Nothing Phone 3a

I've been curious about Nothing's products for a couple of years now and a lot of it (or 'all of it') has to do with the styling, design thinking, marketing and all the graphic and industrial design manners created by the Nothing co-founders at Teenage Engineering. I love their designs. I love their nerdy approach to design, which always feels nostalgically retro-futuristic and cheeky in the right way, packed with both heart and brain.

Teenage Engineering's gorgeous audio products are, and have been for ten years, what you get if you combine the first generation iPod with a Sony Walkman and an Atari 2600. They are fantastically good at everything they do and this has really been recognised with the Nothing Phone. Because this is, in my opinion, the most interesting Android product on the market right now for the simple reason that it doesn't feel like an Iphone/Samsung copycat, but rather like something unique and with lots of design attitude.

For starters, the Nothing Phone 3a is wonderfully gorgeous, design-wise. Sure, the basic shape is no different from any other smartphone but the transparent back cover combined with Teenage Engineering's component design and super sleek camera body work so rudely well together with the dot matrix-based logo, the red (now iconic) logo ball and all the other little cosy details. This also applies to Nothing's version of Android (Nothing OS), which is beautifully designed with lots of smart interface details that feel like a mix between Sony's Vaio stuff and Ios, if you ask me. This is also true of the Glyph interface which, via three lights around the camera body, acts as an external notification indicator, and is as cleverly thought out as it is deliciously designed.

Inside, Nothing houses a 6.77-inch AMOLED display running at 120Hz and offering 3,000 cd/m2 in dot brightness (HDR) as well as a Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 and a triple camera headlined by a 50-megapixel sensor from Samsung. The screen here, is brilliant. This is the case with almost every phone today, but it is remarkable that it is possible to get this performance in a phone for £329 in 2025, when a box of butter or a normal-sized household cheese costs almost as much. The camera here is just like the screen really good and the processor feels fast and reasonable in terms of performance / price. Gaming performance here is certainly not the best as the graphics chip is not quite enough to draw up the most demanding Android games at 120Hz, but no one can expect that either given that the 3a only costs £329.

Essential Space is a big part of this yuppie universe and along with the dedicated Essential button, this has quickly proven to be very valuable, for me. With this AI-based service, you can easily take pictures, make notes, reminders and organise your life in a way that Apple should have done long ago. If I press the Essential button quickly, the phone takes a screen shot and lets me jot something down on top of it, instantly. If I hold the same button instead, the 3a records a voice memo, which is a feature I've used more than ever because it's as simple and quick as it is.

I'll say it again - the fact that the 3a only costs £329 feels generous and very competitive. If you want an iPhone with the same performance that feels as well built and well thought out, you'll have to fork out double that, not to mention an Android handset from Samsung. Nothing has really found its own way forward, really managed to distinguish itself from the competition and offers here a perfectly good product.

Price: £329.00