By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
World of SoftwareWorld of SoftwareWorld of Software
  • News
  • Software
  • Mobile
  • Computing
  • Gaming
  • Videos
  • More
    • Gadget
    • Web Stories
    • Trending
    • Press Release
Search
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Copyright © All Rights Reserved. World of Software.
Reading: Nothing Phone 3 Review: Too much or not enough?
Share
Sign In
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
World of SoftwareWorld of Software
Font ResizerAa
  • Software
  • Mobile
  • Computing
  • Gadget
  • Gaming
  • Videos
Search
  • News
  • Software
  • Mobile
  • Computing
  • Gaming
  • Videos
  • More
    • Gadget
    • Web Stories
    • Trending
    • Press Release
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Copyright © All Rights Reserved. World of Software.
World of Software > Gadget > Nothing Phone 3 Review: Too much or not enough?
Gadget

Nothing Phone 3 Review: Too much or not enough?

News Room
Last updated: 2025/07/08 at 11:36 AM
News Room Published 8 July 2025
Share
SHARE

Verdict

The Nothing Phone 3 is a rather bold, quirky phone that strives to do something different, from its off-centre, bug-eyed design to the playful Glyph Matrix on the back. Performance nad battery life are solid for everyday use, but there are cheaper phones with better processors, and the cameras can be inconsistent. Where it wins is the clean, cohesive Nothing OS, which is light on bloat, fun to customise and refreshingly thoughtful. It’s not quite a flagship killer at £799/$799, but it’s a charming slow-burner that makes you want to keep picking it up.


  • Fun, unique design

  • Large, vibrant and bright screen

  • Nothing OS is a joy to use

  • Great battery life


  • Camera performance is surprisingly inconsistent

  • Not the best processor around for a flagship

  • A little thick and heavy

Squirrel Widget

Key Features


  • Trusted Reviews Icon


    Review Price: £799

  • Glyph Matrix


    The new Glyph Matrix brings a lot to the Nothing experience, from a dot-matrix selfie window to displaying mini-games.


  • Triple 50MP cameras


    The Nothing Phone 3 boasts a trio of high-res 50MP snappers including a main, ultrawide and zoom lens, for versatile shooting.


  • Stylish Nothing OS experience


    The Nothing OS experience is one of the most polished around, with great customisation and genuinely handy AI smarts.

Introduction

At the launch of the Nothing Phone 3 in early July, one of the prevailing impressions I got was that it was ‘too much’. 

I mean, that design on the back, according to some, is too much. Calling a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 phone a true flagship, is that too much? At 799 pounds, euros, and dollars – is that too much to ask for a Nothing Phone? 

I’ve spent the past week using the Nothing Phone 3 as my main phone, and here’s what I’ve learnt.

Advertisement

Design 

  • Unique new look on the rear
  • Glyph Matrix replaces Glyph lighting
  • Quite thick and heavy

To pin my colours to the mast, and to come right out and say it: I really, like, really love the design of the Nothing Phone 3’s back. And if you knew anything about me, that might just surprise you. 

Typically, I love symmetry, order, and things lining up precisely. I love Wes Anderson movies, and prefer odd numbers of things because there’s a middle point and a symmetry when you arrange them. I even suffer with mild trypophobia. I avoid items with numerous circles or dots packed tightly together. 

Nothing Phone 3 - back top downNothing Phone 3 - back top down
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

So the bug-eyed, off-centred cameras and circles on the back of the Nothing Phone 3 should completely turn me off, but somehow, they don’t. 

Advertisement

I’m fully on board with trying to do things differently, and not just copy and pasting the design from every other smartphone on the planet. 

It’s thoughtful, and it has that retro futuristic charm we’ve come to know and either love or loathe from Nothing. And that’s the point. Listen to the company’s founder, Carl Pei, talk about it, and you get the sense he wants the design to cause a reaction. He knows some people will hate it. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Oddly enough, even among the other staffers here at Trusted, it’s an almost unanimous love for the design. 

Those early adopters and fans of Nothing phones will have to deal with the loss of one of its coolest and most unique features though: there are no more Glyph Lights on the back. The strips of LED lights adorned the back of the earlier models of Nothing smartphones, flashing and pulsing in time with notifications and music – and according to Nothing – 8/10 users actually used them. 

With the Phone 3, they’ve been replaced with something a little different. It’s a small round LED screen in the top right corner called the Glyph Matrix. 

Advertisement

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Instead of just flashing, it can display pixelated and animated graphics. It can display the time, your battery charge level, and show a pulsing animation for notifications – and that animation is different depending on the alert or ringtone you’ve chosen. 

There’s a pressure-sensitive button on the back of the phone that lets you cycle through the different options, and a settings menu in the phone that allows you to customise and reorder what appears in there. A quick firm press changes the mode, and a long firm press activates whatever feature you’ve chosen. 

So that could be the Mirror, Mirror option that allows you to use it as a selfie monitor of sorts, and snap a photo. Or you could start a stopwatch, play rock, paper scissors or spin the bottle. It’s actually kinda fun. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

There will be more features added in further updates down the line too, and Nothing’s going to make the SDK for these Glyph Toys available to third parties and community members down the line as well. It’s delightful, playful, and, while some might call it a gimmick, I like it. 

Advertisement

Another small touch I’m very much enamoured by is the little red square accent near the cameras. Unlike previous models, this isn’t just a red accent anymore. It’s a red flashing LED that blinks when you record video. Or, in industry parlance, a tally light or tally lamp. 

Other design details are typical of a standard phone. The aluminium mid-frame is mostly flat, with subtly rounded edges to avoid the feeling of sharpness between the front, back, and sides of the phone. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

It’s a pretty weighty and chunky phone, all told. At nearly 220 grams and 9mm thick, it’s not close to being the thinnest or lightest phone on the market. That’s something that pulls away from its charm somewhat, with it feeling quite hefty. If Nothing had shaved just a millimetre from its thickness, that would have helped massively. 

Display 

  • 6.67-inch AMOLED screen
  • More than bright enough for outdoor use
  • No LTPO technology

The 6.67-inch AMOLED display on the Phone 3 is genuinely one of its strongest features. It may not have advanced LTPO, which I’ll discuss in a second, but for brightness, colour representation and contrast levels, it’s very strong. It’s a great canvas for movies and games, offering up vibrant, warm colours without oversaturating to the point of hyperrealism. 

Advertisement

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Viewing angles are solid, too. I didn’t get a sense that there was any aggressive colour shifting when tilting the phone at different angles, and even when it was reflecting light from the sky, it was bright enough that it cut through most of that reflection. For those who care about specs, it can reach peak brightness levels of 4500nits and manages 1600nits in high brightness mode across the entire panel. 

Riding a train down to London, the sun was glaring through the window, across the display, and it was still perfectly clear and legible. I could WhatsApp away to my heart’s content without squinting. 

If there’s a weakness in the display, it’s in the refresh rate abilities. Or, more specifically, in adaptively changing refresh rates. It hasn’t got an LTPO panel, and that means the refresh can’t jump up and down responsively at really small increments. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

So every so often, if you go from a static screen to a moving one – for instance, swiping up the app drawer from the Home Screen – every now and then there’s a slight stuttering, as if it’s set itself to 60Hz before it realises it can go higher and do so, eventually animating really smoothly. 

Advertisement

It also means that if you are on a static page, it can’t set the refresh to an extremely low setting. And that means it consumes more battery on those static pages than you might find on a phone with an LTPO display. Phones like the Galaxy S25 or OnePlus 13 both have it, and so conserve more battery on those motionless pages. 

Cameras

  • Trio of 50MP rear cameras
  • Inconsistent performance, particularly from zoom lens
  • Main camera is the best performer

Spec-wise, the Nothing Phone 3 has pretty much everything you’d want in its camera makeup. All four cameras, including the selfie camera on the front, use a 50-megapixel sensor. As is typical, it bins (or combines) four pixels into one to make larger pixels, taking 12.6MP photos by default. 

The three-camera system on the back consists of a primary, ultrawide, and a 3x optical zoom equivalent periscope zoom. You can zoom up to 6x without losing any significant detail too. Although, if you go further, despite its AI processing to reduce noise and fuzziness, the quality of the picture will drop away. 

It’s a versatile system that’s capable of taking good, in-focus shots with a good depth of field in a variety of different settings. Particularly when there’s plenty of light around. Having tested the phone in a number of different scenes and settings, there is one weakness, and that’s consistency. Or lack thereof.  

Advertisement

For instance, the ultrawide camera colours don’t always match the primary and zoom. So where the main and telephoto zoom sensors’ images generally look quite warm and colour rich, the ultrawide goes cooler and desaturates, often making warm browns look a little grey and adding a slight green tint to some scenes. 

On a similar thread, the zoom camera has its own weaknesses and inconsistencies in the daytime. For instance, at 3x zoom – its optical equivalent limit – its photos closely match the primary camera in terms of colour, contrast, highlights, shadows, and detail. But once you hit the 6x zoom button, they take on a much more contrasty, dark, and uneven look. And at times when shooting video, the 3x zoom camera would struggle to focus on objects, especially if they were quite far away in the background. 

I often got a similar contrasty look with the selfie camera on the front too, where it over-darkened things like my hair and beard, making it much darker than it is in real life. It got to the point where I’d rather use that glyph matrix screen on the back to take a selfie with the rear cameras. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Advertisement

Where the zoom camera really shines is with macro photography. You can get relatively close to small objects like flowers, bugs and the like and get a shot with good sharpness, detail and a lovely background blur (or depth of field). Again, at 6x, it was darker and more saturated than at 3x, but it’s a great tool to have in your pocket for capturing photos of small things. 

The frustrating part was that it wasn’t always like this. It was inconsistent, so I never really knew what I would get. 

At night, and in low-light scenes, the night mode algorithm kicks in to stabilise motion and open the shutter for a couple of seconds. And it works on all three cameras – for the most part. 

In these scenes, it’s the zoom camera that proves to be the weakest. It doesn’t offer the night mode countdown like the other two lenses, and the end result is usually a picture with lots of blotchy artefacts, distortion and noise. In fact, if you want to zoom with the Nothing Phone 3 at nighttime, you’re better off simply setting it to 2x zoom and using the digital, in-sensor crop zoom on the main camera, rather than going any further. 

Advertisement

Otherwise, the phone draws in enough light in night scenes to make the scene visible clearly, with clean enough detail and enough colour accuracy, but without over-brightening it and making it feel like a daytime scene. 

It still has a lowlight, nighttime feel to the colour temperature and exposure levels, and didn’t white balance everything to make it seem too clean. It keeps it warm and dark, a bit more authentic than some other night modes that cool the white balance, overbrighten and saturate the colours. 

There was a clear sense to me when comparing all the cameras in different scenarios that the main, primary camera is clearly the strongest of the four in the entire system. It was the most consistent. 

Performance

  • Snapdragon 8s Gen 4
  • Top-notch – but not the fastest – performance
  • Great for gaming

For months leading up to the launch, Nothing had teased that its next phone would be a proper flagship phone. For many of us, then, the expectation was that it’d be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite. But it isn’t. Instead, it got the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, which is similar in power to the previous top-tier 8 Gen 3. Confused? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. 

Advertisement

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Essentially, the 8s series is a more affordable – but still powerful – chipset that’ll deliver a fast, smooth experience in all the ways that matter. It just doesn’t meet the incredibly high ceiling of the 8 Elite, which is powered more like a laptop processor than one from a phone. 

Throw it through some levels in Call of Duty with the high refresh rates enabled, and it’ll churn through that just fine. Any casual games are a doddle, and everything in the interface – apart from that mild refresh rate stutter I mentioned before – is snappy and responsive. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

In benchmark tests, which we do alongside using it as an everyday phone, it scores about as well as we’d expect. Again scoring up near the top end of Geekbench and GFX Bench tests, but not quite meeting the level of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It’s more in line with the Honor 400 Pro and Poco F7 Pro than the OnePlus 13 and Samsung Galaxy S25. 

For anyone but those who absolutely need the best specs and performance available, it’s more than enough to deliver a flagship phone experience. 

Advertisement

Software 

  • One of the most polished Android skins around
  • Dot-matrix styling is optional
  • Handy AI features

As far as Android skins go, Nothing OS may just be my favourite. It’s lightweight, almost entirely bloat-free and super easy to customise. Plus, with useful, fun, playful and stylish widgets thrown in, it’s a joy to use. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

If you want to change icon packs, you can do it within a couple of taps of the Home Screen without having to install a third-party launcher. This completely changes the look and feel of your Home Screen. 

Thematically, it’s designed to match the style and design of the hardware, so it feels cohesive in a way that lots of Android skins don’t. And, of course, it’s 2025, so there’s some AI involved, but it can be largely ignored if you want to avoid it. 

While there will definitely be a sense of gimmickry about the Glyph Matrix on the back, there are some useful software features designed to make the most of it. One of which lets you flip the phone over then press and hold the Essential Space button to start recording a meeting using the voice recording app. And when finished, you can dive into the Essential Space screen and ask for it to be summarised and transcribed. 

Advertisement

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

If there’s no discernible conversation, it’ll just tell you what it thinks the noise is. So, press it on a train, and it’ll more than likely describe the recording as being the noise of a train. 

As for Essential Space itself, that was first introduced on the Nothing Phone 3a series. There’s a dedicated button on the side to press, below the power button, which launches the software. 

Think of it as a memory pin board where you can save images, record reminders for yourself, and save things you’re interested in that you want to look up later. If you often forget your moments of inspiration, things you want to look up and such, it can be a very useful tool. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

There’s ChatGPT integration in the software too, which only applies if you have ChatGPT installed. You can get it to analyse and summarise screenshots, photos and other images by taking a screenshot and tapping a little eye icon. 

Advertisement

Battery life

  • 5150mAh battery
  • Can easily last all day, if not two, depending on use
  • 65W fast charging support

Battery life is relatively strong. It’s not a two-day battery, but its 5150mAh capacity is more than enough to get through the busiest days. 

My own typical use is generally pretty light by most standards. I rarely top 3 hours of screen time on my phone in a day, and most of that time is spent sitting in the same spot in my studio. 

Nothing Phone 3Nothing Phone 3
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

But on a heavy usage day when I was travelling to London for an event, I listened to about 4-5 hours of music on the journey there and home. I spent roughly 20 minutes navigating the city using Google Maps, was on WhatsApp for a couple of hours on the way home, testing the camera at various points, and still arrived home at the end of the day around 11 pm with about 42% of the battery left over. 

Despite its fairly standard capacity, it’s a solid performer. It’s not quite a two-day battery, but it’s not far off. I think the heaviest users could still get a full day from it, without too much trouble. 

Advertisement

With its 65W charging abilities, it can refill quickly too, as long as you have a compatible fast charger. It doesn’t ship with one in the box.

Squirrel Widget

Should you buy it?

You love the unique look of the Nothing Phone 3

The Nothing Phone 3 is all about its unique look, both in terms of hardware and software. If you want a phone that’ll stand out from everything else on the market, it’s a no-brainer.

You want the best camera performance

Despite a healthy spec sheet, the camera performance is inconsistent among the trio of 50MP snappers. For the price, there are much better performers around.

Final Thoughts

How worth its price tag the Nothing Phone 3 is, is a difficult thing to gauge. On the one hand, you have phones like the Pixel 9 at around the same price tag, which have a smaller, lower-quality display and a less powerful processor. 

But on the other hand, you have phones like the Poco F7, which is half the price, has the same processor, a big, vibrant display, faster charging and a bigger, longer-lasting battery (admittedly with a poorer camera system and clunky, bloated software). 

Ultimately, it’ll likely come down to how much you value the refreshing hardware and software design. It is a great all-rounder that’ll do everything you need it to do, and do it well. Throw in a unique design, some fun software features, and that cohesive, bloat-free Nothing OS software, and you have a recipe for a brilliant phone. 

For me, it’s been one of those slow-growers that maybe didn’t absolutely blow me away to begin with. But the more I use it every day, the more I want to keep using it. It’s effortless, clean and gets most of the important stuff right.

I’m not sure it quite does enough to live up to the flagship hype and £799/$799 price tag, but it is a good phone. 

How We Test

We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.

  • Used as a main phone for a week
  • Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
  • Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data

FAQs

Is the Nothing Phone 3 water-resistant?

Yes, the Nothing Phone 3 sports IP68 dust and water resistance.

Does the Nothing Phone 3 support fast charging?

Yes, it offers 65W fast charging support, but a charger is not included in the box.

Advertisement

Test Data

  Nothing Phone 3
Geekbench 6 single core 2073
Geekbench 6 multi core 6531
1 hour video playback (Netflix, HDR) 6 %
GFXBench – Aztec Ruins 60 fps
GFXBench – Car Chase 60 fps

Full Specs

  Nothing Phone 3 Review
UK RRP £799
USA RRP $799
CA RRP CA$-2
Manufacturer Nothing
Screen Size 6.67 inches
Storage Capacity 256GB, 512GB
Rear Camera 50MP + 50MP + 50MP
Front Camera 50MP
Video Recording Yes
IP rating IP68
Battery 5150 mAh
Wireless charging Yes
Fast Charging Yes
Size (Dimensions) 75.6 x 9 x 160.6 MM
Weight 218 G
Operating System Nothing OS 3.5 (Android 15)
Release Date 2025
First Reviewed Date 08/07/2025
Resolution 1260 x 2800
HDR Yes
Refresh Rate 120 Hz
Ports USB-C
Chipset Snapdragon 8s Gen 4
RAM 12GB, 16GB
Colours Black, White

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Share
What do you think?
Love0
Sad0
Happy0
Sleepy0
Angry0
Dead0
Wink0
Previous Article 31 Powerful ChatGPT Prompts for Resume [UPDATED]
Next Article Fitness and Wellness Deals Worth Adding to Cart on Amazon Prime Day July 2025
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected

248.1k Like
69.1k Follow
134k Pin
54.3k Follow

Latest News

The 42 best Prime Day deals on games, hardware, and accessories
News
China plans to limit global access to its EV battery technologies · TechNode
Computing
Revolut launches ETF offering – UKTN
News
Save 25% on the chemical-free Shark Steam Mop S8201UKCP
Gadget

You Might also Like

Gadget

Save 25% on the chemical-free Shark Steam Mop S8201UKCP

2 Min Read
Gadget

Get this super Amazon Music Unlimited deal with four months free – but hurry! | Stuff

9 Min Read
Gadget

My Job Is to Work Out. These Are the Fitness Trackers I’d Buy on Prime Day

5 Min Read
Gadget

The Best MacBook Accessories to Enhance Every Part of Your Laptop

9 Min Read
//

World of Software is your one-stop website for the latest tech news and updates, follow us now to get the news that matters to you.

Quick Link

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Topics

  • Computing
  • Software
  • Press Release
  • Trending

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

World of SoftwareWorld of Software
Follow US
Copyright © All Rights Reserved. World of Software.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?