The British start-up Nothing is working hard to generate interest in the smartphones it develops. In the few years it's been around, it has succeeded in creating a design language that makes its devices recognizable from afar. Nothing's smartphones come with a transparent back that reveals some of the internal hardware. Until now, the company's models included a system of lights called Glyph, which provided notification alerts via white lights that blink at varying speeds. In the new model – the Phone (3) – the company replaced the lights with a secondary screen located on the back of the device.
Design: Nothing Phone (3) – Transparent and Strange Back
As mentioned, the transparent look is still present here, with a small round screen featured on the top side (more on that below). This is a smartphone that catches people's eyes; its design is still seen as unconventional. It's not particularly light, but also doesn't feel too heavy – 218 grams. Its thickness is 9 mm. The phone’s frame is made of aluminum, and the back is protected with Gorilla Glass Victus to help prevent damage from drops and scratches, while the front is covered with the stronger Gorilla Glass 7i. Although these are not Corning’s toughest glasses – especially for a flagship device – hopefully they’ll do the job. In any case, the box includes a silicone case and a screen protector pre-applied to the display. The Phone (3) is also water and dust resistant with an IP68 rating.
Display: Nothing Phone (3) – Two Screens, but the Second Feels Unnecessary
On the back, in the upper-right corner, there's a Micro-LED screen that displays information without needing to look at the main screen. This display is activated by tapping a touch-sensitive button beneath it on the right side, near the volume buttons. It allows you to toggle between screen features: A clock, stopwatch, battery meter, and a "spin the bottle" game. As someone who doesn’t place their phone face-down on the table, I found this screen redundant. But perhaps those who do might find it more useful. One feature I did like is the ability to set the phone to switch to silent mode when placed face-down, with an indicator showing on the small screen (called Flip to Glyph – it's not enabled by default).
The main screen uses excellent AMOLED technology at 6.67 inches, offering vibrant colors and a peak brightness of 4500 nits, making it easily visible in direct sunlight. The display supports an adaptive refresh rate from 30 to 120 Hz for smooth UI performance (Nothing skipped the technology that drops the rate to 10 Hz for better battery savings).
Interface: Nothing Phone (3) – The Button That Drove Me Crazy
The operating system is Android 15 with the Nothing OS 3.5 interface. The company says that an update to Android 16 and OS 4.0 is expected this quarter. Nothing promises five years of major system updates and seven years of security patches.
Nothing OS 3.5 offers a monochrome interface option and the ability to hide app names for a cleaner look. It’s a clean interface with minimal pre-installed third-party apps. It supports call recording but with a voice notification to both parties.
Two features have become favorites of mine in smartphones over the past year: Google's AI assistant Gemini, which can be activated by a long press on the power button, and Google's Circle to Search. The latter launches by long-pressing the bottom of the screen, then letting you circle any on-screen element to search for it online. It’s an excellent and convenient feature.
Nothing introduced the Essential Space button in the Phone (3a), and it’s also here. This AI feature is activated via a dedicated button on the right side of the device. It’s a hub for screenshots, voice notes, reminders, and more. AI organizes the content intelligently and provides focused access. For example, you can take a screenshot and then dictate a reminder describing it – both the voice recording and transcription (in Hebrew, too) are saved. The big issue is that I kept pressing the button accidentally, and it constantly gets triggered when placing the phone in a car mount. I wish there were a quick way to disable it.
Hardware: Almost a Flagship-Level Processor
The Phone (3) doesn’t come with a flagship processor like those in Samsung or Xiaomi’s Elite series using top-tier Qualcomm chips. Instead, it features the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 – a good processor aimed at high mid-range devices. I tested the version with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, though there's also a version with 12GB/256GB.
The processor supports 5G, WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and eSIM.
Camera: Three 50MP Sensors
The smartphone includes a triple-camera system, each with a 50MP sensor, including 3x optical zoom and a 114-degree ultra-wide lens. The camera performs well – not quite flagship-level – but delivers sharp images with natural colors. Night photography was decent but lacked some brightness in my opinion. The selfie camera also features a 50MP sensor and produces fairly sharp and good-quality photos.
Battery: Large Capacity and Wireless Charging
The battery has a generous 5150 mAh capacity. I ended the day with 10% remaining by 10 p.m., after a screen-on time of 5 hours and 42 minutes – solid performance. There's fast 65W wired charging, though no charger is included in the box. There's also 15W wireless charging, which isn't particularly fast.
Price: NIS 3,700
Bottom Line: The Phone (3) is Nothing’s first attempt to sell a smartphone at a flagship price rather than focusing on affordability. The company offers its signature design and a secondary screen, along with good hardware – though not with the most powerful processor – and a side button that annoyingly triggers an app not everyone may use. It's hard to see how the company will pull users away from Samsung or Xiaomi at this price point. On the other hand, this model might catch people’s attention and lead them to try the company's more affordable and well-made devices.
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