Unlike most smartphone companies, Nothing took a year off from its latest flagship smartphone, the Phone (2), which was scheduled to launch in 2023.That time allowed the company to spend more time on the design phase, rather than sticking to an annual lifecycle and releasing the phone when it's ready. According to Adam Bates, global head of design at Nothing, you can expect the same.
The phone has a grid design with three speakers, which represent flexible printed circuit boards at the bottom. The triple-camera system sits above these grids, along with a glyph-matrix display. More on that in a moment. It's an unusual style that stands out from the round or rectangular camera modules found on most phones.
Nothing beats the many new "Glyph Toys" that come with the phone, like the ability to see a pixelated preview of yourself when you take a selfie with the rear camera. There's also a spin-the-bottle game, a magic 8-ball that gives you answers when you shake your phone, and a rock, paper, scissors game. Conveniently, there's a small touch-sensitive circle at the bottom that you can use to switch between these modes instead of constantly switching through the settings menu on the phone's front screen. Nothing has released a software development kit so anyone can create Glyph Toys for phones.
Another interesting feature is the small red square on the back. Originally present on the phone (2a), it is no longer just a design detail. It is like a recording light, illuminating during video recording.
| Nothing Phone (3) Specs |
|---|
| Display: 6.67-inch AMOLED, 1260 x 2800, 120 Hz, 4,500 nits peak brightness |
| Processor and RAM: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 with 12 or 16 GB of RAM |
| Storage: 256 or 512 GB |
| Battery: 5,150-mAh silicon-carbon battery |
| Cameras: 50-MP wide, 50-MP ultrawide, 50-MP telephoto (3x), 50-MP selfie camera |
| Updates (from date of manufacture): 5 years Android OS upgrades, 7 years of security updates |
| Extras: Qi wireless charging, IP68, 65-watt fast charging, NFC, Wi-Fi 7, eSIM |
| Colors: Black or white |
The phone may not have the excellent Snapdragon 8 Elite, opting instead for the slightly inferior Snapdragon 8S Gen 4, but it should still offer flagship-level performance, and the rest of the specs make it competitive with its rivals, especially at the $799 price point. Particularly notable is the use of silicon-carbon batteries, a relatively new technology that allows for dense batteries in thin designs. While it's a bit thicker (0.2mm) than its predecessor, the 5,150mAh is significantly larger than the 4,700mAh found in the phone (2).
The Phone (3) adds Essential Key, which was introduced earlier this year on the Phone (3a) (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s a Nothing AI tool that captures the content of your screen and stores it in the Essential Space app, using powerful language models to extract useful information from the screenshot. New to the phone (3), you can flip the phone over and press and hold a key to start recording - this is handy if you're in an interview - AND you'll see the automatic transcription in the app later. Nothing has enabled the search bar in the app drawer either, This lets you ask anything from questions about Saturn to specific photos in your Gallery app.
The rest of the phone will offer an improved experience all around, from the brighter AMOLED display to the cameras with larger sensors that will deliver better photos in low light. The best news is that there’s no longer a beta program for the US. You can buy it directly from Nothing’s store, but it’s not yet clear whether that means it will work perfectly on carriers like Verizon. Stay tuned for our review soon.
Best Budget Android Phones For You In 2025 -