Nothing Phone (3) Review

The Phone (3) is where Nothing asked for flagship money and the argument started. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is a fine chip, quick in daily use and cooler than the 8 Elite, but at $799 it sits against phones running the real thing, and the gap shows in sustained games and in the reviews. The design is divisive on purpose: the light strips of the earlier phones became the Glyph Matrix, a round 489-LED dot display on the back that shows a clock, a battery meter, a spin-the-bottle game and caller initials, driven by a capacitive button beneath it. It is charming for a week. The three cameras are staggered across the back in a layout that looks like a drafting error and is not.

The rest is competent. The 6.67-inch 2800 x 1260 LTPO panel reaches 4500 nits peak and is sharp and well calibrated, a step below the OnePlus 13's. The 5150 mAh silicon-carbon battery, 5500 mAh in India, lasts a day and a half and takes 65W wired and 15W wireless. The 50MP main camera on a 1/1.3-inch sensor is good in daylight and honest at night, the 50MP 3x periscope is the best telephoto Nothing has shipped, and the ultrawide is fine.

IP68 is new for the brand. Nothing OS 3.5 on Android 15 remains one of the cleanest skins on Android, with the Essential Space notes feature bolted on, and five years of Android updates plus seven of security patches is the best support promise in this segment. A good phone, priced as if it were a great one.