The long-awaited Nothing Phone 3 is here after waiting for nearly 2 years.
We all were expecting what it would be like for Nothing to create a flagship device, but it seems things have gone a bit inconsistent. We mean yes, nothing has dropped a phone in the flagship price point, and it is great, but it seems that they are charging a bit of a wrong price for this phone.
Well, let’s take all the key things in a phone and see if the Nothing Phone 3 checks them at the price point of a flagship phone or not.
Design? Yes, it hits the check mark.
Nothing, as a brand, is very popular for their unique design in the phones. Their signature is the glyph interface, the glowing LED connected with different purposes of the phone. With Nothing Phone 3, the brand has decided to change their Glyph interface appearance. A lot of you might think that Nothing lost their iconic value, but no, they have not. For distinguishing their flagship devices, the company has gone with a circular display displaying the glyph interfaces.
We think that we should appreciate their bold move to try something out; isn’t that what makes Nothing unique? They are using their creativity, and that glowing interface is still there with an added capacitive touch button that you can press to change the elements in the circular display. Also, there is a mini-LED light which flashes when a user is shooting with the camera, a really nice creativity out there.
For a suggestion, the capacitive button could go upward, aligning with all the cameras and stuff and keeping the remaining back plain. The phone comes in two colours – white and black.
Display and Battery? Somewhat, it hits the check mark.
We are going to mention the pricing part in the end, but at the price it comes, the Nothing Phone does not deliver a good display. The phone’s display packs a resolution of 1260 x 2800, which is like full HD (might not be exactly the same), and it is AMOLED. If you compare with other phones like the OnePlus 13, you are getting a QHD+ display, which means the resolution is 3168 x 1440 pixels. Clearly, the Nothing Phone is way behind at the price point they are charging.
Now coming to the battery, the Nothing Phone packs 5500, which to us is not acceptable because brands are making 6000 mAh a standard. The fast charging and reverse charging are something we are okay with, but yes, the battery should be a little bit more, seeing as the competition is getting massive battery life in phones at even budget prices.
Performance and support? Somewhat, it hits the check mark.
At the price point it comes, the performance part is not going to check the box. It is because the Nothing Phone 3 gives the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, something we can see in a lot of mid-range phones. Not only that, we are getting Snapdragon 8 Elite in much lower-priced phones, but again, the optimisation of the Nothing Phone has been great, and we are expecting that they will keep a strong eye on their phone 3 and keep it highly optimised. Then only the missing of the flagship processor can be balanced. We are getting two flagship-level RAM and storage offerings – one is 12 GB and 256 GB, and another is 16 GB and 512 GB.
For the support part, we are completely satisfied as the phone packs 5 years of software updates and 7 years of security updates. Well, the catch here is that Nothing itself has not completed 7 years in the market, but still we are yet to see if they will keep up this promise.
Camera? Looks like a solid check mark.
We think that Nothing Phone 3 has checked their camera part is strong because they pack a 4-camera system (main, ultra-wide, telephoto + periscope) where all the cameras are 50 MP. They have posted a picture on their Instagram channel, the shots which were taken by their new Phone 3, and they look quite appealing. One can record at 4K resolution with 60 FPS.
Pricing? Yes, but it hits the wrong check mark.
Now coming to the price of this phone. Well, if we just simply say, ‘Does the Nothing Phone 3 come at a flagship price point?’, anyone will say ‘yes’. But this is the check mark that the Nothing Phone 3 must not have checked. The Nothing Phone 3 comes at INR 80,000 for the 12 GB RAM and 512 GB storage variant and INR 90,000 for the 16 GB and 512 GB storage variant. It is a hefty price point and simply won’t resonate with a lot of people.
What could have been done right?
We remember the Nothing Phone 2 was priced half of it, and to make a 50% jump, the Nothing Phone 3 is not offering what it should be offering. The price point must be up to INR 60,000, and that too for the 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage variant. And, if the Nothing Phone 3 was to charge this much money, they should have given a top-of-the-line display quality and processor without any doubt. Still, hopefully, we are yet to see the long-term review of the phone.
