Nothing has been experimenting more with phone design than perhaps any other company, at least when it comes to traditional slide phones. The London-based tech brand just unveiled its latest and greatest devices in the form of the new Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. Thankfully, the new phones are as unique as ever – though the Pro model is perhaps the most interesting.
Like previous generation Nothing devices, the phones have their signature transparent look, which gives them a futuristic vibe. The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is the first in Nothing’s lineup to offer a large circular camera module on the back, which is surrounded by Nothing’s Glyph Interface – made up of three LED lights that can indicate notifications, phone status, and more.
Nothing isn’t radically changing design for this generation, but it doesn’t necessarily have to, considering how well it’s built up its brand over the past few years. There’s definitely room for more experimentation when it comes to smartphone design, and it’s nice to see someone being a little more bold.
There’s another unique feature on the two devices. Both have Nothing’s new Essential Key on the side, which is an AI button that lets users quickly capture a screenshot or a voice note. This information is then sent to the essential space on the device, where it’s organized and processed. AI can then pull useful information out from that data, including things like dates, locations, and so on. You can then easily search through it without having to endlessly scroll.
The phones aren’t all about design, though. They’re actually very impressive phones in their price range. That’s largely due to the triple-camera array on the back of both of them, which is very uncommon for phones in the $350-$500 price bracket. Both devices have a telephoto camera, which can zoom at 2x on the standard Nothing Phone (3a) and 3x on the Phone (3a) Pro. That zoom is doubled through sensor cropping technology that allows the devices to capture 2x or 4x photos, respectively, without any loss in detail.
Both devices have a crisp display with a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth animations and a high level of brightness to make them easy to see outside. They have solid processing power, and they have Nothing’s well-regarded Android skin, which gives everything a kind of retro-minimalistic pixel design.
Both the Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are now up for order, with the Nothing Phone (3a) priced at $379 and the (3a) Pro at $459. They can be purchased from us.nothing.tech.
Photography courtesy of Nothing.