Nothing Phone (3a) Lite review: Reliable mobile with distinctive design

London-based Nothing Inc. earlier this month rolled out the Phone (3a) Lite series in India.

The new mid-range phone is available in two variants-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 20,999 and Rs 22,999, respectively.

Design, build quality and display

As the name suggests, the Phone (3a) Lite version comes with watered-down features compared to the premium model. However, appearance-wise, it retains the brand's distinctive design elements.

It has a see-through panel on the back and comes with a toned-down version of Glyph UI. It has an LED flash near the camera at the top and a single LED flash at the base.

Glyph UI LED flash at the base of the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite.

It can also be programmed to flash lights in a particular way whenever a phone receives messages or calls, or timers. It comes in handy when the phone is in silent mode.

Even the triple-camera sensors' asymmetrical positions and design aesthetics are similar to the top-end Phone 3 model.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite.

Nothing Phone (3).

The device comes in three colours-- black, white and blue.

The side rail is made of polycarbonate-based material. It is sturdy and comes with a matte finish, offering a good grip for the fingers to hold onto the device.

The back panel and the front display are safeguarded by Panda Glass shield. Additionally, the company pre-fits a screen guard, offering a second layer of protection against scratches.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite.

Further, the Phone (3a) Lite comes with an IP54 rating, water-and-dust-resistant rating, meaning it can survive water splashes.

And, the company offers a free cover case. It is made of transparent silicone and is capable of protecting the device from cracking during accidental falls.

Besides the unique see-through design, the device features the 'Essential Key' just below the power button on the right side of the frame. Pressing the button will open Essential Space, which offers the option to take instant notes. With an Artificial Intelligence-based algorithm, it can also generate personalised suggestions, summaries, or action points.

A single long press on the button will trigger the Essential assistant to record the audio. If you double-press, it will open the Essential Space, which houses all the archived to-do lists and notes.

Glyph Interface and Essential Key feature on the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite.

Essential Key is a very handy feature. For instance, if a user, while travelling in a mass transit vehicle like a bus or a metro, watches reels or news articles and spots a good deal related to a handy home appliance or a gadget or even contact details of a house contractor for roofs or kitchen reconstruction, they can instantly take a screenshot and add a voice note. So that the user, in his free time at home, can go back to the Essential Space and do more research on the product or contact the person. Previously, those screenshots used to get lost in all the other photos in the album and the user, most often times forgets it.

However, like the previous Phone 3 series phone, the only qualm I have with the Essential Space button is that it should have been on the other side. Every time I tried to touch the power button to view time or notifications, my finger would reach for the Essential Space button and turn on the microphone to record the audio.

On the front, it flaunts a 6.77-inch full HD+(1080 x 2392p) flexible AMOLED display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It comes with pixel density of 387 ppi (pixels per inch), good enough to read messages or read news articles in the outdoors without the squinting the eyes. But, for binge-watching on OTT apps or doom scrolling on social media platforms, it is best experienced indoors without any reflection issues.

It supports peak brightness at 3,000 nits, and outdoors, it can go up to 1,300nits.

It also features hybrid dual SIM slots (nano SIM + nano SIM or microSD card), a USB-C port, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and an in-display optical fingerprint sensor. The latter works really smoothly with a lower false rejection rate.

Performance

The Phone (3a) Lite is powered by a 4nm class 2.5GHz MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro octa-core chipset with Mali-G615 MC2 GPU, 8GB LPDD4X RAM and 128GB/256GB UFS 2.2 storage (expandable up to 2TB).

It can handle day-to-day activities such as messaging, operating the camera, switching between multiple, consuming multimedia content on OTT, social apps and even generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI) apps such as Gemini and ChatGPT, smoothly without any hint of lag-ness as such.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite.

It can even support several popular battle royale gaming titles available on the Google Play Store.

The device runs Android 15-based Nothing OS 3.5. I love the minimalist, monochrome aesthetic of the NothingOS with the dot-matrix font and iconography. It is very unique and refreshing compared to the rival brands in the market.

NothingOS 3.0 on the Phone (3a) Lite.

Barring a handful of pre-loaded third-party apps (Blinkit, Facebook, Uber, Firefox, and Instagram), the phone delivers plain vanilla Android user experience.

The Phone (3a) Lite houses a 5,000mAh battery. It can easily last a full day under normal usage. It also supports 33W wired charging. The company also offers the adaptor with a retail box, which is not available in premium models.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

Photography

It boasts of a triple camera module--a main 50MP camera (with a 1/1.57-inch Samsung sensor, f/1.88 aperture, EIS: Electronic Image Stabilisation) with an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera (with f/2.4, EIS, 10x digital zoom) with an LED flash.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

The device takes pretty good photos in all light conditions. It processes the images pretty well and ensures the subjects, particularly colourful flowers, appear vibrant in the frame.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

It does a fine job with Portrait mode, too. It manages to get a sharp focus on the subject in the foreground and artfully blurs the background to deliver a natural bokeh effect.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

At night, the photos appear really sharp with less noticeable noise.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

Even at close-up range, the Phone (3a) Lite does a fantastic job of capturing all the fine details of the subject.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

It also supports wide-angle mode. It manages to get decent quality photos with good details.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

It can record 4K videos at up to 30 frames per second (fps). The quality is decent.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

On the front, it features a 16MP (f/2.45) camera. It takes good selfies in natural sunlight. It can also record full HD 1080p video at 60 fps, which comes in handy to stream high-quality video calls, provided there is stable internet connectivity.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite's camera sample.

Final thoughts

Overall, Phone (3a) Lite is a decent mid-range phone. Its distinctive hardware design and NothingOS make the device stand out and more appealing compared to the rivals in its class.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite vs competition

The new Android phone will be competing with Xiaomi Redmi 15, OnePlus Nord CE 5, Samsung Galaxy A17, and iQOO Z10 (review), among others.

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