Nothing, the mobile and lifestyle tech brand founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, is set to launch its next set of mid-rangers early in March. Official details of the devices, including Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro, have been scanty, but a new leak hints at the tentative specifications, including upgrades coming to the processor, new camera setup, and other improvements to the design.
Earlier, Pei had teased the Nothing Phone (3a) series is moving to a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip instead of MediaTek seen on the Phone (2a) and (2a) Plus. This week’s leak, courtesy of a tip received by Indian outlet SmartPrix, corroborates it and states that both phones with be powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 — a mid-range chipset launched in August 2024.
Both phones are suggested to share the same chipset, unlike the Nothing Phone (2a) and (2a) Plus that ran different ones.
The chipset brings a reasonable upgrade to the CPU and GPU performance with newer ARM cores, but the biggest boost is seen in the NPU’s performance, allowing better on-device AI processing than last year. Nothing recently shared its plans to deeply integrate AI within its systems for a personalized user experience.
Nothing showcased a demo interface with contextual information, such as weather, reminders, notifications about content from certain social media creators, as well as quick access to items it suspects you might need, such as the QR code from an upcoming flight’s boarding pass. It would be interesting to see those bits in action, especially on a mid-ranger with limited processing chops, though Nothing seems confident the stronger NPU will be of advantage. Whether that beats Samsung’s Now Brief is what we would be interested in learning.
Other than the AI traits, the Nothing Phone (3a) is suggested to get three rear cameras instead of two. Both phones are speculated to come with similar 50MP primary and 8MP ultrawide cameras on the back. The two will likely differ in terms of the third unit, with the Phone (3a) sporting a 2X telephoto lens, while the Pro getting a 3X telephoto with a longer zoom.
A post from the company’s official handle on X could suggest the possible camera orientations of the two phones.
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⚫⚫ ⚫ ⠀ ⚫ ⚫— Nothing (@nothing) February 17, 2025
Meanwhile, the duo is expected to be the same on other fronts, such as the 5,000mAh battery, a 6.72-inch Full HD+ 120Hz AMOLED, and IP64 rating for slightly better dust resistance than last year’s models. We might even see slight changes to the glyph lights on the back and even witness Nothing adopt a camera shutter button similar to the iPhone. The two phones should also run the newest NothingOS 3.0 with Android 15.
Nothing has confirmed a launch date for March 4, which is when we should have more clarity about the devices and their pricing.
[Update 2/18/25 2:30am PT]: Nothing confirmed the camera’s design for one of the phones, presumably the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, revealing a periscopic telephoto.
https://x.com/nothing/status/1891792979091710143
