I've used the Nothing Phone 3, and I probably said 'That's fun!' a dozen times

Android Authority

a day ago

When the very first Nothing phone landed — the Nothing Phone 1 in 2022 — it was a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stale smartphone market. Not only did the Nothing Phone 1 look different from every other phone available at the time, but it offered some pretty stellar specs at a relatively low price. Sure, its cameras were pretty weak and Nothing OS was still finding its footing, but it was a solid opening move for a brand new company.
Since then, we've had many other Nothing Phones — five, actually, meaning Nothing has released six phones in about three years. Today, we have the newest entry: the Nothing Phone 3. This is the company's first premium phone since 2023 and the company's first 'true flagship' — a phrase CEO Carl Pei has said about a million times over the past few weeks.
I had the chance to get some hands-on time with the Nothing Phone 3 at the launch event in London. While the phone looks and feels a whole lot like previous Nothing phones, the company's knack for finding ways to make smartphones fun again shines through pretty brightly with the Phone 3.
Nothing Phone 3
Nothing Phone 3
MSRP: $799.99
Nothing's first 'true flagship.'
The Phone 3 is a stylish reinvention of Nothing's Android phone series, now with flagship specs, including a large silicon-carbon battery, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, and a periscope zoom lens with macro photography support.
See price at Amazon
Familiar yet different
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The Nothing Phone 3's design leaked well before today, and the response has been pretty negative. An Android Authority poll still running as I write this shows well over 50% of responders claiming to 'hate' the design, which is obviously pretty concerning. Now that I've seen it in the flesh, I can say that the new design is…fine?
Love or hate the design, but the Nothing Phone 3 feels stupendous to hold.
Look, let me be honest, here: I don't understand what Nothing was thinking with the asymmetrical and chaotic placement of the camera lenses on the back of this phone. My friend and colleague Paul Jones says it looks like Nothing asked ChatGPT to design a phone, and now that he's said that, I can't unsee it. It just doesn't look cohesive.
However, it was very easy to move past that once I held the phone in my hands. The Nothing Phone 3 is quintessentially Nothing. Just like every other phone this company makes, it feels amazing to hold, better than 90% of all other phones I touch (even ones that cost twice as much). The flat aluminum sides feel terrific, the flat display panel with ultra-thin symmetrical bezels looks amazing, and the overall weight of the phone sits very nicely in your palm. As far as utilitarian design goes, this might be Nothing's finest achievement.
The phone comes in two colorways: Black or White. I think the white model looks a lot better than black this year; it certainly is less of a fingerprint magnet. Whichever color you choose, the rails match (silver for White and black for Black). As with other recent Nothing phones, they also both have an Essential Key on the side underneath the power button. Really, it's not all that different from the Nothing 3a Pro we saw earlier this year.
Another fun thing to note is the red square on the back of the phone. Not only does this bring a much-needed splash of color to this device, but it also lights up when you're recording video. It's a retro touch that I adore.
I love the red square on the back. It lights up when you're recording video!
But yeah, those camera lenses do confuse me. The lack of a camera module is also a bit strange as the two lower lenses protrude out the back quite far, and I can already imagine them getting caught on things as I pull the phone out of my pocket.
Regardless, the Nothing Phone 3 was a delight to use for the short time I had it. I can only hope that I'd get more used to its idiosyncrasies over time.
Goodbye Glyph, hello…Glyph?
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The most iconic aspect of all Nothing phones launched prior to today was the Glyph: various strips of light that appear on the back of the phones. These lights can be purely decorative but can also become utilitarian when you use them as a flashlight, a way to track timers and other countdowns, or as a fill light during video recording. The Glyph has become synonymous with Nothing itself, which is why it's astonishing to say that the Nothing Phone 3 does not have Glyph lights.
The Glyph lights are gone, but the Glyph display is here to replace them.
Instead, the Nothing Phone 3 has, well…Glyph lights. Nothing swapped out the light strips for a small dot-matrix display that lives in the upper right corner of the phone's back. However, despite this dot-matrix display being fundamentally different from the light strips of yore, Nothing decided to just keep on using the Glyph name for both systems. It's confusing, but whatever.
Anyway, the new Glyph loses out on a few of the use cases I described earlier. It's not bright enough to be a flashlight or fill light, but it can still display different types of information. Out of the box, it will tell you how much battery you have left, whether or not the phone is level, and simple info such as the time. There are also mini games (playfully called Glyph Toys), such as Rock-Paper-Scissors. There's even a selfie camera that shows what your face would look like if you turned into an SNES-era video game character.
It's easy to swap between tools in the dot-matrix display by pressing a button that lives under the back glass of the phone.
You can swap between these various modes using a button on the back of the phone. It's not a touch-sensitive button, so it requires a little bit of force to push it down, but it's an easy and tactile way to swap to a new utility or game. You can tweak each mode (or download new ones) within Nothing OS.
In a word, this new Glyph is fun. What's even more fun, though, is that Nothing is offering an SDK for anyone who wants to create tools/toys for the dot-matrix display. The aforementioned leveling tool as well as a Magic 8 Ball toy are examples of community-made Glyph features. The sky's the limit, really, on what people will be able to do with this tiny informational display.
As cool as this all is, I immediately missed the traditional Glyph lights. I think a lot of other people will too. Interestingly, during the keynote presentation at the London launch, Carl Pei told us that 80% of all current Nothing Phone users have Glyph lights activated. One would think the company would want to continue to incorporate a feature with such wide adoption, but Nothing apparently thinks people will like this even more.
Regardless, the new Glyph is cool and could end up being as big of a hit as the original.
Some very welcome spec upgrades
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Unfortunately, during my brief hands-on time with the Nothing Phone 3, I couldn't do any deep testing. Nothing is not allowing camera tests or comparisons, benchmarking, or any other deep examinations. Those will need to wait for the full review coming very soon.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is under the hood here, for better or worse.
However, there are a few notable upgrades with the Nothing Phone 3 that I want to call out, even if I couldn't test them. First, the processor powering this phone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. This is a fairly new chipset — newer than even the Snapdragon 8 Elite. However, it is not as powerful as the 8 Elite. The only other commercially available phone with the chipset is the Poco F7, and my buddy Hadlee Simons has a terrific examination of what you can expect from that phone's performance. Obviously, Nothing's version could perform slightly differently, but it's safe to assume that the Nothing Phone 3 will likely be equal to or slightly less powerful than a Samsung Galaxy S24. That's not bad, but does make all the talk of this being Nothing's first 'true flagship' a bit of a red herring.
Another notable spec for this phone is the battery, which is absolutely true flagship-tier. It's a silicon-carbon cell, making this one of the very few phones you can get in the United States with this new technology. It has a capacity of 5,150mAh and can charge with a cable at up to 65W or wirelessly at 15W. Once again, I couldn't test any of this out either, but these specs sound very nice and put every smartphone from Apple, Samsung, and Google to utter shame.
The Nothing Phone 3 has a silicon-carbon battery and charging speeds that put Samsung, Google, and Apple to shame.
Although the camera lens placement on this phone is contentious, I doubt the specs of the cameras will be. Every single lens on this phone has a 50MP sensor underneath and is capable of recording video at 4K/60. There's also a periscope telephoto lens with macro support, making this Nothing's first smartphone to compete with something like a OnePlus 13 or Google Pixel 9 Pro. I'm excited to put these cameras through their paces, as they seem like they could be winners.
Other cool spec upgrades include a new 1.5K (2,800 x 1,260) AMOLED display with a 460ppi density and adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, Gorilla Glass Victus on the back and a new Gorilla Glass 7i on the front, an IP68 rating (the first Nothing phone with that distinction), and the option for 16GB of RAM (another first for Nothing). The Nothing Phone 3 is also getting five years of Android upgrades and seven years of security patches, putting it nearly up there with the big boys Samsung and Google.
Nothing Phone 3 impressions: Best yet, but will you buy one?
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
It will be a while before we can put the Nothing Phone 3 through its paces, but based on previous Nothing phones and the on-paper spec pedigree of this device, I can't imagine it getting anything but high marks. It seems like another solid win for the brand.
However, great reviews have always been a feather in Nothing's cap. The problem Nothing has had and will continue to have with the Phone 3 is the fact that Samsung, Google, and Apple exist. Outside of the United States, this might be less of an issue. But the Nothing Phone 3 ($799.99 at Amazon) is coming here (not in a beta program or caveat-laden trial; for real), which puts it in direct competition with those behemoths. Can it even hope to make a dent?
Can Nothing sway folks ready to buy a new Galaxy or Pixel?
I will readily admit that the price of this phone is very enticing. For what it offers, the $799 entry price is exceptional. Spec for spec, it could handily topple the Galaxy S25 ($809.99 at Amazon), which costs the same. The issue, though, is that any American can walk into pretty much any carrier store and get a Galaxy S25 for a minimal down payment — or even $0. Nothing won't have that advantage.
The question thus becomes how many Android geeks will choose to skip something from Samsung or Google to grab this instead. This becomes all the more worrisome when you remember that Samsung has some new foldables launching in about a week and Google has the Pixel 10 series launching in a little more than a month. How is Nothing going to compete with that?
I love that Nothing exists. I love that there's a smartphone company that doesn't play it safe.
I love that Nothing exists. I love that there's a smartphone company that doesn't play it safe, puts a lot of thought into what it creates, and has an unending willingness to take giant leaps of faith on its products. In a lot of ways, though, the Nothing Phone 3 feels like a make-or-break moment for the brand. Will it be able to fight against the big dogs on their turf, or will it be forced to stick to being a small fish in a small pond forever? I sincerely hope it is able to be the big fish it has always dreamed of being. The Nothing Phone 3 is proof that it has the product to do so — it just needs the buyers to align with its vision.