Nothing Phone (3a) vs Nothing Phone (2a): On the right path of evolution
Intro
Nothing is back with the Phone 3a, refining its mid-range lineup with meaningful upgrades over the Phone 2a. While both devices stick to Nothing’s signature transparent aesthetic, the 3a introduces a triple-camera setup, a faster Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, and the return of the LED Glyph system—a standout feature missing from the 2a.
Beyond performance and design tweaks, the Phone 3a also bumps up display size, brightness, and charging speeds, making it a more polished package. However, the 2a remains a compelling budget option, offering a similar core experience at a lower price.
So, should you consider the Phone 3a? Or does the 2a still hold its own in the mid-range market?
So, should you consider the Phone 3a? Or does the 2a still hold its own in the mid-range market?
Nothing Phone 3a vs Nothing Phone 2a differences:
| Nothing Phone 3a | Nothing Phone 2a |
|---|---|
| Faster Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor | Slower Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Pro chip |
| 8 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| LED Glyph system | Transparent back but without LEDs |
| Larger 6.8" OLED display | 6.7" display |
| Triple camera system | Dual camera system |
| 50 MP 2X telephoto camera | No telephoto camera |
| 8 MP ultrawide | 50 MP ultrawide |
| 5,000 mAh battery | 5,000 mAh battery |
| 50W wired charging | 45W wired charge |
| 3 years of OS updates | 3 years of OS updates |
Table of Contents:
Read more:
- Pixel 9a vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: Nothing can stop the Pixel 9a
- Nothing Phone (3a) preview: next glowing midranger?
- Nothing Phone (2a) review: is this going to be the king of budget phones?
Design and Size
Making it more Nothing
The Nothing Phone (3a) has three LED strips that flash and light up in different ways to tell you about incoming notifications, active timers and so on. It's quite similar to what you have on the Phone (2a) really, with the more notable difference being that you get a third rear camera on the (3a).
Apart from the Glyph system, you get a special "Essential key". Placed below the power button on the right side, it's in a weird spot (you can mistake it for the power key in the beginning). A single press on this key takes a screenshot, a long press starts recording an audio note, while a double press opens the new Essential Space where AI tries to organize all the chaos of your screenshots and other daily memorabilia. There is some utility to this idea, but we are still not sure whether it deserves its own button.
When it comes to durability, the (2a) has a modest IP54 certification and the (3a) bumps that to IP64 for better dust protection, but the "4" number only indicates basic protection from light rain, and neither phone is safe to be submerged in water.
Display Differences
With a 6.8-inch display, the Phone (3a) has slightly more screen real estate than the (2a).
Both phones support 120Hz refresh rate, so the only bigger difference is that the (3a) can get much brighter, reaching 3,000 nits of peak brightness.
The higher brightness levels of the (3a) were further confirmed by our display lab tests, although in real life the difference is not as noticeable. Color accuracy also seems to be much better on the new model, but that is a metric that varies from unit to unit, so the difference might not be due to upgrades.
As for biometrics, we have an optical fingerprint scanner, similar as the last year's model, which is a bit slow but generally quite accurate.
Performance and Software
A big step forward
Nothing worked closely with MediaTek to optimize the Dimensity 7200 Pro SoC for the Nothing Phone (2a), but the 4nm chip managed to deliver very mid-range level scores during our benchmark tests. The phone was generally fine to operate, but the lack of power did result in some downsides like touch input lag and some delay when it had to process images after a shot.
The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, on the other hand, is considerably more capable (upper) mid-range chip from Qualcomm. It is also a 4nm processor, and it provides better graphical performance, as well as support for AI features.
The new chip in the (3a) delivers a slight, but welcome boost in CPU performance, and it's especially noticeable in multi-core loads.
GPU Performance:
Gamers, however, don't get much of an upgrade as the gaming performance has improved by less than 10%.
As for the software, you get three years of OS updates on the Phone (3a), which is decent, but not as good as other brands like Google and Samsung that commit to six or seven years of OS updates.
Camera
It's nice to see a zoom camera on a budget phone
If there's any upgrade worth crowning as the most exciting one, it is the new 50 MP 2X telephoto camera on the (3a). Most other budgets phones, including the (2a) don't have a telephoto camera, so that's a welcome addition.
The (2a) wasn't exactly the best camera phone in its price range when it came out, so we hope to see some improvements here.
Photo Samples
Photo quality is very, very similar between the two. The (3a) tends to capture slightly deeper shadows and a bit more contrast, making for a punchier photo, but it's a subtle difference.
Zoom quality is improved with the arrival of a 2X zoom camera and that also help when you go above 2X zoom as well.
Video Quality
The Phone (3a) brings a couple of video improvements, but it also has a strange new issue: focus hunting. In the footage above, notice how the Phone (3a) struggles to lock the focus. Hopefully, Nothing can fix this in a future update, but this is not a good look for the launch.
Apart from that, the (3a) captures brighter and less contrasty footage, but brighter areas are a bit overblown. The previous (2a) shoots slightly underexposed, so none of them is perfect.
Interestingly, the newer (3a) has more trouble with stabilizing the video footage, so it's a slight step down in that regard. Again, hopefully something that can be fixed in the future.
Good news is that zoom quality is improved thanks to the presence of a 2X telephoto camera. You get an 8X maximum zoom level with more detail than before.
Battery Life and Charging
New chip might have an effect on the battery life
The Nothing Phone (2a) did admirably during our battery life tests last year, with a total screen-on time of 6 hours and 25 minutes. This wasn't best in class, but still managed a very good result. A large part for that was not only its 5,000 mAh battery, but also how well Nothing had optimized the chipset.
The Phone (3a) comes with the same 5,000 mAh battery, but with a much more powerful chip, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3.
PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:
In our testing, we see a big improvement with the Phone (3a). It scored much higher on our web browsing test, getting more than 17 hours of runtime compared to 13 hours and a half on the (2a).
On our YouTube video streaming test, the (3a) got 11 hours, an hour more than its predecessor.
And it also lasted way longer on our 3D gaming test, which puts more strain on the GPU. Excellent news all around!
Charging also gets a slight upgrade, going from 45W to 50W speeds. Both of these phones charge much faster than their peers, so that's nice to see.
Unfortunately, we don't have wireless charging on the (3a), just like the previous one.
Specs Comparison
Here's a quick overview of the Nothing Phone (3a) vs Nothing Phone (2a) specs.
| Nothing Phone 3a | Nothing Phone 2a |
|---|---|
| Size, weight 163.52 x 77.5 x 8.35 mm 201 g | Size, weight 162.74 x 76.32 x 8.55 mm 190 g |
| Screen 6.8" OLED 120Hz refresh rate | Screen 6.7" OLED 120Hz refresh rate |
| Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen3 2.5 GHz, 4 nm | Processor MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro 2.8 GHz, 4 nm |
| Versions: 12/256 GB LPDDR4X | Versions: 8/128 GB 8/256 GB 12/256 GB LPDDR4X |
| Cameras: 50 MP main 50 MP 2X telephoto 8 MP ultra-wide 32 MP selfie | Cameras: 50 MP main 50 MP ultra-wide 32 MP selfie |
| Battery: 5,000 mAh | Battery: 5,000 mAh |
| Charging: USB-C 50W wired No wireless | Charging: USB-C 45W wired No wireless |
The most obvious upgrades here are the 2X telephoto camera and the more powerful Snapdragon processor. There's also the drop in megapixels for the ultra-wide camera.
Summary
The Nothing Phone (3a) is an excellent upgrade. You still have to go through some hoops in the form of Nothing's Beta program to get it in the US.
But this might be worth it — a $380 phone with 12 GB of RAM and a generous 256 GB storage, a decently fast performance and a triple camera system is quite the rarity.
We are not so sure about the utility of things like the Essential Key, but even without that, the Phone (3a) is a solid upgrade. Hey, and you get a phone with cool lights too!
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