Nothing kicked off March by unveiling its newest ‘ a ’ phone , the Nothing Phone 3a , atMWC 2025 . Here ’s how the affordable smartphone compares to last yr ’s Nothing Phone 2a .
The Nothing Phone 2a impress us with its stylish design , bland carrying into action and foresighted barrage life . On top of this , users benefited from a firm frame quality , great display and solid photographic camera . That is n’t even to note the unique Glyph scheme on the rear of the phone . More importantly , all of this came at a budget - friendly start price of $ 349/£319 .
Now , Nothing has announced its heir , theNothing Phone 3a . We ’ve compile the big upgrades and change in this guide to help you determine whether it ’s worth picking up the newer model .
If you ’re interested in learning how the Nothing Phone 3a equate to the higher - speccedPhone 3a professional , check out our scout to theNothing Phone 3a Pro vs 3a , or for more cracking phones , head over to our guides to thebest smartphonesandbest cheap speech sound .
Price
The Nothing Phone 3a was announced alongside the Phone 3a Pro on March 2 at MWC 2025 . The Nothing Phone 3a set out at $ 399 / £ 329 for 8/128 GB and goes up to $ 459 / £ 379 for 12/256 GB .
The Nothing Phone 2a was released on March 12 2024 with a starting Mary Leontyne Price of $ 349/£319 for the 8/128 GB model or $ 379/£349 for the larger 12/256 GB form .
Both example have since been dismiss on Amazon , however , mean you’re able to piece the 8/128 GB model up from $ 324/£247 and the 12/256 GB version from just $ 360/£279 today .
The Nothing Phone 3a is more durable
The Nothing Phone 3a has seen a couple of subtle design improvements , including a more indestructible design and a brighter display .
Where the Nothing Phone 2a has an IP rating of IP54 to protect it from debris and water , the Nothing Phone 3a upgrades this security level to IP64 by switching out the polycarbonate back panel for a glass one .
The display , meanwhile , is slightly magniloquent with less rounded corners . It ’s smart too , with a typical cleverness of 800 nit , an outside brightness of 1300 nit and a peak brightness of 3000 nits with HDR . The Nothing Phone 2a offered 700 nits of distinctive light , 1100 nits of outside luminance and 1300 nits of peak luminance .
The Nothing Phone 3a has a telephoto camera
One of the biggest upgrades come on the Nothing Phone 3a comes in the form of a Modern telephoto camera .
Where the Nothing Phone 2a included two cameras – a 50 - megapixel master camera with OIS and EIS and a 50 - megapixel ultra - wide shooter – the Nothing Phone 3a comes with three . These include a 50 - megapixel main sensing element with OIS and EIS , a smaller 8 - megapixel extremist - wide-cut camera and a new 50 - megapixel telephoto lens with support for 2x optical rapid climb .
Both telephone also feature 32 - megapixel front cameras , along with sustenance for 4K/30fps video transcription .
We find the tv camera on the Nothing Phone 3a to be seemly , though we had to bank on cropping from the main sensor to attain 2x dead reckoning . The inclusion body of optical zoom this time around should ensure there ’ll be no loss in quality when shooting subjects at a length .
You ’ll have to wait for our full reassessment of the phone to see how these two camera phones compare in our experience .
The Nothing Phone 3a is 92% better at handling AI tasks
The Nothing Phone 3a has an edge when it comes to performance thanks to its upgraded Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset .
The Nothing Phone 2a was powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro , which we find extend very substantial performance for its cost . The chipset present strong CPU and GPU performance — especially compared to other phones below the $ 400/£400 scar and feel smooth and nippy in the hand .
The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 - powered Nothing Phone 3a is pack with performance improvement , with Nothing claiming a 33 % uptick in processor carrying out , 11 % upright graphics and a whopping 92 % betterment in AI task processing . That said , you ’ll have to wait for our full critical review to discover how these two processors compare in our benchmark tests .
The Nothing Phone 3a has a longer battery life
While both the Nothing Phone 3a and the Nothing Phone 2a pack large 5000 mAh battery , the newer Nothing Phone 3a plant an bound when it comes to electric battery life .
This is thanks to the aforementioned Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 combine with Nothing OS that requires 8 % less power for distinctive tasks . This translate to another 30 minutes of electric battery at the end of each day , giving you another half 60 minutes before you need to go and get your courser .
The Nothing Phone 3a also endorse slenderly fast 50W charging , which Nothing claims should provide 50 % office in 19 transactions and 100 % in 56 minutes . The Nothing Phone 2a , comparatively , brought along 45W charging for 50 % barrage in 23 minutes and a full charge in 59 minutes . Though , again , this is something we design to try out for ourselves .
Early verdict
The Nothing Phone 3a improves upon the Nothing Phone 2a across the add-in – at least on paper . However , you ’ll desire to waitress for our full reexamination to see how obtrusive these upgrades are in actual - world use and our benchmarking tests .
