The $799 Nothing Phone (3) is the company's most ambitious handset yet, stepping beyond midrange ambitions and into the flagship fight. The phone carries forward a design that is unmistakably Nothing, and has the company's best cameras, a brighter screen, a revised Glyph lighting system, and smooth everyday performance. We wish it had fast mmWave 5G support and more AI functionality baked in, but it's a remarkable effort from the company that should easily appeal to longtime fans or those seeking something off the beaten path. If you're looking for a more mainstream option, you can stick to the tried and true Editors' Choice-winning phones from Apple and Samsung, the iPhone 16 (starting at $799) and the Galaxy S25 (starting at $799.99), respectively, due to their refined hardware, excellent performance, top cameras, and wide compatibility with accessories for the same price.

Design: Nothing Looks Like This

The Nothing Phone (3) is average-sized for a modern phone but somewhat bigger than similarly priced flagships. It measures 6.32 by 2.98 by 0.35 inches (HWD) and weighs 7.69 ounces. For comparison, the iPhone 16 is smaller at 5.81 by 2.82 by 0.31 inches and 6.0 ounces, while the Galaxy S25 is even more compact at 5.78 by 2.78 by 0.28 inches and just 5.71 ounces.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Nothing uses 100% recycled aluminum for the phone's frame, which feels sturdy in the hand. The device is well constructed, with each material smoothly flowing into the other. A large screen covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i dominates the front with a small, uniform bezel surrounding it. At the top of the screen, a small punch hole conceals the selfie camera, and at the bottom, the in-display fingerprint sensor works without issue and serves as the Phone (3)'s most secure biometric security option.

Individual volume up and down buttons are on the left side, while the power button and Essential Key (more on that later) are on the right side. The SIM tray (which supports two nano SIMs), USB-C port, and speaker grille are on the bottom rail. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack and no microSD support.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The back of the Phone (3) features an eye-catching design with clear glass over a grid-like pattern, a semi-circular ribbon cable, a flash, and a red square. Three cameras protrude from the back, though one doesn't stick out as far as the others. The Glyph (Nothing's name for its LED indicator light system) now resides in a circular screen in the top right corner. Lastly, a white button below the Glyph LED, called the Glyph Button, lets you interact with the tiny screen.

The Nothing Phone (3) is rated IP68, so it can handle dust and water, as well as the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25. To further protect the phone, a soft, clear plastic case is included in the box. The Phone (3) is available in black or white.

Glyph Matrix: Say Hello to Your Little Friend

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro feature Nothing's smaller Glyph LED array in three zones, but Nothing rethought the Glyph and turned it into the Glyph Matrix, which uses 489 micro-LEDs arranged in a circular display. Although low-resolution, the Glyph Matrix displays text, such as the time, clearly. It can also create bright visualizations when playing back voice recordings or listening to music.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The new Glyph Button lets you cycle through several utilities called Glyph Toys, which include a clock, a spin-the-bottle game (yes, really), a battery indicator, and a stopwatch. Nothing says more Toys are coming in the future. These features work as advertised, and while they're not exactly indispensable, they make the phone stand out. If the Glyph isn't your cup of tea, you can disable it in Settings.

(Credit: Nothing/PCMag)

Display: A Nit Above the Competition

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The Phone (3)'s 6.67-inch AMOLED display shows crisp detail with its 2,800-by-1,260-pixel resolution and smooth animations thanks to its variable 120Hz refresh rate. Thanks to its peak brightness of 4,500 nits (typical brightness is 800 nits), the screen is easily visible indoors and outdoors.

For comparison, the Phone (3)'s display is much larger than the 6.1-inch iPhone 16 and the 6.2-inch Galaxy S25. The iPhone 16's refresh rate tops out at 60Hz, while the S25 matches the Phone (3).

Essential Key and Essential Space: Nothing's Take on Notes

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The Phone (3) features a dedicated button, the Essential Key, to interact with Nothing's Essential Space app. The key's finish is different from the power and volume buttons to help you distinguish it by feel alone. In practice, I accidentally tapped the key many times while missing the power button, but I eventually got used to it.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Tapping the Essential key takes a screenshot, while tapping-and-holding initiates a voice recording, and double-tapping brings up the Essential Space app. The app serves as a hub for your screenshots and recordings. It also uses AI to identify items within the app and will transcribe voice recordings. The AI is intelligent enough to create to-do items based on your voice recordings, but you must manually organize your notes into collections.

Digging into the app's settings, you can activate the Essential Recorder. This allows you to start recording audio by double-tapping the Essential Key while the phone's screen is off. The Glyph shows a waveform while a red square flashes to show it is recording. Tapping the Essential Key again while recording bookmarks the audio in that spot for easy reference later.

The Essential Space app is helpful once you learn how to use it, but it doesn't sync to any cloud services, so it only exists on your phone. That could prove problematic if you come to rely on it. Hopefully, Nothing will add a way to automatically back up or export the content from the app in a future update.

Performance: Strong, But Not Class-Leading

The phone (3) is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip. The base model ships with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while a second model offers 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage ($899). We tested the latter and compared it with the iPhone 16 (Apple A18 chip) and the Galaxy S25 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy).

( Credit: Geekbench/PCMark/GFXBench/PCMag)

On Geekbench 6, which measures raw CPU power, the Phone (3) performs well with a single-core score of 2,208 and a multi-core score of 7,002. However, both the iPhone 16 (3,091 and 7,129) and Galaxy S25 (3,050 and 9,559) perform better.

On the PCMark Work 3.0 test, which gauges how the phone handles general mobile tasks, the Phone (3) scored 13,435. This mark is well behind the Galaxy S25's 19,060. Note that this particular test does not run on Apple devices.

To assess graphics performance, we use the GFXBench Aztec Ruins test. The Phone (3) pushed out 60 frames per second (fps), which matches the iPhone 16, but is must less than the Galaxy S25's output of 118fps.

For real-world gaming ability, we test phones by playing the resource-intensive Genshin Impact. During a 20-minute gaming session at the highest graphics settings and at 60fps, the Phone (3) produced detailed and smoothly animated gameplay. I experienced no frame drops or slowdowns. The phone's rear panel became slightly warmer around the cameras while playing, but it remained comfortable to the touch.

Battery Life: Lasts Long, Charges Quickly

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The Phone (3)'s 5,150mAh battery is capable of charging at up to 65W wired and 15W wirelessly. The (3) can reverse charge other devices at 7.5W wired or 5W wirelessly.

In our battery rundown test, in which we stream a 1080p video over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness set to 100% and battery saver modes turned off, the Phone (3) lasted 15 hours. That's about 3 hours less than the iPhone 16 (17 hours, 47 minutes), but better than the S25 (14 hours, 15 minutes).

When connected to a compatible fast charger, the depleted Phone (3) reaches a 32% charge in 15 minutes, 59% in 30 minutes, and 100% in 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Connectivity: Mostly Future-Facing

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

For connectivity, the phone supports 5G (sub-6GHz and C-band, but not mmWave), Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and Wi-Fi 7. The device can hold two physical SIMs and includes one eSIM. 

On T-Mobile's network in New York City, the Phone (3) reached a maximum download of 378Mbps and a max upload speed of 22.5Mbps. For comparison, a Google Pixel 9 Pro reached 556Mbps down and 75.5Mbps up on the same network and in the same location, though it supports mmWave.

When connected to a Wi-Fi 6 access point, the Phone (3) reached peak speeds of 294Mbps down and 22.6Mbps up. The Pixel 9 Pro hit 382Mbps down and 22.1Mbps up. When I took the phones to the limits of my Wi-Fi network, the Nothing Phone (3) didn't do so well. It reached 25.9Mbps down and 4.94Mbps up (a below-average result), while the Pixel 9 Pro reached 335Mbps down and 22.5Mbps up (an unusually high result). 

Audio: Clear Calls, Good Speakers

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Call quality ranges from very good to excellent. In a test recording made in a quiet room, my voice sounds clear and full. Quality dips slightly when playing loud music in the background, but the conversation remains understandable. The Phone (3) virtually eliminates loud background music.

I measure the earpiece volume by placing a decibel meter right on top of the phone and making a test call at full volume. The Phone (3)'s earpiece reaches 84.2dB. I measure speakerphone volume by placing the meter six inches below the down-firing speaker. Here, the Phone (3) reaches 80.2dB. I find volumes around 70dB easy to hear, so the Phone (3) easily surpasses this threshold.

For media playback, the Nothing Phone (3) produces stereo sound from its earpiece and down-firing speaker combined. When playing Metallica's "Enter Sandman," the Phone (3) reaches 94.8dB with clear audio reproduction, but it can't deliver the lowest bass notes of our test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout." Bluetooth headphones provide a richer audio experience.

Cameras: The Best Nothing Has to Offer

The Phone (3)'s cameras are Nothing's best yet. It features a 50MP f/1.68 main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 50MP f/2.68 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and OIS, and a 50MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with a 114-degree field of view.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Generally, the Phone (3)'s rear cameras consistently produce excellent, accurate color with well-preserved detail from every camera. The cameras capture images at 12.5MP by default using quad-pixel binning, but you can take pictures at full resolution as well.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The Phone (3) supports up to 60x zoom with AI assistance. Impressively, images enhanced by AI appear clearer than 60x zoom images without AI help. Below, you can see a US flag and how well the processing worked.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The Phone (3)'s telephoto camera can snap macro close-ups, showing realistic color and clear detail.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

A 50MP f/2.2 front-facing camera rounds out the collection of cameras. Shadows could be softer, but colors and details look good. The Phone (3)'s portrait filter regularly performs well and can separate glass objects from the background. Many phones, including the Google Pixel 9 Pro, struggle with this.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Video recording tops out at 4K60. Like its still imagery, the Phone (3)'s video cameras capture accurate color and fine details. The rear cameras' OIS produces super-smooth video, while selfie video is less stable because it doesn't benefit from OIS.

While this is the best performance we've seen from a Nothing phone, the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25 still outperform it.

Software: Distinct Look (If You Want It)

The Phone (3) runs Android 15 with Nothing OS 3.5 atop it. The phone will receive five years of Android updates and seven years of security patches. For comparison, Apple typically offers its iPhones five years of support, while Samsung backs the Galaxy S25 with seven years of OS and security updates.

Nothing OS includes the company's simplified iconography, dot-matrix-like widgets, and the Essential Space app. If Nothing's default monochromatic theme isn't for you, you can choose the traditional colorful look. Either way, the experience should be familiar to any Android user.

You won't find any real AI on board the Nothing Phone (3). This is one area where the company is far behind. While you can download Google Gemini and take advantage of some of the AI tricks in the Google Photos app, Nothing hasn't created its own set of AI tools for the Phone (3).