Nothing Phone (3a) review
Display
The Nothing Phone (3a) features a 6.77-inch FullHD+ display, slightly larger than the 6.7-inch panel of its predecessor. The screen retains a 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color support, and HDR10+ certification.
One of the biggest improvements in this generation is brightness. The panel is rated for 800 nits of typical brightness, 1,300 nits in high-brightness mode, and a peak of 3,000 nits in HDR mode.
In our testing, we recorded a maximum manual brightness of 737 nits and 1,273 nits in auto mode, making it perfectly usable even in direct sunlight.
The max brightness here is slightly less than the Phone (3a) Pro but the screen on the vanilla Nothing Phone (3a) has better brightness uniformity for some reason.
Max display brightness test
White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)
- Manual mode
- Auto mode
Redmi Note 14 Pro 4G
vivo V40
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
Nothing phone (3a) Pro
Motorola Edge 50 Pro
Nothing phone (3a)
Poco X7 Pro
In terms of refresh rate handling, the Nothing Phone (3a) supports 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz. There are three settings: Dynamic, High, and Standard. Standard locks the display at 60Hz, while Dynamic intelligently adjusts between refresh rates to conserve power. It often reduces from 120Hz to 90Hz or 60Hz based on content, and most videos are played at 30Hz.
Unfortunately, high refresh rate gaming is still not universally possible as most high framerate games can't run above 60fps. This has been the case with Nothing phones in the past. However, we did have some luck with PUBG here, where we got up to 90fps/90Hz.
The display is HDR10+ certified and supports HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG formats. However, Dolby Vision is not supported.
Battery life
The Nothing Phone (3a) comes equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, which is a standard capacity for modern smartphones.
The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is known for its efficiency, and the Nothing Phone (3a) delivers respectable battery performance. In our testing, the device achieved an Active Use Score of 13 hours and 32 minutes. While this is a solid result, it falls short of being exceptional.
We found that the phone's gaming and web browsing endurance could be improved. Additionally, compared to its predecessor, the Nothing Phone (2a) and the Phone (2a) Plus, battery longevity has seen a slight decline.
Charging speed
The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro supports charging speeds of up to 50W with a PD+PPS charger. Nothing offers its own compatible chargers, but we tested with a third-party PPS charger rated at 100W (20V at 5A). During testing, the phone never exceeded 30W of power draw.
Charging speeds were slightly below the advertised numbers. In 15 minutes, the phone reached 33% charge. At 23 minutes, it reached 50%, while 30 minutes resulted in a 60% charge. A full charge took just over an hour. While not groundbreaking, the charging speed is decent.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
Motorola Edge 50 Pro
Realme 14 Pro+
vivo V40
Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G
Nothing Phone (2)
Nothing phone (3a)
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
Speakers - loudness and quality
The Nothing Phone (3a) has a stereo speaker setup. It's a hybrid configuration, with the amplified earpiece serving as the second channel. The other speaker is placed on the bottom frame. This results in some imbalance in the sound output since the two speakers aren't symmetrically aligned.
Nevertheless, the overall sound quality is quite good. It's similar to the Nothing Phone (2), but perhaps with slightly less bass. Not that the Nothing Phone (2) had a lot of bass to begin with. At least the mids are clear, and the highs remain undistorted.
The Nothing Phone (3a) achieved a VERY GOOD loudness score in our standardized testing.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Connectivity
The Nothing Phone (3a) is a 5G device with SA/NSA Sub-6 support on both Nano-SIM slots simultaneously. Unlike the Pro model, it does not support eSIM for some reason. For positioning, it supports GPS (without L5), GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS, and QZSS.
For local connectivity, it features dual-band Wi-Fi 6 ax. Unfortunately, there is still no Wi-Fi 7 or tri-band support. It comes with Bluetooth 5.4, including LE support and NFC. There is no FM radio or 3.5mm audio jack available.
The USB Type-C port is paired with a basic USB 2.0 data connection, offering a maximum transfer rate of 480 Mbps.
USB Host/OTG is supported, but there are no advanced features like video output via Alt mode.
Regarding sensors, the device includes an STMicro LSM6DSV combo of accelerometer and gyroscope, along with a Memsic MMC56X3X magnetometer and compass combo. It also has a Sensortek STK3A5X light and hardware proximity sensor. However, there is no barometer on this device.
Reader comments
- Luke
- 5 hours ago
- AZd
Dolby Atmos for music hearing?!?! Really?!?! that is a disaster...
- ReaLogic
- 15 hours ago
- K1L
Can you do the peset yourself? AFAIK Apple doesn't have Dolby Atmos except in it's Apple Music app.
- Hoosm
- 27 Mar 2025
- fuP
400 $ and no charger in the box .... Stop comparing these things with 14Ts from Xiaomi/edges from Motorola and telling us they 50$ cheaper