Introducing the Nothing Phone (3): New Features and Upgrades Revealed

Nothing has unveiled its first true flagship smartphone, the Nothing Phone (3), at an event in London. The Phone (3) carries the company's unique design aesthetic forward while pushing it in a new direction at the same time. It swaps out the old rear-mounted Glyph lights for a smaller Glyph Matrix, a micro-LED display for visual notifications. The phone still comes in only black and white, but it improves the processor, battery, and camera to make it more competitive with Android phones from Google and Samsung.

A New Glyph

The light-up Glyph user interface has long separated Nothing's phones from the crowded field of me-too slabs. The Glyph employs different blinking light patterns to let you know when you have a missed call, new text message, or other notification. With the Phone (3), the Glyph Matrix replaces the old Glyph.

The Matrix is a smaller LED tucked into the upper-right corner of the rear that uses dot-matrix-style animations to convey information. The idea behind the Glyph Matrix is to provide basic details—Hey, you got a message!—without forcing you to unlock your device or even look at the screen. \"Glyph Matrix lets you stay informed at a glance, without getting pulled into endless scrolling,\" says the company.

It includes 489 individually addressable LEDs with notifications, a volume indicator, a bedtime schedule, a camera countdown, and a torch (flashlight).

You can also play games; Glyph Toys adds quick tools and micro games to the phone's rear panel. The tools include a Glyph mirror, digital clock, stopwatch, battery indicator, and solar clock, while the games include Spin the Bottle and Magic 8 Ball. Nothing says a caller ID feature is on deck for later this year.

Nothing OS 3.5 Adds to Essential Space

Nothing continues to refine its user interface. Built on Android 15, Nothing OS 3.5 introduces three key features: Essential Search, Flip to Record, and Essential Space.

The first tool is a \"universal smart search bar\" that's just a swipe away from the home screen. It allows you to search through contacts, files, and photos from one spot, as well as see calendar entries and local weather notifications. Flip to Record does just what the name implies. If you long-press the Essential Key and turn your phone face down, it will record and transcribe audio, such as that taken during meetings. Last, Essential Space is one spot to store your ideas, notes, and content. Nothing now uses AI to help sort through the Essential Space to make it easier for you to find your musings when desired.

Nothing says Android 16 and OS 4.0 will arrive during the third quarter. Better yet, the phone will receive five years of major Android upgrades and seven years of security updates. That puts it much closer to Google and Samsung and ahead of competitors like Motorola and TCL.

Flagship Hardware

Nothing knows it competes with the best phones in the market, so it stepped up its hardware game to make Phone (3) more appealing.

To start, it has a richer, brighter display. The flexible AMOLED panel measures 6.7 inches with a 1.5K resolution (2,800 by 1,260 pixels). It pushes out 800 nits during normal use, 1,600 nits of outside, but can reach 4,500 nits at peak when viewing HDR10+ content. The company says Ultra HDR support means a better media-viewing experience. Further, the phone has a 30 to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, a 1,000Hz touch sampling rate, and a 92.9% screen-to-body ratio for a nearly bezelless experience. The screen includes an under-display fingerprint reader for biometric security.

This marks the first time Nothing has selected a top chip to run its main device. The Phone (3) uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, which is based on 4nm technology. The 8s Gen 4 includes a Kryo CPU, an Adreno GPU, and an improved ISP that deliver 36% more power, 88% quicker graphics, and 60% improved AI task handling when compared with the Nothing Phone (2). It has one 3.21GHz prime core and seven 3.0GHz performance cores. The phone ships in two configurations: 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM with 512GB of storage. It does not support microSD cards.

The Phone (3) packs a 5,150mAh battery, the largest yet for a Nothing phone. Nothing says it supports up to 65W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging for quicker power-ups. It's a silicon-carbon cell that the company claims \"comfortably lasts beyond a full day.\" Nothing says it should take just 54 minutes to reach a full charge from empty. The phone can also reverse charge via wire at 7.5W and reverse charge wirelessly at 5W.

The cameras take a big leap forward. The device has three 50MP cameras with a 1/1.3-inch main sensor that can capture sharp shots in low light. The 50MP main camera has an aperture of f/1.68, autofocus, OIS, and EIS, and 2x digital zoom. The periscope camera has an aperture of f/2.68 and also supports OIS, EIS, and autofocus, and includes 3x optical zoom, 6x digital zoom, and 60x ultra hybrid zoom. The ultra-wide has an aperture of f/2.2, EIS, and a 114-degree field of view.

Video capture tops out at 4K60 across all three lenses with full optical image stabilization. The company worked with professional photographers to create a number of presets to let you capture cinematic looks. It can handle slow motion at 120 or 240fps, as well as timelapse in 4K or 1080p. The TrueLens Engine includes Ultra XDR, AutoTone, Portrait Optimizer, Action Mode, Macro Mode, Night Mode, and Motion Capture.

It's more durable than its predecessors. The phone carries an IP68 rating for protection against dust and water, making it fully waterproof. It has an aluminum frame with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on the front and Gorilla Glass Victus on the rear.

Last, it has plenty of radios on board. It ships with Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, Wi-Fi 7, and dual-band GPS. As for 5G, it supports sub-6GHz and C-band frequencies, but not mmWave service. Notably, it can handle dual-mode NSA and SA connections with 4x4 MIMO. It includes a physical SIM tray and an eSIM.

When and Where to Buy

Nothing's phones are often hard to come by. The recently released Nothing Phone (3a), for example, is only available through the company's developer program. The company says the Phone (3) will be more broadly available.

Priced at $799 for the 12GB/256GB model and $899 for the 16GB/512GB model, it will be sold through Nothing's website as well as several third-party online retailers, including Amazon. It goes on sale July 15.