British company Nothing, founded by Carl Pei, one of the founders of OnePlus, quickly earned a name thanks to a radical implementation of the same principles from his previous company: Innovation, design, and a sense of community and "unit pride" among owners of its smartphones. These include things like transparent design and the use of lighting elements for notifications and information. We spent several good weeks with their latest smartphone, the Nothing (3a), and came back with conclusions.
Design and Appearance
As mentioned, the Nothing 3a has a unique and distinctive look that immediately identifies it as a Nothing phone or accessory. The 3a follows this trend, featuring a transparent back design (the phone comes in several colors), with an elliptical lens platform at its center. Unlike other phones, it appears as a single elegant piece that rises from the phone’s back, not an extra layer like most lens platforms we know. The lens platform is surrounded by the white lighting elements of the Glyph interface, which is associated with the company, and above it sits the flash. The back is dark-transparent, giving the phone an unconventional look, with only the company logo at the bottom.
The front of the device is also very clean, almost entirely screen, with thin bezels and an earpiece speaker embedded into the frame. The front camera is a punch-hole camera located at the center of the screen, aligned directly above the fingerprint sensor at the bottom of the phone. On the left side, you’ll find the volume buttons (two separate buttons, not a rocker button as is common—we liked this unconventional choice), and on the right side, the power button, below which is the slightly protruding, round Essential button, which we’ll elaborate on later.
And since you can’t be unique all the time, the bottom features the standard holy trinity: Speaker grille, USB-C charging and data port, and the SIM tray. It supports two physical SIM cards but notably lacks support for eSIM—a feature that has become nearly essential for smartphones in 2025. A shame.
In terms of grip, it holds well in the hand, with the index finger naturally resting just below the lens platform, making it comfortable to hold, and it weighs 200 grams. However, the back is very slippery, and if you place it on a surface that isn't rough enough, it will simply start sliding. In this case, using a protective case is clearly advised.
Display and Sound
The Nothing 3a features a beautiful 6.77-inch AMOLED display, which surprised us with its sharpness. With 1080x2392 pixels and a "boost" brightness that can reach up to 3000 nits, alongside a billion colors, HDR10+ support, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a typical brightness of 800 nits—also quite high for regular use—it is very bright and readable even in direct sunlight. That said, there are some reflections.
As expected from an AMOLED screen, colors are rich and deep across all hues (reds, blues, yellows), and the color temperature is very balanced, although Nothing offers fine-tuning to your exact preference and two saturation modes. Even during performance tests, I was surprised by the excellent sharpness of the device. In short, I was very pleased with this screen. It is very good, especially for this price range.
The Nothing 3a’s sound is decent but not amazing. It produces very clear and bright audio with a focus on treble and a well-defined stereo soundstage. However, the bass won’t shake your phone or your soul, and in my opinion, there’s a bit too much reverb—likely due to relatively large resonance chambers around the driver.
Camera
The Nothing 3a’s triple camera setup consists of two main lenses (wide and telephoto) with 50MP sensors and an ultra-wide lens with an 8MP sensor. The main camera has optical image stabilization and PDAF focusing, and the telephoto lens supports 2x optical zoom. It’s a very efficient setup (I assume, like most of the industry, they use Sony sensors), and the front camera boasts 32MP. In terms of video, the rear camera records in 4K and the front in 1080.
Considering the price point, the Nothing 3a’s camera delivers excellent results in all lighting conditions and a variety of scenarios I tested—concerts, night shots, outdoor, indoor, and close-ups. I especially commend the night shots, which come out evenly lit, and the macro photos, which are impressively detailed. You can use the Glyph lights as a fill light—a very cute feature. So in the photography department as well, the Nothing 3a excels.
Performance
The Nothing 3a relies on the third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon S7 processor, paired here with 8GB of RAM (or 12GB in the 256GB storage model) and an Adreno 710 GPU. The Snapdragon 7 series isn't Qualcomm’s flagship line but one tier below. This means the Nothing 3a isn’t a performance beast, but in daily use, I didn’t feel any lag or hiccups. The phone is responsive and pleasant to use (see also the next section).
Naturally, in the synthetic benchmarks I ran, it didn’t shine—certainly not compared to more expensive flagships. In the 3DMark Wild Life test (I couldn’t run others like Solar Bay due to hardware specs), it scored right in the middle—50% of tested devices scored higher, and 50% lower, with 3965 points.
If you’re looking for a phone for heavy gaming or running editing software, this probably isn’t for you. But for all other daily uses—browsing, messaging, even light casual gaming—the Nothing 3a performs respectably.
Interface and Apps
Regarding the interface, I have to tip my hat to Nothing and their OS (which is, of course, Android-based). This was my first experience with a device from the series, and I must say this phone is simply fun to use, with an exceptional Android experience.
The Nothing interface strongly resembles the iPhone’s UI, and if you’re looking for an Android device that provides a similar experience, this is the phone for you. But beyond that, the interface is fun and well-crafted—from the design language, based on dot matrix graphics reminiscent of 8-bit design, to the screen widgets, customizations, and unique apps included by Nothing, which add significant value—like AI Voice, which integrates ChatGPT directly into the interface (they also included Gemini, of course), and can be activated directly from the earbuds if you have Nothing earbuds, or the Essential app triggered by the dedicated side button. Altogether, it creates a pleasant, fun, cool, and unique user experience.
I will note that Essential—a kind of app for documenting thoughts and ideas—feels a bit unnecessary, especially with a dedicated button. It’s less effective than existing alternatives like Notion or Obsidian, and perhaps Nothing should’ve adopted an existing solution rather than reinventing the wheel.
Of course, the rear Glyph lighting is a fun playground on its own. Besides being used for visual notifications like volume level, or functioning as a quiet mode indicator, you can also "compose" a light sequence using a dedicated app. There’s even support for certain third-party apps—like Uber, which can indicate how close your driver is. This interesting interface has great potential for growth, and I’m very curious to see what else they’ll do with it.
To sum up this section: You’ll really enjoy using this device, which is something I haven’t felt in a long time with other phones that just offer the same old standard Android interface—some with more bloatware, some with less. I’ll also note the number of updates I received in just the few weeks I had the phone—at least three—showing that Nothing is continuously working on software improvements, and it shows.
The only real drawback in terms of functionality is the missing eSIM, which is definitely noticeable.
Battery Life
The Nothing 3a relies on a fairly standard 5,000mAh battery that supports 50W charging, giving you about 50% in 20 minutes, or a full charge in just under an hour. However, there’s no wireless charging here, which is a serious omission these days.
Still, the battery life of the Nothing 3a is excellent. I got nearly two full workdays without needing to recharge, and on a single workday, it ended with 30–40% battery left—easily enough to get through the next day with only minor top-ups. On standby, it lasted several consecutive days without issue. I don’t know what kind of magic Carl Pei’s team used, but they’re squeezing every last drop out of that battery. Well done.
Bottom Line
The Nothing 3a is a very surprising phone—especially for its price point. Beyond the excellent multimedia experience it offers, it’s an Android phone built with a slightly different approach, and it shows—from the Glyph lighting that creates a unique user experience to the carefully crafted fonts, tuning capabilities, and added value, especially if you own other Nothing products.
Besides that, the Nothing 3a is a fully decent Android phone that meets all the needs of a daily user, though with two noticeable omissions: eSIM support and wireless charging. Still, for a device starting at NIS 1,350 for the 128GB base version, it’s an excellent smartphone for the price. For those who really need eSIM, you can find it in the more expensive Pro version.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for an Android device for everyday use with an unconventional, thoughtfully designed user experience at an accessible price, the Nothing 3a should be on your shortlist.