When Nothing announced the Phone 3A Lite, I was skeptical. The company already had the super value for money CMF Phone 2 Pro in the budget segment. What more could Nothing have? Turns out, there was some room for more, but only if you’re a die-hard fan of Nothing’s transparent design aesthetic.

The Phone 3A Lite is technically the most affordable Nothing-branded phone with its signature design and glyph interface. For a buyer, the Phone 3A Lite will likely be their first product from the brand, and in that scenario, the device will have to make a good impression. Let’s take a look at our full review to understand how the Nothing Phone 3A Lite fares in everyday use.

Nothing Phone 3A Lite Design

Let’s start with the design. The Phone 3A Lite has the same transparent design we’ve become accustomed to. Still, I like the design, it’s very different from the rest of the phones in the price segment, and it looks much sleeker than its CMF counterpart. Instead of flashy orange, you get simple white or black. For someone who is getting a nothing phone for the first time – which will probably be the case – the Phone 3A Lite is quite attractive.

Once, my Rapido driver saw the phone and was shocked when I told him how much it could cost. But yes, for tech enthusiasts like you and me, design does not break any boundaries.

The Nothing Phone 3A Lite comes with a single glyph light instead of “lights” on the back. But the Cingular Lite works just as well as the more expensive 3A or 3A Pro. You get the option to customize notifications or ringtones so that you know who is calling you by the way the light blinks. Yes, it’s a gimmick, but it’s also some fun.

The Phone 3A Lite has a glass back, which can easily get stains. The frame is plastic, but the phone does not feel heavy in the hand and feels good to hold. I became so confident with the bodyshell that I was not afraid to carry it without much care even while traveling.

Nothing Phone 3A Lite Display

The Phone 3a Lite features a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, just like the Phone 3a and CMF Phone 2 Pro. The bezels are similar, albeit slightly thicker, although the screen is significantly larger, and this helps reduce the bulk of the bezels. I liked the display and the streaming experience was good. You get Panda Glass protection on the front and back.

The Phone 3A Lite comes with Widevine L1 support for Netflix but lacks HDR. Additionally, you get a bottom-firing mono speaker setup, which is acceptable considering the price, but you miss a loud stereo setup. I often had to use earphones while watching a movie or web series.

Nothing Phone 3A Lite Display

The Nothing Phone 3A Lite is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro SoC. Now, considering the price, the chipset is quite good, and the phone feels quite fast in everyday use. For the most part, you won’t have to deal with nervousness. However, when multitasking, like using the camera while navigation is on, the Phone 3a Lite starts to struggle.

At this price, you can’t expect a phone to be a gaming machine. I tried games like COD Mobile, Real Racing 3, and Minecraft on the Nothing Phone 3A Lite. The gameplay was good and you didn’t really feel the stutter unless you pressed the device. In COD Mobile, I was able to get around 90fps with the graphics set to low. However, after a few sessions, the phone starts heating up. At very high graphics, the Phone 3A was able to deliver 60 fps during light gaming, resulting in a smooth experience.

In terms of benchmarks, the Nothing Phone 3A Lite doesn’t do anything extraordinary. In Geekbench the device scored 986 points in single-core and 2,883 points in multi-core performance. On AnTuTu, the Phone 3A Lite scored 8,99,776 points – which is not bad considering the chipset.

nothing phone 3a lite cameras

The Phone 3a Lite sports a triple rear camera setup – a 50-megapixel main, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. During my use, I found the main sensor to provide good photos for the price. Colors aren’t oversaturated, and that is to say, there’s minimal auto-beautification. Night performance is also satisfactory, and for the most part, the camera app works smoothly.

It also has a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. The selfie camera can take good pictures and the edge detection in portrait mode is good for the price. However, sometimes the phone has trouble detecting the edge of the hair. And in poor lighting, you can’t really get much from the camera.

There is an 8 megapixel ultrawide lens. The quality of images from the ultrawide lacks the level of the main sensor. But it will work keeping the price segment in mind.

The 2-megapixel macro is just for making up the numbers, and I barely found any use for it.

On the video front, the main sensor gets optical image stabilization (OIS). This allows the video to remain quite stable even when recording on the move. The main camera can record up to 4K at 30 fps. Selfies and ultrawide sensors are limited to 1080p at 60 fps.

nothing phone 3a lite battery

Nothing Phone 3a Lite comes with a 5,000mAh battery. Initially, I was skeptical about the battery life considering the large screen. However, the battery life of the Phone 3A Lite is impressive. In PC Mark’s battery test, the device lasted more than 15 hours, which is quite good for the battery size. In day-to-day usage, I was able to get around 7 hours of screen-on time, which also included a few gaming sessions.

The phone supports 3A Lite 33W fast charging. But you don’t get a charger in the box. This is fine if you have a fast charger lying around, as I did, but if you don’t, be prepared for the extra expense. The charging speed is quite good and the phone usually gets fully charged in a little over an hour.

Nothing Phone 3A Lite User Experience

Nothing Phone 3A Lite runs on Android 15-based Nothing OS 3.5 out of the box. At a time when most Android companies are racing to bring out liquid glass in some form or the other, Nothing takes a completely different approach with its minimalist interface. This is something we have become accustomed to with Nothing devices. The Phone 3A Lite gets 3 years of OS updates and 6 years of security patches. I would prefer to keep major updates longer, considering the device is still on Android 15. It is expected to receive Android 16-based Nothing OS 4.0 in early 2026.

Now, this isn’t for everyone, and you can switch to a more standard Android homescreen. But personally, I like the Nothing user interface. The monochromatic widgets and layout feel like a breath of fresh air when switching from another Android device. All app icons can be changed to the same color, unlike other UIs where some apps refuse to bind. However you don’t get the level of customization that you get on devices from other brands.

But it is not all smooth sailing. The Phone 3A Lite is the first do-nothing device that comes with pre-installed bloatware – Instagram and Facebook. However you can uninstall them and most brands load budget phones with many more apps. You’ll also need to turn off the new Lock Preview feature, which is a fancy term for lockscreen ads.

The Phone 3A Lite gets an essential key like the CMF Phone 2 Pro. The button is placed just below the power button, which led to some accidental clicks. But the design of both the buttons is different.

You can use this button to take screenshots and save voice memos in Essentials space. I didn’t find much use for this feature, but Nothing has promised that they will add more utility to it soon.

Nothing Phone 3A Lite verdict: Should you buy it?

Now, back to my initial objections about the Phone 3A Lite – why did Nothing launch it? After spending over a week with the Phone 3A Lite, I can say that the device itself is a solid budget smartphone, but there are a few misses here and there. The phone’s design is attractive and gets people talking, even if it is polarizing. The display is bright and large, but the bezels are large. The games run smoothly for the most part, but nothing to write home about. The cameras do their job, but you miss the telephoto view from the CMF Phone 2 Pro. However you’re paying a premium for a Nothing phone, not a budget brand of Nothing.

So, should you get the Nothing Phone 3A Lite? If you’re on a budget, the Phone 3A Lite is a good option. The device ticks most of the boxes you’d expect at this price. This is completely different from what most of your friends are using. Overall, you will be satisfied with the Nothing Phone 3A Lite, as long as you are okay with the fact that it is very similar to its CMF counterpart.