Nothing Phone 3a Pro review: Up to speed in design, performance, and UI

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro stands out as one of the most distinctive smartphones on the market, offering well-rounded performance for its price

British consumer technology brand Nothing has kicked off the 2025 launch cycle with the A-series products, introducing its first “Pro” model smartphone. Named the Phone 3a Pro, the smartphone could be considered a successor to the Phone 2a Plus of last year’s Phone 2a series—offering enhancements over the base model along with select premium features. Is it a successor or Nothing has introduced a new line of smartphones? Let’s find out.

 

Design

 

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro continues the company’s signature design approach, featuring a transparent back panel and the glyph light interface surrounding the camera bump. Despite retaining these familiar elements, the smartphone manages to stand out, largely due to its new circular rear camera module. While the camera bump is prominent, it surprisingly does not affect grip when holding the device. Nothing has also adopted a distinct arrangement for its camera sensors, with the periscopic telephoto lens taking centre stage. Additionally, the large camera module follows the transparent aesthetic of the back panel, for a more uniform look. Though design preferences vary, the Phone 3a Pro certainly is a head turner in the public.

 

 

Nothing has also opted for more premium materials. The transparent back panel is now made of glass, offering improved scratch resistance compared to last year’s Phone 2a series. The camera module is accented with a metallic ring, enhancing its visual appeal. While the outer frame remains textured plastic, it does not look or feel cheap. Notably, the new Essential Key, positioned below the side-mounted power button, has a convex shape and glossy finish, making it distinct from the other buttons. Its placement is well thought out—it is rarely mistaken for the power button yet remains conveniently accessible for one-handed use.

 

Weighing 211g, the smartphone leans on the heavier side. However, despite its weight and protruding camera module, it maintains good balance, which improves handling. That said, the phone is somewhat slippery and prone to smudges, and dust often accumulates in the narrow gap between the camera module and back glass, requiring regular cleaning. A standout aspect of the design is its stability when placed on a flat surface. The raised camera bump also props the phone at a slight angle, making it easier to glance at on-screen content without picking it up.

 

Display

 

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro sports a 6.77-inch fullHD+ AMOLED display of 120Hz refresh rate. It delivers vibrant colours and sharp visuals, enhancing the content-watching experience. The display offers a peak manual brightness of 800 nits, which increases to 1300 nits in high-brightness mode for better outdoor visibility. While the company claims a peak brightness of 3000 nits, this level is only achieved when viewing HDR content.

 

Though the panel lacks LTPO technology, it supports dynamic refresh rate switching between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz, helping optimise battery life. The 120Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling with minimal stutter. A key upgrade in this model is the enhanced touch sampling rate in Gaming Mode, which boosts the standard 480Hz rate to 1000Hz. This potentially improves responsiveness, allowing for finer touch precision in gaming.

 

For streaming, the Phone 3a Pro supports Widevine L1, enabling high-definition playback on compatible platforms. YouTube videos offer HDR viewing options, but HDR support is absent on streaming services like Netflix.

 

Camera

 

The Phone 3a Pro has a 50-megapixel primary sensor with autofocus and optical image stabilization (OIS). Compared to previous models, colour reproduction has improved, offering more vibrant yet balanced tones. Unlike the Phone 2a, which tended to oversaturate images in bright indoor settings, this model delivers more natural results. Daylight shots exhibit good dynamic range and retain a realistic appearance.

 

However, the ultra-wide camera sees a significant downgrade, now featuring an 8MP sensor instead of the 50MP one found in the Phone 2a. While detail levels are lower, colour accuracy remains consistent with the primary camera.

 

To compensate for the reduced ultra-wide resolution, the Phone 3a Pro introduces a periscopic telephoto camera capable of 3x optical zoom without quality loss. It also features OIS for added stability. While zoomed-in shots are sharp, the camera occasionally overexposes bright scenes, reducing shadow detail. The telephoto lens is particularly beneficial for portrait photography, enabling in-sensor zoom for close-up portraits, capturing fine facial details. However, the additional bokeh flare modes provided for portrait shots appear somewhat artificial.

 

The telephoto camera also functions as a macro lens, allowing close-up shots from a distance. Additionally, it supports up to 60x zoom through software-based cropping.

For video recording, the Phone 3a Pro supports 4K resolution at up to 30 frames per second (FPS) on the primary, telephoto, and front-facing cameras. The ultra-wide camera, however, is limited to 1080p at 30 FPS.

 

Performance

 

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, paired with up to 12GB of RAM. It offers reasonable performance for the price point, handling day-to-day tasks smoothly. The phone also manages more demanding workloads, such as multitasking with heavy apps, graphics-intensive gaming, and high-resolution video recording, with relative ease. However, performance limits become noticeable in certain scenarios.

 

For instance, playing FC Mobile at Ultra graphics and the highest frame rate setting causes the device to heat up within about 30 minutes, though there are no significant frame drops. Similarly, Genshin Impact runs smoothly at medium-to-high settings, but pushing beyond that leads to occasional performance dips.

 

Software

 

The software experience is arguably the standout feature of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro. Running on Android 15-based NothingOS 3.1, it delivers a clean, minimalistic user interface with no unnecessary extras. Like previous Nothing phones, it comes free of bloatware, ad spaces within native apps, or intrusive notifications. The interface is fluid, with smooth and responsive animations throughout the system.

 

Nothing has also expanded its customisation options. While features like monochromatic app icons remain, new enhancements have been introduced. The most notable is the lock screen customisation, which allows users to place widgets in more areas, modify clock styles, and change shortcut layouts. There are also new interactive home screen widgets, including a retro Snake game, an active compass, a sand clock timer, and more. Additionally, an AI-powered app drawer sorting feature automatically categorises apps, similar to iOS.

 

Speaking of AI-driven features, the Phone 3a Pro introduces a few notable additions. These include a wallpaper generator that creates unique backgrounds by blending different styles and a news widget that summarises articles into short audio snippets. However, the most significant new feature is Essential Space, accessible via the newly added Essential Key.

 

At first glance, Essential Space may resemble Google Pixel’s Screenshot app, but it offers additional functionality. Pressing the Essential Key captures a screenshot and immediately provides an option to add notes. A long press on the button starts a voice recording, allowing users to save an audio note alongside the screenshot. Within Essential Space, accessible by long-pressing the key, screenshots are automatically categorised into sections, with transcribed notes for added context. The feature also supports reminder integration. For instance, if a user takes a screenshot of an event poster and adds a note about attending, the system automatically detects the event’s date and time and sets a reminder accordingly.

 

While text transcription accuracy still has some inconsistencies, the feature holds promise and could become even more useful with future updates.

 

Battery

 

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro is equipped with a 5000mAh battery, delivering reliable all-day battery life. On a full charge, the phone comfortably lasts an entire day and even extends into the following hours. During testing, a 65 per cent charge was sufficient to get through a full day without concern.

 

For charging, the device supports 50W wired fast charging, allowing it to fully recharge in just under an hour. However, wireless charging is not supported, which may be a drawback for some users.

 

Verdict

 

Starting at Rs 29,999, the Nothing Phone 3a Pro stands out as one of the most distinctive smartphones on the market. Beyond its unique design, it delivers a near-flagship software experience, making it a compelling choice. Performance, imaging, and battery life are well-balanced for its price. However, the lack of wireless charging, HDR support on streaming platforms, and a few other missing features may be drawbacks for some users.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by BSTech (@bstechofficial)