With its new Cellphone 3a Professional, Nothing is on a roll

A relative newcomer to the smartphone market, Nothing has made a reputation for itself within the cellular business over the previous couple of years. The London, England-based firm has vaulted into the general public’s creativeness with its line of unique-looking handsets, every of which affords attention-grabbing {hardware} options and a clean software expertise.

Coinciding with this 12 months’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) commerce present, Nothing has taken the chance to launch its latest line of mid-range smartphones: the Cellphone 3a and the Cellphone 3a Professional. With the latter gadget, has the corporate managed to take care of the momentum of its earlier choices, or is the Cellphone 3a Professional simply one other mid-ranger in a crowded Android playing field? I slotted my SIM card into the cellphone to search out out.

Editor’s Alternative

Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional

The Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional is a mid-range handset with a 6.77-inch show, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, and a uniquely designed rear triple digicam design.

Professionals & Cons

• Distinctive design language
• Wonderful software program pores and skin
• No superfluous AI gimmicks

• Water and dirt ranking might be improved
• Optical fingerprint sensor is a bit poky
• Important Key feels a bit underbaked

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Worth, availability, and specs

Beginning off with specs, the Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional packs a strong assortment of {hardware} into its distinctive chassis. With a 6.77-inch 1080 x 2392 decision AMOLED panel in tow, the cellphone’s footprint is sort of giant throughout. Actual dimensions are available at 6.44 x 3.05 x 0.33-inches (163.5 x 77.5 x 8.4 mm), and the gadget weighs in at 7.44 oz (211 g).

Underneath the hood, the Cellphone 3a Professional is powered by the mid-range Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor, which is supplemented with 12GB of RAM. A 5,000 mAh battery pack can be crammed in, which is able to topping up at a speedy 50W fee.

Nothing has packed the 3a Professional with a triple rear digicam array: a 50-megapixel f/1.9 wide-angle shooter, a 50-megapixel f/2.6 periscope 3X zoom lens, and an 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide sensor with a 120 diploma subject of view. Video recording tops out at 4K decision at 30 frames per second (fps), or 1080p at as much as 120fps. Moreover, a single 50-megapixel f/2.2 front-facing shooter is on deck, which is able to recording at as much as 4K decision at 30fps.

The Cellphone 3a Professional is water and dust resistant at an IP64 certification stage, which makes it dust-tight and guarded in opposition to splashes of recent water from any angle. Sadly, a scarcity of IP67 or IP68 certification implies that the cellphone cannot formally take a dunk.

Elsewhere, the gadget is outfitted with an optical under-display fingerprint scanner, a bottom-mounted USB-C port, stereo audio system, and Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 compatibility.

The Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional is obtainable in each gray and black colorways, with an MSRP of $460. For the asking value, the cellphone ships with 12GB of RAM and 256 GB of inside storage. The Cellphone 3a Professional goes up for pre-order on March 11 within the US, with shipments anticipated to start rolling out on March 25.

What I preferred concerning the Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional

I am a fan of the Cellphone 3a Professional’s digicam hump design

I can not discuss concerning the Cellphone 3a Professional with out beginning off with its distinctive design language. Nothing has made a reputation for itself by bucking the usual sweet bar-style cellphone development, no less than when it comes to aesthetics. The 3a Professional maintains the corporate’s translucent rear panel design, blended with a triple ‘glyph’ gentle setup of LED lights.

Extra noteworthy this 12 months, is Nothing’s decision to make a statement piece out of the digicam protrusion. It is giant, it is in cost, and it is controversial, to say the least. Personally, I’ve no qualms concerning the design — I really feel that it matches in completely with the remainder of the cellphone’s look, and I admire that it’s not an all-black monolith like so many different digicam telephones are today.

The Cellphone 3a Professional’s show is a high-point for me. Its 1080 x 2392 decision is sweet and crisp, its 3,000 nits of peak brightness is spectacular, and its variable refresh fee of between 30 and 120Hz makes for a silky-smooth expertise. I am a fan of the symmetrical bezels flanking the show, that are an affordable 0.09-inch (2.3mm) in width.

My favourite facet of your entire Cellphone 3a Professional package deal, nonetheless, must be the software program expertise. The cellphone runs the customized Nothing OS 3.1 software program pores and skin atop of Android 15, and I merely cannot get sufficient of it. Navigation is stutter-free, animations are slick, and there is subsequent to no bloatware bogging down the expertise.

The OS’s enjoyable dot matrix aesthetic is nice to have a look at, and a way of design coherence is current all through the system. Nothing has sprinkled in some small tweaks all through, however none of it feels overbearing. The aforementioned Glyph Interface lighting system will be personalized with relative ease, and there is a Particular Options part with entry to some extra superior choices like RAM Booster and Recreation Mode.

Nothing has additionally constructed an experimental app drawer expertise that classes downloaded software program titles by style, versus by alphabetic order. The design carefully resembles Apple’s App Library, in addition to the upcoming Start Menu update for Windows 11. In the event you aren’t a fan of the design selection, it is easy to modify again to the usual Android implementation — personally, I am having fun with the brand new type.

By way of its software program replace coverage for the Cellphone 3a Professional, Nothing guarantees 3 years of Android characteristic updates, along with six years of safety patches. This does not fairly match the seven years of updates promised by the likes of Samsung, Google, and Honor on their respective flagship choices, however so far as mid-rangers go, the 3a Professional is in a great place.

Lastly, I am proud of the Cellphone 3a Professional’s stamina. The 5,000mAH battery pack is on the bigger facet, and I discovered in a single day battery drain to be negligible. I am frequently capable of get via a complete day while not having to high up, and the 50W wired charging fee is sweet and brisk. Sadly, the cellphone lacks Qi or Qi2 wi-fi charging, which is a ache level for somebody like me who has invested in altering pads all through my dwelling.

Associated

Nothing is turning heads again with its new Phone 3a Series

Nothing has formally unveiled its mid-range Cellphone 3a Sequence at Cellular World Congress 2025, however leaks spoiled a lot of the shock issue.

What I did not like concerning the Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional

The fingerprint sensor is not the perfect, and the shortage of wi-fi charging is disappointing

I commend Nothing for not falling into the entice of over-hyping and under-delivering on generative and agentic AI options with its newest handset line. I’ve but to search out compelling use circumstances for many of the AI instruments cropping up on competing smartphones, and so their absence hasn’t saved me up at evening whereas utilizing the 3a Professional as my each day driver.

Nevertheless, Nothing does embrace one novel AI device in particular, and it is moderately hit-or-miss in the intervening time. Dubbed the Important House, the characteristic capabilities as an enclave for storing screenshots, in addition to for embedding and transcribing voice memos. The characteristic works as marketed — by way of a devoted Important Key positioned beneath the sleep/wake button — however there is not loads of utility right here to talk of.

I can envision the Important House evolving into one thing genuinely helpful over time, and I like the concept of at all times having fast entry to voice memos. In the intervening time, nonetheless, the characteristic merely hasn’t confirmed helpful in my each day workflow. I additionally discover myself by accident urgent the important thing with out that means to, regardless of its barely concave design.

By way of uncooked efficiency, the Cellphone 3a Professional’s Snapdragon 7c Gen 3 chipset is decidedly mid-range, as anticipated. A Geekbench 6 benchmark take a look at netted outcomes of 1,173 for single-core and three,307 for multi-core. For each day use, the shortage of additional processing grunt has had no impression on my expertise with the cellphone. After all, had I been making an attempt to play intensive cellular video games, I might in all probability be singing a unique tune.

Digicam efficiency is the opposite facet of the Cellphone 3a Professional that’s mid-range through-and-through. The digicam system is able to outputting some glorious photographs, however issues begin to get a bit fuzzy in low-light circumstances. The 3X periscope lens is a pleasant addition, and it is extra helpful than the 2X focal size shooter discovered on the usual Cellphone 3a, for instance.

I want the ultra-wide shooter had higher specs — its 8-megapixel decision is on the low facet, even by mid-range cellphone requirements. The 120-degree subject of view is completely advantageous in my expertise, however it may be difficult to take a crisp shot when environmental circumstances aren’t preferrred.

One different minor level of competition: in my testing, the Cellphone 3a Professional’s under-display fingerprint sensor is a bit on the fiddly facet. In comparison with the ultrasonic sensors discovered on another smartphones, the 3a Professional’s reader is slower to provoke and a bit much less correct total. I additionally want the sensor itself was larger up on the display, versus close to the very backside of the panel.

Associated

Nothing’s Ear (Open) are the most comfortable earbuds I’ve worn because they don’t go in my ears

In the event you’re like me and discover most common wi-fi earbuds uncomfortable, the Ear (Open)’s on-ear design might be what you’ve got been ready for.

Do you have to purchase the Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional?

So far as mid-range smartphones go, the Cellphone 3a Professional leads the pack

For an asking value of $460, the Cellphone 3a Professional brings so much to the desk. The gadget’s distinctive design is eye-catching, and its software program expertise is slick and no-nonsense. The gadget appears to be like and feels premium, punching properly above its weight bodily talking.

After all, some concessions needed to be made — together with the shortage of wi-fi charging, the mid-range Snapdragon chipset, and the middling fingerprint sensor — however by and enormous, the Cellphone 3a Professional appears to be like and feels very very like a flagship Android cellphone in disguise.

In the event you’re on the lookout for a mid-range smartphone at an affordable value, then Nothing’s Cellphone 3a Professional is a superb selection. The handset affords a lot of the flagship Android expertise, however at a extremely palatable value. Personally, now greater than ever, I look ahead to seeing what Nothing has been cooking up within the high-end cellphone division.

This gadget was offered to Pocket-lint by Nothing.

Editor’s Alternative

Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional

The Nothing Cellphone 3a Professional is a mid-range handset with a 6.77-inch show, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, and a uniquely designed rear triple digicam design.