Nothing Phone (3a) Pro Long-Term Review: Is It the One to Beat?

Modern mid-range smartphones have grown powerful but bland, often sacrificing design and software finesse. The Nothing Phone (2a) proved that people still crave a unique design and a cleaner experience. Having used the Phone (1) and Phone (2), the missing telephoto lens always left me wanting more. And when Nothing Phone (3a) Pro arrived with one, I didn't hesitate. It was pretty much the mid-range phone I'd been waiting for.

The telephoto camera is what really convinced me to get the Phone (3a) Pro. It was rare in the sub-Rs 30,000 price segment, still is, as the market is dominated by meagre 8MP ultrawides. I have been using the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro for six months, and here's my long-term review of the smartphone. 

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro Unboxing

The unboxing experience of the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro wasn't anything to write home about. The phone was packaged in a tuck top box with the inner box sliding out and opening like a book. It's all eco-friendly packaging. Here's everything you get in the box:

You don't get a charger in the box, nor do you get a case. Moreover, I was disappointed to see Nothing remove the transparent Type-C to Type-C cable they bundled with the Phone (2). Their reason for the same is that it was "underappreciated." The more premium Nothing Phone (3) gets it, though.

Before we move to my six-month journey with the Phone (3a) Pro, have a look at the key specifications:

Nothing Phone (3a) Design and Build

Like a typical Twitterati, my first reaction to the Phone (3a) Pro wasn't positive. It felt too out of the blue, even more so than it looked in the images. But it started to grow on me in ways I didn't expect. I got the grey colour variant and its unique camera module, lined by the Glyph lights and set against a prominent transparent back, didn't fail to turn heads in metros and public spaces.

The phone is built well. Although the plastic frame does cheapen the feel a little, the glass back redeems the build big time. It's complemented well by the matte-textured metallic ring around the camera island that adds a nice touch of polish.

At Phone (3a) Pro’s size, you’d expect awkward weight balance from that massive camera island, but surprisingly, it’s well-distributed. The rounded corners and slightly curved edges on the chassis help the grip. It’s not the most comfortable phone to hold for long calls, but it’s not nearly as unwieldy as it looks.

After six months of switching between using it bare and with a case, the Phone (3a) Pro has held up quite well. The front is spotless thanks to the pre-applied screen protector, the glass back is scratch-free even without protection, but the plastic frame does show some signs of use.

Nothing Phone (3a) Display Quality

The Phone (3a) Pro's display is smooth, sharp, punchy and bright. I had no issues with sunlight legibility as it gets plenty bright outdoors. Since it's a 10-bit panel with HDR10+ support, the colour reproduction is excellent. The phone ships with two colour profiles, and I ended up using the Alive profile for the most part, with a slightly warmer colour temperature.

I've had the display refresh rate set to Dynamic ever since I got it, and have faced no jitters or unusual refresh rate adjustments whatsoever. The refresh rate dials down to 30Hz when not in use, switches to 60Hz when watching videos, and to 120Hz when interacting with the display. HDR videos look punchy and vibrant, and my overall experience with the display quality has been excellent for the price.

Nothing Phone (3a) Performance Tested

As someone who doesn't game, I've had little to no issues with Nothing Phone (3a) Pro's performance. The phone is a breeze to use, and while it doesn't fly through everything you throw at it, it's more than happy to finish the tasks without any jitters or lags. My usage mostly involved scrolling through social media, reading up on tech news online, and slight multi-tasking, and the phone handled it well.

Over six months of usage, I've noticed that the software updates have only improved the snappiness of the Phone (3a) Pro. Switching between apps is smooth, apps stay in the memory for longer, and app opening and closing times have also ever-so-slightly improved.

I did test out a few games, such as Genshin Impact, BGMI and CODM, and let me just say that it performs decently. I could run Genshin at 45 FPS on the highest settings. BGMI on Smooth+Extreme at 90 FPS and only 45 FPS on the highest graphics settings. COD Mobile hits 50 FPS at the highest graphics, whereas it reaches 60 FPS on framerate priority.

So, it's pretty clear that the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is not for those who are after gaming and benchmark numbers. There are better alternatives, such as the Poco X7 Pro or the Moto Edge 60 Pro with MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra and 8350 Extreme, respectively.

Nothing Phone (3a) Software

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro came with Nothing OS 3.1 out of the box and has since been updated to Nothing OS 3.2. Nothing promises bi-monthly updates and has largely fulfilled its promise, if not gone out of its way to push out smaller interim patches to fix any major issues and bugs.

Nothing OS is minimal. It has this weird trait of making you feel excited and unexcited about the screen at the same time due to the monochrome colour. It doesn't shy away from features. Every corner of the OS feels thoughtful, evokes a merry feeling of truly owning the smartphone, customising it to the maximum with lockscreen widgets that feel retro and modern at the same time.

One of the things Nothing introduced with the Phone (3a) series was Essential Space. While it's useful, especially when it comes to reminders, it's still not something I've integrated into my routine. However, the brand recently rolled out Essential Recorder, which could come in handy and may finally force me to give Essential Space a shot.

Now, this probably has more to do with me being a PC person, managing my to-do list on Google's suite. However, Nothing now syncs Essential Space reminders with Google Calendar, which is one less reason for me to avoid the feature. Some of my minor gripes with Essential Space are the lack of quick actions in the reminder notification to help reschedule them.

The Phone (3a) Pro still has three major Android updates left, with three additional years of security patches. With most mid-range phones adopting four years of major software updates, three years may seem okay, but it is what it is.

Nothing's track record of pushing major updates has been pretty good on its relatively new devices. And I expect the Phone (3a) Pro to receive Android 16-based Nothing OS 4.0 by the end of this year.

Nothing Phone (3a) Camera Quality

Under ideal lighting conditions, the Phone (3a) Pro's main camera shoots good pictures. The images are sharp, detailed and a tad bit contrastier than I would've liked. 

However, my main issue with the cameras is the painfully slow shutter speeds and the inconsistent colour science. I've had instances where the phone completely washed out both the subject and the foreground in good lighting conditions. The shots below were taken at the same time, and one appears completely washed out.

The images have a slightly warmer tone to them, which I like. And while imaging science has improved with updates, there's still room for better skin tones and exposure overall. Images at night are decent, if not slightly noisy at times. The phone tends to bump up the exposure a little too much, blowing up the subjects sometimes. I often found myself reducing it manually.

The dynamic range is excellent, although I have found the camera to struggle a bit in tricky lighting situations where the light is adjacent to the subject. It tends to, again, wash out the subject and the background, both when it's having a tough time deciding which to preserve.

The telephoto, again, is a bit warmer than the main lens but produces crisp shots. OIS definitely helps counter the slight jerks if you're in a hurry. I've been using the 3x periscope more than the two sensors. The added reachability, combined with great daytime results, has me reaching for this phone for most captures. Speaking of which, the edge detection in portraits could use some work, especially when it comes to bokeh around a subject's hair.

My only issue with the telephoto is less to do with the lens itself and more about the shutter lag. It's too prominent and requires you to hold the Phone (3a) Pro for a good second or more when you tap on the shutter button, even when there's a decent amount of light. Failing to do so will result in blurry photos in most scenarios. This is not the case when there's an ample amount of light, so that's good.

The ultrawide lens is decent at best. It clicks good pictures during the day with decent dynamic range, but the images lack clarity. There's fringing sometimes, and you can see a bit of softness on the edges of the photos. Under challenging lighting conditions, the images can come out noisy. The post-processing is definitely doing the heavy lifting here to make the pictures presentable.

The selfies are extremely sharp and detailed. They too suffer a little from a bit more saturation and contrast than I would've liked, but the results are social media-ready pictures almost 7 out of 10 times. The skin tones, again, could've been better as the phone tends to add an almost red-ish hue to faces, which sometimes looks unnatural.

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro can do 4K @ 30 FPS and 1080p @ 60 FPS through both the front and back camera (including the periscope lens). The ultrawide is capped at 1080p @ 30 FPS, though. The videos are decent in the daylight, with good stabilisation and okay dynamic range. They won't blow you away, but they're not bad for the price of the phone either.

Overall, the Phone (3a) Pro's camera experience definitely punches above its weight. Nothing's still got a lot to figure out when it comes to balancing the colours and fixing its post-processing algorithm, which is a bit inconsistent. However, you can still take some great shots which people would be hard-pressed to believe are out of a sub-Rs 30,000 device.

Nothing Phone (3a) Battery & Charging

Once charged to 100%, the Phone (3a) Pro typically lasted me the whole day. In most cases, I ended my day with 20-25% battery still left in the tank. The maximum screen-on time I could get was five to five and a half hours with medium-high usage. It's worth mentioning that this was with always-on display turned on, adaptive brightness and a good 2-3 hours spent outside on smart 5G.

The results are on par with other smartphones with 5,000mAh. Do I wish Nothing had added a larger silicon carbon battery to bump the capacity to 5,800mAh-6,000mAh? Sure, but the current battery life numbers after six months of usage and factoring in the slight battery degradation are still great.

With Sleep standby optimisation turned off (because I tend to miss notifications due to it), the phone ends up losing around 6% battery overnight. Again, this is pretty standard for Android smartphones.

Charging has been pretty fast at 50W speeds with a PD charger. With my AceFast charging dock with a built-in display, the Phone (3a) Pro's wattage swung between 45W and 48W. The phone reached from 0-100% in 1 hour and 12 minutes, and from 0-50% much quicker at 25 minutes. Does the lack of wireless charging bother me? Absolutely not. Would it have been nice to have? Hands down.

Bottom Line: Should You Buy the Phone (3a) Pro?

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro nails some fundamentals – a unique design, a solid display, clean software and good cameras for the sub-Rs 30,000 price. If you care about any or multiple of these things more than the raw performance numbers, the Phone (3a) Pro is an easy recommendation and one of the best phones under Rs 30,000.

You could score the Poco F7 or the OnePlus Nord 5 by spending a little extra, both of which boast better performance, longer battery and a better Ultrawide. However, that means sacrificing a cleaner Nothing OS experience, quicker Android updates, and a better periscope lens.

Hence, the choice really boils down to a cleaner experience and a periscope camera versus faster performance and larger batteries. We'll let you be the judge, but if I had to put it in one line, the Phone (3a) Pro is the Pixel of mid-range devices.