Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro: Everything you need to know

(Image credit: Future)

For Android users on a budget, the Nothing Phone series has been a breath of fresh air. Founded by OnePlus co-creator Carl Pei, the handsets — especially the ‘a’ series — have combined a unique style with decent specs and a fair price, consistently making them some of the best cheap phones around.

The Nothing Phone 3a has already been teased, and it’s set to arrive very soon indeed. Here’s everything we know so far.

Nothing Phone 3a: Price and release date

We know exactly when Nothing will unveil the Phone 3a, because the company has already told us.

Nothing Phone 3a: Design and display

Nothing Phone 2a first look. — (Image credit: Future)

According to a big leak from Smartprix, there will be two handsets released at the same time: the Nothing Phone 3a and Nothing Phone 3a Pro.

From the details so far, the differences between the two will actually be pretty limited, and that’s especially true in terms of looks. Both phones will pack a 6.72-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.

Notably, that’s the same as the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, suggesting that other design details may be the same too. So likely a 1,084 x 2,421 resolution and hole-punch camera, though water and dust resistance has reportedly been upped from IP54 to IP64.

These being Nothing Phones, you can also expect the company’s signature design calling card: a translucent backplate that shows the phone’s innards. The LED Glyph lighting on the back has historically been used for notifications, letting you set up different patterns for different visual alerts when your phone is placed face down.

There may be one other big design surprise. According to a teaser from Nothing, the phone will feature a new button, and one leaker followed up with the comment it’s something you’ll “love to click many times a day”. It’s certainly intriguing…

Nothing Phone 3a: Performance and battery

According to the aforementioned Smartprix leak, the phones will both use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor, as recently seen in the Motorola Edge 50 Pro.

In our review, we were a little critical of performance, as it was some way behind the Google Pixel 8a and OnePlus 12R, but it will be more than acceptable if Nothing can keep the price below these two, which both start at $499.

There’s been no word on RAM or storage, so for now we’d assume the regular and Pro models will match their previous-generation counterparts. That means a choice of 8GB/128GB or 12GB/256GB for the regular phone, or just 12GB/256GB for the Pro version.

The report did, however, mention battery capacity: both phones will pack a 5,000mAh cell, the same as the previous generation. That led to a solid 14+ hours’ use of both phones in our battery test last generation, and hopefully the efficiency of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 will help stretch that even further.

Nothing Phone 3a: Cameras

The Nothing Phone 2a Plus lights — (Image credit: Future)

Both Nothing Phone 3a handsets are tipped to come with triple camera arrays, but the Pro model has one big advantage. We’ll get to that in a second, but first, here’s where they’re the same: both phones are rumored to come with a 50MP main camera, supported by an 8MP ultrawide lens.

But while the regular model comes with an (unspecified megapixel) 2x telephoto lens, the Pro version reportedly packs a Sony LYT-600 sensor for long-range shots. That’s a 50MP telephoto lens with a 1/1.95-inch sensor. Smartprix claims it will be capable of a 60x hybrid zoom.

To be clear, we shouldn’t expect miracles from a sub-$500 phone, but it’s impressive all the same. Neither the Pixel 8a or the OnePlus 12R feature telephoto lenses, and that could give Nothing a clear advantage.

Nothing Phone 3a: Outlook

If these rumors are confirmed as accurate, the Nothing Phone 3a series looks set to be another home run for the company. The telephoto lens on the Pro model in particular sounds very promising indeed.

A lot of this rests on price, but assuming it stays under $500, it’s hard to see the phones getting anything other than a solid recommendation from us for budget buyers when they launch next month.

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Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.