A tiny, playful dot-matrix display screen within t...

With the third era of its smartphone collection, Nothing made the bizarre transfer to launch the cheaper ‘a’ line first, unveiling . Now, it’s time for its newest flagship. The Nothing Cellphone 3, beginning at $799 (with a $899 possibility with 16GB of RAM) goes up in opposition to giants just like the Google and — a aggressive slice of the smartphone world. As soon as once more, although, there’s nothing out there that fairly resembles a Nothing, as the corporate makes an attempt to stability distinctive design with flagship (and a few not-quite-flagship) elements.

The massive change this time round is that Nothing is swapping the flashing lights of its Glyph Interface for a tiny dot-matrix show on the rear of the machine and is asking it the Glyph Matrix.

It’s the shiny design lynchpin of Nothing’s Cellphone 3. The matrix is product of 489 LEDs, and provides extra utility than a lightweight present. Nothing says it is an evolution of the flashing lights of the Glyph Interface into one thing extra sensible. With that goal, there’s a Glyph button that sits underneath the glass again. One other good thing about this shift, Adam Bates, is that eradicating the Glyph lights freed up more room inside the cellphone.

As an alternative of getting the lights on the again flash in patterns to point when sure contacts are calling, the Cellphone 3’s new tiny display screen can show monochromatic photographs as an alternative. At first, these might be preset shapes, however finally, you’ll be capable to customise your individual animation (or static dot-matrix picture — it’s unclear) for every of your contacts. Forward of launch, Nothing shared a that lets folks take images and switch them into Glyph patterns, however it’s like a really, very small Gameboy digital camera (however worse). The one I took kinda seems like my head? I assume? A minimum of there’s a distinction, and offers a glimpse of what customers may be capable to present on the matrix display screen

Alongside Glyph-style notifications, the matrix will be capable to show easy widgets, equivalent to climate and battery ranges. It may be a stopwatch, and even a low-res mirror (extra on that later). It may also be used as a visible countdown when utilizing a timer with the digital camera, too. And there’ll even be video games, like rock-paper-scissors and er, spin the bottle. Fortunately, Nothing didn’t make the assembled media check this at its huge world launch. You’ll be capable to make your individual Glyphs by way of an SDK being launched by Nothing. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how tough it’s to program your individual glyphs. what I need, already? A .

My first impression is that it’s slightly extra restrained than the sunshine present of the Glyph Interface on earlier telephones. Moreover, a dot-matrix design actually aligns with the period of design inspirations that Nothing is drawing from. You possibly can evenly work together with the matrix by way of the Glyph button, which is intriguingly constructed underneath the rear cowl of the Nothing Cellphone 3. It’s a single button, so studying the quirks of a long-press and a short-press, particularly when there’s no tactile response, takes a little bit of time.

Flanked by different keen photographers, YouTubers and media, I took slightly an excessive amount of time making the Glyph mirror work. Weirdly, you possibly can’t use it as a selfie information with the first cameras, or at the very least I didn’t work out throughout my hands-on.

Elsewhere, the design is impressed by the strains and shapes of the New York Metropolis subway map, whereas the see-through again of the Cellphone 3 has a three-column design that divides the element curves, digital camera modules and glyph matrix.

The Cellphone 3 is Nothing’s thinnest cellphone but and is eighteen p.c thinner than the Cellphone 2. The brand new Nothing flagship additionally lacks the chonky digital camera unit that’s on the Cellphone 3a Professional. It is because, this time, Nothing has the price range to take action: the Cellphone 3 prices $350 extra, so it could use smaller (even custom-made) elements to shrink the footprint.

As an alternative, the three-camera structure jogs my memory quite a lot of the most recent Galaxy S24 Extremely, with solely barely protruding digital camera lenses. It’s not flush, however maybe I’m asking for an excessive amount of — the one up to date smartphone with a wholly flat digital camera unit is the Pixel 9a.

Regardless of its slimmer profile, the machine nonetheless incorporates a periscope zoom on a 50-megapixel sensor. It goes as much as 3x optical zoom, 6x digital zoom and a 60x AI Tremendous Res Zoom. (Sure, all of us blame Google and Samsung for this nonsense.) This can even function a macro digital camera, permitting for clearer close-up pictures.

The principle digital camera can also be 50MP, with an f/1.68 aperture (Nothing says it’s 70 p.c sooner at seize than the Cellphone 2) and even features a lossless 1.5x zoom. There’s additionally an ultrawide digital camera with a 114-degree subject of view and, you might need guessed, a 50MP sensor. Even the front-facing digital camera is 50MP. Anticipate the standard Android array of capturing options throughout the digital camera system, together with Auto Tone, Portrait Optimizer, Night time Mode Macro Mode and Motion Mode. There are additionally a number of capturing presets to browse in your favourite capturing aesthetic, which I loved taking part in with on a demo unit.

I’m hopeful that the Cellphone 3 might be a succesful sufficient smartphone digital camera. Taking some early pictures, throughout a busy hands-on session on the launch occasion, the digital camera app appeared sooner than previous Nothing units and low-light processing appeared fairly near the likes of Google’s Pixel.

Imaging has sometimes been the weakest a part of Nothing’s cellphone technique, however every iteration it will get higher. It’s one thing I’m trying ahead to placing to the check. Nothing has added an LED mild that flashes crimson to point video recording. This may nonetheless be disabled in settings, however it’s a pleasant contact that faucets into the crimson splashes you’ll see all through Nothing’s {hardware} and software program.

The Cellphone 3 additionally packs the corporate’s brightest show but, reaching as much as 1600 nits at its most brightness settings, peaking at 4,500 nits with appropriate HDR content material, The 6.67-inch display screen has the next 1.5K decision than the Cellphone 2. There’s additionally IP68-rated safety in opposition to mud and water.

Rounding out the spec sheet, the cellphone has a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, marking the most important compromise this yr. Nothing instructed me that the Cellphone 3 wasn’t chasing specs like telephones that value a number of hundred {dollars} extra. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S25 has the extra highly effective Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it’s additionally $800.

The excellent news is that the Cellphone 3 shouldn’t be perceptibly sluggish or laggy — the corporate says it’s 5 occasions sooner than the Cellphone 3a. Nothing added there ought to be a 60 p.c enchancment on AI efficiency in comparison with the Cellphone 2. I’m intrigued to see how battery life fares, however not too fearful. The OnePlus 13 Professional had the identical processor and carried out very effectively in our battery rundown check.

The 5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery may be charged to 50 p.c in 20 minutes with a appropriate 65W charger, and as much as 100% in underneath an hour. It’s one of many first telephones to reach within the West with a silicon-carbon cell, including additional intrigue to how effectively the battery life will carry out. There’s additionally 15W wi-fi charging, which Nothing appears to be protecting unique to its most premium telephones.

The Cellphone 3 runs Android 15 out of the field, however with Nothing’s spin on issues, that includes {custom} icons and native apps. That features Important Area, which works with a {hardware} button launcher first launched on the 3a. Whereas there have been rumors that Nothing may fold the function right into a subscription, it’ll be free for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, Good Collections, which was meant to collate screenshots and different recordsdata continues to be being labored on and received’t be out there at launch.

The main target, software-wise, often is the new Glyph Matrix, however you possibly can anticipate among the typical AI-assisted options like pure language search that Nothing calls Important search. It will likely be capable of faucet into every little thing on the Nothing Cellphone 3. Nothing’s cheaper 3a units leaned into software program too, however with the Cellphone 3 there’s extra significance on the specs. The query is: Is that this flagship sufficient?

The Cellphone 3 is priced at $799 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. An $899 mannequin can even launch with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage. Each black and white variations might be out there to pre-order on July 4, with gross sales beginning July 15 by itself retailer at . The corporate plans to launch its personal drops in choose bodily areas on July 10.

In case you purchase one thing by way of a hyperlink on this article, we could earn fee.