The Nothing Phone 3A Lite is here to prove that the budget segment doesn’t need to be boring. With its signature transparent back, single-dot glyph light, and sprinkling of AI features, it feels more like a statement piece than any other mid-range phone. 20,999. I’ve been using it as my primary device for two weeks, and it’s surprised me in many ways. But I have complaints too, so let’s talk about all the things this phone does right and where it clearly cuts corners.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite: Premium Design
One of the most impressive features of the Nothing Phone 3A Lite is its impressive design and build quality. In a segment where all other brands are offering uninspired designs and plastic backs, this phone looks premium from all angles. The back side lets you see the internals, built with a design reminiscent of the smartphone era, along with a removable battery. And like other Nothing phones, this phone comes in black and white colors, as well as a new blue color that stands out from the Nothing phone lineup.
The handset feels quite solid in the hand with an 8.3mm thin body, weighing in at 199 grams, which is light for a smartphone with a large 5000 mAh battery. The frame is plastic, and it’s finished with a matte texture that doesn’t pick up fingerprints. A clear protective case is not included in the box to protect this beauty from scratches and drops. You do get an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance, but that doesn’t give much confidence compared to an IP65 or higher rating.
I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t spot the glyph light at first glance as it’s reduced to a dot in the bottom right corner. I like this more than the full-sized Glyph on other Nothing phones because it’s the perfect size where you won’t get bored and turn it off completely. I’ll talk about it later in the review. The essential keys on the Phone 3a Lite from their flagship are also not preserved.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite: Bright and smooth display
Looking away from the beautiful rear design and turning the phone over, we will see a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It intelligently switches the refresh rate between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz depending on the content. You can also lock it to 120Hz. Every part of this beautiful Nothing OS feels buttery smooth on this display.
The panel offers a maximum brightness of 3000 nits in HDR content, 1300 nits outdoors and 800 nits in normal use. It is one of the best at this price. This means the display remains visible even in strong sunlight. The resolution is FHD+ and all content looks great, plus the 10-bit color output delivers bright visuals and vibrant color accuracy.
Different color profiles let you customize scenes to your liking; There’s also a night light and 2160Hz PWM dimming for flicker-free viewing. The pre-installed screen protector is a nice touch, saving you a lot of hassle. The bezels are chunky, but nothing to the credit of, it’s uniform all around, which looks better than thin bezels and a thick chin in my opinion.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite camera: a telephoto lens far from perfection
The Nothing Phone 3A Lite comes with a triple camera setup at the back and a 16MP shooter for selfies. You get a 50MP main sensor with OIS along with an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro sensor. On paper it looks like a great camera setup, but in reality this is the first corner nothing cut of this phone. If you recall, earlier this year, the CMF Phone 2 Pro also came with a triple camera setup, but it included a 50 MP telephoto instead of the 2 MP macro lens on the Phone 3A Lite.
Enough of the flaws, now let’s talk about the picture quality. The main camera is amazing. What really impressed me was the dynamic range with natural looking color science. Pixel binning technology turns 50MP into 12.5MP output without losing any detail. HDR shots are much better; The increased dynamic range ensures you don’t blow out in the sky or lose detail in the shadows.
The ultrawide sensor is great for capturing those landscape photos, and it does a really good job for the price segment. There’s a slight variation in color between the main sensor and the ultrawide, but it takes good photos on its own. For macro shots, there’s a 2MP shooter that’s just for decoration; Even the main sensor captures better close-up shots than this sensor.
The 16MP front camera handles selfies well during daylight with perfect edge detection in portrait mode. Low-light performance is average on both the front and rear cameras. Night mode keeps noise levels under control to improve picture quality.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite Display
Under the hood, the Dimensity 7300 Pro keeps things running smoothly for everyday tasks. This is the same processor we saw in the CMF 2 Pro, paired with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, which can be expanded up to 16GB with RAM Boost. Due to the near-stock Android user interface, the phone feels really easy to use and basic multitasking is not an issue for this phone. It may not hold heavy games in memory, but that’s too much to ask for in this price segment.
Gaming is where the processor shines. I didn’t expect this phone to run Genshin Impact at the highest graphics; Not only this but it maintains 60 FPS smoothly. In BGMI you get 120fps mode enabled and the gameplay is also super smooth. I ran both games for about 30 minutes to test throttling and the phone warmed up but didn’t get hot, and it kept the frame rate at max at all times.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite: Nothing OS 3.5 and Intelligent Toolkit
Running the latest Nothing OS 3.5 out of the box, the Phone 3A Lite delivers what Nothing always promised with its devices: a clean, near-stock Android experience with zero bloatware. The phone also wasn’t promised three major Android OS updates and six years of security patches, similar to the 3A series. The phone will get Nothing OS 4.0 with all the new features and Android 16 early next year.
For AI features, you get Essential Space, powered by that Essentials key, to take notes at any time and save them for later. Apart from this, there is nothing like AI in this phone. The thing to note is that Facebook and Instagram are already installed in this phone. And that controversial lock preview feature? It’s there but at least the phone prompts you to disable it during setup, which is a nice touch.
The glyph lights on the Phone 3A Lite have shrunk to a single dot, and I actually like this single dot more than the full glyph light interface on other Nothing phones. This reminds me of the time when smartphones had notification lights. However those lights were RGB to provide more visual data than just “essential information”.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite: Battery and charging
The Nothing Phone 3A Lite’s 5000mAh battery lasts a whole day even with heavy 5G usage and the display set to 120Hz. You can extend it till the next day with light usage on Wi-Fi. I got about six hours of continuous screen time with mixed usage, including a brief gaming session.
The 33W fast charger is impressive; You get a 50% charge in just 20 minutes and a full charge in just over an hour. The only one worthless? Nothing is included in the box except the charger. This is a cost-cutting move, but it’s a bit disappointing when competitors bundle chargers at this price.
Nothing Phone 3A Lite: advantages and disadvantages
Pros
- Unique impressive design with glass back
- Bright and vibrant high refresh rate display
- good performance
- The performance of the main camera is amazing
- Long lasting battery with 33W fast charging support
- No OS is clean and smooth
- Glyph “Light”
Shortcoming
- no charger in the box
- Low light photography needs improvement
- IP54 rating only
- single speaker
Should you buy the Nothing Phone 3A Lite?
If you want a phone that stands out from anything else Priced at Rs 20,999 and still sound great in everyday use, the Nothing Phone 3A Lite is an easy recommendation. It improves the design, display, battery, and clean software, while only compromising on the secondary camera and charger in the box. If gaming, looks and clean UI matter more to you than the versatility of the camera, then you should definitely buy it.
