Award-winning British start-up Nothing has unveiled its most ambitious smartphone yet at a glitzy event in East London.
Enter, Nothing Phone (3).
Nothing co-founder Carl Pei described the new feature-packed Android handset as the "clearest statement of where we're going as a company" and promised it will "set the tone for what comes next".
If that's true, we can expect the next chapter from this plucky British start-up, which is still less than five years old, to be much pricier and compete directly with the very best offerings from Google, Samsung, and Apple.
Phone (3) is the first genuine flagship phone released by the London-based upstart, which has now topped $1 billion in lifetime revenue. The follow-up to the £579 Phone (2) comes equipped with the latest Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 system-on-a-chip from Qualcomm, supercharged Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, a triple-camera system with 60x zoom, and a 6.67" AMOLED screen with a 1.5K resolution.
Available in either Black or White, Nothing Phone (3) builds on the transparent design used in previous Android handsets from the four-year-old brand, but adds the new Glyth Matrix screen and a blinking red dot when recording video from the upgraded triple-camera
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But honestly, it's that eye-catching design that'll help this handset stand out from its Android rivals.
According to CEO Carl Pei, Phone (3) was created to "bring a little bit of joy back to the smartphone" and stand apart in the "sea of sameness".
The biggest expression of this mission is the Glyph Matrix — a small circular micro-LED display on the back of the handset that offers an expressive way to check notifications and enjoy some playful new apps, dubbed Glyph Toys.
Like the expressive pattern of lights — the Glyph Interface — found on the back of its previous smartphones, the Glyph Matrix is designed to help cut down on your screen time by offering just enough information to help you judge whether you need to flip over the smartphone and take action.
Glyth Matrix is one of the ways that London-based Nothing wants to bring back some joy to smartphone designs
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Glyph Matrix will display real-time progress bars for timers so you can keep up-to-date "without getting pulled into endless scrolling", Nothing says. It can also show contact-specific avatars, so you'll know who is calling or sending a text, even if you've placed your smartphone face down to avoid distraction.
At launch, Nothing has included a built-in battery indicator, a countdown for timer shots from the camera, a digital clock, and a stylised pixelated mirror for selfies from the rear camera.
There's also a randomised spin-the-bottle animation that can be used like a coin toss to work out whose round it is. This is what Nothing refers to as a "Glyth Toy" and it hopes will a splash of irreverent joy back to its smartphone. Nothing is actively recruiting members of its community to build playful new applications for the Glyph Matrix.
Despite its small size, the stylishly-pixelated new Glyth Matrix screen can perform a number of helpful tasks — from countdown timers to contact-specific notification, spirt levels to digital clockfaces, and more
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Ahead of the launch, it's already shepherded two ideas — a Magic 8 Ball and spirit level — co-created with the Nothing Community. An SDK is now available so Nothing users and developers can build new ideas.
"Tech has become boring; every phone looks the same, feels the same, does the same," said Carl Pei, CEO of Nothing. "That's why we took our time. After two years of focused development, Phone (3) is our answer: a flagship built to make tech feel personal again.
"To spark creativity, reflect entity, and give people more control over how they connect and create. At Nothing, we don't follow trends, we build with intention, and we build with our community."
On the front, Phone (3) packs thebrightest, sharpest screen ever shipped on a Nothing device — a 6.67” AMOLED panel with a pixel-packed 1.5K resolution. With peak brightness of 4,500-nits for HDR content (falling to 1,600-nits for non-HDR video and photos), the edge-to-edge touchscreen display should always be visible, even in direct sunlight.
Thinner borders ensure the Nothing Phone (3) keeps its overall footprint to a minimum, despite its generous screen size. That panel also boasts an adaptive refresh rate ranging from 30–120Hz, which should maximise battery life when there's limited movement on-screen and offering buttery-smooth scrolling and fast-paced gameplay when required.
Phone (3) should be better at handling tough low-light shots than previous Nothing phones, thanks to the class-leading 1/1.3” main sensor. All three cameras on the back of the handset offer sharp, steady 4K 60fps video with full Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS)
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Powering this flagship experience is the Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 system-on-a-chip from US manufacturer, Qualcomm. This four-nanometre chipset was only announced in early April, making the Phone (3) one of the first devices to land on store shelves with this cutting-edge silicon. According to Nothing, it offers a 36% increase in CPU power, a 88% GPU upgrade, a 60% boost in AI-related processing, and 125% faster image recognition over Phone (2).
That should keep everything feeling snappy and responsive on the Phone (3) for years to come. Good thing too, since Nothing has promised five years of major Android operating system updates and seven years of security patches.
Keeping the lights on is Nothing’s largest battery to date: — a high-density 5,150mAh silicon-carbon cell that should "comfortably last beyond a full day," the London upstart has promised. For those who don't know, a silicon-carbon battery replaces graphite with silicon-carbon anodes, offering higher energy density, faster charging, and longer lifespan compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones.
Nothing says the silicon-carbon 5,150mAh cell inside the Phone (3) offers 17% more capacity than Phone (2). With support for fast wired charging, Phone (3) can charge from 0-50% in just 19 minutes. Refuelling the battery to 100% takes just 54-minutes. There's also 15W wireless charging for effortless top-ups.
Phone (3) has a unique camera design, which the award-winning team at Nothing says is "inspired by modern architecture" and uses "its new tri-column layout" to add rhythm and structure
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When it comes to photography, Nothing Phone (3) is equipped with:
- 50MP Main Camera
- 50MP Periscope Camera for 6x lossless optical zoom and 60x digital soom with AI enhancements
- 50MP Ultra-wide Camera that offers a 114º field-of-view
- 50MP front-facing camera for selfies and video calls
All four cameras built into the Phone (3) can shoot in 4K UHD resolution at up to 60 frames-per-second. The Ultra-wide Camera also supports macro photography, letting Phone (3) shoot high-resolution stills just 10cm away from a subject.
Nothing has worked with professional photographers to develop a swathe of presets that automatically adjust dozens of toggles and settings to achieve the exact cinematic look you're looking for. For fans of Denis Villeneuve, there's a Dune preset coming at launch with the Phone (3), so your summer holiday footage will look like it was shot on Arrakis.
Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) on all rear-mounted cameras will keep footage steady whether you're walking or filming handheld content. It should also keep everything pin-sharp when using longer exposures in low-light conditions.
Out of the box, Phone (3) will be running NothingOS 3.5, which is based on Android 15. That means it includes many of the new featured developed by Google for this major upgrade — all wrapped-up in the distinctive Nothing OS design.
You can personalise the appearance of NothingOS with a new monochromatic theme, with the choice to hide labels beneath app icons for a cleaner home screen. Nothing has refreshed several of its preinstalled applications, like Gallery, Camera and Weather.
NothingOS 3.5 offers the Essential Space, a new AI-powered scrapbook for your notes, voice memors, ideas and screenshots. It's accessed via a double-press of a new button on the side of the handset, dubbed Essential Key.
A quick press will capture what's on-screen, with the ability to attach a note, scribble or voice memo.
Press and hold on the Essential Key to capture a screenshot and attach a few notes or voice memo in this new "second memory" space baked into NothingOS 3.1 NOTHING PRESS OFFICE Everything saved into the Essential Space is analysed by Artificial Intelligence, which makes intelligent suggestions for further actions, like adding an event mentioned in a voice memo to your calendar. Nothing describes the feature as "your second memory".
You can group things into Collections, or let the AI create and organise captures for you.
NothingOS 3.5 introduces a new feature, dubbed Flip To Record. long-press the Essential Key, then turn-over your phone and the software will start recording the meeting. You'll be able to see the recording status on the Glyph Matrix. All data is stored securely on your device. At the end of the recording, AI will transcribe the recording, recognising individual speakers, summarising the overall meeting and pulling together action points into the Essential Space.
Any AI processing that's handled in the cloud will be automatically deleted once the task is done, Nothing says.
Phone (3) has a 6.67" AMOLED screen with thinner borders to maximise the screen-to-body ratio
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Lastly, Nothing Phone (3) will debut Essential Search, a new one-stop-shop search bar accessed with a quick swipe-up from the homescreen that can search across contacts, photos, files, and settings. It can also be used to get instant answers, including a weather forecast, definitions for words, calculations, and much more.
Expect search results to become more personalised in the future as Phone (3) starts to learn more about your habits.
NothingOS 4.0, which will include the latest Android 16 features now available on Google's Pixel smartphones, is coming soon, the UK-based technology firm has promised.
Phone (3) will be available in a choice of either Black or White.
At launch, there will be two models available...
- £799 with 12GB RAM + 256GB built-in storage
- £899 with 16GB RAM + 512GB built-in storage
Preorders for the Nothing Phone (3) begin July 4, 2025 at nothing.tech. More retailers will stock the new Android handset when it's launched on July 15, 2025. There will also be events worldwide to pick-up the handset early to appeal to the community-driven approach that's helped Nothing attract over 3 million users globally.
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