Nothing Phone (3) Review: Bold Design, Serious Performance

Nothing has done something ambitious with the Phone (3): it's the first device the company has actually called a "true flagship," and the price tag makes that intent explicit. The old transparent back and Glyph light strips are gone, replaced by a rear dot-matrix display Nothing calls the Glyph Matrix. It's a genuinely different idea, not just a refinement of the old one — and the phone underneath it is a serious, if not class-leading, performer.

Design and the Glyph Matrix

The Phone (3) drops the transparent panel that defined the first two generations. In its place is a glass back with an aluminum frame, and — most notably — a small rear dot-matrix display embedded above the camera module. It's 9.0mm thick and 218g, noticeably heavier than the Phone (2). It feels solid rather than delicate.

The Glyph Matrix is where Nothing has taken the biggest swing. Controlled by a physical dial button on the back, it can show custom pixel-art animations, a battery/charging readout, a stopwatch, a compass, and even a couple of simple interactive mini-games. It's a smaller, more deliberate feature than the old light-strip notifications — you have to actively engage with it rather than just glance at flashing lights — and whether that's an improvement depends on how much you used the old Glyph Interface day to day. After two weeks, I found it a genuinely fun party trick that I used less for practical notification triage than the old lights.

Display

The 6.67-inch OLED display at 1260 × 2800 runs at 120Hz with a claimed 4,500 nits peak brightness. It's bright, sharp, and colour-accurate in Natural mode. Gorilla Glass 7i up front and Victus on the back give it solid everyday durability.

Performance

This is the phone's biggest talking point, and not entirely in a good way. Nothing chose the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 over a true flagship chip — a deliberate step down from what rivals at this price offer. In practice, everyday use is smooth: apps open quickly, multitasking is lag-free, and thermal management under sustained load is good. But benchmark and sustained-gaming performance clearly trails phones running Snapdragon 8 Elite-class silicon, and at £799 that's a harder trade-off to justify than it would have been at the Phone (2)'s price. Nothing OS 3.5 runs lean and adds virtually no overhead.

Camera

A 50MP main sensor with optical image stabilisation, a 50MP periscope telephoto, and a 50MP ultrawide — all identically rated at 50MP, which Nothing leans into as a design philosophy. Daylight images are clean and well-processed, with Nothing continuing to move away from the over-sharpened look of the Phone (2). Low light is competent but not in the same league as the Pixel 10 Pro.

Battery

A 5,150mAh battery (5,500mAh on Indian units) with 65W wired charging and 15W wireless. Battery life is strong — comfortably clearing 7 hours of screen-on time in mixed use. The 65W wired charging is quick without being the fastest in class, filling from flat in around 45 minutes.

Verdict