Nothing, the phone company created by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, could make a real splash among the best Android phones with the Nothing Phone (3).
While the Nothing Phone (1) felt like an underpowered but interesting statement of intent, last year’s Nothing Phone (2) felt like an improvement in every way. And the excellent bang-for-buck performance of the budget-focused Nothing Phone (2a) suggests the company is getting stronger with every release.
So what might the Nothing Phone (3) have in store? Here’s what we’ve heard so far — and a few things we’re hoping for.
Nothing Phone (3): Price and release date speculation
The trouble with covering a new brand like Nothing is there are precious few previous products from which to draw a release pattern. Nonetheless, with both the previous flagship Nothing phones launching in July (2022 and 2023 respectively), it doesn’t feel too out there to predict a July 2024 release date for the Nothing Phone (3).
As for pricing, it sounds like the Nothing Phone (3) will be staying roughly where it is — at least in one market. According to 91mobiles’ Hindi site, the phone is set to launch in the 40,000-to-45,000 rupee range.
While that would be very cheap in a rupee-to-dollar conversion (around $479), bear in mind that the Nothing Phone (2) cost 45,000 rupees in India on launch, so it seems likely that the Nothing Phone (3) will stay put at the $599 point in the U.S. In the U.K., the Nothing Phone (2) launched at £579, so we may well see that same pricing for the next device.
Nothing Phone (3): Rumored specifications
So far, only one specification rumor has emerged about the Nothing Phone (3) (reportedly codenamed Tetris) — but it’s a pretty exciting one. According to 91mobiles, “industry sources who work closely with Nothing” have claimed that the phone will be powered by the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor.
That ‘s’ is important — this isn’t the processor in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. It's the lower-cost version which looks set to prioritize generative AI features, high-end gaming and photographic capabilities.
It packs a Cortex-X4 core with a clock speed of 3GHz, backed up by three 2.8GHz performance cores and four 2GHz efficiency cores. It should be somewhere between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 3, making it a big step up from the 8+ Gen 1 chip that powers the Nothing Phone (2).
In addition to a speed boost, this should hopefully give the Nothing Phone (3) better battery life thanks to efficiency savings, too. However, much of that depends on whether we see any advances on the 4,700mAh cell in the Nothing Phone (2).
Nothing Phone (3): What we’d like to see
Given rumors are somewhat light on the ground at the moment, the Nothing Phone (3) is a largely blank canvas. Here are three things we’d like to see.
Improved cameras
This is the main one. Every Nothing phone released so far has had the same criticism in our ‘Cons’ section: camera performance. This is unsurprising, as the core specs for the rear cameras — two 50MP lenses for wide (f/1.9) and ultrawide (f/2.2) shots — haven’t changed across the three models (even if there was a move to the IMX890 sensor in the 2).
With the next Nothing Phone, we don’t necessarily need more megapixels — the Pixel 8 does just fine with 50MP. But we do want to see improved image quality, particularly in low-light conditions.
Better durability
Nothing’s transparent design is extremely distinctive, but so far durability hasn’t been its strong suit. The Nothing Phone (2) and (2a) are both rated IP54 — an improvement on the IP53 of the debut model, but not by much.
What that means in practice is that it promises protection from limited dust or light water sprays. It’s a long way from the IP68 that many flagships offer — water resistant in 1.5 metres of water for up to half an hour and all-round protection from dust. Hopefully Nothing can put that right with the Phone (3).
Keep that price down
At $599, the Nothing Phone (2) is competitively priced and a good bet for those looking for something genuinely eye-catching in a world of lookalike handsets.
But if Nothing puts another price bump on the Phone 3, it’ll struggle to stand out. As we said in our Phone (2) review, it’s currently a weaker value proposition than the $449 Pixel 7a — and that comparison will only get less flattering if the price gap increases between the Nothing Phone (3) and the upcoming Pixel 8a.
