We’ve known for a while that the 2025 Nothing mid-range Phones were coming on March 4th, and the British smartphone vendor has delivered. The Nothing Phone 3a Pro and Phone 3a are the newest Android phones to debut at MWC 2025. They are available to pre-order on Tuesday and will be ready to ship by next week.
The Nothing Phone 3a Pro and the Phone 3a are almost identical. Save for the camera module, they have the same designs and specs. You wouldn’t be wrong to go for the Phone 3a instead of Pro to save some money. But if you want the best camera experience from your new mid-range handset, you will want to spend the extra $80 to get your hands on the Pro version.
Also, if you were wondering, the Nothing Phone 3a series comes with new AI tricks. After all, this is the AI era, and phones are the primary way to get fast access to AI features. For that reason, Nothing developed a new Essential Space experience with a dedicated AI button called the Essential Key.
How much do the Nothing Phone 3a models cost?
Apple just unveiled a $599 mid-range iPhone 16e whose price wasn’t exactly a hit with some people. The Nothing Phone 3a models will be a lot easier on your wallet than that.
The Nothing Phone 3a starts at £329/€329 in Europe, but this 8GB/128GB version will not be available in the US. You’ll have to pay $379 for the 12GB/256GB model to have it shipped in the States via Nothing’s beta program. In the US, you can choose between the Black and White versions, with international buyers getting the much better-looking Blue option.
The Nothing Phone 3a Pro will cost $459 for the same 12GB/256GB configuration. A cheaper 8GB/128GB model will be available in India. The 3a Pro comes in Grey and Black.
The phones are available to pre-order on March 4th and they’ll be shipping on March 11th.
The same basic package
Whatever Phone 3a flavor you pick, you’ll get the same basic package. The Nothing Phone 3a models are slightly larger than before, featuring 6.77-inch AMOLED screens with 30-120Hz refresh rates and higher brightness than the Phone 2a. That’s up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness and 800 nits of typical brightness.
The back of the phone is made of transparent glass instead of plastic, which is certainly a great improvement. Nothing says the phones come with IP64 dust and water-resistance ratings, which should make them more durable than last year’s models.
You’ll want that durability, given that Nothing is ready to give you three years of Android OS upgrades and six years of security updates. The 5,000 mAh battery inside the two phones is designed to maintain over 90% maximum capacity after 1,200 charging cycles, which should give you about three years and four months of use before needing a new battery or phone.
The battery supports 50W fast charging, with a 20-minute charge enough to get you to 50%. As for battery life, you get more than 44 hours of voice calls, almost 22 hours of music playback, and almost 26 hours of YouTube viewing.
The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip is partly responsible for the battery efficiency gains. The chip will also ensure the Phone 3a Pro and Phone 3a run faster than their predecessors. Nothing has optimized the chip for NothingOS to provide fast performance across the board. The CPU is 33% faster than last year’s Phone 2a, and the GPU is 11% faster. More importantly, the Phone 3a models are 92% better at processing AI tasks.
The big bet on the camera
The Nothing Phone 3a models are all about the camera. That was crystal clear a few weeks ago when Nothing teased the phone’s camera performance by comparing it to Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Both phones feature triple-lens cameras on the back, with the camera module surrounded by the glyph lights Nothing phones have been known for. However, you’ll get two completely different camera experiences depending on which Phone 3a phone you get.
The two handsets share a new 50-megapixel primary camera and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera. However, the Nothing Phone 3a Pro main lens captures more light than the 3a. Also, Nothing says the main camera delivers 34% less noise and “class-leading clarity” compared with similar sensors.
The zoom lens is what dictates the big design difference between the two phones. The Nothing Phone 3a’s camera has a horizontal three-lens camera module featuring a regular 50-megapixel telephoto lens.
Nothing had to go a little crazier with the camera placements for the Nothing Phone 3a Pro so it could fit in a 50-megapixel periscope lens with OIS that will feature the better zoom of the two models. That’s 3x optical zoon, 6x lossless zoom, and 60x AI-enhanced digital zoom for the Pro, compared to 2x optical zoom and 4x lossless zoom for the Phone 3a.
Finally, the Nothing 3a Pro features a 50-megapixel front camera, while the cheaper model only has a 32-megapixel shooter.
What’s the deal with the new button?
Apple introduced a Camera Control button with the iPhone 16 series this year which is also involved in one Apple Intelligence feature. That’s Visual Intelligence, which lets you give the AI eyes to assist you with information about the things around you.
Nothing’s new Essential Key isn’t about the camera, though it’s placed in a similar position on the right side of the handset. The Essential Key is connected to Nothing’s new Essential Space, an AI feature that will be available in beta on the Nothing Phone 3a series.
Nothing wants you to use that Essential Space to organize your digital life. The new space will help you collect and organize the information you come into contact with each day. Maybe it’s screenshots and photos connected to personal projects. Or perhaps you want to use voice to save notes and set up reminders.
That’s where the phone’s AI will help inside the Essential Space. It’s unclear what AI models are doing the work here.
Press the Essential Key once, and it will send screen content to the Essential Space. A long press initiates a voice note. You’ll need to double-tap the button to see everything in the Essential Space.
Nothing also said that Essential Space will get upgraded in the coming months. Features like Camera Capture, Smart Collections, Focused Search, and Flip to Record are the ones the company named.
Camera Capture will let you send photos from the camera app to the Essential Space. This sounds like Visual Intelligence, with the difference being that the photo is actually saved to the Essential Space. The Smart Collections feature could be even more useful, as it should help you organize and combine images (including screenshots), audio clips, and text into collections to access later.
