Love the Nothing phone aesthetic, but can’t quite stretch to the Nothing Phone 3? Nothing felt the Nothing Phone 3a wasn’t entry-level enough, and has announced the Nothing Phone 3a Lite.
How much Liter is the Lite version of an already Lite phone? Let’s find out, and see how long it takes for Nothing fans to experience some déjà vu.
Get the Nothing look
Credit: Nothing
The Nothing Phone 3a Lite retains the transparent aesthetic we’ve become familiar with from the brand, plus the slightly off-kilter camera lens arrangement that split opinion on the Phone 3.
The rear panel is made of glass, the Phone 3a Lite has an IP54 dust and water resistance rating, and you can get it in two colors, white and black. The phone is 8.3mm thick and weighs 199 grams.
But I know what you’re thinking, what about the Glyph Light? Nothing has been experimenting with its trademark lighting feature for a while, and it has changed once more for the 3a Lite. Where is it?
Look in the bottom left corner of the rear panel, and you’ll spot what looks like a simple notification light, and that’s the Glyph Light on the 3a Lite. It means the Lite does not light up much compared to other Nothing models.
What about the specs?
Credit: Nothing
On the front of the phone is a 6.77-inch AMOLED screen with a 2392 x 1080 pixel resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and a 1,300 nit outdoor brightness level.
A 50-megapixel main camera leads the triple-camera system on the back of the phone, but as the other two consists of an 8MP wide-angle camera and a macro camera, you’ll probably end up only using the main camera most of the time. There’s a 16MP selfie camera at the top of the screen.
Nothing has chosen the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro processor with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage space. We’ve seen the processor in several phones, such as the Poco X7 and the Motorola Edge 60, already. The Phone 3a Lite even has space for a MicroSD card to add up to 2TB of internal storage.
A 5,000mAh battery with 33W wired charging, an optical fingerprint sensor, NFC, and dual-SIM support complete the hardware specs. Nothing OS 3.5 is installed over Android 15, and Nothing promises to supply three major version updates and six years of security updates.
One of the version updates will be taken up by Nothing OS 4.0 and Android 16, which is likely to arrive during the first half of 2026. Nothing’s Essential Space AI-driven memory aid feature is onboard, complete with a physical Essential Key to access it.
Where and when?
Credit: Nothing
If the Nothing Phone 3a Lite’s unusual design, decent specification, and the uniquely customizable Nothing OS software has tempted you, sadly, it doesn’t look like the phone will be released in the U.S. at this time.
However, it’ll arrive in the U.K. on October 29 and cost £249, which is around $329, for the 8GB/128GB version, or £279 for the 8GB/256GB model, which is around $369. If you’re in the U.S. and want a Nothing phone, the Nothing Phone 3a is available for $379, or you can choose from our comprehensive list of the best budget Android phones.
Did any long-time Nothing fans feel they’d seen a lot of this before? You’re not wrong if so, as the Phone 3a Lite is very similar to the CMF Phone 2 Pro, which has the same processor, screen size, and battery, along with a better camera, all for the same price.
