Is This the Nothing Phone (3a)? Here’s What 2025’s Most Hyped Budget Phone Might Look Like

With a date of 4th March officially set for the launch of Nothing’s latest phone, here’s what the budget-friendly flagship killer will look like. Nothing’s teased three lenses along with a special dedicated button for shortcuts and (potentially) camera control… but with minimal changes to the phone’s overall layout. It still has three glyph lights (albeit with a slight rearrangement), with a transparent back that the Phone (2a) rocked before it.

The Phone (3a) from these images suggests a solid iterative upgrade. Given that the previous model started at a mere $349, you won’t expect game-changing specs or features. What you’re going to get is a reliable work-horse that blends proprietary hardware with proprietary bloat-free software, but in a package that pits the ‘budget-friendly’ phone against competitors like Samsung and Xiaomi that often rock a triple-lens design too.

Image Credits: Sarang Sheth

We prepared these 3D renders (yes, they’re renders – don’t sue us, Carl Pei) as a healthy composite of everything Nothing’s teased on their social media regarding the Phone (3a). The device is set to launch on the 4th of March with a showcase at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The highlight of this iterative upgrade lies in the third lens, a dedicated telephoto shooter to accompany the wide and ultrawide cameras.

Pei announced formally that the Phone (3a) would officially ship with a Snapdragon processor, ditching the Mediatek Dimensity chip that was in its predecessor. This officially brings the (3a) to the big leagues, allowing it to outshine other budget devices in its category and compete with phones nearly twice as expensive. This also means that Nothing will probably leave the Dimensity chip to its CMF Phone range, clearly creating three price points for its phone catalog (with a potential fourth price point if they launch a foldable Nothing Phone).

There are broadly two things that drive phone sales – a healthy brand reputation (coupled with a great ecosystem) and a great main camera array. The Phone (3a) builds on the former, but doubles down (or maybe triples) on the latter. GSMArena speculates that the three main lenses will all be 50MP shooters, with the newly added telephoto capable of 2x optical zoom. Don’t expect super-zoomed moon photos from a $349 phone, but the telephoto should click some rather impressive portrait shots.

Another surprising addition comes in the form of an extra button which Nothing teased on the 3rd of Feb. With the caption reading “Your second memory, one click away”, there’s a hefty chance this is Nothing’s version of the Camera Control on the latest iPhone 16 series. We really don’t know if it’s a dedicated button like an action button, or a haptic touch surface (which would be a lot more expensive), but we’re just weeks from officially finding out. I’m leaning towards the former, with probably a pressure sensor that can detect ‘half-push’ gestures to focus before clicking.

The glyph gets mildly tweaked, with the straight vertical glyph on the right now curving around the camera bump to create a sense of continuity. There’s a chance that Nothing only made this change because every new phone truly deserves a Glyph upgrade, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the arched glyph also came with a few new features or easter eggs.

Being a budget phone means still no wireless charging, and GSMArena suspects there’s still a 5000mAh battery under the hood, with some rumored battery enhancement protocols that come with the Nothing OS 3.1 that we suspect will ship with the latest model. Could we also see a few AI features? I honestly hope so.

The Phone (3a) comes at a brilliantly strategic time, right at the heels of the iPhone SE 4 which will launch on the 19th of February. While a lot of people are wondering why the budget (3a) is launching before the flagship Phone (3), my answer to them is this – greatness takes time. The first half of the year is unofficially budget-phone-season, and with the SE 4 arriving in just days, there’s ‘nothing’ better than some good-old competition from a brand that has arguably the second-most loyal fan base.

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