Nothing Phone 3 review: A different take

India Today

2 days ago

What makes a phone good? There is no one answer to this question, although it is safe to say that all good phones have certain key characteristics. They all offer smooth performance in day-to-day use. They all provide good battery life, a capable set of cameras, a display that is adequately bright, and build quality that justifies their price. Beyond this, there are no easy answers to this question of what makes a phone good. Different companies have different takes on it. Nothing too has a different take and we see that in the Phone 3. As it aims to compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, the mighty iPhone, as well as everything in between offered by OnePlus, Vivo and and Xiaomi, the Phone 3 is using a different approach. It is a phone that is hatke. And this different approach is its biggest strength as well as its biggest weakness.advertisementNothing doesn't want to follow the rules. This is very much evident in its hardware. The approach here by Nothing is more Google-like, or Apple-like, instead of what other Android companies do. So, even though the Phone 3 costs Rs 79,999, it is not part of the specs race. For the price, the Phone 3 packs somewhat modest hardware. This is most visible in the chipset, which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. Most Android phones in this range nowadays are opting for the Snapdragon 8 Elite, or something similar.Rest of the hardware too is a notch below in terms of specs compared to what Korean and Chinese Android makers tend to do. But not that significantly. Overall, I would say that the Nothing Phone 3 has competent hardware and specs and not outrightly flagship-grade the way the term is understood in the Android world.
But specs don't make a phone. At least that is what some companies, including Nothing, believe. And I do too. The experience that a phone offers defines whether it is good or not. It is this experience part on which Nothing has focussed on with the Phone 3. Does it succeed? In a way but it might not be enough in the price-conscious Indian market.Shock and awe with designBeginning with the Phone 1, Nothing has tried to create a unique design language for its devices. This language is all about transparent back panels, glyph lights, techno-retro design with geometric markings and etchings under the back cover, minimalistic shell and focus on black and white with just a dab of colour. The Phone 3 follows the same design language. Unlike other Android phones, this one has a personality, which will either appeal to your senses, or it won't. And that is by design. Nothing wants you to feel something with its design, that something can be loved or it can be hated. But you must feel something.That is also likely the idea behind the asymmetric placement of camera lenses. It shocks the senses with its edginess. Personally, I like the Phone 3 design. In reality and in hands, the phone looks better. I also like the design because in a sea of boring and similar-looking phones, this one loudly stands out. Of late, we have started seeing some brands copy the Nothing design language and it seems that with the Phone 3, Nothing is telling these brands that 'hey, do you have courage to copy this.'
While the camera module is asymmetric, the rest of the phone has plenty of symmetry. The lines running across, and the etchings, on the back panel are clean and precise. The small round button, which allows users to cycle through the display options in Glyph Matrix is cleverly hidden. The tiny red square that glows when video recording is taking place is a nifty and aesthetically brilliant touch.The Phone 3 is also built well. It is positioned as a premium phone and it looks the part. The aluminium frame made of brushed metal is slick without being glossy or looking cheap. The Gorilla glass layers on both front and back feel solid. At 218 grams, the Phone 3 is not light. But its weight is distributed rather evenly, which in hand makes it feel lighter than it is.advertisementNow even as this is undoubtedly a Nothing phone, it is missing one design element that has so far been part of Nothing identity — the glyph lights. Instead of those lights, which would light up in a pattern to indicate the type of notification, Phone 3 has a round screen — size of a coat button — near the camera module. This screen uses tiny LEDs, 489 to be precise, to display information. This information can be time or battery status, it can be some custom notification, and it can even be the spinning bottle game. It is fun to use, and in case of clock or battery status, rather informative. But how useful and fun you find it will depend on your particular use case.
On the front, the phone has a 6.67-inch OLED display. This is an excellent display, although on high-end nowadays there is not much difference in display quality in phones. This is also an extremely bright display and while it is cloud-and-rain season in Delhi nowadays, on some occasions when the sun was out in full force, I used the Phone 3 under direct sunlight. The legibility of the display remained fantastic.advertisementThe excellent display is paired with a very good set of stereo speakers. These get extremely loud and while I have heard more impactful and meatier sound from phones — the iPhone Pro, for example — the Phone 3 speakers do a good enough job. Even at high volume they remain clear and sound output is mostly crisp.Clean software, good enough performanceJust like what it has tried to do with design, Nothing also has its different take on software. Largely I like it. But some of the features I find too niche, including Essential Space. The software — Nothing OS 3.5 — in the Phone 3, uses custom Nothing skin, which is clean and functional. Unlike other phones, which are full of bloatware, on the Phone 3 you get everything necessary and no junk. The software is built on top of Android 15, with Android 16 update expected towards the end of the year.advertisementIn use, I found the Nothing software fairly close to the default Android that Google puts in its Pixel phones. And just like how I find the Pixel software clean, functional and fast, I found the software in the Phone 3. For Nothing fans, the device also comes with a mono-chrome icon pack, which looks cool but can be confusing to new users. The phone offers plenty of customisation options without overdoing them. This too is something that I like.
One of the key features of the Nothing Phone 3 is the Essential Space, which can also be controlled through a special — and shiny — Essential Key placed on the right side of the phone. The Space is the place where you can collect your screenshots, or voice memos, and then let AI deal with them. For example, voice memos can be transcribed using AI. Similarly, screenshots can be bunched together in collection, can be annotated or can be saved with a text or voice context. I found Essential Space to be a niche feature and didn't find it particularly handy or necessary. But it is the kind of feature that depends on the use case. Those who compulsively take notes on their phone will find it appealing.Another unique feature is Essential Search, which is a universal search. It is handy because it lets you search the entire phone, including photos and contacts and settings and everything else in between, offline or online, all from the same search bar.
The Phone 3, irrespective of whatever people might say about its chipset, is a fast phone. As I used the device, I found its animations smooth whether I was scrolling through its interface or if I was juggling open apps. The Phone 3 handles various workloads — running social media apps, opening and reading PDFs, web-browsing across tens of open tabs in Chrome, editing photos etc — with grace and ease.It also runs games smoothly. I played BGMI on it and the gameplay was smooth, largely also thanks to its 120Hz screen. Having said that, this is not a phone for sustained gaming because it can heat up fairly noticeably. Not alarmingly but noticeably. Just to put some numbers on the performance of the phone, I ran a few benchmarks. Take a look at two of them: Antutu and Geekbench.
The Indian variant of the Phone 3 uses a 5500mAh battery. The battery life is good but I wish it was slightly more. Once charged fully, the phone lasts around 15-17 hours when used with a 5G connection and Wi-Fi. Charging is fast but not super-fast like what some phones offer nowadays. It takes around 1 hour to charge fully when paired with a reasonably — read 65W — fast charger. Again, just to put some numbers on the battery life of the Phone 3, I ran PC Mark battery test on it. Here are the results:
Capable camerasWhat good is a phone if it can't click decent photos! Indeed. Thankfully the Phone 3 can click photos that are more than decent, even if it doesn't match the output from some of its more camera-centric competitors.The Nothing Phone 3 has three rear cameras, all using a 50-megapixel image sensor. On the front there is another 50-megapixel camera. Except the ultra-wide camera, which I found too soft at edges and rather lacklustre in low light, all other cameras perform capably. The main camera in particular is quite good, and more so when the light is good. It captures brilliant and deep colours, and it clicks photos that have been exposed well-enough to retain and highlight details. The zoom cameras too are quite good, particularly the 3X camera. Going up to 6X softens photos a little but they still remain quite pleasant.In particular, I like the way Phone 3 cameras handle colours. The main camera seems to have good dynamic range, and that shows in the colours it captures. To understand and see examples click on the image samples below and check out the photos in bigger size.The phone 3 also has a very capable macro mode. Although, the way it has been implemented, it demands patience because it has a very narrow field of view, and that makes controlling the areas that are in focus a little tricky. But when it works, it works amazingly well. The Phone 3 records 4K videos, which are fairly standard and middling. I have seen better footage coming from cameras in this price range, and in some instances worse.
This photo, which has been slightly edited to highlight details, shows that the Phone 3 can click fantastic macro photos.
Overall, I feel the Phone 3 offers a set of capable cameras that will delight you with the photos they click in good low. In low light, you will find it lacking somewhat. Having said that I did feel that occasionally the camera can be slow relative to what I have seen in phones in this price range. This is something I mostly noticed while using macro mode, or while using the phone in low light.Phone 3: Is it worth buying?I believe Nothing is onto something with the Phone 3. But just like Google Pixel is not a phone for everyone, I believe that the Phone 3 too is not a phone for everyone. It is primarily a phone with a personality and it is meant for those who want their device to have the kind of oomph and edginess that no other device has.In terms of its capabilities and experience it offers, there are better phones than the Phone 3. Its asking price is on the higher side relative to what it offers. But then you don't buy Jordans because they help you run faster. And you don't get a Muji t-shirt because it has the bestest fabric. And you definitely don't buy a Nintendo because that is the best gaming experience on the planet. No, sometimes we get products because we vibe with them. We get them because they are a feeling.I believe Nothing as a brand wants to create products that invoke a feeling. The Phone 3 is an attempt in that direction. It is a good enough phone on its own, but when combined with the feeling that it can invoke it becomes unique. The problem, however, with this approach is that Nothing is not there yet. And the feeling is not yet strong enough for most people, not even among the Nothing fans. That puts the Phone 3 in a tough spot. I like this phone and I see what Nothing is trying to do. But I also feel that at a price of Rs 79,999, there are better phones for most people. The only exception to this would be buyers who are smitten by Nothing approach to aesthetics and brand experience.- Ends