I used the Nothing Phone 3a as my main smartphone for six months — and came to the conclusion that for its price, it’s one of the most interesting Android smartphones on the market, specifically in terms of daily usage experience. The release of the Nothing Phone 4a further sharpened the choice: with similar internals, the price difference on the Russian market is only about 7 thousand rubles. Here’s my honest review of the Nothing Phone 3a: the pros, cons, and other hidden pitfalls.
Here’s what happened to my Nothing Phone 3a after half a year
Nothing Phone 3a — How Much Does Design Really Matter in 2026
The Nothing Phone 3a remains the most recognizable smartphone in its price segment. The transparent back panel with glass, Glyph lighting, and the round camera module in Pixel style — all of this instantly sets it apart from the crowd of identical Chinese mid-rangers. A beautiful smartphone that sits perfectly in the hand, and after six months my eyes still haven’t grown tired of it — which is rare for me.
Everyone is genuinely curious about what phone this is
The main problem is cases. A transparent case yellows after just a couple of months, and opaque ones completely cover up that very Nothing design that people buy the phone for. I settled on a model from Nillkin — a compromise option that I eventually got used to, but the disappointment lingered: you want to carry the phone the way it was designed to look.
The Glyph lighting, however, was a pleasant surprise: you don’t get tired of it at all if you set up the flashing correctly and lower the brightness. On factory settings, the strips flash so intensely that it feels like an amusement ride, but after half an hour in the settings, you get something unobtrusive and even stylish. People I showed the Nothing Phone 3a to were amazed specifically by the transparent body — the light notification is just a nice bonus, not the main feature.
Nothing Phone 3a Performance and Nothing OS
Performance is top-notch. The Nothing OS firmware is smooth, apps open quickly, and I recorded virtually no obvious freezes over half a year. Games and heavy apps run without surprises on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor: not flagship level, but there’s more than enough power headroom for any everyday scenario. Over 1 million points in AnTuTu, which is reassuring.
Nothing OS is genuinely pleasant and resembles stock Android
But there are a couple of bottlenecks. If you open a streaming app with a large file list, it can take an unreasonably long time to load. The same goes for uploading photos to the cloud — you have to wait. It’s not critical, but in 2026 you expect snappier handling of large data sets from a smartphone at this price point.
On the other hand, the clean Nothing OS is minimalist: there aren’t any elaborate features like HyperOS, but there’s also no AI being shoved literally everywhere like in other firmware. It’s easy to figure out, and ads and system bloatware are completely absent. The ecosystem was a separate delight: Nothing earbuds and watches are configured through a single Nothing X app, and it works just as neatly as everything else from the brand.
Nothing Phone 3a Camera and Sound — What the Smartphone Is Really Capable Of
The camera on the Nothing Phone 3a is simply decent — no grand superlatives. A triple camera setup with a 50 MP main sensor and OIS, a 50 MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom, and an 8 MP ultra-wide. The main camera shoots on par with the iPhone 15 Plus: images are vibrant with good detail, but you wouldn’t call them masterpieces.
This is how a mid-ranger for 23k rubles takes photos
The smartphone takes excellent photos of cats. I’m ready to forgive it any sins for that, because what could be more important than cats?
The smartphone definitely loves cats
Video is also fine, but here the iPhone is objectively ahead. As for the Moon, the smartphone shamelessly enhances it, as if you’re looking at it through a telescope.
The smartphone shamelessly renders the Moon when zooming in
In the evenings, there are no problems taking photos either. Just pull it out and get a great shot even in dim light.
Evening photos turn out quite decent thanks to night mode
The weak spot is the ultra-wide camera at 8 MP. In 2026, that’s frankly not enough: colors more or less match the main module, but detail drops off, and in twilight the shots turn into mush. There’s also a slight shutter lag when shooting moving objects — even with OIS, shots sometimes come out blurry. For a blogger, this would be a limitation; for everyday tasks — social media, messengers, casual shots — the cameras are more than sufficient.
I want to separately note the sound: it’s genuinely excellent and noticeably doesn’t lose to iPhone. The stereo speakers are loud, detailed, with clear bass — watching movies and listening to podcasts without headphones is a pleasure. For a mid-range smartphone, this is above the expected level.
