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It’s been a couple of years since the brand’s previous mainline handset but the Nothing Phone (3) is finally here, and it looks set to shake up the market once again. Where most other smartphones are increasingly conforming to the Apple-led design philosophy of flat backs, flat edges and flat aesthetics, Nothing has been determined to disrupt, with eye-catching style and unique features.
And with the Phone (3), Nothing shows no signs of slowing down. This is being hailed as the brand’s first true flagship, with several major hardware improvements over the Nothing Phone (2), including faster charging, a more robust camera array and the new dot-matrix Glyph lighting.
With that, however, comes a big jump in pricing that puts it in contention with some of the best entry-level flagships around. So is Nothing ready to swim in these waters, or is it better suited to bargain mid-range phones like the Nothing Phone (3a)? Let’s check those specs.
Nothing Phone (3): Specifications
| Processor | 3.21GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 |
| RAM | 12GB; 16GB |
| Storage | 256GB; 512GB |
| Display | 6.67in, 2,800 x 1,260, 120Hz, LTPO AMOLED |
| Battery | 5,150mAh |
| Charging | 65W wired; 15W wireless |
| Cameras | 50MP (f/1.68); 50MP (f/2.68) (3x telephoto); 50MP (f/2.2) (ultrawide); 50MP (f/2.2) (selfie) |
| Dimensions (WDH) | 76 x 9 x 161mm |
| Weight | 218g |
| Dust and water resistance | IP68 |
| UK price | £799 (256GB); £899 (512GB) |
| Uk release date | 8 July 2025 |
Design and key new features
There are a lot of interesting specs there but the one that may have caught your eye the most is that £799 price tag. That’s quite the leap from the Phone (2)’s starting price of £579 and it puts the Nothing Phone (3) up against some serious competition, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 (£799), iPhone 16 (£799) and Google Pixel 9 (£799). The £899 512GB variant also goes head-to-head with the bargain OnePlus 13 (£899).
If the price doesn’t catch your eye, the look of the Phone (3) certainly will – just maybe not in the way that Nothing intended. The brand has a history of going against the typical design grain, with an overall aesthetic that falls somewhere between industrial and cyberpunk, but even by the standards of Nothing Phones we’ve seen thus far, this one is out there.
Where most of Nothing’s products can be described as striking or unique, the Phone (3) just feels a bit messy. It starts off ok, with the rear separated into three columns, each of which is based on a flexible Printed Circuit Board (PCB), which ties in nicely to this being the brand’s third mainline phone. So far, so good on the cohesive design language.
The lower two thirds of the rear are business as usual for a Nothing Phone, with the odd horizontal line, semi circle or acute angle adding some extra visual interest, and a small red square in the centre of the phone adding a tiny splash of colour (as well as lighting up when you start video recording, as a nod to old-school camcorders).
It’s when we head up top, however, that things get a bit cluttered. The top third of the phone feels like it has too much going on, which by contrast makes the rest of the rear look a little barren.
In the top right corner, we have the new Glyph Matrix (more on that below), with the LED camera flash in the middle and the 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera on the left. On the next row down, we have the 50-megapixel main camera, directly below the telephoto, and the 50-megapixel ultrawide (directly below the flash), both of which are segmented into neat squares by a horizontal line.
The telephoto camera, however, is set on a diagonal mount, which leaves the lens itself shifted slightly further to the left, making it look misaligned with the rest of the cameras and throws off the overall flow. It’s not the ugliest choice in the world but this minor deviation really highlights the unsung importance of symmetry and intentional design with phone cameras – throw the balance off by even a millimetre or two and the result just looks wrong, even before your brain registers why.
I think with a little finessing, the components here could flow nicely together while still achieving Nothing’s distinct aesthetic. However, I’m not getting the same instantly iconic feel I’ve had from the rest of the Nothing Phone family.
The scattershot camera layout feels intentionally unpleasant and the Glyph Matrix doesn’t feel as neatly baked into the overall look as the Glyph Interface was. It blends reasonably well into the black model but on the white, it’s a large, stark black circle sitting in the top-right corner that isn’t properly “balanced out” by the camera layout on the other side.
Over on the front, our final camera is a 50-megapixel selfie shooter, sitting in a holepunch notch atop the 6.67in AMOLED display. This panel has a 1,260 x 2,800 resolution and an LTPO refresh rate that can adjust between 1Hz and 120Hz. Nothing says it gets much brighter, too, reaching an impressive 4,500 nits, compared to the Phone (2)’s 1,600 nits.
The Phone (3) is also bigger and heavier than its predecessor, measuring 76 x 9 x 161mm and weighing 218g. Gorilla Glass Victus sits over the rear, with Gorilla Glass 7i over the display, and the IP rating has been bumped up to IP68, certifying it as fully dust-tight and able to survive submersion in 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes.
Tucked away inside, we have the new Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, clocked up to 3.21GHz and paired with either 8 or 12GB of RAM and 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage. We also have a big, new 5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery that supports speedy 65W wired charging and the same (middling) 15W wireless charging as the Nothing Phone (2).
The Glyph Interface is dead – long live the Glyph Matrix
One of the main features that made early Nothing Phones stand out from the crowd was the innovative Glyph notification lighting system. It caused surprise, therefore, when Nothing announced that it would be killing this feature with the Phone (3).
Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple, and from the ashes of the Glyph Interface has risen the Glyph Matrix – a dot-matrix of bright white LEDs clustered in the top right corner of the phone’s rear that can dynamically light up to display different animations.
These animations range from the functional – such as a stopwatch, a timer that counts down when you want to take a selfie with the rear camera or person-specific notifications that show you who’s calling – to the extremely silly, such as a Magic 8 Ball and spin the bottle. Necessary? Of course not. But fun? It sure looks that way.
You can interact with certain animations via the Glyph Button, which is located below the Matrix, about halfway down the phone. This lets you cycle through tools and widget or play games. It feels about as unnecessary as Nothing’s other extraneous button but it’s largely innocuous so it doesn’t bother me as much.
While the phone ships with a fun and genuinely useful selection, Nothing has already opened out the Software Development Kit (SDK), meaning that developers will be able to create their own useful tools and fun animations to be used on the Phone (3).
Is Nothing’s Essential Space AI essential yet?
I was quite complimentary of the Essential Space AI that Nothing introduced with the Phone (3a) series, noting that it felt more useful and thoughtfully designed than most other brands’ AI implementations. With that said, I didn’t feel that we needed a dedicated button on the phone, and the Essential Key mostly just felt in the way.
Unsurprisingly, the Essential Key returns here and, frustratingly, it’s located in the same spot, just below the power button, which still doesn’t feel like the most ergonomic place for it.
The new NothingOS 3.5 (based on Android 15) software brings back the Essential Space features we saw on the Phone (3a) series, but also adds a couple of new features.
Firstly, we’ve got Essential Search, which is a search bar that you access with a single swipe, and allows you to ask questions and get answers directly in the UI, without having to go to a separate app, similar to Google’s Gemini. This will apparently develop over time as you use it, and deliver more personalised results.
The other interesting feature is flip to record. Long press the Essential Key and flip the phone face down and the phone will start recording. When you’re finished, the AI will automatically transcribe the recording in your Essential Space.
Despite stepping up to flagship components and charging flagship prices, Nothing hasn’t quite met its rivals on the software support front. Five years of OS updates and seven of security patches is still very good, but both Google and Samsung offer seven years apiece for their phones in this price range.
Nothing Phone (3): Early verdict
So software support will be behind the competition and I expect that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset won’t be able to keep up with the Snapdragon 8 Elite handsets you can buy for this kind of money. And, of course, that design is tough to love – although cases exist, so realistically this isn’t as big a deal.
Even still, there’s a lot about the Nothing Phone (3) to get excited about. The Glyph Matrix is a versatile and quirky addition that adds useful functionality and silly fun to your phone, the hardware improvements feel substantial and, until another brand proves me wrong, I still think Nothing’s version of AI is the most streamlined and useful on the market.
Stepping fully into the flagship market is a bold move, and there’s no denying that Nothing has made several big swings to stand out from the more established brands. Will it work? Stay tuned.
I’m currently putting the Nothing Phone (3) through our rigorous testing process. I’ll be posting my full review when it officially launches on 8 July 2025, so check back then for my final verdict.
