The Nothing Phone 3a Lite has a big battery and triple-camera system

The world of Nothing Phone continues to expand. The company on Wednesday launched the fourth model in the Phone 3 lineup: Nothing Phone 3a Lite. The cheapest model in the series, the Phone 3a Lite combines the brand’s distinctive design with strong overall specifications for an entry-level phone. However, with the company saying that its non-flagship devices will soon include pre-installed apps and ads on the lock screen, there may be a trade-off.

First, nothing on Engadget tells us that the phone won’t be coming to the US. So, Americans only have the previous three 3G phones to choose from. These are the Nothing Phone 3, Nothing Phone 3a, and Nothing Phone 3a Pro.

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite uses a Panda Glass shell over an aluminum inner frame. As you can see, it retains some familiar design lines, although it has been slimmed down to match its €249 price tag. As the company describes it, “the asymmetric, transparent look and nano-coating of the phone create a beautiful balance between matte and glossy.” (Hair!) The phone comes in black and white. Whether or not the Nothing’s design language is your cup of tea, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more eye-catching, bolder design language in a budget model.

The phone includes the Home Key, which is a multi-purpose physical button found on all 3 Series models. The phone is rated IP54 for dust and water resistance.

Nothing honors the brand’s unique Glyph system (while cutting costs) with a notification LED. (Remember those on early Android phones?) This model’s “Glyph Light” supports the lineup’s Flip to Glyph feature, which switches to light alerts only when the device is facing down. The LED can stay on for “home contacts and apps notifications” and serve as a countdown timer for the camera. You can also customize its lighting sequences for specific calls and contacts.

The phone has a powerful battery with a capacity of 5000 mAh. Nothing advertises 22 hours of YouTube playback or 9.5 hours of gameplay. – Supports 33W fast charging, reaching 50 percent in about 20 minutes.

The Phone 3a Lite has a triple camera system. This includes a 50MP primary camera with a 1/1.57-inch Samsung sensor. It is joined by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens and a macro lens. The rear camera system shoots 4K video in the app at 30 frames per second. On the front there is a 16-megapixel lens.

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite has more than respectable display specifications for a budget phone. It uses a 6.77-inch flexible AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2392 (387 ppi). It has an adaptive refresh rate of 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of 1000Hz. It can reach up to 3,000 nits of HDR brightness and 1,300 nits of brightness.

The phone’s processor is MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro 5G with 4nm technology. The 8-core CPU can clock up to 2.5GHz. Nothing says chip performance is better than the MediaTek 7200 chip found in last year’s Phone 2a. The company claims that its CPU is 15 percent faster, its GPU supports a 20 percent higher frame rate, and its NPU delivers 100 percent better AI performance.

The phone also uses a liquid cooling system, which may help during intense gaming sessions. It comes with 8GB of RAM and comes in 128GB and 256GB storage tiers.

The phone runs on Nothing OS 3.5 user interface on top of Android 15. The company says that Nothing OS 4.0 will arrive in the first half of 2026.

This brings us back to those trade-offs. Earlier this week, nothing had been confirmed 9to5Google Its strategy going forward will include “Lock Glimpse”. This rotating lock screen wallpaper feature includes text containing links to external content hosted by a Chinese advertising company. (That company, Boyuan, says it offers a “rich mix of content” to help its partners “market to mobile traffic.” Think of it as a slightly less obnoxious version of lock screen ads.)

Fortunately, Lock Glimpse is turned off by default in the current beta version of Nothing OS 4.0. There is no guarantee that it will give users “full control over features like Lock Glimpse.” However, this promise does not explicitly state that the feature will remain disabled by default.

Another move to shore up the cost is Nothing’s (also confirmed) embrace of pre-installed apps. The “carefully considered” third-party apps are the ones that “most people install on day one, like Instagram,” the company said. In fairness, this is a common practice among Android phone manufacturers. And nothing says it will make third party apps removable.

But again, the compromises here arguably go against one aspect of the brand’s stated ethos: clean, bloat-free programs. If commercial considerations have forced compromises in this area, it makes you wonder how long Lock Glimpse will remain disabled by default.

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite is now available in Europe on the company’s website. The 128GB model costs €249 (EU) / £249 (UK). Meanwhile, the 256GB model will cost you €279 (EU) / £279 (UK).

Updated October 29, 2025 at 11:20 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to add information from Nothing about the US unavailability and additional details from the Nothing community post.