Nothing Cellphone 3 assessment: Not fairly a flagship

Nothing did issues in a different way with its third era of telephones. First got here the midrange Nothing Phone 3a (and 3a Pro), which mixed fashionable {hardware} with a aggressive value. Now, the corporate has launched the Nothing Phone 3, which it is calling its first “true flagship.” At $799, it is Nothing’s costliest cellphone but, that includes a much bigger display, 4 50-megapixel cameras and a serious redesign of the corporate’s signature Glyph interface, which has advanced into the extra compact Glyph Matrix.

Nothing’s {hardware} design is what actually units its telephones aside from the established gamers, and the 2025 mannequin is extra elaborate and sophisticated than ever. At this value, nevertheless, it faces stiff competitors from entry-level flagships just like the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16. Past the improvements and occasional gimmicks, has Nothing nailed the basics sufficient to compete?

{Hardware} and design

As soon as once more, Nothing has made a cellphone that instructions consideration like no different. In every single place I am going, persons are curious after they see me utilizing the Cellphone 3, and the Glyph Matrix appears to each confuse and delight them.

In contrast to the protruding digital camera unit on the Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional, the Cellphone 3’s three cameras are individually lodged within the again and jut out a fraction of a millimeter. The see-through exterior returns, displaying screws and {hardware} modules organized into three vertical rows. This time, it’s extra obvious that it is a design flourish quite than a real glimpse into the cellphone’s elements. For instance, a curious semi-circle of frosted glass beneath the flash would not appear to have a objective (past an aesthetic one).

Elsewhere, a crimson sq. subsequent to the ultrawide digital camera now acts as a recording mild. It is one other charming contact that may be disabled within the settings should you discover it distracting. The off-center telephoto digital camera lens may additionally irk symmetry followers, however it’s a selection that I do not significantly thoughts. The Cellphone 3 is eighteen % thinner than the Cellphone 2 and, with out the digital camera bump of the 3a Professional, it appears and feels a step above its predecessors.

The primary attraction is the Glyph Matrix: a round dot-matrix show product of 489 LEDs that exhibits easy notifications, the time and battery stage. Whereas some loyal followers would possibly miss the daring mild present of earlier fashions, this iteration is much extra helpful. As a substitute of a barrage of flashing lights, the Matrix can inform you who is looking via distinctive patterns and, with future updates, customized artwork assigned to your contacts.

Nothing continues to lean into its retro tech design inspiration, and I am going to admit I am a sucker for it. The dot-matrix textual content and numbers align completely with Nothing’s Android pores and skin, making the whole system really feel cohesive. A capacitive haptic Glyph button beneath the Matrix allows you to cycle via notifications and instruments. Interactions are easy: a brief press to change modes or a protracted press to start out instruments just like the stopwatch.

Luckily, you need to use the Cellphone 3’s settings menu to assign Glyph Matrix instruments and “toys.” Most of them are playful and frivolous, like Spin The Bottle and Magic 8 Ball, and Nothing is tapping into its neighborhood to create new Matrix widgets. Hopefully, performance will increase as extra customers get entangled. Some instruments are much less helpful although, like a stage that makes use of the cellphone’s accelerometer for a pixelated readout. It simply appears slightly imprecise; how a lot accuracy are you able to derive from lower than 500 pixels? Others are fairly slick, like a pixelated digital camera readout for framing selfies.

With Important Notifications, you may assign particular app notifications or contacts to a singular sample or a pixelated picture. Nonetheless, it is difficult to create something that does not seem like a blurry mess. The identical settings menu means that you can modify the Matrix’s brightness and the way lengthy the notifications persist.

The entrance of the Cellphone 3 is all show, with a 6.67-inch display and a decision of two,800 x 1,260. When you want a big display, that is in all probability its largest benefit over the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25. It’s additionally Nothing’s brightest cellphone but, reaching as much as 4,500 nits for HDR content material — noticeably brighter than the Nothing Cellphone 3a. It helps HDR 10+ and a 120Hz refresh fee, all protected by Gorilla Glass 7.

Cameras

Nothing has the basics lined with the Cellphone 3’s cameras. The triple-camera system features a 50-megapixel f/1.7 most important sensor with optical picture stabilization, a 50MP ultrawide and a brand new 50MP telephoto digital camera with 3x optical zoom.

As we famous in our Nothing Cellphone 3a assessment, telephoto cameras are uncommon on extra reasonably priced smartphones. On the Cellphone 3, there’s a periscope zoom, preserving the digital camera unit svelte and barely protruding from the system. It’s additionally spectacular to see a 3x zoom paired with a high-resolution 50-megapixel sensor, which lets you crop into photographs whereas retaining constancy. Nothing even added a 6x zoom button within the digital camera app that crops the picture additional. The app additionally makes use of pixel-binning for extra correct shade and higher low-light photos by default, which ends up in them being saved as 12-megapixel photographs.

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Nothing Cellphone 3 assessment pattern images

Pictures shot on the Nothing Cellphone 3.

General, the digital camera system generally is a little inconsistent. Throughout a trip in Amsterdam, the Cellphone 3 captured crisp photographs of wildlife and structure. Its Motion mode was significantly spectacular, effortlessly including movement blur to pictures whereas preserving the topic sharp. Nonetheless, at different instances, what ought to have been vibrant cityscape pictures and road artwork got here out muted and grainy. For instance, psychedelic cat paintings that was extremely vibrant in particular person appeared flat within the images. The metadata revealed the cellphone had cranked up the ISO, a setting I have never needed to manually modify on a smartphone in years.Whereas some shade variation between the three lenses is anticipated, photographs usually appeared as in the event that they had been taken on totally different telephones, one thing that was particularly evident in scenes with blue skies.

The telephoto digital camera is the standout function on the Cellphone 3. I like the power to play with zoom, and the 3x optical zoom (plus the extra crop) makes this a extra helpful digital camera than these on the iPhone 16 or Pixel 9, which prime out at 2x zoom. It’s additionally a superb macro digital camera, utilizing the zoom to forestall the cellphone from casting a shadow on the topic.

Software program

Nothing as soon as once more outfits its cellphone with its personal distinctive Android pores and skin. The aesthetic is all monochrome, serif fonts and dot-matrix touches. I instantly selected this pores and skin when establishing the cellphone for the primary time, although discovering some app icons could be tougher with out their unique colours.

Important Area, with its devoted {hardware} button, stays Nothing’s most attention-grabbing software program addition. Since launching on the Nothing Cellphone 3a, it might probably now add occasions to your Google Calendar, remind you of duties and summarize audio recordings. My largest challenge, nevertheless, is unintentionally hitting the facility button as an alternative of the Important Key, or vice versa. The keys should be a special measurement or a minimum of have a extra distinct really feel.

Efficiency and battery life

With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, the Cellphone 3 performs solidly, however it’s not as snappy as a tool with true flagship silicon, just like the Snapdragon 8 Elite or Apple A18. Some would possibly argue that the Cellphone 3 is not a “true flagship” as a result of its processor could be present in sub-$400 units, however the chip continues to be highly effective sufficient for many duties and video games, and might even ship ray-traced graphics.

Nothing opted for a 5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery, making it one of many first telephones we’ve examined with this new know-how. It may well retailer extra lithium ions than conventional lithium-ion batteries, which Nothing claims provides a ten % enhance in power density in comparison with its predecessor. I didn’t really feel any notable distinction of the Cellphone 3 working cooler, nevertheless. In our battery rundown take a look at, the Cellphone 3 was capable of play a video file for simply over 23 hours. That falls barely shy of the Cellphone 2, however that has a smaller display.

The Cellphone 3 additionally will get flagship-level charging speeds, supporting 65W wired charging that will get the system from empty to full in below an hour (with a suitable charger). It additionally helps 15W wi-fi charging and reverse wi-fi charging for earbuds. Nonetheless, the shortage of Qi2 help looks as if an oversight for a “true flagship.”

Wrap-up

How does Nothing’s flagship cellphone stack up towards equally priced smartphones? The Cellphone 3 gives a giant 6.67-inch display, a big battery with quick charging and 256GB of storage — double the quantity discovered within the base Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25.

Nonetheless, a less-than-flagship chipset and inconsistent digital camera efficiency detract from the enchantment of an in any other case intriguing cellphone with slick software program and a singular design. The Glyph Matrix is rather more helpful than the flashing lights of the Cellphone 3’s predecessors, even when the design isn’t fairly as daring. I simply hope the corporate continues to evolve the instruments out there on it.

The Cellphone 3 is a significantly better cellphone than the two-year-old Nothing Cellphone 2, however it’s additionally $200 costlier, making any shortcomings extra obvious. Whereas I need Nothing to proceed experimenting with its telephones, it ought to in all probability prioritize shoring up the digital camera efficiency first.