There’s something undeniably elegant about Nothing’s approach to the Phone 3(a) and the Phone 3(a) Pro. The chronology in the broader scheme of things may be a little different — the perspective here being the next flagship comes later contrasting the competition’s approach — but there is little else to suggest that the British tech startup has lost any of its uniqueness. The Nothing Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro couldn’t really have been any more different in key areas, whilst keeping the same foundation. This approach is one that ideally gives buyers a nice array of choice, but nothing too drastic that they end up with a confused purchase.
The Nothing Phone 3(a) prices will start at ₹22,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage spec as the entry point, with an around ₹2,000 increment each for the 8GB+256GB and 12GB+256GB upgrades. Whereas, the Phone 3(a) Pro prices start at ₹27,999 with similar memory and storage combinations defined by also similar pricing band differences. One of the prime competitors would be the OnePlus Nord 4 (prices start at ₹29,999 before various discounts and cashback that remain in play), as well as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro (priced ₹24,999 onwards) and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ (prices start around ₹30,999) while the new Vivo V50 (this is priced ₹36,999 onwards) is specifically competition for Nothing Phone 3(a) Pro.
Take for example the visual elements of the Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro. The 6.77-inch display size (it is a flexible AMOLED, to be specific) gives both phones the same footprint and largely the same in-hand feel. Changes galore, if you look closely. One of them being the swapping of polycarbonate for proper glass as your window to the transparency that has adorned Nothing smartphones over generations. And a view of the Glyph Interface, the collection of LEDs on the back that still come across as a refreshing method of managing app notifications — and there are more that work with it, as time passes.
The Essential Key, you could argue, is an iPhone inspiration at adding another button, but it isn’t, for it’s closely linked to something called an Essential Space app that is essentially an artificial intelligence (AI) powered hub for your notes, pointers and thoughts. Utility and mileage will vary, depending on how you use it and the passage of time as it learns your preferences.
For the demographic that likes to flaunt a new phone, colours also don’t have enough separation between the two lines, except the camera island designing and the number of cameras. A bolder approach to differentiation could have elevated their visual appeal and individuality, particularly when the two are being launched at the same time and will sit fairly close in terms of pricing. The transparent back design’s novelty is wearing away now. Appreciated though, is an intent for continuity, and understandable since that gives Nothing phones a distinguishing factor in a sea of Android phones.
There is little to complain on the performance front for both the Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro, since they’re powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip. There is of course the AI aspect that is more than sufficiently ticked off too, with the chip that’s in play. Nothing claims optimisations for around 440 typical mobile tasks (that’s how they categorise it), and it clearly shows as you begin settling in with the Phone 3(a) or the Phone 3(a) Pro as your primary phone. Nothing OS’s visible and underlying improvements allows either phone to hold performance surprisingly well. Without heating up, it must be noted, and that’s most creditable.
The Nothing Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro’s improvements also must be credit to an extent to improvements to the cooling architecture and clever Nothing OS tweaks. Battery life is equally impressive, comfortably lasting a full day of moderate to heavy use — both phones have a 5000 mAh battery each. The only point of contention you could perhaps find is that the 50-watt wired charging speeds could’ve been faster still. What you get with the Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro isn’t by any means sluggish, but they are unable to match some of the competition which insists on faster charging speeds — OnePlus Nord 4 can charge up to 100-watts while the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+ can top out at 90-watts. At this price point, not having wireless charging, isn’t at all a drawback.
Camera layout is the big difference, but as you realise, there are more similarities as far as the hardware goes. The Phone 3(a) Pro has a 50-megapixel primary wide camera (this is a Samsung sensor), a 50-megapixel periscope camera (this is a Sony LYTIA 600 sensor) and an 8-megapixel ultrawide (again, a Sony sensor). The headline claims include 6x in-sensor zoom (this really works well for most shots) and 60x ultra zoom (you can wring some very usable photos till around 30x even without a tripod) as well as UltraXDR and 4K recording that’s limited to a disappointing 30fps.
Whereas, the Phone 3(a) has a 50-megapixel main and a 50-megapixel telephoto, with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide. Megapixel counts may be similar, but the optical hardware is different, such as varying sensor sizes for the two main cameras in the Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro. The latter’s larger sensor (1/1.56-inch) theoretically captures much more amount of light for each pixel to work with, something that really shines through with the rendition of shadows, photos taken in inconsistent lighting and proper low light photos.
Across both the Phone 3(a) and Phone 3(a) Pro, the first software update that landed on our review devices, has led to significant improvement in overall details for daytime shots, slightly less noise in night time photos and colours overall look significantly better. Dynamic range and contrast need some work, and inconsistent light photos often have a slight noise that’s difficult to eliminate even with edits. Colours could be better still — richness is on point, but colour separation needs to be better if the foreground and background have similar colours in play.
None of these observations are an anomaly for phones that cost as much, because OnePlus and Xiaomi too made significant improvements with software updates in the months after their phones released.
Quite some credit must be given to the way Nothing has optimised the image processing algorithms at work, and the AI layer that most certainly figures prominently in that sequence of events that transpire in the couple of seconds between you tapping the shutter button and till the time the photo shows up in the gallery (Nothing calls it the TrueLens Engine 3.0). The 2x optical zoom is going to be very useful, but even more so would be the 4x lossless in-sensor zoom that doesn’t crop the frame leading to loss of details.
The periscope and telephoto differences (utility is similar, irrespective of classification) between the Phone 3(a) Pro and Phone 3(a) respectively, is perhaps why you should pay that little more for the “Pro” phone. The periscope can do 3x optical zoom, and the periscope macro shots are now becoming a thing for Nothing as well — Vivo’s X200 Pro flagship first gave us a glimpse of telephoto lens that are genuinely versatile, including telephoto macro and telephoto portrait.
In terms of succeeding the Phone 2(a) series, there are important changes. The Plus moniker gives way to a more serious sounding “Pro”, and with that, Nothing has given it the specs and therefore the potential to match that naming scheme. There are significant upgrades across every touchpoint. Nothing OS3.1 is a significant step forward in not just under-the-hood refinement and notching up stability, but also unmatched visual appeal and necessary improvements such as eSIM support (not in India though as the dual nano-SIM is still the method here). Essential Key and Essential Space are a testament to that fact.
Performance leaves little to complain about, though one could argue Nothing’s choice of the Snapdragon 7s Gen3 leaves it ever so slightly behind the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 powered Nord 4 in terms of outright grunt. Valid argument. That said, there is a definitive sense of bravery in everything Nothing is attempting. Be it the design. Be it the software. One can say, specs too. And that bravery translates into a refined smartphone experience. For most intents, we’d recommend stretching that budget for the Phone 3(a) Pro over the Phone 3(a).
Why, you may ask? There are differences between the Phone 3(a) Pro and Phone 3(a) that may matter. Here is a quick snapshot. First, the former has a more advanced periscope camera (50-megapixel Sony sensor, 3x optical zoom, 6x in-sensor zoom, 60x ultra zoom and tele-macro) over the latter’s telephoto camera (50-megapixel Samsung sensor, 2x optical zoom, 4x in-sensor zoom and 30x ultra zoom). Secondly, the Pro may be 10 grams heavier (211 grams compared with 201 grams), but that’s purely reassuring heft that’s otherwise barely noticeable. The Pro phone has a more advanced Glyph interface cluster.
If your smartphone equivalence of the Gaussian elimination method brings you to the Phone 3(a) Pro and Phone 3(a) as the alternative flagship Android options, the choice really is very clear.
