Nothing Phone (3a) Pro vs Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: The plus symbol represents addition

Nothing made a big name for itself, and if we're to hop on the pun train, "came out of nothing" back with its first device—the original Nothing Phone. Carl Pei thought he can offer a true value phone with an innovative design and features for not a lot of money.

Since then, the company has managed to stay afloat and launch a couple of generations. This year the portfolio of Nothing is morphing once again; we've witnessed the launch of the Nothing Phone (3a), a spiritual successor to the Nothing Phone (2a) series from last year.

But unlike the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, this year the company has decided to give us a new moniker for the upper tier model—it's called the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. Today we're going to find just how "professional" this phone really is and how it stacks up against its predecessor, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus.

It's debatable who thought of this first, but the fact of the matter is that Nothing struck gold with the design of the first Nothing Phone. The transparent back and the exposed ribbon cable and wireless charging coil gave that phone the distinct look needed in a smartphone world where phones look almost the same from every angle. 

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus and the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro both follow the same design language with slight differences.

The cameras inside the Nothing Phone (3a) are placed differently and accentuated by black round outlines, and the whole camera system is placed inside a visible circle. The placement of the ribbon cables is also different, but all in all, the design language is similar. 

The Phone (3a) Pro also gets an upgrade to a glass back, while the Phone (2a) Plus used plastic.

In terms of size, both are quite large, but the (3a) Pro is slightly bigger.

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro size and weight:
163.5 x 77.5 x 8.4 mm, 211 grams

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus size and weight:
161.7 x 76.3 x 8.5 mm, 190 grams

Nothing sticks with its monochrome colors for the (3a) Pro, but to be fair, this is kind of mandated by the transparent back.

The (3a) Pro brings some slight display changes as well. 

It gets a slightly bigger 6.77-inch display, up from a 6.7-inch one on the (2a) Plus, and both come with 1080p resolution.

Both phones can do 120Hz on the refresh rate front, and both support HDR10+.

The Phone (2a) Plus features Gorilla Glass 5, while the Phone (3a) Pro has a new "Panda Glass" on top of the screen (supposedly more durable).

Another upgrade for the (3a) Pro is how bright the screen can get, reaching 3,000 nits of peak brightness, while the (2a) Plus gets up to 1,300 nits peak. That difference seems huge on paper, but keep in mind that phone makers use this trick where they test a small white dot, and in reality the brightness difference is not that huge.

Display Measurements:

In our lab tests, we see some difference in brightness, but not as huge, and that is because we use a more realistic method where we test a 20% white block rather than a 1% white dot. The other parameters of the displays are quite similar, the new phone is slightly better calibrated from the factory and has better color reproduction but the difference is not that big. 

There's a switch in the hardware coming with the new Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. It has the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor onboard, a change from the Dimensity 7350 Pro chip found inside the (2a) Plus.

Both chips are 4 nm, but they're built on different core configurations.

CPU Performance:

Funnily enough, the new chip doesn't seem to be such a big upgrade compared to the old Dimensity 7350 Pro. As a matter of fact, single-core performance is better on the (2a) Plus (not by much but still better), and only in multi-core benchmarks is the Snapdragon able to pull ahead.

Things look even more peculiar in the graphics domain. The Mali 610 seems to outperform the Adreno 710 inside the new Nothing Phone (3a) Pro and by a substantial percentage at that. This doesn't look too good, especially given the new and higher price tag of the (3a) Pro.

In terms of RAM, both phones have a version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and, in fact, this is the only memory option for the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. The (2a) Plus, on the other hand, can be purchased with 8GB of RAM and the same 256GB of onboard storage.

Can you get a triple camera system on a phone that costs $300-400? Apparently you can, because the upcoming Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is believed to have such a system, consisting of the same 50MP, f/1.9 main camera as the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a big and powerful 50MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus uses a different approach; the phone trades the telephoto for a better ultrawide camera. It's a 50MP, f/2.2 snapper with a 114-degree field of view. Whether or not an extra telephoto could justify the downgraded ultrawide camera inside the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, we still don't know.

Both phones come with 50MP selfie cameras, and, as always, we will pit them against each other in a real-life side-by-side comparison once we get the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro in our hands. But with the same main camera and this trade-off with the telephoto, it will go down to what you actually need. A good main and ultrawide with no telephoto, or a good main camera, a midrange ultrawide, and an additional telephoto with 3x zoom. 

The Phone (3a) Pro captures punchier and more saturated photos. The exposure is slightly better on the new phone, and the dynamic range seems a bit wider. But overall, the 50MP main cameras are similar. 

The ultrawide situation is interesting—the new phone trades the 50MP ultrawide from the old model for a 50MP periscope telephoto while downgrading its own ultrawide to an 8MP sensor. 

That said, the samples from the two look similar in quality, although the ultrawide shots from the (2a) Plus seem a tad more natural and also more detailed. The periscope photo is a big plus for the (3a) Pro, so if you're into portrait photography, this might be a deciding factor.

The (3a) Pro brings very small changes to video recording quality, with slightly better dynamic range and small improvements to zoom quality, but overall these two are incredibly similar.

Both can only record up to 4K30, so you don't have the option for 4K60 video.

You also cannot use the ultra-wide camera in 4K video recordings, as it only works in 1080p video.

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro features a 5,000 mAh battery, the same size as on the (2a) Plus.

Considering the similar-size screens, battery life should be quite similar as well.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus managed an overall score of 6 hours and 40 minutes in our battery test, and indeed the new model scores almost exactly the same 6 hours and 42 minutes overall. There's a slight difference in gaming, due to the more powerful GPU inside the Dimensity chip (as we saw in the 3D Mark benchmark), but the overall results are identical.

The same goes for charging; it's exactly the same on both phones—50W wired charging support with no wireless coils on either of these phones.

With the proper charger, Nothing promises you can top up your battery to 50% in around 20 minutes, while a full charge should take around an hour (56 minutes). This was replicated on the new model as well, so if battery and charging are important for you, you should know that both phones offer fast wired charging and decent battery life. No differences.

Here's a quick specs comparison between the two phones, for a more detailed Nothing Phone (3a) Pro vs Nothing Phone (2a) Plus specs comparison, head to our dedicated comparison page on PhoneArena.

We can see a clear evolution in the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. Is it enough to justify the "Pro" moniker? We're not so sure as it still lacks a flagship processor, but you do get a much more powerful camera system, so we will give Nothing a pass on that.

The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro ticks a lot of boxes — it has a big, bright OLED screen that runs at a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, you get fast wired charging, a new Snapdragon chipset and a versatile triple camera system.

The (3a) Pro is a bit more expensive but it gives plenty of value for the money and for all it is, it's a real bargain. Overall, it's a significant upgrade over the (2a) Plus, and anyone looking for a mid-range phone should definitely have the (3a) Pro on their shortlist.