When smartphone maker Nothing teased Phone, it garnered plenty of excitement with its glowing Glyph rear design. It felt futuristic and looked straight out of a sci-fi movie. The lights are not only for aesthetics, but also show notifications, charging status, and more. But at best, it was a midrange phone, and had many flaws.
Although Nothing has cleaned up some flaws with the Nothing Phone 2 series, they still have a long way to go. Or maybe not that long? It looks like the Nothing Phone 3 will be the company’s first flagship device. The device has been confirmed to bring advanced AI and better hardware tailored towards higher-end users.
Nothing Phone 3 may launch at MWC 2025
An email from Carl Pei, the CEO of Nothing, has been leaked. Courtesy of Blogger Evan Blass, we now know what to expect from the company this year. Carl talks about how the company has come a long way since 2020, even when most people thought it would fail. He mentions that 2024 was a big year for Nothing, as they became one of the fastest-growing brands in smartphones and audio.
For 2025, they’ll release the Nothing Phone 3 with new AI features and a better user experience, alongside the Phone 3a and 3a Plus models. Although it’s vague on the specifics, there are clues pointing to the device’s release.
The CEO said that they have “a landmark smartphone launch that the world will be very excited to see” in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025. His statement strongly points to the Nothing Phone 3’s release happening during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, which takes place from March 3 to March 6 in Barcelona, Spain. With the event being one of the biggest platforms for smartphone announcements, it’s the perfect setting for a highly anticipated launch.
Related: The Nothing Phone (3a) Will Switch Over To A Snapdragon Chip
Nothing can be better
Comments under Evan’s post are voicing what fans really need from the company, like an improved camera. The Nothing Phone 2’s performs well in good lighting, but it struggles with overexposure. Images tend to look overly processed and saturated as well.
Nothing says that they’ve expanded their camera and software teams by 50%, so we should expect to see fixes in many aspects and upgraded performance.
There’s also the compatibility issue with Verizon in the US. Currently, the Nothing Phone 2 can work on Verizon’s network if you use an active SIM from another Verizon-certified phone in areas with good 5G coverage. Since the carrier doesn’t fully support it, it lacks support for Verizon’s essential 4G LTE band 13, causing signal problems in areas outside of 5G coverage zones.
The Nothing Phone 3 could benefit from Qualcomm’s newer Snapdragon 8 Elite released in 2024, or at least the 2023 Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, over the 8 Gen 1 released in 2022. The 8 Elite features a new Oryon CPU, which replaces the older Kryo CPU from previous models, and it has a better architecture with two prime cores and six performance cores.
Since Nothing also plans to throw in AI into the device, the upgraded Hexagon Neural Processing Unit on the chip should handle all the capabilities they plan to throw at it effortlessly.
Then there’s the matter of size. Carl argues that few people buy small phones, but there’s still a market for them in minimalists, petite handed. The Asus Zenfone 10 (5.9 inches) and Google Pixel 9 (6 inches) are good examples as they hold powerful specs in a compact design.
Maybe MWC 2025 will give us a glimpse of a truly game-changing Nothing Phone that not only delivers better hardware but also refines the user experience as promised. Regardless, I can’t wait to see Nothing to rise as a strong contender in the smartphone industry.
