Stop moaning, the Nothing Phone 3 is an excellent | Tech News

What is everybody moaning about?

If you’re into your tech, you could have seen some online furore about the Nothing Phone 3, the newest smartphone from UK tech firm Nothing. It has an asymmetrical design and £799 price tag that appears to have despatched followers and detractors of the model alike into meltdown.

Take a step back and a deep breath. It’s simply a telephone. You don’t need to buy it. But after two weeks of testing, I believe you’ll be joyful in the event you do.

The Nothing Phone 3 is the costliest Nothing Phone but nevertheless it brings fascinating design, great efficiency and battery life, and one of the best takes on Android software program to a UK market saturated by telephones from Apple, Samsung and Google which can be more and more devoid of character.

You won’t thoughts that, and even assume too deeply about the telephone in your pocket. The iPhone 16, Galaxy S25 and Pixel 9 are good telephones that do every part properly. But Nothing is doing one thing completely different, daring telephones to be enjoyable again, relatively than simply act as portals to timesucking apps, and that is really fairly exceptional in 2025. It simply relies upon in the event you thoughts spending £799 – the similar RRP as these three Apple, Samsung and Google telephones – to get it.

It’s particularly tough for Nothing given the also-excellent Nothing Phone 3a prices simply £329 and has a equally quirky design, triple cameras, and just about the similar software program.

The show, cameras, construct high quality and efficiency on the Phone 3 are all higher than on earlier Nothing telephones together with this 12 months’s Phone 3a and 3a Pro, however the new machine has ditched a signature function of each earlier model. Gone are the programmable lights that shone via the telephones’ clear backs, changed by a ‘Glyph Matrix’, a small round LED show.

This manages to be each helpful and a gimmick. Nothing encourages you to put the telephone face down, which might set off Do Not Disturb Mode. Then, you’ll be able to programme the little screen to show you enjoyable icons when a sure contact texts you, as an example. So, you might have a coronary heart show when your associate messages, however all different notifications will keep silent.

This is when the screen is most useful. There is a strain delicate button on the back that you would be able to push that brings up so-called ‘Glyph Toys’ that are plainly gimmicks. I don’t need to play rock, paper, scissors towards a telephone. But the clock is useful, and the magic 8 ball is entertaining.

It’s all simply enjoyable, to be trustworthy. Who cares if it’s not extremely useful? What did you anticipate from a design-first company? The well-known clear 1998 iMac had a deal with on the back, nevertheless it didn’t imply you carried it round all over the place, or complained about it.

Just like the lights on the older Nothing telephones, the Glyph Matrix may be ignored – in contrast to the design. Available in black or white (I reviewed and like the white), no one can be mistaking this telephone for an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. Cameras sit askew, screws are dotted about at will, and there are a number of completely different shades of white occurring. It’s a lot. But I nonetheless prefer it as a lot as after I first noticed it, joyful to hold round a telephone that has, god forbid, a bit of character.

Nothing has marketed this telephone as its first true flagship, which is sensible. It has the firm’s best telephone specs but and the most options, and sits atop its vary.

Those specs embrace the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, 12GB RAM and 256GB storage (£100 more for 16GB/512GB), three 50MP cameras on the back, and a 5,150mAh battery that is silicon-carbon, technically more environment friendly than conventional lithium-ion cells.

I’ve loved utilizing the cameras, and the fundamental lens takes crisp, properly balanced photographs in gentle and darkish, although it does have some points with focus, typically photos look too tender. But Nothing’s preset color filters are excellent, and you can also make your own.

The ultra-wide is stable, regardless of colors annoyingly differing between this and the fundamental lens, and the telephoto is good up to its optical 3x, however past that the digital zoom struggles, which is disappointing. You can even use the telephoto as a macro digicam, nevertheless it’s not so good as rival telephones that use the ultra-wide lens for this.

The battery life has confirmed excellent. I’m not the heaviest of telephone customers, however the Phone 3 handily outperformed my iPhone 16, and will stretch to 2 days with gentle use. It can charge at 65W speeds, however there’s no charger in the box. Nothing does throw in a clear silicone case, although.

Performance is stellar too. The telephone flies via all duties and might deal with intense cell video games, although does run a bit scorching after half an hour or so. If you’re a cell gamer you could need to steer clear. I’m not one.

I might additionally do with out the devoted button beneath the energy button that fires up Nothing’s Essential Space. It’s too simple to push by accident, however the concept is to rapidly screenshot and add a word, which the on-board AI categorises and summarises for you in the app.

Better is the potential to put the telephone face down and maintain the button to begin a voice recording, with enjoyable waveform scrolling throughout the Glyph Matrix. Pressing the AI button when one thing important is mentioned marks that time for you in the recording.

As somebody who doesn’t care about having the very best specs, I believe it’s OK that Nothing hasn’t used the strongest accessible Android chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, however you can see that chip in the Galaxy S25 for the similar price. The web has whinged that this telephone ought to have the more highly effective processor contemplating the £799 price tag, however I don’t assume it’s a huge deal.

You’re paying for the design and the additional screen on the back, and the proven fact that Nothing is a small company. It can’t operate at the similar scale as Samsung, so it may possibly’t drive the price down in the similar manner. If I needed to choose whether or not to make use of the Phone 3 or the Galaxy S25 for the subsequent 5 years, I’d choose Nothing.

That’s useful, as a result of for the first time, Nothing is offering 5 years of Android updates, and 7 years of security updates. Not fairly nearly as good as Samsung’s seven and 7 respectively, however significantly better than the three years of Android updates of older Nothing telephones.

Chances are, in the event you buy the Nothing Phone 3, you gained’t ever meet anybody else who owns it. Obviously, Nothing needs to sell enough telephones that someday this isn’t the case, however for now the Nothing Phone 3’s shortage is a promoting level in my eyes. It’s enjoyable to have one thing completely different from everybody else. If you want the look of Nothing’s {hardware} and software program, I can simply advocate this machine.

If you’re not as eager on spending £799 upfront for a model you’ve not purchased from earlier than, I get it. Instead, plump for the Nothing Phone 3a, which prices £329. It simply has lesser efficiency, cameras and software program help, however glows with the similar sense of individuality.

It’s not unreasonable for Nothing to charge the similar as the incumbent telephone corporations. Just since you’re a challenger model, it doesn’t imply your merchandise need to value much less. The Nothing Phone 3 is an excellent flagship telephone, full stop.