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British upstart Nothing just launched an all-new Android smartphone, dubbed Nothing Phone (3a) Lite. If you've admired the award-winning brand's slick transparent design, but found the £799 Nothing Phone 3 launched earlier this summer a little too taxing on your current account, this new addition could be the perfect antidote.
Phone (3a) Lite starts from just £249, but still ships with many of the trademark features from this London-based brand, like the distinctive see-through case design and clever Glyph Light notification system.
On the front, Phone (3a) Lite is equipped with a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a 1,300-nits peak brightness that should keep everything on-screen easily visible even when following turn-by-turn directions or reading text messages in direct sunlight. Despite the more affordable price tag, Phone (3a) Lite still boasts a 120Hz high refresh-rate for fluid system animations, like scrolling, as well as fast-paced gameplay on-the-move.
Be one of the first to own the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite
Nothing's latest smartphone is the affordable Phone (3a) Lite, which features a refined triple-camera system, Glyph Light, and a generous 6.77-inch flexible AMOLED display. Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chipset, it comes equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery with 33W fast wired charging
Phone (3a) Lite
$249
For comparison, Apple fitted a 120Hz high refresh-rate screen to its standard iPhone, which starts from £799.
At the top of the screen is a small hole-punch cut-out for the 16MP front camera that promises crisp selfies and video calls. But Phone (3a) Lite truly stands out from the crowd when you flip over the handset.
On the back, the toughened glass offers a peek into the guts of the handset. Available in Black or White, the trademark flourish from the team at Nothing, which has earned the UK-based team a Red Dot Design Award, lets you see the components that make the handset function, including the battery cell and screws.
Phone (3a) Lite includes many of the trademark design elements of Nothing's pricier smartphones. It also comes equipped with an industry-standard IP54 rating for dust and water resistance
|NOTHING PRESS OFFICE
This is also where the one-of-its-kind Glyph Light notification system is housed. Designed to make it easy to keep abreast of notifications without checking the screen, the Glyph Light will play special light patterns for key contacts, so you know who is ringing based on the sequence of flashes.
There's a countdown feature for group photos, too.
Available in Black or White colourways, the Phone (3a) Lite is the latest addition to British start-up Nothing's lineup of affordable Android handsets | NOTHING PRESS OFFICE An aluminium chassis keeps the device feeling more premium than its £249 price tag would initially suggest. Nothing has built its handset to last, with an IP54 dust and water resistance. Under the bonnet, there's a 5,000mAh battery that the British start-up says should be enough for two days of typical usage. When it does run low, 33W fast wired-charging gets you to 50% in around 20 minutes.
Powering the Phone (3a) Lite is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chip, built on an efficient four-nanometre process, with eight cores running up to 2.5GHz. You'll get 8GB of physical RAM that can expand to 16GB using virtual memory, keeping things running smoothly when you're juggling multiple apps.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
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 Out of the box, Phone (3a) Lite is powered by NothingOS 3.5, which is based on Android 15, with three years of major updates and six years of security patches guaranteed. The software includes some handy AI-powered features that might appeal if you're always jotting down ideas.
You'll find Essential Key and Essential Space for capturing and sorting your notes, thoughts, and media files in one place. This is analysed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) so your handset can preemptively prompt you about upcoming appointments, summarise lengthy voice memos, and suggest next steps.
Rounding out the list of features, Nothing Phone (3a) Lite has a triple-camera system with a 50-megapixel main camera — a little larger than we'd typically see on an Android phone at this price range. Nothing says that larger sensor can pull in 64% more light for better shots in tricky low-light conditions. It uses the same TrueLens Engine 4.0 processing found in Nothing's flagship Phone (3), bringing advanced editing tools down to the cheaper model.
You'll get flagship-like features like night mode — capturing details in the evening without blinding your subjects with an LED flash, DSLR-like bokeh blur behind your subject in Portrait mode, HDR photos, plus 4K video recording at 30 frames per second.
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite starts from £249, which secures the entry-level model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage. Spend an extra £30 and you'll be able to pocket the top-tier model with 256GB of storage. All models are available in Black or White colourways from the nothing.tech online store.
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