Dare to Defy

Last year, we had the Nothing 2a and the 2a Plus, ‘a’ series Nothing devices that attempted to bring in the same ‘Nothing’ level of refinement and fun to the budget-premium segment, albeit with scaled-back components. This year, the 3a series goes…Pro. Sitting alongside the regular 3a, the Pro is of course the more premium model with the better camera, but are the otherwise few upgrades worth the extra outlay?

Staying true to the signature Nothing look, the Phone 3a Pro retains the transparent back and flashing lights, and the switch to glass on the rear gives the 3a Pro an undeniably premium appeal. The classic Nothing Glyph interface is still here, with three LEDs for notifications and timers surrounding the massive circular camera island – the subject of much debate at launch. I like the somewhat dramatic, asymmetrical spiral layout of the cameras, some of you may not. What I didn’t care for was how it gave the 3a Pro, an already large phone, a top-heavy weight distribution that was a tad uncomfortable for one-handed use. Should you fumble while holding the 3a Pro, Panda Glass protection and IP64 certification should survive some falls and splashes.

New this time is the Essential Key, found right below the power/wake button, which triggers Nothing’s Essential Space AI-organized hub. Press it once and it captures your screen, long press it and it will add a voice note, both of which it will AI analyze to extract any useful information from the screenshot and convert the voice note into a reminder within the app. Think of it as a note-to-self hub on steroids, where you can store your various epiphanies across the day to act upon later. I like that Nothing has steered clear of object erasers and text summarisers and done something unique, but I’d love to see wider integration, with email, reminder and calendar apps. Right now, everything resides in the Essential Space app.

The 3a Pro checks off all the other essentials – a 6.77-inch, 120Hz AMOLED display with full HD+ resolution and 3000 nits peak brightness, a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 with the 8/12GB of LPDDR4X memory and 128GB/256GB of UFS 2.2 storage – though if you crave more performance for heavy duty gaming, you’ll need to look elsewhere. There’s a 5000mAh battery that charges at 50W speeds and yields a full day of mixed usage, thanks to the excellent hardware-software optimization. And of course, Nothing OS 3.1, which remains slick as ever, and is assured three years of software and six years of security updates.

Interestingly, the 3a Pro doesn’t skimp on cameras either, with a 50MP main sensor with OIS and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom that does 6x lossless zoom by cropping into the sensor. Okay, maybe the 8MP ultrawide is Nothing skimping, but primary and telephoto shots are replete with detail, both in good light and while employing the night mode. Pretty cool for a phone in the sub-30,0000 price point.

Rating:8/10

Price: Rs. 29,999 onwards