Nothing Phone (3a) could come with its own iPhone-like camera button

The upcoming Nothing Phone (3a) is set to launch on March 4, and be the brand’s first phone launch in 2025. The device will succeed the Nothing Phone (2a) as the next mid-range offering by the company, and ahead of its launch, more teasers around the phone are now surfacing.

The latest one, suggests that the phone will come with a new button, which could very well be a dedicated camera button, similar to the Camera Control switch on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro series. Here’s what we know so far.

Nothing Phone (3a) camera button: What we know

A new teaser shows two buttons adjacent to each other on the Phone (3a). One of these is clearly small, and likely to be the power button. However, the larger button on top seems new, as while it is bigger than the power button, it isn’t big enough to be a single volume rocker.

Moreover, the Nothing Phone (2a)’s design shows us that Nothing uses separate volume buttons for increasing and decreasing the volume, instead of a single rocker switch. These individual volume buttons also go on the other side of the phone, opposite the power button.

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Therefore, the new button, must indeed be a new button. A dedicated button for a voice or AI assistant is out of the question, since it is much easier to have that functionality embedded in the power button itself. That leaves us with a camera button.

As the iPhone 16 series has shown us, a dedicated camera button can have multiple use-cases. It can be a one-click shortcut to any camera app of your choice, and you can follow up with a second click to directly take a picture, making quick snaps a two-click process. Nothing may also implement long-presses into the button for additional functionality.

It will be interesting to see a feature like this come to the mid-range market, as dedicated camera buttons are only found on a handful of phones right now. Nothing’s design choice, however, may push other brands into following up with their own camera buttons.

The Nothing Phone (3a) is launching on March 4, exactly a month from now, and will likely be available for purchase later on that month. More details on the device are expected to come out in teasers and leaks over the next few weeks.