Nothing Phone (3) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: What’s the difference?

Nothing dropped its long-awaited flagship, the Phone (3), last month. The launch creates something of a family feud. The new top-tier device finds itself in a showdown with its own more affordable sibling, the Phone (3a) Pro, which landed back in March.

Let’s take a look at what these devices have to offer and which one is a better pick for you.

Nothing Phone (3) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: Design, display

Nothing built its entire brand on looking different, and these two phones are perfect examples of that philosophy, just executed for different budgets.

The Phone (3) is the company at its most eccentric. It ditches the familiar Glyph light strips for something called the Glyph Matrix. This is a small, circular screen on the back that can show you the time, run mini-games, and will be open to developers to do who knows what with. Upfront, slim 1.87mm bezels frame the 6.7-inch 1.5K AMOLED screen, which can blast out 4,500 nits of peak brightness.

For protection, you get an IP68 rating – a first for any Nothing Phone. The build is very premium here with a glass front (Gorilla Glass 7i), an aluminium frame in the middle, and again a glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus).

The Phone (3a) Pro plays things a bit safer but is still a looker. It keeps the classic Glyph Interface with 26 LED zones around its large circular camera module. Its 6.77-inch AMOLED display is no slouch either, pushing a very bright 3000 nits.

For protection, you get an IP64 dust and water resistance rating. You just do not get the same build quality here, with the most noticeable downgrade being a plastic frame.

Nothing Phone (3) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: Cameras

The Phone (3) boasts four separate 50-megapixel cameras covering main, periscope zoom, ultrawide, and selfie duties. The hardware is supposedly flagship-grade.

The Phone (3a) Pro comes with the same number of cameras, just toned down for its price – though not by a lot, at least on paper.

ALSO READ: Nothing Phone (3) vs iPhone 16: Which one should you pick?

For one, you get a 50MP 3x periscope zoom lens, which isn’t all that common at this price. It pairs that with a solid 50MP main sensor and a 50MP selfie camera. The only real compromise is the 8MP ultrawide lens.

That said, expect a major difference in real-world performance due to the Phone (3)’s more premium camera sensors.

Nothing Phone (3) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: Performance

Under the bonnet, the Phone (3) packs a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, a powerhouse piece of silicon that puts its performance in the same league as last year’s top flagships – even if it’s still no match for the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The Phone (3a) Pro uses the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. While this is very capable too, it still only manages to achieve roughly 50% of the 8s Gen 4’s benchmark scores – at least on AnTuTu.

Meanwhile, the battery and charging specs are surprisingly close. The Phone (3) has a slightly larger 5,150mAh cell with faster 65W charging.

The (3a) Pro is right behind with a 5,000mAh battery and 50W charging. Both will get you through the day and power up quickly.

Lastly, the Phone (3) promises longer support with five years of Android updates and seven years of security patches, compared to three and four years, respectively, for the (3a) Pro.

Nothing Phone (3) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: Price

The Nothing Phone (3) arrives with a flagship price tag of Rs 79,999. The Nothing Phone (3a) Pro costs just Rs 30,999 despite that amazing zoom camera and solid performance.

The value proposition is impossible to ignore. You can buy two Phone (3a) Pros for the price of one Phone (3) and still have some cash left over.

The choice comes down to this. Do you want the absolute pinnacle of Nothing’s unique vision with (nearly) top-tier power and noticeably better cameras, or does a phone that delivers most of the fun for less than half the price make more sense?

ALSO READ: Nothing Phone (3a) vs Nothing Phone (3a) Pro: What’s different

Let us know what you’d go for in the comments below.