【1985 Archives】

In a world where all the phones look pretty much the same985 Archives we're grateful to have Nothing.

On Tuesday, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nothing launched two new phones and keeping true to the company's aesthetic, they're both instant eye-grabbers. The phones both sport that semi-transparent look with oddly arranged Glyph LEDs on the back, but since no one else is doing anything of the sort, it still feels fresh.

I'm particularly pleased that the Nothing Phone 3a — and its more powerful sibling, the Nothing Phone 3a Pro — aren't just minimally altered variants of each other. Instead, each phone has its own thing going on, with the Pro version being a tad more radical, with a semi-circular camera array on the back, as opposed to the Phone 3a's horizontally aligned cameras.

Having seen them in the flesh, I can say this: They both look really cool and if you get one, people unfamiliar with the brand will want to know where you got this phone.

It's nice of Nothing to offer some colors, too. The Phone 3a Pro will be available in Grey and Black, while the Phone 3a comes in Black, White, and Blue (that last color won't be available in the U.S., though).

Inside, the phones aren't all that different. They both have a 6.77 AMOLED display with a 120Hz adaptive fresh rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 chip, 8/12GB of RAM, and 128/256GB of storage (availability varies by region, though).

Both phones also have a hefty, 5,000mAh battery with 50W charging, though wireless charging is sadly missing. Also notable is dust and water resistance, which is present but only up to IP64 standard, meaning a little splash will be ok, but you should not be immersing these phones underwater.

Of course, a Nothing specialty is the Glyph interface, which is like a (very) rudimentary display on the back of the device, with LEDs flashing in different patterns to visual music, do camera countdowns, and indicate volume.

The only big difference between the two devices, aside from the design, are the cameras. Both phones have a 50-megapixel main camera with f/1.88 aperture and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide with f/2.2 aperture. But where the Nothing Phone 3a has a 50-megapixel telephoto camera capable of 2x optical zoom, the Phone 3a Pro has a 40-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.

On the front, the Nothing Phone 3a Pro has a 50-megapixel selfie camera, while the Nothing Phone 3a has a slightly less generous 32-megapixel camera.

On the software side, it's Android 15 with Nothing OS 3.1 on top. The UI has a distinctive design that matches the phone's exterior and offers some special features such as Essential Space, which is an AI-powered note-taking option. Nothing likes it so much that it puts a dedicated button on the phone, and calls it Essential Key; it allows you to quickly capture and send content to Essential Space, as well as take voice notes or open the content you've saved so far.

Nothing says that Essential Space will launch as an "Early Access" feature, with more stuff coming soon "in the coming months."

Nothing Phone 3a will be available on March 11, while the Nothing Phone 3a Pro will be available on March 25, both through nothing.tech. However, there will be limited availability for both phones in the Nothing Store Soho in London at 11am GMT on March 8.

As for U.S. availability, these new Nothing phones will only be available through Nothing's U.S. Beta program, which is a bit of a bummer.

The pricing for these phones is...a little complicated because not all the variants are available everywhere. Nothing Phone 3a with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage starts at 329 pounds or euros, depending on where you are. The version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starts at 379 pounds, euros, or dollars, as that's the version that will be available in the U.S.

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of memory will cost £449 in the UK, $459 in the U.S., and €459 in Europe.

The phones will also be available in India, starting at ₹24,999 and ₹29,999, respectively.