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British start-up Nothing has launched two brand-new Android devices, the Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro.
Both new smartphones ship with an upgraded camera system, powerful processors, and vibrant displays, these Android devices hope to deliver a flagship-like phone experience — without the premium price tag. From the outside, the Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro boast striking designs that continue the trademark transparent aesthetic that's already earned multiple awards for the London-based team at Nothing.
Phone 3a builds on the success of the Phone 2a, which was introduced exactly one year ago. But while Nothing offered that handset in a choice of sizes — Phone 2a and Phone 2a Plus — it's taken a different approach with its successor. Phone 3a Pro shares most of the same DNA as the standard Phone 3a, but has a supercharged camera with a periscope zoom camera — a feature typically found only in much more expensive smartphones.
Order the Phone 3a from British startup Nothing
Order the brand-new Phone 3a from Nothing's online store and unlock 10% off audio products and 40% off accessories at checkout. At £329, this Android phone from the award-winning London team hopes to challenge more established brands. Powered by the latest version of Android and with its striking Glyph Interface to silently communicate what's happening on-screen, the Nothing Phone 3a is sure to turn heads
Nothing Phone 3a
$329
Order the Phone 3a Pro from British startup Nothing
Order the brand-new Phone 3a Pro from Nothing's online store and unlock 10% off audio products and 40% off accessories at checkout. At £449, Phone 3a Pro has all of the same features as its more affordable sibling but boasts an upgraded camera system capable of 60x zoom. Powered by the latest version of Android and with its striking Glyph Interface to silently communicate what's happening on-screen, the Nothing Phone 3a is sure to turn heads
Nothing Phone 3a Pro
$449
Nothing Phone 3a starts from £329 for the entry-level model with 8GB RAM and 128GB of built-in storage. If you need more storage, Nothing offersa model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for £379. The more advanced Phone 3a Pro costs £449 and comes exclusively with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.
The Phone 3a comes in Black, White, and Blue colours, while the Pro variant is available in Grey and Black.
All three of these devices are available from Nothing's online store, as well as retail partners Amazon, Currys, John Lewis, and Very. If you live in London, you can make a purchase at Nothing's flagship store in Soho too. Mobile network EE is also stocking Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro, with prices starting from £33.36 per month.
Here are all of the options to order the latest handsets from Nothing in the UK ~
Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro will supersede the Phone 2a and Phone 2a Plus, which were announced in early 2024
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What's new?
On the front of the Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro, you'll find an all-screen 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate for buttery-smooth animations and fast-paced gameplay. That screen can reach 1,200 nits brightness — or 3,000 nits when viewing HDR content. That figure — an -impressive 131% increase from the Phone 2a — means the screen should be easily visible in broad daylight.
Under the bonnet of both devices, you'll find the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 system-on-a-chip, which promises 33% faster performance than Phone 2a. The chipset, designed and manufactured by Qualcomm, is better at processing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tasks compared to its predecessor.
The award-winning designers at Nothing have tweaked the appearance of the Glyph Interface since the last handset, but it still serves the same clever function — silently alerting you about whether you need to interrupt what you're doing and pick-up your phone
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Phone 3a and 3a Pro pack a large 5,000mAh battery cell, which the British brand says should offer two days of use on a full charge. When it's time to recharge, there's support for speedy 50W wired fast-charging that delivers enough power for a full day in under 20 minutes.
Flip over the new phones and you'll find an evolution of the distinctive design that's characterised the Nothing lineup since it debuted a short four years ago. The iconic Glyph Interface, which uses LEDs to silently communicate incoming notifications from applications and contacts based on the flashing pattern, makes a return. The shape of the LEDs has been tweaked slightly compared to the Phone 2 and Phone 2a.
Nothing lets you create your own Glyph Interface patterns, so you can instantly know who is calling, sending you a text message, or what app is asking for your attention, even when your smartphone is face-down on the table next to you. Not only that, these lights double as a charging indicator and fill-light for photos too.
The striking design of the tastemakers at Nothing extends to the software too.
There's a lot of similarties between the Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro, including the same 6.77-inch AMOLED display and 5,000mAh battery cell
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Out of the box, Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro arrive with NothingOS 3.1, which is based on Android 15. That means it includes many of the new featured developed by Google for this major upgrade — all wrapped-up in the distinctive Nothing OS design.
You can personalise the appearance of NothingOS with a new monochromatic theme, with the choice to hide labels beneath app icons for a cleaner home screen. Nothing has refreshed several of its preinstalled applications, like Gallery, Camera and Weather.
Press and hold on the Essential Key to capture a screenshot and attach a few notes or voice memo in this new "second memory" space baked into NothingOS 3.1
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NothingOS 3.1 introduces the Essential Space, a new AI-powered scrapbook for your notes, voice memors, ideas and screenshots. It's accessed via a double-press of a new button on the side of the handset, dubbed Essential Key.
A long press will save a screenshot, with the ability to attach a note, scribble or voice memo. Everything saved into the Essential Space is analysed by Artificial Intelligence, which makes intelligent suggestions for further actions, like adding an event mentioned in a voice memo to your calendar. Nothing describes the feature as "your second memory".
On the topic of software, the British smartphone startup has pledged Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro owners will benefit from six years of updates, including three years of Android OS updates and six years of security patches and bug fixes.
Phone 3a Pro has a distinctive camera design, which is used to house the 50-megapixel periscope camera — capable of 60x zoom
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The standard Phone 3a includes a 32MP front-facing camera for video calls and selfies, while the pricier Pro variants upgrades this to a 50MP selfie camera capable of 4K video recording. On the Pro, that front camera boasts AI-powered stabilisation and night video enhancements too.
According to the engineers at Nothing, this should improve brightness by 74.4%.
On the back, the Nothing Phone 3a Pro stands out with its advanced triple-camera system, headlined by a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens. This uses the same periscope-style design found on the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max.
It offers 3x optical zoom and can achieve up to 6x lossless in-sensor zoom, Nothing says. Using AI clarity-enhancing algorithms, the Phone 3a Pro can reach an impressive 60x ultra zoom capability.
The main camera on the Pro model offers 43% faster auto-focus and double the pixel full well capacity for better detail in harsh lighting.
Meanwhile, the standard Nothing Phone 3a has a 50MP main camera, coupled with a 50MP telescope lens capable of 2x optical zoom and a maximum of 30x ultra zoom using sensor-cropping and all of the same AI tricks as above. Finally, there's an 8MP ultra-wide camera on both models too.
British tech company Nothing launched the Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro last week.
