“The Glyph interface just isn’t a gimmick,” Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei advised the press as he revealed the Nothing Telephone 3 for the primary time, shortly earlier than asserting that its new iteration permits you to play Spin the Bottle on the again of the telephone.
It’s blended messaging, however in Nothing’s protection, you couldn’t accuse them of constructing that mistake elsewhere. The Telephone 3, we’re advised, is Nothing’s “first true flagship telephone,” some extent the corporate is eager to hammer residence: flagship chip, flagship digicam, flagship value. Actually, it’s so flagship that the corporate is even springing for a real US launch, its first since 2023’s Phone 2, which Pei tells me solely is smart for his or her “premium” telephones.
At $799, the Telephone 3 is priced to match the iPhone 16, Galaxy S25, and Pixel 9, as Nothing positions itself firmly exterior its mid-range origins, and Pei says the corporate feels prepared “to compete with merchandise in that value degree.” Preorders open Friday, July 4th, with common sale ranging from the fifteenth from Nothing’s personal webstore and Amazon within the US. Nothing says the telephone is absolutely suitable with T-Cellular and AT&T, with “extra restricted 5G help” on Verizon.
That is Nothing’s costliest telephone but, however on paper the specs ought to maintain tempo with the worth. The Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 chip isn’t essentially the most highly effective round proper now, however its efficiency ought to address all however essentially the most demanding cellular video games, particularly paired with as much as 16GB of RAM. Storage begins at 256GB, and for an extra $100, you may get 512GB.
The Nothing Telephone 3 makes use of a silicon-carbon battery, a comparatively new know-how that makes it simpler to suit large batteries into small telephones. Right here, which means a beneficiant 5,150mAh capability, mixed with a 65W wired charging velocity and 15W wi-fi charging velocity. The 6.67-inch OLED display is greater than twice as shiny because the Telephone 2’s, and the IP68 water- and dust-resistance ranking is a primary for Nothing too. All 4 of the cameras — three on the again, one on the entrance — are 50-megapixel, although it’ll be unimaginable to say whether or not they’re any good till we get to check the telephone out correctly. Nothing’s digicam processing has lagged somewhat behind the competitors previously, so this’ll be the world to observe.
All that’s in keeping with different flagship telephones, so what makes the Telephone 3 really feel like Nothing? That’s the place that new, gimmick-free Glyph design is available in. Whereas earlier Nothing telephones have featured an array of sunshine strips that may glow and flash in custom patterns for notifications and ringtones, right here, these have been swapped out for a small, round dot matrix LED show in a single nook of the again of the telephone.
The Glyph Matrix is straight away much less putting than the older telephones’ designs, and fewer distinctive too — Asus has included dot matrix shows on the back of its ROG gaming phones for years. Pei advised me that the benefit is that customized notifications might be “way more fast,” with simply recognizable pictures or emoji tied to particular apps and contacts relatively than summary animations that is perhaps arduous to grok at a look.
Then there are the Glyph-focused video games, formally dubbed Glyph Toys, designed so as to add a contact of enjoyable that’s “severely missing within the area proper now.” The Telephone 3 launches with Spin the Bottle, Rock Paper Scissors, and extra useful fare like a stopwatch and battery indicator, which you’ll be able to cycle between utilizing a haptic button hidden among the many many shapes on the semi-transparent rear. Pei suggests you might use Spin the Bottle to assist resolve find out how to cut up the invoice at dinner, a type of jokes that performs effectively throughout a keynote speech however doesn’t make a lot sense if you actually give it some thought.
Pei insists that Nothing isn’t carried out iterating on the Glyph Matrix. He calls the “expandability” essentially the most thrilling a part of the brand new design, citing Glyph Toys already developed based mostly on concepts from the corporate’s “neighborhood” of followers, like a magic eight ball. “I feel they may invent some novel use instances we haven’t even considered but,” Pei says.
The Telephone 3 additionally sees the return of the Important Key, a aspect button that debuted on the Phone 3A and 3A Pro earlier this 12 months. It’s customizable, however by default launches Important Area, an AI-powered app that shops and analyzes screenshots to present you reminders about occasions or journey plans. New to this telephone is the choice to transcribe and summarize assembly audio, together with a common search bar that may monitor down all the things from contacts to images and reply primary factual queries.
The Telephone 3 is an enormous swing for Nothing. It’s the corporate’s first transfer into the flagship market, and its first effort to crack the US in two years, so maybe it’s no shock that the telephone’s new Glyph design is a bit more conservative than we’re used to. Nonetheless, Nothing taking part in it protected has produced a bolder and extra divisive telephone than any Samsung or Apple has put out in years — simply don’t name it a gimmick.
Images by Dominic Preston / The Verge.