This has been a long time coming. The Nothing company appeared 5 years ago. They first released a pair of earphones. Then they dabbled in entry-level and mid-range smartphones. But the Nothing Phone 3 is the first time they have ever released a flagship phone. Why have they waited this long? Well, basically because this is the single hardest type of product to actually pull off. The second you start charging $799 like they are doing here, you are now directly competing against some of the best phones from massive companies with
practically unlimited investment budgets like Samsung's Galaxy S25 and Apple'iPhone 16. Both of which also launched at exactly $799. So the question that we have to answer is it#39;s actually really simple. Is this better? Starting with the design, I've actually been a big fan of Nothing's transparent aesthetic. Pretty much every nothing phone I've seen thus far has instantly vibed with me, but this is the first one that has#39;t. It just looks a bit spotty with like half an NFC coil over here, this
strange spacing between the various points of interest, and the fact that this camera is very close to being aligned with this one, but it#39;s just a little tiny bit off. It all gives me real unfinished prototype energy. Plus, materially speaking, nothing is a little behind. They have now introduced IP68 for water and dust like you would expect on a flagship. The midframe is made from aluminium again just like its peers, but the glass protecting the front is Gorilla Glass 7i, which is actually a
mid-range alternative to the much stronger Victus 2 that you would get on Samsung#39;s S25. So, the Nothing Phone might not take a drop as well. One thing I have to say I do like is the recording light, which turns on when you#39;re capturing voice or video. It could do with being a tad brighter, but I think in concept it#39;s just courteous to let other people know when they're being recorded, but also functional. Given that the whole idea of this phone is that you put it face down when you don’t#39;t
want to be distracted, I could so see sitting in a meeting that you#39;re also recording and just wanting to be able to glance to double check that the recording is still going. So, mixed opinions on how the thing looks, but part of this very unique design is also to accommodate one of the phone#39;s very unique features. You remember the glyph light bars that we used to have on the backs of Nothing Verbs? Well, they#39are all gone and all of their functionality has been bottled into this. The glyph
matrix 489 individual LEDs or I guess in other words, basically a tiny second screen, which we kind of predicted. It was becoming pretty clear with the past few phones that we were approaching the limit of how much information you can actually convey with just light strips. Like, yes, they could light up if you had a pending notification. Yes, you could specify which contacts are important enough that they will cause your glyph to come on and even with what pattern. So, you could be at dinner, for example, with
your phone face down, but still know who has tried to contact you. But then these lights, they could never give you anything about the context of that notification. So, you#39;d never really know enough to be able to decide if it was actually important or not without then flipping the phone over into the attack position. But then that defeats the entire purpose. So, is the Glyph Matrix better? Um, mixed opinions. So, my very first thought was I don’t#39;I really like it. The Glyph lights were while clearly
flawed, still iconic and extremely cool. Whereas, this is just a screen. We#39;ve seen plenty of phones already with screens on the back. And those screens have already been bigger, higher resolution, and in color. But then I started interacting with it, and my opinion improved a little. One thing that you can rely on doing nothing is putting the work in software-wise. And so, while as a piece of hardware, this matrix is extremely underwhelming in 2025, what you#39;re getting here is nothing's software curation. So, at any
one time, the matrix can display one widget or glyph toy as they#39;re calling them. You tap this hidden capacitive glyph button down here to cycle between your glyph toys. It reminds me a little of Apple Force Touch. It doesn’t#39;t activate just by resting your finger on it. You actually have to apply a little bit of pressure till you feel a vibration and then you hold that button to interact with whichever glyph toy is selected. So, as I was messing around with this, I was like, "Oh, cool.
There's a clock now." That's something that the previous Nothing Phones couldn't do. And as an extension of that, a stopwatch, which is probably just about faster to use than opening up the clock app on your phone to justify existing. They#39;re opening this matrix up to the community. So already that community has made a leveler tool and I am sure down the line there#39;ll be a bunch of even more unique little applets that they#39;ve cooked up. But now I've thought about it even more and I have
gone full circle. I'm back to where I started. I am not a big fan of the glyph matrix. I think it#39;s less cool and less different compared to the lights and so far at least it doesn’t#39;t really fix the limitations that they had either. Like okay what#39;s the total list of glyph toys we have? You've got battery percentage, which I mean I can't remember the last time I've wanted to know my battery percentage when I have specifically put my phone down so I avoid looking at it.
You've got spin the bottle and rock paper scissors, which you know, I'm glad they're having fun with it, but who's challenging their phone to rock paper scissors? And who's playing spin the bottle in an environment where the best bottle to use is a 50 pixel wand on someone#39;s glyph matrix? Now, the glyph toys aren't everything. The Matrix does also interact with things that you do while actively using your phone. And I would say this stuff varies pretty wildly from completely useless, like how
the LEDs can expand and contract based on your volume level, like who#39;s looking how it can act as a torch, but a much dimmer, less evenly spread torch than the glyphs used to be able to provide. and how in a future update you#39;ll be able to see the caller ID of someone who#39;s ringing you by long pressing on the glyph button which makes no sense at all because it takes the same amount of time to just turn your phone around and check and at least that way you can also answer if you want to.
There are some things about it that are not useful, but still cool. Like the nothing signals, which are nothing style ringtones and notifications, but they#39;re the complete package. Sound, haptic feedback, all paired with an accompanying animation on the glyph matrix. It#39;s very satisfying. And then I would only say there's one thing that is actually very useful. The ability to use this second screen as a preview for your rear cameras to take full quality selfies. But then if you think about it,
what I'm really saying is that the best feature of the glyph matrix is something that every past phone that#39;s had a second screen and has already been able to do better. There are also improvements to essential notifications. You know what I was saying? How can you set a few contacts or a few types of messages that you deem important enough to give you a notification when your phone is flipped over? Well, now you can also assign a profile picture specific to each of those contacts. But yeah, you can see
why it doesn't actually fix the problem that even if let's say I can see their picture. So I know from the back of my phone whether it#39;s Jeremy or David, there's still a very wide range of messages that each of those contacts could be sending me. So I still got to fully check the message myself on the front of the phone to decide if what they#39;ve just sent is one of the important ones. So really the two most unique things about this phone, the design and the glyph matrix, not in love
with either of them. And I don't think either is a very good reason to get this over an iPhone or a Samsung. So then really the only way that I recommend this phone 3 is if it just straight up beats those other phones in hand-to-hand combat in terms of the phone fundamentals. So let#39;s start with the red flags. The chipset that nothing has gone for is the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, which is not the very highest end Snapdragon 8 Elite that Samsung uses. plus no real mention of any kind of advanced cooling system. So, while
nothing has been pretty good so far at always picking the sensible middle ground chip and doing a lot of software work behind the scenes to get the most out of it, there#39;s no way that it doesn't get absolutely mowed down by Samsung in a head-to-head. We#39;re talking 30 to 40% performance lead to Samsung. So, like if you#39;re into graphically intensive phone games, then that already writes this off for you. The other one is the display. So, this is very much a flagship screen in terms of color
reproduction, in terms of brightness. Fantastic. The screen has exactly the same pixel density as the iPhone 16. So, it#39;s incredibly sharp. The only thing is nothing's display relies on slightly cheaper LTPS tech as opposed to the LTPO on Samsung and most Android phones at this price. Which means that while Samsung can dial its refresh rate all the way down to 1 Hz, this can only go as low as 30. So, in practice, that doesn’t#39;t actually makes the display look any worse. It'll just be a bit of a hit
to battery life. But this is where things start to turn around because even with that hit, I think it#39;s pretty safe to say that the Nothing Phone 3 will still outlast an iPhone 16 or a Samsung Galaxy S25. The Phone 3's battery capacity is 5,150 mAh, which compares quite well to Samsung#39;4,000. Now, on one hand, it's a bigger phone. Of course, it has a bigger capacity. The Phone 3 is actually more similar in size to the S25 Plus, which has $4,900 mAh. But then the S25 Plus starts at $999.
So, I feel like it makes more sense to compare this to what Samsung gives you at this $799 price. And if you do that, I would expect the Phone 3 to outlast them pretty significantly. I used the Nothing Phone 2 for quite a while. The battery life there was outstanding. And everything about this phone makes me think it is going to last pretty much as long as that. Longer if all you were doing was surfing and watching YouTube and not pushing that chip, but then back to being about the same if it#39;s mixed
usage, including some demanding stuff like camera and gaming. Now, there is one weird thing which is that this same phone is being marketed as having 5,500 mAh of battery in India. So, just to address that, no, they have#39;t created two different versions of this with different dimensions and different weights. It is actually the same battery inside. It#39;s just that there's a software limitation being put on it in this country and many other countries because if the battery capacity goes
above a certain amount then it becomes classed as a dangerous good which can make your shipping costs go crazy. The end battery life you get should be the same. This is more just the semantics of how it#39;s being presented and so you shouldn't be having battery problems especially since the phone can charge with 65 watts of power compared to Samsung#39;s 25. The Phone 3 has dual speakers, and I mean, at least based on my very early first impressions, they#39;re not spectacular, but they're decent for
a flagship. They'are not quite as rich as the ones on iPhone or Samsung. But software is where this becomes a little bit more of a unique offering. So, the Phone 3 runs nothing OS 3.5, basically a very slightly tweaked version of the Nothing OS you#39;ve already seen, which is essentially a mostly untouched version of Android with the only changes being purely aesthetic. I do think though, while it#39;s very difficult to compare it to Samsung's 1 UI, which is immensely more customizable, I do think that
Nothing's OS is one of the best ways to experience Android. I like the fact that your icons aren’t#39;t screaming for your attention. There are some parts of the UI which are quite unconventional and in my opinion just very beautifully laid out. And the biggest thing, it#39;s completely bloatware free. The only actually unique features of nothing OS are essential space, which to me feels like a somewhat halfbaked way to keep track of all the things that you need to remember with a bit of a learning curve
when it comes to understanding it. And then the thing that is completely new this time, essential search, which is to swipe up from the bottom of your screen to be able to quickly get to anything. So the idea is very similar to your phone#39;s universal search, but it's just a little bit broader. Like it can solve maths problems directly on a device in that search box. And if you ask questions, it#39;ll use a tweaked version of Gemini AI to give you an answer that#39;s specifically designed to be
short, you know, for those random quick lookups. It's a good idea. I'm all about having to go into each app less because one app does more. One thing Nothing has definitely done better this time around is their update promise. It#39;s now 5 years of major Android upgrades and 7 years of security updates, which while not quite matching Samsung#39;s 7 years of full Android upgrades, is plenty, especially considering how minuscule the actual upgrades are becoming now. So, phone 3 feels like bit of a mixed bag
right now. Some things I like, some things I don't like. But where it seems to shine is the cameras. Every camera sensor on the phone 3 1 2 3 and even the front camera is a 50 megapixel sensor. That just for context compares to 50 10 12 and 12 on Samsung. And megapixels are not everything. Don't pay too much attention to them, but use the camera for a short period of time. It feels to me like each one of the cameras here is also just better than what you would get on Samsung. The ultrawide, which is
usually where you can first notice images fall apart, looks pretty detailed to me. The three times telephoto camera has a much more sizable sensor than the one on Sami. And I like the fact that when you get past 30 time zoom, it will activate AI super res. And yes, it#39;s a very gray area if it then counts as a photo at that point, but I like having the option at least. And I particularly respect the fact that this telephoto camera is also what you use to take your macro shots. Which means unlike having
to shoot your close-ups using your ultrawide camera like you do on most phones, you don’t#39;t have to shove this phone super close to your subject and block out all the light going to it. And you can now focus from 10 cm away instead of 15 like you could the last time. Nothing had this feature. Although I got to say this is a very funny example of marketing because while this is the story they#39;re telling you that oh it can focus even closer than the last time we did this. The reason for that is
that this is a smaller sensor than the last time they did it. They have reassured me though that even then the photo quality from this telephoto should still be better just cuz of processing. So overall nothing about the Nothing Phone 3 at least right now is blowing me away. It feels like all of the actually unique things about it have a lot to prove. And aside from that, all of the core pillars of a flagship phone feel well covered, but not exceeded. That said, what is it up against at this price? I guess a bunch of other
flagships that also aren't really pushing the boat out. So, when you match it up side by side, I still think it compares quite well, but it also doesn’t#39;t feel like that instant no-brainer that some past nothing phones have been. Now, while I did mention that I love the fact that nothing does#39;t pre-install tons of bloat onto your phone, doesn'does it always feel like bloat finds a way? Like you always start your new phone completely clean. But then 2 months later, you#39;re getting one spam text per day. You're
getting random callers suddenly asking if you've been in an accident when you don't even drive. And then these emails offer you crypto advice from a guy named Dylan. So here#39;s how I actually keep my phone clean. See, there's a very good chance that if you get a ton of random messages, a data broker has bought your data and wants to use it to make some money. And so what I found really helpful is using incogn sponsor being able to first see all of the data brokers that have my data and then in a
total of two taps being able to instruct incogn to go get it back. Bye-bye, Dylan. And to be honest, the best bit I think is custom removals. If you Google yourself and you find a little bit more personal information than you wanted to share, you can also just ping the link to incogn and then watch it disappear. So go to incogn.com/mrusthebos to set it up yourself which with the code mr who's the boss you can do for a 60% discount.
