It’s a scorching hot day in central London, and I’m at Nothing’s flagship Phone 3 launch. It’s a great-looking device that remains absolutely true to Nothing’s now-iconic design language, with some tidy upgrades that help push this smartphone into “flagship” territory.

However, some interesting and slightly questionable design decisions will have you questioning whether this is a “true flagship”—or if there could be yet more to come from Nothing.

Nothing’s First Flagship Delivers Much More Power

Nothing’s “first” flagship device combines the familiarity of its previous models with some tidy new features and design notes—ushering in a new era for its iconic LED glyphs—but more on those in a moment.

The headline for the Nothing Phone (3) is the vastly superior hardware compared to its previous models, which were firmly mid-range devices.

Nothing has equipped the Phone (3) with a powerful Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor. It’s not quite top-of-the-line, but it’s a huge improvement on the other devices in the Nothing Phone (3) series, the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro (Snapdragon 7s Gen 3).

Now, I’m sure some folks will decry Nothing’s use of a 2024 chipset in a 2025 flagship smartphone. But the most up-to-date processor doesn’t a flagship make. Sure, it’s important, but we can’t pretend that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 isn’t a powerful chip. The Nothing Phone (3)’s chip will do more than enough, and will continue to do so for years, which is really what most folks demand. It won’t suddenly become obsolete next year, so take those naysayers’ opinions with a pinch of salt.

Everyone Uses the Glyphs, but They’re Gone Anyway

Nothing CEO Carl Pei led the launch of the Phone (3) with a lofty figure: 80 percent of Nothing Phone owners use the Glyph Interface. However, despite that impressive figure, the Glyph lighting is receiving a full makeover, taking a vastly different approach from previous models.

Instead of the full dazzling array of Glyph lighting shining brightly each time you receive a notification, the Nothing Phone (3) has a compact dot-matrix style display, now known as the Glyph Matrix. And now, instead of just illuminating your room, the new, circular display can provide specific information. They can even be used to play some basic games, known as Glyph Toys.

I tried a quick game of rock, paper, scissors, and it was mostly fun (but also begged the question of why I need this). Similarly, there is a “spin the bottle” mode, touted as a way to figure out who will pay the bill… or to figure out who you’re going to make out with when you’re at a teenage party? Again, it’s cute, but has an element of “why?”.

With that said, the Glyph Matrix has some actually useful functionality that’s easier to understand and relate to than the sometimes abstract light patterns of previous devices. Received an email? You’ll see an email icon appear. Incoming phone call from a loved one? A love heart will slide onto the screen. There is also a stopwatch, battery indicator, and digital clock, all of which are easier to interact with than before.

However, for those who still want to assign an individual design to each can, the option for unique glyph patterns is still present.

Better Cameras Than the Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro

One of the biggest upgrades on the Nothing Phone (3) is the triple-camera array. Unfortunately, we can’t share images and video from the Nothing Phone (3) until our full review drops, but I’m quietly impressed with what I’ve seen so far.

The Nothing Phone (3) camera array comprises:

• Main Camera: 50MP f1/1.3″ PDAF OIS
• Telephoto: 50MP, 70mm, 60x AI Super Res Zoom
• Ultrawide: 50MP, 114-degree
• Front: 50MP

The ultrawide camera is the biggest upgrade from the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, jumping from 8MP to 50MP to match the rest of the cameras.

Nothing’s Essential Space Receives Some New Essential Features

I have to admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Essential Space on the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro when I reviewed for our sister site, How-To Geek. It was a little clunky and clearly still needed some refinement.

So I’m glad to see that the Nothing Phone 3 and Nothing OS 3.5 are bringing some clear upgrades to what could be a really useful feature.

Essential Search deepens the app’s integration across your device, allowing you to search through all your data, including contacts, messages, events, photos, and other files. There are also a bunch of other new features set for the Essential Space, such as Smart Collections, Focused Search, Flip to Record, and Direct Camera Capture.

However, as with anything using AI to power its deep, system-wide integration, you have to give up all of your data. It stands to reason, given what the app is attempting to achieve, but the amount of data required to work may have some privacy skeptics thinking twice.

The Nothing Phone (3) Has a Healthy Spec Sheet, but Some Slightly Interesting Design Decisions

My initial hands-on time with the Nothing Phone 3 has been predominantly positive.

The 6.67-inch, slimmer design looks and feels great, retaining the iconic Nothing design language that helps each of its devices stand out from the crowd of glass rectangles. Its 1600 nits screen brightness is good and will make the screen easy to read in almost any light condition, and the 120Hz response rate felt smooth during use.

Nothing has also upgraded the battery on the Phone 3. While the outright battery capacity isn’t much higher, increasing to 5150mAh, Nothing is now using silicon-carbon battery tech to deliver a much longer-lasting battery with greater density.

It will also charge much faster, with the Nothing Phone 3 now capable of 65W fast charging.

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But every now and then, I spot something on the Nothing Phone 3 that makes me roll a sanity check. For example, the placement of the third camera sits almost into the rear bezel. I’m sure the reason for this is internal electronics and the limited space in a slimline smartphone. Then there are the screws. I hadn’t noticed some of the placements, but once it was pointed out to me, I couldn’t unsee them. With more time with the Nothing Phone 3, what else will I notice?

The Nothing Phone (3) will launch in two different versions:

The 256GB version will cost $799 at launch, while the 512GB version will cost $899. Both devices will launch officially on July 15, though there is the potential for early adopters to get ahead of the crowd thanks to the July 12 Nothing Drop—with very limited numbers.