Price and Availability

The Nothing Phone 3 is available for pre-order from July 4 2025, ahead of its official launch on July 15 2025. Both the Nothing Phone 3 and iPhone 16 are similarly priced, with a starting price of £799 / $799 / €799. 

However, it’s worth noting that the cheapest Phone 3 handset has 256GB storage whereas the cheapest iPhone 16 comes with just 128GB instead. Having said that, as the iPhone 16 is nearly a year old it is possible to find a cheaper price for the phone. 

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Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 vs A18 chips

Like some of the best Android phones, the Nothing Phone 3 runs on a Qualcomm chip whereas the iPhone 16 naturally runs on Apple’s own A18 chip. Although the Phone 3 doesn’t sport Qualcomm’s premium Snapdragon 8 Elite, and opts for Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 instead, we are impressed with the mid-ranger’s specs.

In fact, Mobile Editor Lewis Painter hopes the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 “could be a game-changer for the mid-range smartphone market” with its performance and battery efficiency closing “the gap between mid-rangers and flagships.”

Otherwise the iPhone 16’s A18 chip, which also powers the iPhone 16 Plus, is undoubtedly a mighty choice. Despite not being Apple’s premium chip, the A18 remains a speedy processor that didn’t score too drastically behind its Pro counterpart. However, considering the Snapdragon 8 Elite seriously trumps A18, and Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 isn’t specced too far behind, this could mean the Phone 3 might give the iPhone 16 a run for its money.

Nothing Phone 3 has a Glyph Interface

Undoubtedly, what sets Nothing handsets apart from other phones is Glyph Interface, which is designed to reduce screen time while ensuring users know when they receive an important notification or alert. 

The Phone 3 builds upon the Glyph Interface, which was first introduced with the Nothing Phone 1, and introduces the Glyph Matrix. A small disc made up of 489 LEDs, the Glyph Matrix is a small display that shows you certain notifications in Nothing’s dot-matrix style.  

Also introduced with the Phone 3 is Glyph Toys which are a suite of useful tools such as Digital Clock, Battery Indicator, Stopwatch and more, found within the Glyph Matrix too. 

Comparatively, as we mentioned in our Nothing Phone 3 vs Galaxy S25 guide, the iPhone 16 looks pretty boring in comparison. Even so, the iPhone 16 is available in a choice of five colours including Ultramarine, Pink and Teal, which help to jazz the phone up a bit. 

Nothing Phone 3 has a 50MP Periscope lens

iPhones are undoubtedly known for their photography prowess and usually sit among our best camera phones list. The iPhone 16 is no different, with its dual camera set-up that includes a 48MP Fusion lens and a 12MP ultrawide. 

We found the iPhone 16 resulted in shots that are “packed with detail, boasted excellent clarity and offered fairly true-to-life colour reproduction”. Although the iPhone 16 doesn’t have a telephoto lens, we concluded that its 2x in-sensor zoom does a “decent job” without any noticeable downgrade in overall quality. 

The Phone 3 instead is fitted with a 70mm Periscope lens which is fitted with a 6x lossless zoom and 60x AI Super Res Zoom. We’ve struggled with AI Super Res Zoom lenses, as we saw the likes of the Honor Magic 7 Pro. 

Nothing guarantees five years of Android updates

The Phone 3 ships with Android 15, with Android 16 and an OS update set to arrive sometime towards the end of 2025. Alongside this, Nothing promises at least five years of Android updates, which although falls short to Samsung and Google’s seven year promise, it’s still a solid amount.

Not only that but Nothing also guarantees the Phone 3 will see up to seven years of security updates too.

Apple doesn’t explicitly state how many years of updates the iPhone 16 will see, however we can estimate based on previous years. For example, the 2018 iPhone XR is eligible for the recent iOS 18 update, which suggests Apple offers up to seven years of updates. It’s just worth remembering this isn’t promised by Apple.

Nothing Phone 3 has a larger 6.67-inch display

While it’s certainly not an iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 16 is still a relatively small phone measuring at just 6.1-inches whereas the Nothing Phone 3 is 6.67-inches. 

Whether you prefer a larger phone or not is completely down to your personal preference, and remember you can opt for the iPhone 16 Plus if you’re set on an iOS smartphone but want it bigger. 

It’s not just size that differentiates the two, but also the screen types. The Phone 3 sports an adaptive 30 to 120Hz refresh rate, which means animations are impressively smooth on-screen, whereas the iPhone 16 still sports just 60Hz. This is one of our biggest qualms with the flagship iPhone, and we’re hoping that Apple will finally include a 120Hz rate across all of its phones with the iPhone 17. 

Early Verdict

Arguably, the main reason why you’d opt for the Nothing Phone 3 or the iPhone 16 is mainly dependent on whether you prefer Android or iOS. However, if you’re happy either way, then as the Phone 3 has a 120Hz display, 50MP Periscope lens and undoubtedly stands out from the crowd then it’s set to be a promising handset. 

Otherwise, the iPhone 16 is still a brilliant flagship iOS device for those cemented within the Apple ecosystem.

We’ll be sure to update this versus once we’ve reviewed the Nothing Phone 3.