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Nothing Phone 3 review: Not quite a flagship

Nothing did things differently with its third generation of phones. First came the midrange Nothing Phone 3a (and 3a Pro), which combined stylish hardware with a competitive price. Now, the company has launched the Nothing Phone 3, which it’s calling its first “true flagship.” At $799, it’s Nothing’s most expensive phone yet, featuring a bigger screen, four 50-megapixel cameras and a major redesign of the company’s signature Glyph interface, which has evolved into the more compact Glyph Matrix.

Nothing’s hardware design is what truly sets its phones apart from the established players, and the 2025 model is more elaborate and complex than ever. At this price, however, it faces stiff competition from entry-level flagships like the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16. Beyond the innovations and occasional gimmicks, has Nothing nailed the fundamentals enough to compete?

Image for the large product module

Nothing / Engadget

The Nothing Phone 3 might be the company’s first “true flagship,” but several specs don’t match that flagship moniker. The bigger screen, battery and new Glyph Matrix make it a major step up from Phone 2, but camera performance is erratic and you’d expect a more powerful processor at this price.

Pros

  • Big, bright display
  • Unique hardware and software design
  • Big silicon-carbon battery
Cons

  • Camera performance is erratic
  • Middling processor

$799 at Nothing

Nothing Phone 3 reviewNothing Phone 3 review

Image by Mat Smith for Engadget

Once again, Nothing has made a phone that commands attention like no other. Everywhere I go, people are curious when they see me using the Phone 3, and the Glyph Matrix seems to both confuse and delight them.

Unlike the protruding camera unit on the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, the Phone 3’s three cameras are separately lodged in the back and jut out a fraction of a millimeter. The see-through exterior returns, displaying screws and hardware modules organized into three vertical rows. This time, it’s more apparent that this is a design flourish rather than a genuine glimpse into the phone’s components. For example, a curious semi-circle of frosted glass beneath the flash doesn’t seem to have a purpose (beyond an aesthetic one).

Elsewhere, a red square next to the ultrawide camera now acts as a recording light. It’s another charming touch that can be disabled in the settings if you find it distracting. The off-center telephoto camera lens might also irk symmetry fans, but it’s a choice that I don’t particularly mind. The Phone 3 is 18 percent thinner than the Phone 2 and, without the camera bump of the 3a Pro, it looks and feels a step above its predecessors.

The main attraction is the Glyph Matrix: a circular dot-matrix display made of 489 LEDs that shows simple notifications, the time and battery level. While some loyal fans might miss the bold light show of previous models, this iteration is far more useful. Instead of a barrage of flashing lights, the Matrix can tell you who is calling through unique patterns and, with future updates, custom art assigned to your contacts.

Nothing continues to lean into its retro tech design inspiration, and I’ll admit I’m a sucker for it. The dot-matrix text and numbers align perfectly with Nothing’s Android skin, making the entire device feel cohesive. A capacitive haptic Glyph button beneath the Matrix lets you cycle through notifications and tools. Interactions are simple: a short press to switch modes or a long press to start tools like the stopwatch.

Nothing Phone 3 reviewNothing Phone 3 review

Image by Mat Smith for Engadget

Fortunately, you can use the Phone 3’s settings menu to assign Glyph Matrix tools and “toys.” Most of them are playful and frivolous, like Spin The Bottle and Magic 8 Ball, and Nothing is tapping into its community to create new Matrix widgets. Hopefully, functionality will expand as more users get involved. Some tools are less useful though, like a level that uses the phone’s accelerometer for a pixelated readout. It just seems a little imprecise; how much accuracy can you derive from less than 500 pixels? Others are quite slick, like a pixelated camera readout for framing selfies.

With Essential Notifications, you can assign specific app notifications or contacts to a unique pattern or a pixelated photo. However, it’s challenging to create anything that doesn’t look like a blurry mess. The same settings menu allows you to adjust the Matrix’s brightness and how long the notifications persist.

The front of the Phone 3 is all display, with a 6.67-inch screen and a resolution of 2,800 x 1,260. If you prefer a large screen, this is probably its biggest advantage over the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25. It’s also Nothing’s brightest phone yet, reaching up to 4,500 nits for HDR content — noticeably brighter than the Nothing Phone 3a. It supports HDR 10+ and a 120Hz refresh rate, all protected by Gorilla Glass 7.

Nothing Phone 3 reviewNothing Phone 3 review

Image by Mat Smith for Engadget

Nothing has the fundamentals covered with the Phone 3’s cameras. The triple-camera system includes a 50-megapixel f/1.7 main sensor with optical image stabilization, a 50MP ultrawide and a new 50MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.

As we noted in our Nothing Phone 3a review, telephoto cameras are rare on more affordable smartphones. On the Phone 3, there’s a periscope zoom, keeping the camera unit svelte and barely protruding from the device. It’s also impressive to see a 3x zoom paired with a high-resolution 50-megapixel sensor, which allows you to crop into images while retaining fidelity. Nothing even added a 6x zoom button in the camera app that crops the image further. The app also uses pixel-binning for more accurate color and better low-light pictures by default, which results in them being saved as 12-megapixel images.


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