An upcoming smartphone may challenge us in a way few other devices have done recently. It’s the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, and should several leaks prove to be accurate, the design is one that will divide opinion. Some will see it as brave and daring, while others will see it as a dog’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner all rolled into one. Lets take a good look at why Nothing’s next phone is going to have phone fans everywhere up in arms.
Is it that bad?
The back of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro is busy, with a bewildering mix of lines, curves, rectangles, circles, and stadium shapes, all haphazardly placed with no obvious attempt to make it all make sense, visually. The camera lens array is the worst offender. The three cameras are all different shapes and sizes, none of them line up with each other, there’s a platform for a camera and the flash unit, and another for the stadium-shaped camera, leaving the third camera out on its own.
The more I look, the more convinced I am the camera on the platform isn’t central, and it makes my eyes go funny when I try to work it out. The odd arrangement wouldn’t be so bad if the back of the phone wasn’t transparent, as the bizarre layout has to fight for attention with the racetrack-like ribbons and components on display. Nothing’s signature Glyph lights add even more visual complexity, and when you start to notice the screw holes and other fixings doted around, its massive need for attention is enough to make you start to hyperventilate.
3a pro pic.twitter.com/wDpwqhZDoi
— Arsène Lupin (@MysteryLupin) February 21, 2025
The old adage “less is more,” really applies here, because taken individually Nothing’s design choices aren’t egregious. It’s putting them all together that’s the crime. Nothing knows it’s being deliberately difficult too, as when you see what could be the non-Pro Nothing Phone 3a, the camera is far more sensibly designed, and the rest of the rear panel’s madness is toned down because of it.
Snowflakes
The Nothing Phone 3a Pro’s rear panel entirely abandons any symmetry, and this is its downfall. Symmetry is an incredibly simple aspect of design that everyone can understand. Most people will agree a snowflake is a naturally beautiful thing, and it comes down to its incredible hexagonal symmetry. In a paper published by Nature on our preference for symmetry, it’s called a “basic law in graphic design,” stating (rather clinically):
”People have a universal aesthetic preference for symmetry. Symmetry preferences are manifest in diverse aesthetic forms, from painting and sculpture to architecture and music. They influence many aspects of daily life across cultures and historical periods, from purchasing choices to mate selection.”
How about a mobile tech example? When design experts Porsche Design got hold of the Huawei P20 Pro and turned it into the Mate RS, the first thing it did was relocate the cameras into the center of the rear panel and make them flush-fitting, then stacked a physical fingerprint sensor underneath which joined rather than replaced the in-display sensor. It was all in the name of design symmetry, and it got rid of the notch at the top of the screen for the same reason. Porsche Design’s unique philosophy shone through, and it was unwavering in its approach. While Nothing may differ in terms of the end result, I have a feeling its intention is exactly the same.
There are no rules
I shudder to think what the team at Porsche Design think of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro’s camera layout and rear panel. However, while Porsche Design (and I, for the most part) may prefer a clean, symmetrical, and ordered look, it’s not a hard rule set in stone, and Nothing’s bravery may actually pay off.
“While symmetry serves as a source of beauty in many scholarly domains, it is not an exclusive source of beauty-related responses in humans,” a paper studying asymmetry and symmetry in the beauty of human faces concluded. House Beautiful says “intentional clutter” is the interior design trend of 2025, and you only have to look at artist Jackson Pollock creating his work to see that chaos still has thought and intention behind it.
Nothing has rigidly stuck with its key design themes since the Nothing Ear 1 earbuds, and injected some much needed fun into smartphones when it launched the Phone 1. The company has created beautiful products in a sea of rather ordinary alternatives. If the leaks really show the Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro, it’s clear the company isn’t content to simply rely on a transparent case and some flashing lights to catch our eye, and I love that.
Ready to be challenged?
Nothing has earned the right to experiment, but will the phone-buying public be willing to accept the result? The Phone 3a Pro looks like it’s going to have a gawky, messy, avant garde style all of its own, and be entirely the opposite of the clean Samsung Galaxy S25, or the familiar Apple iPhone 16.
It’s impossible to consider this a bad thing, but in any effort to push the boundaries of product design, it’s still important to appeal to the masses. Challenging designs that don’t follow at least some form of convention probably won’t do that, and could turn the less daring off immediately.
What will everyone think of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro when it arrives, if it does look like this? Will most flock to the far more acceptably normal-looking Phone 3a instead? It remains to be seen but beauty is, as always, in the eye of the beholder. Nothing is expected to announce the Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro on March 4.
