Is modern smartphone -design boring? We examined 1,500 readers for their thoughts on this particular question earlier this year, and as many as 78% of respondents answered in the affirmative.
The smartphone industry was once overwhelmed with strange and wonderful devices (do you remember the LG wing?), But these days the producers-Gan is literally-much more equally edged in their approach to design.
The exception to the rule is nothing that has stuck to his mission to “make technical fun again” since he was founded by former OnePlus manager Carl Pei in 2021. No phones are designed to stand out from the crowd and the company’s latest handset, the long-awaited Nothing Phone 3, meets the short and then some.
Nothing is “First True Flagship” is a truly strange looking thing. Imagine that if a kindergarten took an old-school sliding block pussy game, it dipped in PVA glue and accessories with three black sewing buttons. It’s Nothing Phone 3. That. It is a foreign creation with specifications to compete with some of the best phones – and I think it could be the most interesting flagship of the year.
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So what is new versus the well received (but definitely un-flagship) no phone 2? For starters, linear glyph lights are out and a new glyph matrix interface is in.
This interactive screen sits in the upper right corner of the phone 3’s 6.67-inch back panel and is able to display several different types of content-from person-specific messages to ‘Glyph Toys’ (read: party game) such as the spin bottle and rock, paper, scissors. Heck, Glyph Matrix can even double as a pixelated searcher for selfies, which is a nice retro touch for those who miss the Game Boy camera.
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As for other major design changes, the phone 3 still has the classic modular no look. But its camera lenses sit independently of a physical module rather than being placed in a circular or pill -shaped front pipe, such as on the phone 3A and phone 3A pro.
I can see that this new lens event is the most controversial aspect of phone 3’s design, but I personally am a big fan of the abstract, asymmetrical mood it brings to the device as a whole. Previously, no phones looked unique, but not to this extent.
When we talk about cameras, there is a brand new one. The phone 3 gets a 50-megapixel main lens, a 50MP ultra-free lens and a brand new 50MP telelmic with 3x optical zoom. Of course, we can’t yet say how good these cameras are without testing them properly (keep an eye on our full review), but on paper they are at least flagship level snappers.
You also get a 50MP self -camera on the front that marks one step up from the 32MP equivalent on Nothing Phone 2. Oh and the little red dot on the back of the phone 3? It lights up when you record with one of its three rear cameras.
Under the cap, phone 3 is run by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 chips. I’ve already written about why I don’t think the lack of a Snapdragon 8 elite is a big thing in a separate piece, but we don’t know for sure until we have benchmarked phone 3 at similar prices.
Nothing on its side is sure of the performance information about its “first true flagship” and after having a quick game with the phone 3 on its London launch event, I am convinced that 8S Gen 4 will be quick enough to support the software requires nothing us 3.5 (and eventually nothing OS 4.0).
The phone 3’s chipset is paired with a 5,150 mAh silicon-carbon battery, which is a technology that you still do not find in many of the best Android phones. You also get 65W quick charging – another remarkable upgrade over phone 2’s 45W charging speed cap.
Other features of Nothing’s latest flagship include an IP68 dust and water resistance assessment, Corning Gorilla Glass Protection and a new essential search feature to go along with the physical important key introduced on the phone 3A Pro.
Again, I only handled the phone for a few minutes on Nothing’s Launch event, so I haven’t taken these new tools for a proper spin yet. But the bottom line is this: Telephone 3 is unlike any other unit on the market right now, and I sincerely hope its performance lives up to no “flagship” invoicing. If Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 can compete with Google’s Tensor G5, at least, the phone 3 could well be the most interesting phone of the year.
The unit starts at $ 799 / £ 799 for the model with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, with this price rising to $ 899 / £ 899 for 16 GB and 512 GB respectively. These numbers put the phone 3 in the league with the iPhone 16, Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9, so keep up to date on our verdict on whether nothing is the latest phone can compete with such big name rivals.
