Review: Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, A Fresh Take On A Smartphone Design For A Great Price

Nothing is simply a marque that’s doing thing different pinch smartphones and successful a manufacture plagued by convergence to achromatic rectangles, I powerfully support invention successful this space.

The Phone (3a) Pro precocious landed successful Australia, aft having occurrence internationally. Having spent a fewer weeks surviving pinch this device, it’s clear that Nothing is connected a ngo to make tech breathtaking again.

What makes this telephone interesting, is its refreshingly unsocial design, pinch a transparent assemblage and triple LEDs lights, while besides offering coagulated building and a premium characteristic group astatine an affordable price.

In this review, we’ll dive into its design, performance, features, and a fewer areas wherever it could improve, each while keeping an oculus connected really it fits into nan Aussie tech landscape.

Design

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro instantly grabs attraction pinch its unique aesthetic. The transparent back, a signature of Nothing’s lineup. This showcases nan soul components successful a measurement that feels some futuristic and industrial.

Over nan years, transparent chassis person been celebrated successful user gadgets and I’m gladsome to spot it back. Our phones are beautiful pieces of engineering and it’s specified a shame we often wrap them successful cases, hopefully you’ll find a clear 1 if you person to wrap this to support it’s unsocial design.

Part of immoderate smartphone’s creation is nan camera array and Nothing person gone for a information design, which has throwbacks to nan Nokia Lumia series. Around nan edges of this circle are 3 LED lights, by acold nan astir I’ve knowledgeable connected a telephone and there’s a damn bully logic for them.

Not only does nan Glyph strategy illuminate to notify you of calls aliases alerts, it besides offers multi-directional lights which efficaciously makes for a built-in ray ringing for photos. This creates a dramatically different lighting effect connected your photos, erstwhile you drawback a travel and return photos of yourself, your look is evenly lit, giving a overmuch much master result.

When it comes to nan assemblage of nan phone, its slimmer and lighter than galore mid-range options, while that camera array almost doubles nan thickness of nan device.

The telephone achieves nan now expected IP64 standing to guarantee it’ll past particulate and splashes.

Performance

When it comes to speed, nan Nothing Phone (3a) Pro delivers awesome capacity for nan dollars. The telephone is powered by nan Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset and pinch up to 12GB of RAM, it’s handled everything I’ve thrown astatine it pinch ease.

One of nan easiest ways I tin comparison telephone is nan motorboat clip of Pokemon Go, a crippled that is traditionally reasonably aggravated to load. Having done a side-by-side acold motorboat connected some nan Nothing (3a) Pro and my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, nan 2 person virtually identical load times. This consequence is really awesome erstwhile we see nan much than $500 value quality betwixt nan two.

The 6.77″ AMOLED FHD+ show provides a awesome acquisition peculiarly pinch support for up to 120Hz refresh rate. There’s nan expected monolithic 5000mAh artillery that made it done nan time pinch regular use, and erstwhile you request a charge, there’s 50W accelerated charging charging (full complaint successful nether an hour).

Day-to-day usage feels snappy, acknowledgment to NothingOS 3 (based connected Android 15), which is clean, bloat-free, and customizable. I’ve had nary crashes aliases lag, and nan Nothing icon battalion took a spot to get utilized to (you tin move to regular icons), but I liked nan emotion of thing different, while a small quirky, it’s grown connected me.

Features

The telephone packs a batch of features for nan price, including:

6.77″ FHD+ 120Hz AMOLED Display
This surface is simply a highlight—crisp, colorful, and smooth, it’s cleanable for gaming aliases binge-watching. The level creation reduces separator distortion, making it perfect for my sim racing HUD.

Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 Processor
A mid-range powerhouse that handles demanding tasks well. It’s not a flagship killer, but it’s much than capable for astir users, particularly astatine this price.

50MP Triple Camera System
With a 50MP main sensor (OIS), 8MP ultrawide, and 50MP 3x periscope telephoto, it’s versatile and delivers coagulated shots. Low-light capacity is decent, though not class-leading.

5000mAh Battery pinch 50W Charging
Long-lasting and speedy to recharge, this keeps maine going done a afloat time of sim racing aliases activity without worry. No wireless charging.

Glyph Interface
The LED strips connected nan backmost ray up for notifications aliases calls—a fun, functional touch that’s uniquely Nothing.

Eco-Friendly Build
Over 50% recycled integrative makes this a greener choice, appealing to environmentally conscious buyers without sacrificing quality.

Issues and Opportunities

While nan Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is simply a coagulated device, it’s not flawless.

Easily nan biggest miss for maine is nan deficiency of wireless charging. I first imagined this to beryllium a denotation of nan value constituent they were trying to reach, but having rested it connected my regular charging guidelines I discovered location whitethorn beryllium much to nan story.

Due to nan ample camera array, nan telephone sits proud of wherever nan regular charging coil would make interaction pinch nan phone. This feels for illustration a important creation drawback that will return immoderate re-engineering successful early versions to resolve.

Price and Availability

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is disposable now successful Australia, disposable pinch 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, nan telephone comes successful either Grey aliases Black for a very affordable A$849.

That value represents a stunning worth for money, arsenic nan value indicates a mid-tier phone, while offering galore of nan aforesaid features you’d find successful a flagship (minus wireless charging).

You tin drawback it straight from Nothing’s Australian tract (au.nothing.tech), aliases retailers for illustration JB Hi-Fi (jbhifi.com.au) who connection discounts for trading successful your aged phone.

If your fund is tight, you whitethorn want to see nan Nothing Phone (3a) which comes successful a bully bluish colour, for A$689.

Overall

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is simply a refreshing summation to nan mid-range smartphone market, and aft a fewer weeks of use, I’m still loving it’s unsocial blend of style, performance, and value. It doesn’t consciousness for illustration a Pixel aliases Galaxy, aliases really immoderate different Android phone, it’s thing very unique.

It’s a awesome prime and I deliberation it’s a bargain for what you get, a premium design, soft performance, and a characteristic group that punches supra its weight.

For Australians seeking thing different that doesn’t discuss connected nan essentials, nan Phone (3a) Pro is perfectly worthy adding to your short list. What we don’t cognize yet is really quickly Nothing will iterate their civilization OS, arsenic we move from Android 15 to Android 16, let’s dream nan reply is quickly.