Design, build quality, handling
Even if the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite relies on a familiar glass sandwich build, you can recognize it’s a Nothing right away. You can easily spot through the transparent glass back the signature red square, plenty of tiny nits, some LEDs, and the battery outline that looks like a net.
The Phone (3a) Lite has two flat Panda Glass panels on both sides, which makes it a mostly glossy phone, and a sort of a smudge magnet if you will. The plastic frame is also flat, but with a matte finish.
The Phone (3a) Lite is IP54-rated for some dust and water splashes resistance. It’s not a phone you should submerge in water for sure.
The Phone (3a) Lite is available in black and white colors, just like most of Nothing’s other phones.
The whole front is home to the 6.7-inch OLED screen with 1080p resolution. The panel has somewhat thicker than usual bezels, but that’s not something we can hold against a phone that’s rather affordable.
The 16MP selfie camera is inside a reasonably small punch hole around the top, just below the earpiece.
Hidden underneath the screen, around the bottom, is an optical fingerprint scanner, which works fast and reliably.
The back of the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite has three sticking out rings – one for each rear camera – the primary, the ultrawide, and the macro. Around those is the LED flash, too.
There is a basic Glyph UI on the back that is made of only one LED, positioned at the bottom right corner. It lights up upon different notifications, and you can set plenty of rules if you like. Flip to Glyph is naturally available.
The sides of the Phone (3a) Lite are pretty much standard – the top has a lonely mic, while the bottom has the speaker, another mic, the USB-C port, and the nanoSIM + microSD tray.
The left side houses the volume key, while the right packs the lock and the Essential Key (for notes and voice memos).
The Nothing Phone (3a) Lite measures 164 x 78 x 8.3 mm and weighs 199 grams – that’s the same size as the CMF Phone Pro 2, but 14 grams heavier.
The Nothing Phone (3a) Lite has an outstanding build and a unique, recognizable design. It has a poor grip and fingerprints do stick a lot, but it’s still a solid device, and you can improve its slippery body with the supplied case.