Nothing Phone 3

At Rs. 299,999, the Nothing Phone 3 asks for flagship money, and the hardware only partly delivers it. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is fast but sits a step below the top Snapdragon 8 Elite, the front glass is the mid-range Gorilla Glass 7i, and the cameras are good rather than class-leading. The same chip also powers phones that cost far less.

What the price does buy:

• Nothing OS, which is clean, smooth and free of clutter, with five major Android upgrades
• A bright 6.67-inch AMOLED screen and IP68 water and dust resistance
• A large silicon-carbon battery with 65W wired and 15W wireless charging
• A design and Glyph Matrix rear display that no other phone offers

The Vivo X300 FE at Rs. 251,999 is cheaper and brings the faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and a 6,500mAh battery, so buyers who want the most hardware per rupee will get more there.

Verdict: worth it only if software polish and a distinctive design matter more than raw performance. For maximum power or the best cameras at this budget, other phones make more sense.

The 6.67-inch AMOLED panel is one of the phone's strongest points. At 1260 x 2800 it is noticeably sharper than a 1080p screen, colours look accurate and pleasing, and the bezels are perfectly even on all four sides.

• Brightness: up to 1,600 nits outdoors and 4,500 nits peak with HDR content, so the screen stays readable in strong sunlight and HDR videos look punchy.
• Smoothness: 120Hz makes scrolling feel fluid, and touch response is very quick. It is an LTPS panel rather than the more efficient LTPO type; reports differ on how low the refresh rate can drop, and either way it uses slightly more power than an LTPO screen.
• Fingerprint reader: the optical in-display sensor works well enough for daily unlocking.

Limitation: the front is protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, a mid-range glass, while flagships usually use the tougher Gorilla Glass Victus. A screen protector is a sensible extra.

The Nothing Phone 3 runs on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 (4nm) with 12GB or 16GB of RAM and fast UFS 4.0 storage. It is a big step up for Nothing: about 40% faster CPU and 90% faster graphics than the Nothing Phone 2's chip, with an AnTuTu score of about 2 million.

• Everyday use: apps open quickly and the phone feels smooth almost all the time. In normal use, the gap to the Snapdragon 8 Elite is hard to notice.
• Gaming: the Snapdragon 8 Elite is clearly faster in graphically heavy games, by roughly 30 to 40%. GSMArena could not get high refresh rates to run consistently in games.
• Heat: GSMArena found weak cooling. The phone throttled heavily under sustained load, could not complete the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stress test, and its frame became uncomfortably hot.

Limitation: it suits heavy multitasking and casual gaming, but long high-settings gaming sessions are not its strength. A more powerful chip also tends to age better across five years of updates, so the gap may matter more later.

There are three 50MP rear cameras (main, 3x periscope telephoto and ultrawide) and a 50MP selfie camera. It is Nothing's best camera system so far, but it still sits a notch behind leading flagships.

• Main camera: its 1/1.3-inch sensor is the largest Nothing has used and takes in a lot of light. Colours and exposure are usually right, but photos are often slightly soft, with the subject not perfectly in focus. The view is also a little wider than expected.
• 3x telephoto: sometimes a bit soft, but very useful, and it doubles as the macro camera for impressive close-ups. Digital zoom goes up to 60x.
• Ultrawide and selfie: the most consistent cameras of the set.
• Video: recording goes up to 4K at 60fps, and a red light on the back glows while recording so people nearby know the camera is on.

The cameras sit without a large camera bump, but that design forced a physically smaller telephoto than the one in the cheaper Nothing Phone 3a Pro. Further software tuning could reduce the softness.

Battery capacity depends on the market. Our database lists 5,150mAh for the international model and 5,500mAh for the India model, and a UAE unit shows 5,150mAh in its settings. It is a silicon-carbon battery.

• Battery life: opinions differ. Standby drain is very low and the phone can last two days with lighter use, while GSMArena rated its endurance as solid but not outstanding.
• Charging: rated at 65W wired, though GSMArena found it never came close to 65W in testing. There is also 15W wireless charging, 7.5W reverse wired and 5W reverse wireless charging.
• In the box: no charger. You get a USB-C to USB-C cable, a case and a SIM tool.

Limitation: a compatible fast charger has to be bought separately to get the quickest charging speeds.

The phone runs Nothing OS on Android. Our database lists Android 15 at launch, upgradable to Android 16 with Nothing OS 4.1, and Nothing promises five major Android upgrades.

• Clean and smooth: the interface is tasteful, smoothly animated and responsive. Small touches include resizable Quick Settings tiles and swiping in the camera app to switch between presets. A simpler, stock Android look is also available.
• AI features: Essential Space, with its own Essential Key on the side, keeps gaining features but does not sync with outside services. The app drawer search can also give short AI answers powered by a version of Gemini, and it is easy to ignore.
• Glyph Matrix: a small rear display of 489 LEDs replaces the old Glyph lights. Specific contacts or apps can get their own icon, so a face-down phone still shows who needs attention. A pressure-sensitive spot on the back cycles through Glyph Toys such as a timer, stopwatch, battery indicator and spin-the-bottle, and developers can build more through an open API.

Limitations: out of the box, a Google search bar is fixed at the bottom of the home screen, the Glyph timer does not sync with the clock app, and most Glyph Toys are novelties. The interface can feel unfamiliar for the first day or so.