The phone 3 is London Nothing’s last attempt to bring people to abandon Samsung or Apple phones for something a little different, a little original and more fun.
As the company’s first high -end Android in several years, it has most of what you expect to have a flagship phone has. But where he tries to stand out, it is with smooth software of inspiration to the matrix and a rear design which includes a small unique LED screen.
Cost of £ 799 (€ 799 / $ 799 / $ 1,509) The phone 3 is double the price of the big mid -range efforts of the company, making it a direct challenger to the Samsung Galaxy S25, the Google Pixel 9 and the iPhone 16.
Nothing was initially introduced its semi-transparent design with headphones, then followed with phone 1 in 2022, which added “glyphs” LEDs at the back that flashed in fantasy patterns for notifications. For phone 3, these glyph fires turned into a small round LED matrix at the top right of its back displaying icons, animations and patterns.
It is used for more than simple notifications and can now display various “toys” gadgets such as a Magic Eight Balla stopwatch or, creaky, a turn the bottle Game that can be triggered by a touch button on the back. More useful is the possibility of showing time, volume, load status or persistent icon for a notification or application of your choice.
The rest of the rear of the apparatus divides opinion with an eccentric arrangement of forms and elements. Those who want symmetry will hate that.
The front screen is, at least, a regular 6.7 -inch OLED screen with thin glasses and a smooth 120 Hz cooling rate. It is clear, colorful and bright, although a little subject to reflect the very sunny days.
Features
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Screen: 6.7 inches 120Hz QHD + OLED (460ppi)
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Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4
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RAM: 12 or 16 GB
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Storage: 256 or 512 GB
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Operating system: Nothing os 3.5 (Android 15)
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Camera: 50MP Main, 50MP 3X TELE and 50MP Ultrawide, 50MP Selfie
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Connectivity: 5G, ESIM, WIFI 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6 and GNSS
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Water resistance: IP68
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Dimensions: 160.6 x 75.6 x 9 mm
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Weight: 218g
Catchy but hot
Telephone 3 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 chip, which is a step compared to the latest Elite Top Snapdragon 8 processor used in most flagship Android competitors. Its slightly lower performance is not perceptible in daily use and it simply advances. It can even manage games fairly well, although those looking for the best absolute performance should seem elsewhere because the phone has become uncomfortably hot with demanding graphic tests.
The battery life is a solid, but not the class, 40 hours between loads with a lot of use 5G. Most people will have to load it every two days or less if they are used more with sparing. This corresponds to the phone 2 of two years and is a bit behind similar rivals.
The battery loads entirely in 55 minutes using a 65 W USB-C power adapter (not included), reaching 50% in just 19 minutes. The phone also has a wireless load of 15 W.
Nothing bone 3.5
The phone is shipped with nothing on Android 15 of last year, which is very stylized with a point matrix look and is easily customizable. A more regular Android style is available for those who need color to identify their applications.
Otherwise, the software is smooth and uncompromising, with all the usual google services available, as well as some applications nothing like weather or vocal tape. The Essential Space application, launched for the first time with the 3A Pro phone, now includes the possibility of vocal record opposite down with an animation on the screen and the transcription of the glyphs using a cloud service. Essential research is a search powered by AI on your phone and your data, as well as the possibility of responding to simple requests.
Nothing promises an upgrade to Android 16 in the third quarter of 2025 and will provide five years of updates to the Android version and a total of seven years of security updates. It has been a few years less than the best of Google and Samsung. Also note that multimedia applications such as Netflix are currently not supporting HDR content reading on telephone 3 due to certification that restricting SDR video.
Camera
Nothing has three 50 megapixel cameras on the back and a 50 MP selfie camera at the front. The main camera is the best in the group, the shooting of detailed and solid images, while the 3X optical zoom camera is almost as good, maintaining large details and a clarity in light scenes. The zoom in the sensor around 6x is OK, just like the digital zoom around 10x in good light, but the image degrades when you enlarge more. The ultra-reality camera is the weakest of the three, producing photos that look great in full view but lack details during the zoom and with an obvious deformation around the edges of the frame.
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Outside in the bright light, they capture superb photos, but the change between the three cameras can cause different balances and tones of colors, which is not ideal. They can also be strangely gray when shooting inside, with an incoherent tone, sometimes taking superb photos, but at other times that come out dull with repeated shots.
The selfie camera is quite good and captures a lot of details. The 3X telephoto lens camera has a macro mode for close -up plans about 10 cm apart, which is always fun.
Overall, the camera of the phone 3 can be good, but the inconsistency prevents it from being as excellent as competitors at this price.
Sustainability
The battery will keep at least 80% of its original capacity for at least 1,400 full load cycles. The phone is generally repairable in the United Kingdom.
The device is made of recycled aluminum, copper, plastic, steel, tin and other materials representing 17.6% of the weight. It has a carbon footprint of 53.2 kg of equivalent CO2. The company publishes sustainability reports.
Price
The telephone nothing costs from £ 799 (€ 799 / $ 799 / $ 1,509) with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.
For comparison, the 3A Pro phone costs £ 394, the Google Pixel 9 Pro costs £ 999The Samsung Galaxy S25 + costs £ 999, the Samsung S25 EDGE costs £ 1,099 and the OnePlus 13 costs £ 899.
Verdict
The phone 3 is a good but not a big Android of nothing. It is more interesting than its competitors, but you must actively want something different so that it makes sense because you can easily get better efficient and more durable handsets at this price.
The software of nothing is a strong point. It is smooth, customizable and well optimized. Seven years of security updates are good, even if it is not the launch on the latest Android version and you only get five years of upgrades. The glyph screen at the rear is certainly new, and the semi-transparent design of the back is catchy, even if it divides opinion. It is well done if a little on the heavy side, while the performance and the life of the telephone battery are solid if you do not.
The incoherent camera shows that there is still work to do from nothing, while its essential spaces of space show a little merit, even if they are a little basic at the moment.
If you want something a little eccentric, the phone 3 is.
Benefits: Excellent software, eye-catching back design with point matrix screen, solid performance, 3x telephoto lens, good screen, solid fingerprint scanner, fast load, £ sub1000, seven years of security updates.
Disadvantages: The camera is incoherent and cannot correspond to the best, the battery life could be better, the features of AI are always a work in progress, not the latest version of Android and only five years of upgrades, the lack of symmetry not to everyone’s taste.
