Nothing Phone 3a Pro review: The best Nothing phone

I love it when this happens. One week we have a new, low-cost phone release that’s underwhelming, and then a few weeks later we get a low-cost phone that exceeds expectations. The Nothing Phone 3a Pro may be a bit of an odd-looking duck, but that’s about all that’s wrong with it. Lets get into why the Phone 3a Pro is so good.

Specs

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: design

There’s nothing conventional about the Nothing Phone 3a Pro’s looks. It’s wild, confused, and overwhelming yet surprisingly focused. It’s very obviously a Nothing phone, with the brand sticking to its love of transparent tech and its now iconic Glyph Light illumination system to make it familiar. At the same time, the back of the Phone 3a Pro is a visual overload, with different shapes and lines breaking up the chaos, and an asymmetrical camera module that borders on the unforgivable.

Whether you like it or not is perhaps not the point. It’s eye-catching and unique, and you simply won’t mistake it for anything else. I do think this is the point of Nothing letting its design team loose on the 3a Pro. It’s about as anti-iPhone as it’s possible to get, and a very different approach to many other young phone brands (Nothing is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year), which sometimes lazily lean into taking inspiration from Apple’s popular smartphone.

There’s an additional button on the side of the phone, called the Essential Space key. This is part of Nothing’s AI strategy and we’ll come to its functionality shortly. The button is set below the power key, and crucially it’s a different shape and texture (it’s surprisingly sticky), but I did mistake it for the power button at first. Also, it’s really easy to accidentally press it until you get used to its position.

Nothing hasn’t ignored the essentials, despite the over-the-top design. The aluminum chassis has a pleasing texture that adds grip, and the rear panel is now glass rather than polycarbonate used on previous a-series phones. The 211 gram weight sounds heavier than it feels, down in part to the excellent balance. There’s a metal ring around the camera module for some added flair, and an IP64 dust and water resistance rating. It feels really well-made and durable, and the wacky design adds to the impression it’s far more expensive than it actually is.

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: camera

The Phone 3a Pro’s main 50-megapixel camera collects more light than the Phone 3a’s similar camera, and it’s joined by a 50MP periscope telephoto camera for a 3x optical zoom. There’s a 2x in-sensor (meaning cropped) zoom, a shortcut to 6x zoom in the app, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and a 50MP selfie camera capable of recording 4K video at 30 frames-per-second.

You’re going to enjoy taking photos with the Nothing Phone 3a Pro. The main camera takes punchy, vibrant, well exposed shots, and it’s enjoyable to experiment with the small selection of filters available. These include a cracking black and white mode, which gets the contrast and brightness just right. The 3x zoom packs in plenty of detail, but the real surprise is the decent 6x zoom, which takes usable photos despite not being an optical mode.

Night shots are also very good, with little evidence of edge enhancement, lovely natural textures, and a good splash of realistic color. The let-down is the 8MP wide-angle camera, which is to be expected because they’re all terrible. It’s a step down over previous wide-angle cameras on Nothing’s phones too, and at this point they may as well have just taken it off completely. This aside, the camera is excellent.

There’s a new Gallery app installed with the latest version of Nothing OS, but it’s a barebones affair. It doesn’t even have its own editing suite, and simply guides you to Google Photos when you tap the Edit button. I assume it’s there for the Essential Space feature, which relies on screenshots to operate, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: software, performance, and Glyph Lights

You get two choices for how Android 15 looks on the Nothing Phone 3a Pro: the default Google Android style, or Nothing’s own unique take on the design. Choose the full Nothing OS 3.1 experience and app icons are replaced by monochrome, pixel art versions, there are multiple widgets including ones with games and a compass, and your lock screen wallpaper gets a swirly, misty look when you unlock the phone.

Like the phone itself, the Nothing OS look is unique but if you’re going to use it, I’d recommend turning on the icon names, as it can be really confusing to find what you want otherwise. I’ve grown used to the stark, minimalist style and now rather like it. Notifications have been completely reliable, the entire system smooth and fast, and all my apps have run without a problem. Nothing’s software is a pleasure to use.

Nothing is also the master at system sounds, with a wide choice of fun notification alerts with matching Glyph Light flashes. The lights can be used to track timers and Uber rides, and be synced with music playback too. The 6.77-inch screen with its 120Hz refresh rate performs well, and it has been easily viewed in moderate sunlight, but the ambient brightness can be slow to react when you use it indoors.

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor and comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space. It’s perfectly adequate for everyday use, and plays games like Asphalt Legends: Unite without issue. Nothing will provide three years of major Android updates and four years of security updates.

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: Essential Space

Nothing doesn’t really talk about AI, and AI isn’t part of the Phone 3a Pro’s branding and identity, which is really refreshing after the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 16e both went overboard on AI “smarts.” Nothing’s taking a different approach with its AI-powered Essential Space. Activated using the dedicated side button, it’s designed to keep track of things you store on your phone as reminders or “moments.”

It’s mostly driven by screenshots taken with the Essential Space button, but you can also long press it to record a voice note. Double tap the button to open the Essential Space app, where it stores all your memories and reminders, complete with summaries that take into account account notes you add to screenshots. For example, I stored a screenshot of a product we may add to our Best of MWC 2025 awards post with a note to reflect this, and the AI summary told me if it was a good idea or not. It added location and cost details to a screenshot of a ticket booking page.

At the moment Essential Space is intriguing, especially if you use screenshots as a memory aid a lot, but it’s going to get a lot more useful in the future with features like adding photos, image recognition, and the ability to add content to specific Essential Space folders using your voice. It uses AI, but it doesn’t make a point of pushing the fact it’s AI on you, and it feels friendlier and easier to understand because of it. However, until the new features arrive it’s not much more than a glorified central organizer tool at the moment. That’s fine, but it’s not a reason to buy, and we hope for more from it in the near future.

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: battery and charging

A 5,000mAh provides the Nothing Phone 3a Pro with energy, and during my use it has lasted around four hours before it was below 10% remaining. This is without playing games for any meaningful time, but using navigation, the camera, and other apps on both 5G and Wi-Fi. It’s not bad, but it can’t match phones like the OnePlus 13R.

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro does not come with a charger in the box, and will recharge to 100% in about an hour with a charger like the Anker Prime Charging station, or the Twelve South PlugBug. The Nothing Phone 3a Pro does not have wireless charging, something Nothing reserves for its flagship phones.

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: price and availability

The 12GB/256GB Nothing Phone 3a Pro will be available to order from March 11 in the U.K. and cost 449 British pounds, which is around $570. Some other regions will get a cheaper 8GB/128GB version of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro. If you’re in the U.S. Nothing will release the Phone 3a Pro through its Developer Program, just as it did with the Phone 2a.

What else should you consider? Apple’s iPhone 16e is $599, but unless you’re desperate for an iPhone then the Phone 3a Pro is the far superior buy in terms of value. The OnePlus 13R is $600 and a fantastic buy, or you could also consider the new Samsung Galaxy A56, which is 499 pounds.

Nothing Phone 3a Pro: the best Nothing phone yet

After the odd Nothing Phone 2a Plus release, Nothing is straight back to the top of its game with the Nothing Phone 3a Pro. I used it as my main smartphone the week leading up to MWC 2025, and also while I’ve been in Barcelona for the show, and it hasn’t put a foot wrong. It has been reliable to use and taken some great photos, but most of all it has been fun.

The Phone 3a Pro is one of the few smartphones to put a smile on my face, whether it’s through the out-there design, the silly sound effects, the flash of the Glyph Lights, the pedometer widget, or the really cool black and white filter for the camera. Even the filter switcher in the camera app looks unique, and I adore Nothing’s attention to detail throughout the software and the phone’s design. It separates it from other phones at a similar price.

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro is superb, and I wholeheartedly recommend you buy it.