2 weeks Ago
Nothing Phone 3a Pro Budget Android phones used to be so cheap, generic looking affairs. Thanks to upstart brands like Nothing -- founded by former OnePlus frontman Carl Pei -- that is changing. The Nothing Phone 3a Pro is a $450 phone that looks every bit as premium as Google or Apple's $1,000 phones, and in my opinion at least, Nothing's phone looks cooler.
The faux-transparent back design of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro Like previous Nothing devices, the 3a Pro features a back design that appears to be transparent -- you can see "through" the panel to see the phone's internals, including screws. This is mostly an illusion, as this is also a backplate designed to look like different components screwed together, but it is still visually striking. There are also three light strips wrapping around the camera module which the company calls the Glyph Interface.
The idea is that these lights can help a user identify incoming notifications by the light pattern. Nothing Phone 3a Pro The Glyph Interface can also do things like show you progress of your Uber ride (as the ride gets closer the light fills up), or flash along to music being played. I still think it’s mostly a visual gimmick more than something with real practical use, but hey, at least it looks very cool.
This is a phone that you want to use without a case. The 3a Pro is a bit of a big phone. Its 6.
77-inch screen is about the same as other top Android phones, but Nothing uses a wider aspect ratio similar to Apple's iPhone, and the Nothing Phone screen does not curve at all, which adds to the horizontal width. Placed side by side, the 3a Pro is noticeably wider than other flagship Android phones. Nothing Phone 3a Pro Nothing Phone 3a Pro New to the 3a Pro over the last phone in the series is a Periscope zoom lens, which is hardware usually reserved for flagship phones.
In fact, in the more limited North American phone scene (in which Apple, Google and Samsung dominate the market), you need to pay at least $800 or more for a phone with the Periscope hardware. This 3X zoom lens, at this price range, is great, producing lossless 70mm zoom, with subtle natural bokeh and excellent color rendition. The other lenses are solid, but nothing spectacular.
There is a bit of lag when switching lenses though. 3X and 6X zoom shots with the Nothing Phone 3a Pro 3X zoom shots with the Nothing Phone 3a Pro Powering the 3a Pro is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, an upper mid-tier silicon. It's a capable chip for most productivity tasks, but as mentioned it couldn't keep the camera lens switching seamless.
Heavy gaming will also see framerate drops. And if you plan to do video editing in CapCut, expect a slightly longer export time compared, to, say the recently launched iPhone 16e running on Apple's A18 chip. The 6.
77-inch OLED panel gets up to a marketed 3000 nits of brightness and reaches 120Hz refresh rate, so on paper it's a great panel. But I found it to be a bit less easy to see under harsh sunlight compared to flagship phones. The glass is a bit reflective, though many phones suffer from this.
The panel is fine, it's just not the most bleeding edge display I've laid eyes on this year. But again, factoring in the price, that's not a fair comparison to make at all. On the software front, Nothing came to fame with its monochrome minimal UI that the company markets as having "no bloatware," meaning no third party apps like Amazon or Instagram or pre-installed like on Chinese phones, nor are there duplicate calendar or web browser apps like on Samsung devices.
It's technically true that going by that basic definition, Nothing phones are free from bloatware, but I find Google's suite of apps to be overlong and many unnecessary, and since those apps can't be deleted, I consider those to be bloatware. For example, why do I have a dedicated Google Meet app when Google Meet runs fine inside Gmail? Why is there a dedicated Google app for podcasts or music that I cannot delete? Nothing's UI is smooth, but I find the black and white element a bit bland, so I usually opt for the colorful icons like many other Android phones. Elsewhere, Nothing's UI has some neat tricks like the ability to enlarge an app folder.
Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip is capable Overall, the Nothing Phone 3a Pro is a great looking, well performing phone with style and attitude. Its 3X zoom lens is the star of the show. If you’re in the U.
S., there’s no other phone offering a Periscope zoom lens for anything less than $800, but you can get it here for $460..
