Nothing Reveals the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro for Fans of See-Through Hardware

Nothing has been busy making something in its smartphone labs. The company, headed by OnePlus’s co-founder, Carl Pei, announced two new mid-range devices at MWC 2025. The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro each promise a specific set of camera capabilities, boosted performance in their mid-range chipsets, and even some AI features. While the phones will only be available through a beta program for U.S. users, Nothing continues to make much ado about its super cool see-through smartphones that light up when someone sends a message.

The Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro are tier one and two of Nothing’s mid-range set. The difference is mainly in the camera offerings, and though the two phones look virtually the same from the front, they are fully discernable as two different devices from the back. The Phone (3a) focuses mainly on telephoto camera performance, so you can inch close to something and take a clear picture. There’s a 50-MP primary camera with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture, which Nothing says is “co-engineered with Samsung.” There’s a secondary 50-MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom and 30x digital “ultra zoom”. There’s also an 8-MP ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field of view (FoV). The backside is a Pixel-like camera bar.

The Phone (3a) Pro is more tuned for actual zoom, though it still relies on software to complete the job. The primary camera is a 50-MP sensor with a f/1.8 aperture and a 2x in-sensor zoom, which means it snaps a photo and zooms in for clarity. The periscope camera offers the real deal; It’s a 50-MP sensor with 3x optical zoom, 6x in-sensor zoom, and up to 60x digital zoom, which Nothing claims has been supercharged by “AI clarity-enhancing algorithms.” I’m so curious to see this performance compared to something on the high-end, like Samsung’s 100x digital zoom on the Galaxy Ultra series, considering the sensor size on the Phone (3a) Pro. There’s also an 8-MP ultra-wide camera with an expansive 120-degree FoV. The Phone (3a) Pro can be easily identified by its circular, Oppo-like backside.

Everything else inside the Nothing devices is the same across the board. Both devices run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 mobile platform, the latest smartphone mid-range chip offering. Both displays are 6.7-inches with Full HD+ resolutions and 120Hz refresh rate. Nothing says the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro have screens that are “flagship size,” so that “content has room to breathe.” The phones are equipped with 5,000 mAh batteries, and Nothing promises up to two days of use on a charge.

Essential Space hopes to show off what Nothing’s mid-range phone can do with AI-centric tasks. Essential Space is a hub for your notes by text or voice. There’s a physical Essential Key shortcut on the right side of the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro. You can press it once to bring up Essential Space and long-press it to record a voice note. The feature is available in Early Access to anyone who buys the Phone (3a) series. Nothing says more AI-focused features will be launched in the coming months, including Camera Capture, Smart Collections, Focused Search, and Flip to Record. The abilities all sound pretty self-explanatory.

The Phone (3a) will be available in black and white in the U.S., with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $380. There’s also a blue variant floating around, though sadly, that won’t make it to the States. The Phone (3a) Pro is available in grey and black, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $460. Starting today, you can pre-order the Phone (3a) in beta or the Phone (3a) Pro beginning on March 11. There is no concrete ship date on when the phones will start arriving in the U.S., but we will get them in to test against other mid-range Android darlings. Will the rave-like backside skew the results? That’s for the review to determine.