Hands on with the new Phone (3a) Series, Nothing's smartest smartphones to date

Few things encapsulate the modern era than the act of unwrapping a new mobile phone. From breaking the seal on the outer box to sliding out the inner case, admiring the sub-millimetre tolerances of the paper engineering, to opening the lid and removing the device itself from its crisp protective sheath, the process is a highly fetishised journey into the worlds of desire, consumption, technology and delight.

It’s even better when there are two phones to unwrap. That’s the case with the new Nothing (3a) Series, which comes in two distinct flavours, the Phone (3a) Pro and standard (3a). As you’ll know from our exclusive design preview of the Phone (3a) Series, these new phones are all about the cameras, all three of them.

Aside from the surprise debut of an additional model straight out the gates, the (3a) Series has another trick up its sleeve. The mysterious new button on the side, beneath the power switch, is revealed as the ‘Essential Key’. The focus of much design debate and iteration, in order to distinguish it visually and physically from the phone’s other buttons, the Essential Key provides one-step access to the (3a)’s AI-based note-taking system.

You also have the Glyph interface, the innovation debuted with Nothing’s first ever mobile, with ins and outs that are worth learning if you want a next-level way of interacting subtly with your device without anyone knowing what you’re doing – different callers can have their own light pattern IDs for example. The interface also serves up message notifications and a timer function.

Nothing’s graphic-intensive UI, Nothing OS 3.1, sits on top of Android 15. It isn’t for everyone, but unlike many other mobile companies that simply re-skin Android with a hollow but lesser version of Google’s software, Nothing OS feels very different. You can opt to use the stock Android settings, where the distinctive Nothing icons look a little out of place, or go all-in on Nothing’s visual style. In total, there are over 50 bespoke custom sounds, widgets and apps on hand.

Leave everything to Nothing and you’re greeting with a sleek monochrome home page adorned with a scattering of geometrically precise icons. Nothing newbies will have a new visual language to learn, for the company’s iconography is abstract and defiantly un- skeuomorphic. Widgets have a retro, dot-matrix feel, with dedicated boxes for footsteps, screentime and a compass, alongside more familiar ones like clocks and weather. Nothing’s near-monochrome approach is also more conducive to mindful phone use (having the screen time indicator right there on the home screen also helps).

A word about Nothing’s presentation. From the graphics to the packaging, even down to the way the press kit and imagery is set up, there’s an attention to detail that never feels less than stellar. Perhaps it’s the relative size of Nothing’s team to other corporate behemoths, but there’s rare evidence of devoted care and craft. This might go some way to explaining Nothing’s rabid community following. Apple might encourage us to think different, but the real stand outs in the smartphone market come from outliers, not colossi.

The Phone (3a) Series is led by its updated camera unit. As with all contemporary smartphone photography, you’re aware of the computational heavy lifting behind the scenes, the algorithms that polish the focus and manage the exposure. Comparing like for like with one of the current smartphone photography champions, Google’s Pixel 9 Pro, and the Phone (3a) Pro shows slightly more aggressive sharpening at the extremities of the optical zoom (up to x6) and beyond (digitally driven up to x60), especially when dealing with subjects that benefit from AI-powered enhancement, like text.

The (3a) Pro’s Macro mode really excels, however, as does its Portrait mode, with a rich software-powered depth of focus adding pop and detail to headshots and still lives. All smartphone photography suffers from the juxtaposition of seeing your images on the device’s screen versus a laptop or even as a physical print. The Phone (3a) Series’ Full HD+ AMOLED screens are 6.77” and give your photography and films an impressive glow-up, thanks to their brightness and smooth refresh rate. When taken off the device and given a bit of unwelcome compression (as seen here), the camera’s results are still impressive, perhaps more so than rivals.

The Pro model’s periscope lens does the heavy lifting here. With a Sony sensor, the periscope camera has optical image stabilisation and a very fast aperture, helping with low light situations as well great portrait performance. Video is 4K, naturally, with the ability to capture slow-motion imagery at 1080p and 120 frames per second.

All this is powered by a Snapdragon 7s Gen3 chip, with a speed boost that’s tailored to cope with the other most significant (3a) Series innovation, the Essential Key. This provides access to Nothing’s Essential Space, an enhanced note-taking hub that hosts everything from screen captures to voice notes and saved posts. Pressing the Key captures the screen; holding triggers a voice note, which is automatically analysed and transcribed.

The Essential Space will be expanded over the coming months, with AI-driven and context aware functions like the ability to add voice notes to photographs, schedule reminders and group notes and images according to project or interest. It’s the kind of AI-driven amalgamation of multi-app functionality that the likes of Rabbit and the (now-defunct) Humane tried to hive off into separate devices. Having everything contained within your phone makes much more sense. Time will tell as to how essential the Essential Space will end up being, and how it is integrated into other Nothing hardware like the Ear series of earbuds.

Thus far, Phone (3a) Series delivers a new user experience as promised. It’s not a radical departure by any means, but it is sufficiently different to lure users who might be tiring of the current smartphone hegemony. Nothing’s legions of fans should be pleased by the camera updates which place the company at the top tier of mobile photography providers.

Physically, too, Nothing hasn’t deviated from its mission. As we noted earlier, there’s been a shift from plastic to glass, as well as an evolution of the quasi-transparent structural approach to the phone’s back. Now frequently imitated by third party case makers, Nothing’s take on undressing tech is heavily stylised but aesthetically sophisticated, becoming more and more like a fine-art or sculptural vignette within a case.

A lot of effort has gone into cutting the Phone (3a) Series’ carbon footprint with a corresponding increase in recycled material across board, not just aluminium but also tin and steel. That seductive packaging is 100% plastic free. According to Nothing’s calculations, the (3a) Series has a lifecycle carbon footprint of 51.3kg CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) (Apple’s new iPhone 16E comes in at 52kg CO₂e for the equivalent 256GB model).

Nothing (3a) shares many, if not all, of its pricier sibling’s characteristics, missing only the Sony periscope lens of the Pro which makes it a shade lighter. It also has a slightly lesser front-facing camera and lacks eSIM support. Photography minded buyers should direct themselves towards the Pro, thanks to the new camera module’s performance and physical expression.

So is the Phone (3a) Series another winner for Nothing? It certainly consolidates the brand’s modus operandi, proving once and for all that it’s a serious global player on a mission to do things differently. The camera upgrade on the Pro takes it to another level while Nothing’s Essential Space has huge potential as an actually useful and practical deployment of AI. For those that have held out on trying the brand until now, the Phone (3a) Series is a perfect place to start.

Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro, available now from Nothing.tech, @Nothing