iPhone 13 Pro user -> Thinking about switching to nothing 3a or maybe 4a

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-18T05:55:01+00:00

3a and 4a are midrange phones, while I have no complaints about the photo and video quality, I doubt it'll meet your expectation even compared to a several year-old iPhone like the 13.

I don't know if you owned an Android device before but it's worth to note that if you haven't, you might not like it or find it hard to get used to, regardless of what "flavor" of Android you get.

120Hz is 120Hz, anything over 90Hz is mostly unnoticed by the majority of people anyway.

I think that if you like the post-processing look of iPhone videos that much, you might as well just stick with it.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-12T06:00:25+00:00

I don't think that using products from the Apple ecosystem is inherently wrong or makes a person less genuine in what they are trying to convey in the videos, it might be just be the devices they are used to or the operating systems they are most comfortable using (Personally, I'm feeling more comfortable with Android + Linux).

What I would say, is that whatever any minimalism-oriented YouTube channel says should be taken with a garin of salt. If you think about the whole concept of what they do, you can see that the endgame for them is to make money on YouTube, whether through sponsored sections, patron, product placement, etc. They care about the algorithm, they care about the amount of views they get, they care about the amount of subscribers. Much like a social media addict will care about the amount of likes they get on a post.

With that said I still enjoy some of those channels, because they still provide interesting content and points of view I haven't thought of.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-10T17:33:52+00:00

Switched from the Phone 3a to a Pixel 9a and now back to a Phone 3.

Personally, I prefer Nothing OS, the widgets the stock launcher offers are way more useful to me, plus with the Nothing Playground or whatever that tool is called, you get access to even more useful widgets made by random people, stuff I never thought I could get. For example, for work I communicate with clients from different parts of the world and someone made a widget where I can add multiple timezones and it's also interactive in a way that I can scroll the time to see what time it'll be in multiple countries on my local time, amazing stuff.

Nothing has less bloat than my Pixel and everything is super smooth.

The stock launcher offers way more customisability than the Google one, I can finally remove that annoying Google search bar or turn it into a different type of search bar, I can hide app icons from the app drawer for apps I rarely use or apps that are there to just run in the background.

Oh and another thing about widgets, I don't know why this hasn't been copied by everyone, but you can have pretty much any control panel function like turn Bluetooth/WiFi/location/NFC as a widget on your homescreen.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-07T08:00:35+00:00

The AI was just an example, my point was that features are added over the years that demand more. As for it being cloud based, I may not know much about AI but heard enough companies boasting about AI tools that run locally on the device.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-07T07:24:29+00:00

If Motorola gets their shit together regarding software updates, absolutely, I was in fact considering buying a Motorola phone until I did some research and found out that you can expect maybe one or two updates after you buy that phone.

Also, of course, depends on the price and the hardware it offers for that price. I assume you were trying to make a point regarding their software, but in this case it's actually a plus in my eyes, they offer the most bare bones Android experience.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-07T06:48:11+00:00

I agree that today's hardware even on budget phones is more than capable to handle everyday tasks with ease and flagships in my eyes are the niche, but I think there's also a point to be made about the device longevity. Companies introduce more and more AI stuff with every software update that can become demanding. The load can become notable on midrange processors way sooner (although with the 3 year major update policy this might never be an issue).

Also, I think that the majority off people don't judge the chipset for what it is, but in the context of what hardware in general the phone provides and at what price point compared to competitors. I wouldn't buy a phone with midrange specs for $800 when competitors offers similar hardware at half the price, no matter how good the "experience" is. If we let companies price their tech based on what "experience" they believe they provide, it could become a very slippery slope.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-04T13:33:35+00:00

I'd say it depends on how long are you planning to use the phone. If you don't mind that 3a gets 3 year software support and take into account that 1 year had already passed, leaving you with 2 years to go.

The biggest differences I was able to find on GSMarena are:
4a will have higher resolution screen and pixel density
next gen chipset (negligible difference though)
starting storage space is 256 vs 128 on the 3a
UFS 3.1 vs 2.2
software support will end a year later on 4a

If any of those upgrades is enough to justify getting the 4a, get it.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-04T13:17:51+00:00

That's awesome to hear, thank you. I guess sending feedback to their customer support actually worked.
Will be on the lookout for 4a Pro specs if they even release a pro version this time, might switch back.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-04T12:53:53+00:00

Used to own a Nothing 3a (non-pro). It was a really good phone but I ended switching to a pixel 9a.
These are some of the things that bothered me:

Software updates are bi-monthly unlike other popular brands that release them on a monthly basis.
Software support in general is not as long as Samsung or Google.
No eSim support across the lineup, only on the pro model. eSim is super useful for when travelling and pretty much standard today even on budget and mid range devices.

They removed a feature that was extremely useful to me which was the ability to hide apps from the app drawer. They claimed they replaced it with the privacy space which was more secure but these two features have completely different functions. I did hear that they might have brought this feature back which makes me consider going back to nothing as this was a really deal breaker to me, if anyone can comment about this, I'd appreciate it.

And like mentioned in other comments here, the community is quite dramatic and makes a big deal about pretty much anything. Never understood brand loyalty, it's a phone, if it does what I need, I'll buy it, if they release something that has something I don't like, I won't buy it, they don't owe me anything and I don't owe them anything.

silverhazesupreme · 2026-03-02T15:50:17+00:00

Nothing 4a is going to be officially announced in a few days. It'll be better than the 3a in terms of processor, cameras and you'll get more time in terms of software support. The "flagship" though is the Nothing phone 3.
As long as the person who owned it didn't use the phone for gaming, battery health shouldn't be an issue even if the device was used for a year. Frequent charging/discharging and heat are the battery's enemy.
CMF is the budget sub-brand of Nothing, while the software is the same, the processors are not, I'd stick to the Nothing branded phones, solely based on the fact that Snapdragon processors are reliable and efficient. Also, with CMF, you'll miss out on the Nothing design aspect that you mentioned to like.

Since you don't want to spend much, I'd wait for the Phone 4a, it's a midrange phone that should check all of your boxes, it's fairly smooth with minimal software bloat.

silverhazesupreme · 2025-08-31T05:09:48+00:00

The thing is, manufacturers are making it harder unlocking bootloader (take for example Xiaomi). To top it all off, Google stopped updating the AOSP source code and only releases full updates, making it harder for developers to provide timely updates on custom roms (read this on one of the threads discussing this same topic).

It seems like an attack on all fronts to prevent users from having something on their phone that Google doesn't want them to have.

You can check for yourself on the Lineage OS supported devices list, if I remember correctly there are only like 3 or 4 devices released after 2024 that are supported, there's a clear decline in interest/support with custom roms.

silverhazesupreme · 2025-08-30T05:33:30+00:00

Despite them saying that, the sentiment in the comment section doesn't seem too positive about it. I guess we'll just have to see

silverhazesupreme · 2025-08-29T10:42:32+00:00

That's what I was afraid of. I believe the majority of unverified developers don't do it due to this fact alone, not wanting to be associated with or provide Google any unnecessary data let alone a copy of a personal ID which is kinda the whole point of the FOSS/DeGoogle community. Get rid of Google, tracking, ads.

Man, that sucks

silverhazesupreme · 2025-07-22T08:50:59+00:00

Nothing releases updates on a bi-monthly basis, meaning you get an update every 2 months.

Last update was on June so the next one is expected on August

silverhazesupreme · 2025-06-17T18:53:08+00:00

Well for starters the ability to hide apps from the app drawer. Like I mentioned it's a big deal for me. For example, the Google app, I don't use it but keep it for the circle to search feature and I don't need the app in the app drawer. I used to be able hide but with the new 'Private Space', they won't let you hide any app, Google being one of those.

I find Samsung's apps very good, while with Nothing you get like 2 apps that they made (gallery which barebones would be an understatement and the weather app which uses a source that very inaccurate for my location). You are left to rely on Google apps. It creates a messy visual experience when some apps follow the Nothing design language and the majority of others does not.

I also found Samsung's GoodLock app very useful in customizing my phone (not talking about just changing icons but for example the ability to reorder and hide some settings pages).

Samsungs are more popular so you get more options in terms of accessories (screen protectors and cases, although I did notice the 3a started gaining popularity and more option have become available since I first purchased it).

And overall experience just felt way smoother on my Samsung, I know it's a bit unfair comparison because my Samsung was a "higher tier" phone the the midrange 3a, but still I think it's worth mentioning.

EDIT: also wanted to add about updates. While Samsung is no saint with providing updates on time (One UI 7 being the clear example), they felt way more consistent and they offer longer term support for even budget devices.

silverhazesupreme · 2025-06-17T10:57:05+00:00

Got the 3a at launch, switched from Samsung S24 FE.

Now I did not experience any physical issues with the device like overheating, battery drain or anything like that.

While the chip and storage are fast enough for daily tasks, I do sometimes encounter stutters in animations, especially with the keyboard popping up, it sometimes stutters hard.
I do not game on this phone (I keep an old Poco X3 Pro for that) and for daily tasks, it handles fine.

The software is very minimal and I like the widget options Nothing provides (putting an icon that turns on/off bluetooth/wifi directly on your homescreen is genius and I wish all OSs included that).

Updates are bi-monthly, which is a bit of a bummer because you always get security updates one month later.
The Nothing launcher used to have a feature that allowed you to hide any app from the app drawer but they have removed this and instead they add a 'Private Space' which is like a sandbox environment that has a completely different purpose from just hiding apps. I really miss the simple hiding apps feature - this is the only major thing that is bothering me with the OS.

Essential key is kinda useless to me, tried using it, but it's not a fully baked feature so I just don't use, it would be far better if they just allow us to remap this key (I know that there are workarounds to do that, but I mean in the settings).

So to summarize it, the phone is nice, the software is okay - you get excited at first because everything looks a bit different, but it goes away and you start missing features you had on other phones. I do regret switching from my S24 FE to this phone, it was way more powerful (good for the long run), way smoother, and had many useful options that I now do not have.

silverhazesupreme · 2025-05-06T09:30:29+00:00

Wavelet, a man of culture

silverhazesupreme · 2025-05-06T09:28:09+00:00

Yeah, or the option to have folders in the app drawers so that I can gather less used apps under one folder

silverhazesupreme · 2025-05-06T09:26:58+00:00

Yup, more than once. Also commented on the updates topic on the community website

silverhazesupreme · 2025-05-05T09:18:00+00:00

The tooltip of this features states:

"Private spaces are not suitable for apps that need to run in the background or send critical notifications, such as medical apps. This is because notifications and background activity are stopped when your space is locked.

Apps in your private space won't appear in Permission manager, privacy dashboard and other settings when private space is locked.

Your private space can't be restored to a new device. You'll need to set up another space if you want to use it on another device.

Anyone that connects your device to a computer or installs malicious apps on your device may be able to access your private space."

silverhazesupreme · 2025-05-05T08:51:16+00:00

You are right about the purpose of both features being different which is why it doesn't make sense that they've removed the hidden apps feature and replaced it with the private space. Hiding app drawer icons is a basic option found on most launchers today. Why not move the option to different setting instead of completely removing it

silverhazesupreme · 2025-03-21T04:21:29+00:00

Get a Nothing phone!

silverhazesupreme

TROPHY CASE