Nothing's Phone 3a Pro is a stylish, almost brand-line experience, and costs $459

There is no phone 3 yet, but instead the option to move sideways to one not one but two new mid-range devices, the Nothing Phone 3A, and the interesting one is the 3A Pro. Reassuringly, unlike any other phone. Its retro futuristic design aesthetic is aimed at the entertainment design of the exposed but unhardware on the back of the phone, as well as dot matrix fonts, animations and software are all back.

Hardware design still doesn't have the biggest advantage. When I use the latest iPhone, Samsung's foldable or anything else, I'll get asked about any other phone. only Different. The 3A series of phones now has glass lining (upgraded from polycarbonate), and you can still see the return of screw accessories, electronics and Nothing's Glyph lighting system. The 3A mobile phone has an IP64 rating, providing better protection for Rogue Water Sprays and liquid events this year.

There is nothing to readjust the exposed hardware, and the glyph lighting details are all on the top of the phone, circling the camera unit. On the Phone 3A Pro, it is provided by a new periscope sensor that provides 3x optical zoom, a circular camera unit protruding from the back.

If you think the 3A Pro camera module Looks Short and chunky, it also gained about 10 grams of weight, compared to basically no phone number 3A. But with the obsession with cameras, only one of the phones will catch your attention. (Although there is no blue iteration of phone 3a Gorgeous)

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro's 50-megapixel telephoto sensor can extend to 3x optical zoom, but it also includes a fairly usable, lossless 6x zoom in my early tests. There is also a 50MP main sensor with an f/1.88 lens, as well as dual-pixel phase detection autofocus (PDAF). In the speeding 8MP sensor, nothing is stuffed with a 120-degree field of view.

The 3A Pro also has a remote mode that combines focus with the telephoto's zoom to 15 cm (5.9 inches). This is a feature that makes macro photography more useful – and is still rare on phones outside of China.

The primary 50MP camera of the base model Phone 3A has a single pixel PDAF, but otherwise retains the same main camera specifications. Its telephoto extends to 2x optical zoom and a third speed camera.

While we will explore the camera more deeply in the comments, my early impressions were positive. The images are crisp and there is no trick to curate filters that look good. I especially like the frosted glass effect, which is not used for wallpaper customization, either.

Mat Smith's picture for Engadget

There is nothing to say about its Truelens Engine 3.0 brings AI-powered tone mapping with Ultra XDR (co-developed with Google) to tweak photos. It involves bursts of 8 original images, all processed together to adjust the brightness of each pixel for up to five times. No image processing seems to tend to be powerful, high-contrast photos and videos.

The phone 3A and phone 3A Pro are the same in specifications. Both new devices have a larger 6.77-inch AMOLED LTPS display compared to the Nothing Phone 2A, now using Panda Glass instead of Corning’s Gorilla Glass. As you might expect from most (but not all) phones, the 3A always has an online display that can reach a 120Hz refresh rate, and now it reaches a 1,300-column refresh rate, making it brighter than the company's previous phone.

The phone again has a large 5,000mAh battery and can quickly charge 50W. Get nothing, which means charging the device completely for less than an hour, and you should be able to get halfway through within 19 minutes. The only part of the No Phone 3A series suggests they aren't on the flagship level: the Snapdragon 7S Gen 3. We put this chip in its comments, but it should provide any custom software Pecadillos for Truelens Engine (such as Truelens Engine). The company said CHIP's 3A series is 92% better than its predecessor in terms of AI processing.

To click on its OnePlus history and the latest trend in the Add button, there is no need for adding its required key in the Phone 3A on the right edge below the power button. Strangely, it has a different effect than the rest of the machining buttons on the 3A and feels cheaper. It works like an AI assistant launcher on other smartphones, such as Samsung's Gemini AI launcher, despite the AI ​​hook later. A press will capture and send content to Nothing's Basic Space Apps app, while a longer press will start recording voice notes. You can also double-press directly boot into the Essential Space application, which is the storage space for all these collections.

Mat Smith's picture for Engadget

There is nothing to use the same AI tricks we've seen elsewhere. It just simplifies them. Phone 3A will transcribe your voice notes, automatically remind, and even describe your photos and screenshots when needed. It's a fun soup for AI tools, storage and automation when I juggle the promise of work, other writing projects, life and everything else.

This also seems to be comparable to Android's lab setup. The company is teasing further features such as centralized search, flip recording, camera capture (using the required key in the camera app), smart collections of all notes and more. This seems to be the equivalent of how Google Photos can make you quickly and easily access comments about the images and videos you want.

Using the software of the Phone 3A Pro, more broadly, there is nothing interesting about the OS. Despite the learning curve in some places, it's fun. Illusion icons, fonts and animations in Android 15 add a refreshing personality to the ocean of smartphones.

Maybe there are too many creative chefs because I don't think Google's baking fonts and menu decorative effects are. Some icons are also difficult to identify. After the first call to the phone 3A, a pixel-like smiley face appeared on the home screen. I would pound it and realize it was powerless. It turns out that there is nothing to try to show your screen time anymore, but it doesn't need to be 2×2 widgets.

Mat Smith's picture for Engadget

Other nice touches include monochrome themes (on these monochrome phones), app tag removal and smart app drawer that tortures similar apps together for more direct navigation.

As in previous years, U.S. availability will be through a beta program. Devices that land on the phone 3A ($379) are now available for pre-order on devices that land on March 11, while the Black and Gray of The Phone 3A Pro ($459) will be booked on March 11 and will be booked on March 25. In the UK, the company's Nothing Bore in London will be one of GMT's first London companies on March 8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget