A tiny, playful dot-matrix display screen within the firm’s costliest telephone but

With the third technology of its smartphone collection, Nothing made the weird transfer to launch the cheaper ‘a’ line first, unveiling . Now, it’s time for its newest flagship. The Nothing Cellphone 3, beginning at $799 (with a $899 choice with 16GB of RAM) goes up in opposition to giants just like the Google and — a aggressive slice of the smartphone world. As soon as once more, although, there’s nothing available in the market that fairly resembles a Nothing, as the corporate makes an attempt to steadiness distinctive design with flagship (and a few not-quite-flagship) elements.

The massive change this time round is that Nothing is swapping the flashing lights of its Glyph Interface for a tiny dot-matrix show on the rear of the gadget and is asking it the Glyph Matrix.

It’s the shiny design lynchpin of Nothing’s Cellphone 3. The matrix is made from 489 LEDs, and gives extra utility than a lightweight present. Nothing says it is an evolution of the flashing lights of the Glyph Interface into one thing extra sensible. With that purpose, there’s a Glyph button that sits below the glass again. One other advantage of this shift, Adam Bates, is that eradicating the Glyph lights freed up extra space inside the telephone.

As a substitute of getting the lights on the again flash in patterns to point when sure contacts are calling, the Cellphone 3’s new tiny display screen can show monochromatic photos as a substitute. At first, these might be preset shapes, however finally, you’ll have the ability to customise your individual animation (or static dot-matrix picture — it’s unclear) for every of your contacts. Forward of launch, Nothing shared a that lets folks take photographs and switch them into Glyph patterns, however it’s like a really, very small Gameboy digicam (however worse). The one I took kinda appears to be like like my head? I suppose? A minimum of there’s a distinction, and provides a glimpse of what customers may have the ability to present on the matrix display screen

Alongside Glyph-style notifications, the matrix will have the ability to show easy widgets, resembling climate and battery ranges. It may be a stopwatch, and even a low-res mirror (extra on that later). It may also be used as a visible countdown when utilizing a timer with the digicam, too. And there’ll even be video games, like rock-paper-scissors and er, spin the bottle. Fortunately, Nothing didn’t make the assembled media take a look at this at its large world launch. You’ll have the ability to make your individual Glyphs via an SDK being launched by Nothing. It’ll be fascinating to see how tough it’s to program your individual glyphs. You understand what I would like, already? A .

My first impression is that it’s somewhat extra restrained than the sunshine present of the Glyph Interface on earlier telephones. Moreover, a dot-matrix design actually aligns with the period of design inspirations that Nothing is drawing from. You’ll be able to calmly work together with the matrix via the Glyph button, which is intriguingly constructed below the rear cowl of the Nothing Cellphone 3. It’s a single button, so studying the quirks of a long-press and a short-press, particularly when there’s no tactile response, takes a little bit of time.

Flanked by different keen photographers, YouTubers and media, I took somewhat an excessive amount of time making the Glyph mirror work. Weirdly, you may’t use it as a selfie information with the first cameras, or a minimum of I didn’t work out throughout my hands-on.

Elsewhere, the design is impressed by the traces and shapes of the New York Metropolis subway map, whereas the see-through again of the Cellphone 3 has a three-column design that divides the part curves, digicam modules and glyph matrix.

The Cellphone 3 is Nothing’s thinnest telephone but and is eighteen p.c thinner than the Cellphone 2. The brand new Nothing flagship additionally lacks the chonky digicam unit that’s on the Cellphone 3a Professional. It is because, this time, Nothing has the price range to take action: the Cellphone 3 prices $350 extra, so it may well use smaller (even custom-made) elements to shrink the footprint.

As a substitute, the three-camera format jogs my memory plenty of the most recent Galaxy S24 Extremely, with solely barely protruding digicam lenses. It’s not flush, however maybe I’m asking for an excessive amount of — the one modern smartphone with a wholly flat digicam unit is the Pixel 9a.

Regardless of its slimmer profile, the gadget nonetheless incorporates a periscope zoom on a 50-megapixel sensor. It goes as much as 3x optical zoom, 6x digital zoom and a 60x AI Tremendous Res Zoom. (Sure, all of us blame Google and Samsung for this nonsense.) This may also function a macro digicam, permitting for clearer close-up pictures.

The principle digicam can also be 50MP, with an f/1.68 aperture (Nothing says it’s 70 p.c sooner at seize than the Cellphone 2) and even features a lossless 1.5x zoom. There’s additionally an ultrawide digicam with a 114-degree subject of view and, you may need guessed, a 50MP sensor. Even the front-facing digicam is 50MP. Anticipate the same old Android array of taking pictures options throughout the digicam system, together with Auto Tone, Portrait Optimizer, Evening Mode Macro Mode and Motion Mode. There are additionally a number of taking pictures presets to browse on your favourite taking pictures aesthetic, which I loved enjoying with on a demo unit.

I’m hopeful that the Cellphone 3 might be a succesful sufficient smartphone digicam. Taking some early pictures, throughout a busy hands-on session on the launch occasion, the digicam app appeared sooner than previous Nothing gadgets and low-light processing appeared fairly near the likes of Google’s Pixel.

Imaging has sometimes been the weakest a part of Nothing’s telephone technique, however every iteration it will get higher. It’s one thing I’m wanting ahead to placing to the take a look at. Nothing has added an LED gentle that flashes purple to point video recording. This could nonetheless be disabled in settings, however it’s a pleasant contact that faucets into the purple splashes you’ll see all through Nothing’s {hardware} and software program.

The Cellphone 3 additionally packs the corporate’s brightest show but, reaching as much as 1600 nits at its most brightness settings, peaking at 4,500 nits with appropriate HDR content material, The 6.67-inch display screen has a better 1.5K decision than the Cellphone 2. There’s additionally IP68-rated safety in opposition to mud and water.

Rounding out the spec sheet, the telephone has a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, marking the most important compromise this yr. Nothing advised me that the Cellphone 3 wasn’t chasing specs like telephones that value a number of hundred {dollars} extra. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S25 has the extra highly effective Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it’s additionally $800.

The excellent news is that the Cellphone 3 shouldn’t be perceptibly sluggish or laggy — the corporate says it’s 5 occasions sooner than the Cellphone 3a. Nothing added there needs to be a 60 p.c enchancment on AI efficiency in comparison with the Cellphone 2. I’m intrigued to see how battery life fares, however not too nervous. The OnePlus 13 Professional had the identical processor and carried out very nicely in our battery rundown take a look at.

The 5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery might be charged to 50 p.c in 20 minutes with a appropriate 65W charger, and as much as 100% in below an hour. It’s one of many first telephones to reach within the West with a silicon-carbon cell, including additional intrigue to how nicely the battery life will carry out. There’s additionally 15W wi-fi charging, which Nothing appears to be protecting unique to its most premium telephones.

The Cellphone 3 runs Android 15 out of the field, however with Nothing’s spin on issues, that includes {custom} icons and native apps. That features Important Area, which works with a {hardware} button launcher first launched on the 3a. Whereas there have been rumors that Nothing may fold the function right into a subscription, it’ll be free for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, Sensible Collections, which was meant to collate screenshots and different information remains to be being labored on and received’t be accessible at launch.

The main focus, software-wise, stands out as the new Glyph Matrix, however you may anticipate a number of the typical AI-assisted options like pure language search that Nothing calls Important search. It will likely be capable of faucet into every little thing on the Nothing Cellphone 3. Nothing’s cheaper 3a gadgets leaned into software program too, however with the Cellphone 3 there’s extra significance on the specs. The query is: Is that this flagship sufficient?

The Cellphone 3 is priced at $799 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. An $899 mannequin may also launch with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage. Each black and white variations might be accessible to pre-order on July 4, with gross sales beginning July 15 by itself retailer at . The corporate plans to launch its personal drops in choose bodily areas on July 10.

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