made of glass, so there are going to be a lot of fingerprints. Just like the camera module, the entire back panel is also made of glass. This does give the Phone (3a) Pro a premium feel, but it attracts fingerprints.
Even though it features a glass back, the phone does not support wireless charging.
When keeping the phone screen up, it has a little bit of an incline to it, and the phone does wobble. But with this phone, it wouldn’t be practical to keep it screen-up because of the glyph lights.
Some design quirks of the Phone (3a) Pro include:
A. A concentric circle pattern within the camera module. This gives the device an elegant look.
B. Visible screws.
C. Subtle branding.
D. Lines in the tube-like design pattern.
DISPLAY AND SPEAKERS
The phone features a Full HD+ AMOLED 6.77″ 120Hz display, the same as the (3a). While it lacks LTPO technology, it does have a dynamic refresh rate switching, which means it will change the refresh rate between 120Hz, 90Hz, 60Hz, and 30Hz depending on what’s going on.
For example, while scrolling through apps, it will take advantage of 120Hz, but when you open YouTube, it goes to 90Hz because scrolling does not matter very much in YouTube. When you open a video, it lowers the refresh rate to 60Hz.
This is done in order to save battery life. You, however, always have the option to set the refresh rate to either 60Hz or 120Hz permanently.
The Nothing Phone 3a Pro’s brightness can reach 800 nits using the slider (typical brightness), but with adaptive brightness turned on, it can reach 1300 nits (High Brightness Mode), and while watching HDR content, the device can reach its peak brightness of 3000 nits.
Hence, watching content on this device feels pretty good. It supports YouTube HDR, but does not support Netflix HDR.
The phone features a stereo speaker setup, which does its job well. Watching content and using the speaker phone gives you a decent experience.
SOFTWARE
This is my favorite aspect of this device, apart from the cameras.
Nothing devices are built over Android (AOSP), providing a custom version of the operating system known as Nothing OS. Hence, this OS provides a very close-to-stock, Google Pixel-like experience.
The good thing with this is that the software does not have any bloatware! That means no “Hot Apps”, “Game Center”, or even an alternate software store that keeps on sending you notifications. It is very clean.
Pre-installed apps were minimal, only including Google Apps and the Nothing X app (for wearables). Note that Fitbit does come pre-installed. This is because of Google’s acquisition of Fitbit.
Nothing OS heavily utilizes widgets and allows the user to pack the homescreen completely with apps and widgets. This approach not only fills the homescreen, making it aesthetically pleasing, but also provides simplicity and functionality.
Nothing’s take on Android offers excellent icon-theming. This OS offers an in-built icon pack, which features icons with a black background and a white logo. The good part is that ANY app you download will automatically be themed as per this icon pack. This offers a clean look.
You even have the option to set the icon pack only to the home screen, which helps a lot with readability.
The software experience has been fantastic for me. I haven’t experienced any bugs in the software. So it is generally very stable.
The app-opening and closing animations look nice when opened and closed slowly, but if you try to open and close the apps quickly, the animations fail to render properly, resulting in a not-so-pleasant experience.
There is no parallel processing of animations, so if you try to open another app before an app has finished its closing animation, it will skip the closing animation and open the other app.
BATTERY
The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro has a 5000 mAh battery; the battery backup on this device is fantastic. This is one of the major advantages of this phone.
You can easily get 6-9 hours of screen-on time consistently. The battery is an absolute beast.
The battery drain while using the camera extensively, as I’ve noticed, is around 25% or so in around 45 minutes.
Talking about charging speeds, the device supports 50W wired charging, and Nothing claims it can go from 1-100 in 56 minutes, and 1-50 in 19 minutes.
But in my use, this wasn’t the case. I conducted a charging test using my MacBook’s 30W charger, with which a 25W charging speed was used. For context, I tried using my OnePlus 11R’s 100W charger, but I only got a 15W speed from that.
These were the times I noted:
Test Start: 15%
10 minutes: 31%
15 minutes: 38%
30 minutes: 52%
50 minutes: 78%
60 minutes: 93%
75 minutes: 99%
PERFORMANCE
Under the hood is a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which is just decent. This is not at all a performance-centric device, so if the goal is to get the best performance, then this is not it.
I ran a few tests, and it performed okay in them. I did do a stress test, resulting in the battery dropping from 68% to 50% in 45 minutes, and the temperature reaching a peak of 42° C.
I also did some gaming tests. First, I played eFootball (formerly PES), and I had all graphics set to high (Stadium graphics and Player graphics). The maximum supported frame rate is 60fps (not device specific). When I tried playing with max graphics, I was only averaging 47- 50fps. Battery drain was 2% in around 8 minutes, and the device heated to 40° C. But when I set the graphics to standard, I was easily averaging 58- 60fps. So, playing eFootball with max graphics will not let you utilize the max fps.
The second gaming test I did was with BGMI. On this device, the game can support 120fps. But when I set the game to 120fps by choosing the ‘Smooth’ graphics and setting the frame rate to ‘Ultra Extreme’, I was only able to get 90fps. This issue was faced by multiple users and has since been reported. I believe Nothing can fix this with a software update.
I played BGMI for about 30 minutes, and the battery dropped from around 35% to 23%. The device heated up to 40° C. At first, I played with high graphics and fps set to 60, where I was consistently able to maintain 58- 60fps. As I said earlier, I was unable to get 120fps, and my fps was capped at 90. But still, 90 fps was consistently maintained. Overall, playing BGMI was very smooth.
This just means you can game fine on it. But if gaming is your priority, you have way better options.
Here are some tests I ran with GeekBench 6 and AnTuTu.
The biggest “deal-breaking” aspect of this device on the spec sheet is UFS 2.2. Even I considered this a dealbreaker and the biggest con of this device.
But after using it, I have to say, it isn’t as bad as it seems. Optimization saved the device. From my experience of using this device for 14 days, my OnePlus 11R, which has UFS 3.1, has lagged more times than the Phone (3a) Pro, which has UFS 2.2.
In my usage, I have not faced any sort of major lag on Nothing OS. Since this skin is based on AOSP, it handles UFS 2.2 excellently. Now I will say that UFS 2.2 isn’t the most desired, especially on a phone which costs 30k, but it seems that this device has undergone severe optimization, both hardware and software. In fact, I ran a storage test for the Phone (3a) Pro, and this shows it is fast in app performance and real-world usage. This taught me one thing: try out the device before judging it.
CAMERA
Now, this is my favorite aspect of this device. The cameras are absolutely brilliant. This phone is very much camera-centric, as it is clear that Nothing has been allocating resources to make the camera the best.
I have had so much FUN using this camera, because this can take beautiful shots. And the periscope is phenomenal. Kudos to Nothing for adding such a good zoom lens into this phone for this price.
I can 100% guarantee you that any person who uses this device will most of the time only use the periscope. This is because it is so very addictive! You use it one time, then twice, then thrice, then again and again and again, and you will have yourself a gallery full of amazing pictures.
I’m not going to copy-paste the spec sheet, so I’ll brief it. The phone has a 50/50/8 camera configuration, with a 50MP selfie camera. It supports up to 4k 30fps recording, both on the selfie and the rear camera.
A surprising fact about the camera of this device is that I have rarely faced any lag.
To test out how good this camera can handle shots, I spam-clicked 54 images in a row, and to my surprise, there was absolutely no lag. All 54 images came out fine. This is very impressive.
The times I faced lag were when I opened the camera app after a long time with other apps in RAM, and when I received a call while I was on the camera app. 95% of the time you use the camera, you’ll be fine without any lag.
I did face a concerning bug a couple of times, however. I was taking pictures of birds using the periscope, and the entire scene randomly went out of focus. I had to tap in to focus, and after that, it was fine. Still, it was weird.
Everything else aside, let me show you some camera samples. See for yourself how good this camera is.
Main Camera
Periscope
Now let me show you some samples of the best thing about this device: the periscope. I’ve faced no lag while using the Periscope. It is that good! Here are some of my best and favorite shots.
Thanks to the fast shutter speed, you can get amazing shots of birds. Just switch to the periscope and fire away, and you’re guaranteed to get some good bird pictures. It is fast, it is easy, and it is good, and it works.
The telephoto lens doubles as a macro lens. This lets you take ‘telemacro’ shots, and it is absolutely wonderful. There’s a dedicated mode in the camera app (the macro mode doesn’t really make any difference from what I can understand; you can achieve the same results from the normal photo mode by switching to either 3x or 6x), which utilizes the periscope, allowing you to take close-up images of things in 3x or 6x. You have to be very still, though, and you need a lot of patience!
The ultrawide lens does alright. It isn’t the best, not the worst. Although what I have noticed is that it does fine when the exposure is very low. Honestly, I would’ve been totally fine without an ultrawide lens on this device. I rarely use it. Trading this off for UFS 3.1 would’ve been better.
It only gets better from here. With the (3a) series, Nothing introduced the ability to use LUTs (stands for “Look Up Table”, these are colour-grading files that can alter the colours of your image, in essence, a preset).
This ALONE makes this phone worth it. Why? Because you can take cinematic shots like the ones below. And you can get hundreds of presets, made and shared by the community. You can even make your own presets (or just ask ChatGPT!) and even download them from elsewhere! This has been the best thing in my experience. I was actually happy with the shots I was able to take.
In social media terms, images from this device using LUTs are ready to be shared.
(Images 1, 2, and 3 are shot with the ‘Amelie’ LUT, made by 𝕏/Twitter user Arjun Koroth, and image 4 was shot with ‘LeicaBlad Vibrant’ LUT, also by Arjun Koroth.)
On the note of videos, you can take 1080p @ 30fps or 60fps, and 4K videos only at 30fps. The same applies to the selfie camera as well. Video quality is good, and so are the mics. You can zoom in on 4K videos, and the quality is maintained very well. No 4K 60 is a big bummer, especially on a camera-centric device.
Unfortunately, though, you can only use LUTs on images and not videos. If you could’ve been able to do that, this would’ve been a no-brainer device for videography. This would’ve made up for the lack of no 60fps. Hopefully, this can be added via a software update.
(Kindly set the video quality to 2160p/4k in the video settings to get the best clarity)
ESSENTIAL KEY
Following the trend of adding new buttons, Nothing took its voyage into the ocean of AI features. The new ‘Essential Key’ button acts as your second memory.
You can basically push and hold the button, tell it something that is going on in your mind, and release it.
Press EK once: Allows you to write down your thoughts.
Press and hold EK: Allows you to record your thoughts, and it will transcribe it (while still maintaining your recording).
Press EK twice: Opens Essential Spaces.
It will get stored in an app called “Essential Spaces”, which is accessible either by opening it through the app library, or by doing what most people will do, double-clicking the Essential Key.
There, you can find all your memories. At the top, you can see that it will create reminders for you. This is based on keywords that AI will identify.
Typically, saying something like “Remind me”, “I have to”, “At time/place”, or it will extract such information from an image and form a to-do list.
And that’s about it. You can basically use it to quickly remind yourself about something sometime, and just use it as a place to capture fleeting thoughts.
You ask me? I dig this idea. These are things you usually jot down on a notebook. But you’re saying I get a physical button and I can press it to capture my thoughts? I’m in.
Sure, a lot of people think it is unnecessary to add a physical button, which I partially agree with, but I also think that it would’ve been a bit conflicting trying to do this with the power button.
Some will argue you can just ask Google Assistant to record something for you, but I say that Nothing has incorporated this system so very well with Nothing OS. It feels very good.
But there are certainly many problems with it. For instance, once you’ve made an entry, you cannot edit it. Nothing has confirmed they are working on making it editable. And the transcription is pretty bad, because half of the time, it is going to get something wrong.
The other flaw is that storage is local, which means that you can only access this on your phone, and there is no apparent backup for this. You will not even be able to access this on the web, which is a major drawback. But again, Nothing said they are working on this too.
Also, I’ve been accidentally pressing the Essential Key for the power button, which sometimes does get annoying. So you’re going to want to try and rewire your muscle memory! But I did notice that pressing the Essential Key on the lock screen will simply wake the phone up.
THE GOOD
I like a lot of things about this device.
1. Ability to add LUTs. This is a very unique thing, and considering that Nothing is offering this in this price range is absolutely wonderful. This makes it so much better as a camera-centric device. You can take so many amazing pictures.
2. NothingOS: a clean and bloatware-free software. Very fun to use, allows simple and clean homescreens and lockscreens. Beautifully implements widgets.
3. Excellent periscope. Considering this price range, this is very good. Makes you addicted, wanting to keep using Periscope again.
4. Glyph lights: not a gimmick. It might seem like one, but it actually does good stuff.
- For example, you can set apps in the “Essential Notifications” list. Whenever a notification comes from the app, one of the glyph lights will keep being turned on. It will definitely catch your eye, and you will notice it.
- “Flip to Glyph” allows you to flip your phone to turn it into silent mode. Whenever a notification comes, only the glyph lights will light up, and no noise will be made.
- Glyph timer: You can set a “Glyph Timer” for a desired amount of time, and the glyph strip will show you the progress of your timer. It will start from the top, and it will slowly go down.
- Glyph progress: A bit similar to Apple’s live activities, “Glyph Progress” will use the glyph lights to show you the progress of your Uber ride or Zomato order.
5. Amazing battery life. Lasts for days depending on use, and can easily get 8-9 hours of SoT.
6. Essential Key: an interesting initiative. This is actually a very good idea and is beautifully incorporated into the operating system. This is something that is very likely to be copied by the big dogs.
THE BAD
There are always two sides to a coin. Overall, this device is good, but there are certain pet peeves and shortcomings I find with it.
1. No 4K 60 fps option. Considering that this is a camera-centric device, no 60 fps on 4K is a bummer.
2. UFS 2.2. However good it is, it is still inferior to UFS 3.1. Although it works very well as of now, we can only hope for it to hold up like this in the future. That depends on how good Nothing will keep on optimizing it.
3. Fingerprint magnet back glass. You have to keep on wiping it, or use a transparent case or skin. It gets annoying after one point, and dust accumulation in the camera island’s base. It accumulates very quickly. You have to keep on cleaning it with a tiny brush, or once again, use a case or skin.
4. Shortcomings with the Essential Key. No web access, no edit option, and no way to export them.
5. Lens flare (as of now). You will face lens flare when an image of a bright light is taken. This will hopefully be fixed soon.
6. Undercooked Nothing Gallery App. A bunch of features are still lacking.
- It uses Google Photos’ editing tools.
- What I want most in the Nothing Gallery app is for photos to be sorted depending on the lenses they are taken with. So images from the main lens go to a folder, images from the ultrawide lens go to another folder, and so on.
- The Nothing Gallery App automatically sorts images based on the type, like nature, people, animals, transport, etc. But it only sorts when the device is charging and turned off. And even when you do that, not all the images are sorted.
7. Charging is not fast enough, and there is no charger in the box. And to get the supported 50W charging, you have to buy a CMF charger.
8. Mediocre performance and haptics for 30k.
CONCLUSION
At the end of my 14-day experience with this phone, I say it is a very good device. This is perfect for someone who wants a phone with a good camera and software. Mobile photography enthusiasts who are on a budget are going to love this one.
Nothing OS is mostly amazing. It is like Pixel OS, but has Nothing’s flavour to it. OS will not disappoint. > Despite UFS 2.2 on paper, this phone actually holds up pretty well in real life.
Considering the price of ₹29,999 for the 128GB variant and ₹31,999 for the 256GB variant, I’d recommend getting the extra storage because I’ve already taken over 750 images in a span of 14 days.
The Essential Key function is truly very interesting, and I’ll almost term it “innovative”.
For my final verdict, I will term this phone excellent if you’re in a budget, looking for a phone with good cameras, software, and decent performance.
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