Nothing’s highly anticipated successor to the Phone (2) took 2 years to arrive in the market. This was hardly a hiatus for the tech outfit, as it extended its Phone (a) series in this period, as well as launched its subsidiary brand, CMF, which focuses on affordable products. Nothing says that the Phone (3) is its first true flagship. Some may put an asterisk on that label, as the smartphone packs the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 SoC, rather than the top-spec Snapdragon 8 Elite processor like most of the Android heavyweights. However, Nothing’s offering has one thing that most of the other flagships lack – personality. This gives it quite some leeway in the ‘true flagship’ discourse. We used a device for a week to find out whether the lost benchmark numbers are worth the added style quotient. Here is our review of the Nothing Phone (3).
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In This Article
Nothing Phone (3) Review: Design and Display
First, let’s take a look at what you get inside the Phone (3)’s retail box:
- Smartphone
- USB Type-C to Type-C cable
- Clear plastic cover
- SIM ejector
- Quick start guide
When Nothing came out with the Phone (1), its design philosophy consisted of two essential components – transparency and Glyph lighting. The latter has been refashioned into the Glyph Matrix on the Phone (3), much to the dismay of some brand loyalists. We aren’t entirely dismissive of the new Matrix, as it serves a more functional purpose than the segmented LED strips. It can be triggered by pressing the capacitive touch button along the right margin of the back panel.
The triple camera layout is a bit of a mixed bag, but it has grown on us since the device first crossed our desks. All three sensors sit inside individual cutouts, with the telephoto lens slightly misaligned from the rest of the array. The great thing about this setup is that it prevents the phone from wobbling on a flat surface. The red indicator for video recording sits between the two bottom lenses and adds a nice accent to the transparent back panel. Overall, the Phone (3) remains quite the looker.
The aluminium frame houses the volume rocker on its left edge. The side button and the Essential key are placed on the left edge. At the bottom lie the SIM tray, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille. The secondary speaker grille and the noise-cancelling microphone are positioned up top.
The 6.67-inch (LTPS) AMOLED display on this device has a 120Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 4,500 nits. Interestingly, this display does not support LTPO technology, which means its refresh rate cannot drop below 60Hz. Initially, we were worried about the battery drain this would cause (being Always On Display enthusiasts), but the smartphone intelligently manages the resources without causing a significant loss to battery life. The touch response remains top-notch, and the bezels surrounding the display are slim and uniform. Our only criticism of the display is that it uses an optical fingerprint scanner instead of an ultrasonic unit.
The viewing experience on this 1,290 x 2,800p display is delightful. The visuals are bright, vibrant, and clear. The smartphone supports HDR10+ and can reach optimum brightness whether you’re indoors or under bright sunlight. The stereo speaker setup produced a loud and well-balanced output.
Nothing Phone (3) Review: Performance and Cameras
At the heart of the Phone (3) lies the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset. The smartphone comes in 2 RAM (LPDDR5X) and storage (UFS 4.0) options:
- 12GB + 256GB: Rs 79,999
- 16GB + 512GB: Rs 89,999
Here’s how the smartphone performed in Geekbench 6 and AnTuTu 3D benchmarks:
- Geekbench 6: 2,161 (single-core) | 7,059 (multi-core)
- AnTuTu 3D: 2,292,707
The Phone (3) goes through general tasks like a hot knife through butter. Apps don’t take time to load, and multitasking doesn’t present any issues. The device does a good job of optimising the background apps to reduce the strain on the battery. Even with a dozen apps running in the background, the performance levels do not drop at all. The haptic motor produces a well-tuned vibrational feedback. In general use, this performance matches that of flagship devices.
Running games like BGMI and Call of Duty Mobile on this device was a pleasant experience. With medium graphics and a 60fps frame rate, it provided a smooth and consistent gameplay experience. We did not come across any annoying stutters or frame drops. However, the smartphone’s thermal management calls its ‘flagship’ label into question. We noticed that the back panel started to warm up after 30 minutes of gaming. What separates other flagships from the Phone (3) is a state-of-the-art cooling system.
OS duties on this smartphone are handled by the Android 15-based Nothing OS 3. Nothing’s custom OS remains one of the best Android skins around. It retains the structure of stock Android while adding its own unique flair to the UI. The widget-centric home page is a visual treat. We also like the customisation options for folders and app icons. Nothing’s icon pack goes well with the default dark look of the device.
The Glyph Matrix on the back panel can be customised from device settings. There is a good collection of ‘Toys’ to choose from. Some of these serve a functional purpose, some cater to a niche audience, while others are fun gimmicks. We particularly like the ‘Glyph Mirror’, which converts the circular panel into a dot matrix viewfinder, allowing you to take well-framed selfies using the primary shooter. Other than that, the matrix also serves as an interface for the battery indicator, volume level, digital clock, and stopwatch. You can also use it as an old-fashioned torch, although it isn’t as bright as the LED flash. The ‘spin the bottle’ and ‘rock, paper, scissors’ toys make for good party tricks. In the short period that the phone has been in the market, the Nothing community has come up with a couple of decent toys – Leveller and Magic 8 Ball.
The India-spec model of the Phone (3) packs a 5,500mAh Si/C battery pack, while the international model gets a 5,150mAh unit. This battery pack holds enough juice to coast through a day of heavy usage. Our everyday tasks during the review period consisted of calling, instant messaging, social media browsing, media streaming, gaming, and navigation. We were left with 20-25% charge in the tank at the end of each day. With more conservative usage, you can push the battery life to 1.5-2 days. The Si/C battery supports 65W charging. It takes up to an hour to fully replenish the device. There’s support for 15W wireless charging as well.
The rear camera array consists of 3 50MP sensors. These include an Omnivision OV50H primary sensor, a Samsung ISOCELL JN5 telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and a Samsung ISOCELL JN1 ultrawide lens. A 50MP front-facing camera lies inside the punch-hole cutout on the display.
The 50MP primary shooter takes great pictures in outdoor daylight conditions. The images showcase rich colours and flaunt a tasteful dynamic range. There is good sharpness to the images, although you will run into some softness once you pixel-peep. In limited lighting conditions, the smartphone does a good job of illuminating the shot and getting rid of the noise.
The pictures taken with the 50MP ultrawide sensor are a tad soft, but they retain the colour profile of the primary shooter. The dynamic range also remains top-notch. We were happy with the way the sensor exposed the sky in wide landscape shots. In limited lighting conditions, the smartphone did a decent job of lighting up the shot, but some noise managed to creep into the images. It needs to be mentioned that the ultrawide lens lacks autofocus.
The 3x telephoto lens captures sharp images with good colours. There is a visible shift in vibrancy when you compare its results with those of the primary shooter, but it’s not a dealbreaker. We found this lens to be quite useful while taking close-up portrait shots of still subjects.
The camera app offers 4 focal lengths for portrait shots – 24mm, 50mm, 70mm, and 100mm. The smartphone does a good job of separating the subject from the background and applying the optimum blur effect. The results are vibrant and well-focused. The 50MP front-facing camera takes great selfies, keeping the skin tone and texture correction effects to a minimum. The selfies are clear, vivid, and sharp. All four cameras on this device can record 4K footage at 30 and 60fps.
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Verdict
The Phone (3) has rightfully received criticism for its hefty Rs 79,999 price tag, but there aren’t many smartphones in the market that can match its personality. When it comes to performance, the gap between this device and other flagships is marginal – you won’t notice it unless you’re carrying out power-intensive tasks like high-graphic gaming and video editing. Suffice to say, the average user will never be left wanting more power out of this phone. The small trade-off in power for an exciting design and smooth user experience is absolutely worth it in our books.
Pros
- Exciting design
- Glyph Matrix
- Clean software experience
Cons
- Lacks an ultrasonic sensor
- Gets hot while gaming
 as our daily driver for a week, here is our in-depth review of the smartphone. Check it out!){kind=link}