I Tried the Nothing Phone 3 and It Definitely Didn't Live Up to the Hype

CNET

21-07-2025

Nothing made things difficult for itself by calling its latest phone its first "true flagship." It suggests that it is a contender to premium phones such as the iPhone 16 Pro or the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it simply isn't. Instead it's a solid midranger, offering decent performance and a host of quirky features for a relatively affordable price.
At $799 (£799), the Nothing Phone 3 is the most expensive phone the company has made, and it backs this up with a more potent processor, better cameras and an additional year of software support compared to its previous models. But it's also a real mixed bag of things I like and things I really don't.
7.3 Nothing Phone 3
Like Awesome macro photography mode
Awesome macro photography mode Good software support period
Good software support period Quirky design stands out from the crowd Don't like Camera performance overall disappoints
Camera performance overall disappoints Processor lags behind flagship rivals
Processor lags behind flagship rivals Rear Glyph Matrix is arguably a gimmick
Rear Glyph Matrix is arguably a gimmick Battery life is underwhelming
The square-blocks-under-transparent-glass design is arguably fun, but it's not without its problems. The cameras are mostly underwhelming except for its surprisingly good macro mode, and the software features are basically the same as you'll find on the company's much cheaper 3A Pro. At a price that matches both the Pixel 9 and iPhone 16, the Nothing Phone 3 is best seen as a midtier phone at a flagship price.
Nothing needed to push for better performance -- especially from the cameras -- or drop the price by at least 100 bucks. As it stands, this phone is difficult to recommend over the Pixel 9. A "flagship" it isn't, and my advice to Nothing would be to stick to what they do best: quirky phones with affordable price tags.
Nothing Phone 3: Quirky design and Glyph Matrix
The Glyph Matrix, as Nothing calls it, is the standout new feature for this phone. It's basically a small, round, dot-matrix display in the top right of the phone's back that shows things like incoming notifications, the time, and even little mini games. It's a cute idea, and while I do like being able to see who's calling me when my phone is face down on my desk, I think its use is limited overall.
You can play games like spin the bottle on it, but as a married 37-year-old, my desire for a morally ambiguous chance kiss with a drunk friend at a house party has thankfully been left behind in my teenage years. Even then, spin the bottle is arguably the highlight of the Glyph Matrix right now, and while Nothing says the SDK is open for third party developers to use, I'm not convinced it's a feature that has longevity.
Spin the bottle on the Glyph Matrix display. Gimmick or useful party feature? I'll leave it up to you to decide.
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But I'm particularly peeved that it's come at the cost of the Glyph lights that were the hallmark of Nothing's earlier phones. The Nothing Phone 1 and 2 were littered with large LEDs that flashed to let you know about notifications, and while their existence was arguably more for aesthetics, it was fun to see something a bit different in phone design. Those lights are gone, combined and shrunk into the Glyph Matrix. Sure, that's still quirky, but I wish Nothing had kept the bigger glyph lights too -- I don't see any reason why both versions of Glyph can't co-exist here.
The broader design is still definitely Nothing, with a transparent outer shell that gives the impression you're looking into the physical heart of the phone. The white model shows this off much better than the black option, if you're not sure which color you prefer. I quite like the blocky design, but a couple of things irritate me.
First, the telephoto camera unit is weirdly off center, sitting much closer to the phone's edge than the unit below it. It looks like a mistake and I find it off-putting. Then there's the semi-circle strip under the flash -- it absolutely looks like it's supposed to light up like the "glyphs" of older Nothing phones, but it doesn't. It's just… there. I'd put money on there originally being a plan for this to light up but it got axed as a cost-cutting measure along the way.
The off-center left camera and the sort of semi-circle bit under the flash -- two design choices I don't understand, but I am annoyed by.
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Fine, I might be nit-picking here. For transparency, I'm someone who gets annoyed when I see slightly off kerning in posters and adverts. I cringe when I walk around town and see the rampant misuse of apostrophes and I feel physically compelled to say "fewer" when someone incorrectly uses "less" in a sentence. I'm a pedant, sure, but when it comes to expensive tech, pedantry is important. If there'd been more pedantry at Nothing then we wouldn't have off-centre cameras and I'd probably give it another star in this review. Maybe.
Nothing Phone 3: Mediocre cameras, rad macro mode
The phone packs three rear cameras: a standard wide angle, an ultrawide and a telephoto zoom offering 3x optical zoom and 6x combined optical and digital zoom. All three cameras offer 50 megapixels of resolution and all of them are best described as simply "fine."
Taken with the standard lens, this image has decent colors and a solid overall exposure.
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This image from the main camera is fine, though if I'm nitpicking I don't like how much it's lifted the shadows on the buildings. It gives it quite an unnatural look.
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The shadows have been brightened a lot in this evening image, too, though I don't hate the result. The sky's color balance leans into teal tones quite strongly which isn't especially accurate but it's a fine snap overall.
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In good outdoor conditions the exposure from the main camera is decent, with fairly accurate colors and plenty of detail. Some HDR scenes can look a bit unnatural with weirdly-lightened shadows and toned down highlights. Still, I've seen worse.
The main camera has leaned hard into the teal tones in this evening scene.
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It's especially obvious when compared to the iPhone 16 Pro which has captured the scene much more accurately.
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It's the same situation here, with the Nothing Phone 3's main camera producing a very teal sky, which was not how this scene looked.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
The iPhone 16 Pro has retained a much more authentic-looking magenta tone.
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As the light starts to fall it seems to struggle more with white balance, often leaning into cyan tones which give low-light images an unnatural appearance.
The color shift between the Nothing Phone 3's standard zoom (left) and the ultrawide (right) is noticeable.
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The ultrawide lens captures even exposures, but there's often a noticeable color shift between the standard and wide views. There's also a lot of chromatic aberration visible on areas of contrast, especially towards the edge of the frame which suggests low quality optics. I've also seen odd image processing issues, including weird detail smoothing and in one instance, a person's hair tinged bright green.
While this ultrawide view of people watching a street performer has a fair exposure overall, it's not without its problems.
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This biggest problem being that the phone's image processing has turned this person's hair a deep shade of green for some reason. It's not good.
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This night-time ultrawide shot agains leans unnaturally hard into the cyan tones when compared to the iPhone 16 Pro. But it's a little brighter overall which is a good thing I guess.
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The iPhone 16 Pro's shot is definitely darker, but it's colors are more realistic.
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The zoom lens is hit or miss. At 6x zoom on an overcast day, it does a decent job of capturing an even exposure with crisp details. Other times it struggles, often creating a weird soft glow around subjects, especially in areas of high contrast.
At 6x zoom, the details on this street performer look good.
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It's also done a solid job of capturing this 6x zoom scene.
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But here's where things go weird with the zoom lens.
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When cropped in close it's clear to see that the Nothing Phone 3's zoom (left) suffers from a weird halation around the swan that isn't present on the iPhone 16 Pro's shot (right).
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
Taken at 6x zoom, this shot of swans and signets has blown-out highlights and a bizarre haze around the swans that makes it look like those naff shots from the '80s with Vaseline on the lens. I've seen this on multiple test photos and I'm disappointed to see such significant image quality issues. What's causing it? Difficult to say definitively, but like the wide-angle lens I'd guess at low-quality plastic optics on the zoom lens.
Viewed at full screen this 6x zoom shot is basically fine.
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But looking closer up at the details reveals that there's again a softness to the Nothing Phone 3's image (left) that lets it down against the iPhone 16 Pro's shot (right).
Andrew Lanxon/CNET
While I'm disappointed overall with the Nothing Phone 3's camera, it does have one saving grace: its macro mode. Most phones offer some kind of close up shooting for macro scenes, but nothing like this one.
The Nothing Phone 3's macro mode is superb. The details on this bee look amazing and the overall colors and exposure look great too.
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You can see all the tiny bits of pollen stuck this bee. It's a lovely macro shot.
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I've been able to get some really great close up shots of bees on flowers that are not just well-exposed, but also pin-sharp and with great-looking colors. Like most macro modes it can be highly susceptible to movement, so I hammered the shutter button taking numerous images of each scene and then simply selecting the best-looking one later, but that's the same way I work when I take macro photos professionally -- it's never a case of taking one image and it being perfect straight away.
The iPhone 16 Pro's macro attempt far less impressive, with much more muted tones and a weird "crunchiness" to the image that I don't like anything like as much.
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It's the one way that the Nothing Phone 3's camera outperforms its rivals. I tried taking similar macro photos with the iPhone 16 Pro and it couldn't even come close to what I could achieve with the Nothing phone.
But in most other respects the Nothing's cameras aren't great and if photography is important to you then I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
Nothing Phone 3: Processor and battery performance
The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 processor which put in reasonable scores on our suite of benchmark tests. Its scores put it much more in line with last year's flagships like the Galaxy S24 and Xiaomi 14, but a fair step behind current-gen models such as the Galaxy S25, iPhone 16 or OnePlus 13.
In everyday use, the phone feels nippy, with smooth navigation around the interface, apps that load quickly and demanding gaming in Genshin Impact and PUBG being handled easily, even at max graphics settings. The phone might not be up there with today's flagships on paper, but it's got more than enough grunt to handle almost anything you'd want to throw at it.
The phone runs Android 15 at its heart. Nothing promises six years of total software support.
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The phone's 5,150-mAh battery uses silicon carbon technology that Nothing says results in better longevity. On our rundown tests, battery life is distinctly average, with results from both our video streaming drain test and 45-minute endurance test putting it below both the Galaxy S25 and OnePlus 13, but more in line with the much cheaper Nothing Phone 3A. Like all phones, you should expect to give it a full recharge every night.
Nothing Phone 3: Software and updates
The phone runs Android 15 at its core but Nothing has slapped its own interface over the top, which gives it a strong look. It leans on monochrome aesthetics, with most app icons being turned black and white and text being removed from many areas of the homescreen in a bid for a more minimalist look. I quite like it, even though sometimes it's difficult to work out exactly which app is which. You can turn it off if it's not to your taste though.
The phone has various AI tools scattered around -- including Google's Gemini, accessible by a long press of the power button -- but it's the Essential Space that stands out. Essential Space is best thought of as a repository for your stream of consciousness throughout the day. There's a dedicated hardware button on the side of the phone; press it once and it'll take a screenshot to store in Essential Space. Long press it and you can record a voice note that will then be transcribed with AI with key points being pulled out to remind you later.
The Essential Space has a dedicated hardware button on the side to make it easy to log your thoughts and screenshots.
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Nothing is slowly building the tool out to add deeper functionality -- the new version has a longer voice record function that will transcribe meetings for you -- and while I don't think it's a reason to choose a Nothing phone over any other, it's an interesting tool that you may find useful.
The problem is that both the iconic monochrome interface and Essential Space tool are also found on Nothing's much cheaper Phone 3A, so there's nothing unique here that would justify you spending twice the price to buy the top model.
Nothing has said that the Phone 3 will receive four years of software updates and a total of seven years of security support meaning this phone should still be safe to use in 2032.
Nothing Phone 3: Should you buy it?
Nothing has tried hard to differentiate itself from the market over the years by offering quirky phones at prices that significantly undercut its rivals. Calling the Phone 3 its first "true flagship" is a risky strategy and one that I don't feel has paid off here. This phone might have higher-end components than some of its cheaper siblings, but it's not a "true flagship", especially not when measured against rivals like the iPhone 16, Pixel 9 or Galaxy S25. The Phone 3 lacks the processor and camera performance I'd expect to see at this level.
The stark monochrome aesthetic of the Nothing interface looks kinda cool, as long as you can remember which app icon is which.
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Its battery life, too, is disappointing, and while the Glyph Matrix is certainly a unique addition, it's arguably a gimmick that likely won't add much value to your long-term experience with the phone.
At its full $799 retail price, this phone is at least $100 too expensive. If you can pick it up with a decent discount then it's worth considering. If you simply like the aesthetics of the phone and its monochrome interface but don't care about camera performance, look toward the Nothing Phone 3A -- it's half the price but just as fun.