Nothing's Phone 3 Is Stymied By Contentious Design and Price (ndtvprofit.com) 15
Smartphone maker Nothing's $799 Phone 3 has been "mired in controversy among the same customers who rallied behind the company's past products" since its July launch, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Tech enthusiasts have "lambasted the company for the phone's peculiar industrial design and what they perceive to be an unreasonable price."
The Android device lacks the most performant Qualcomm processor chip found in premium Android phones and the camera performance "falls short of other handsets in this price bracket," the publication wrote in a scathing review. The phone costs $200 more than its predecessor and matches pricing with Apple's iPhone 16, Samsung's Galaxy S25, and Google's Pixel 9.
Critics across Reddit and social media have attacked Nothing for removing the signature Glyph Lights from previous models. Comments on Nothing's YouTube channel have been "bruising," focusing on the phone's oddly positioned camera array. "At its current price, the handset is too expensive for what it offers," the review concludes.
The Android device lacks the most performant Qualcomm processor chip found in premium Android phones and the camera performance "falls short of other handsets in this price bracket," the publication wrote in a scathing review. The phone costs $200 more than its predecessor and matches pricing with Apple's iPhone 16, Samsung's Galaxy S25, and Google's Pixel 9.
Critics across Reddit and social media have attacked Nothing for removing the signature Glyph Lights from previous models. Comments on Nothing's YouTube channel have been "bruising," focusing on the phone's oddly positioned camera array. "At its current price, the handset is too expensive for what it offers," the review concludes.
They lost the point (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Skinner! (Score:2)
“I don’t know why people are so emotional about a phone design,” said Carl Pei, the startup’s founder and chief executive officer, in a recent “Nothing CEO reacts” video addressing the complaints. “Either you like it or you don’t like it. And if you don’t like it, just move on.”
Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong.
That's a bold strategy for a company who's trying to sell a mediocre Android phone as comparable to iPhone 16 and Pixel 9.
pricing fail (Score:2)
Pei said in his video that his choice of chip might have been wrong for the âoe0.1 percent of the population who need the bleeding edge of processorsâ but that his brand was âoenever meant for the spec warriors.â
The phone is $200 more than their prior phone, and priced like faster phones. How was that supposed to work?
Re: pricing fail (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
So what does this bring that makes it worth the price premium? You've already agreed it isn't performance, and it's definitely not price. There isn't anything particularly compelling about the software. The camera is mediocre at best. That leaves us with the plastic case it goes in.
Is wacky plastic enough to keep the company alive?
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To think the price of a phone is proportional to its speed is wack.
You're confusing statements about value with statements about price. If you want your device to perform in the market, you have to offer both things. Apple has cachet for some reason, this doesn't.
I'm not the target (Score:1)
I do like that it looks a little different: the sea of boring rectangles doesn't inspire me. Show me a modern SE P910 with a jog wheel etc
Repairable? (Score:2)
Is this repairable?
It looks like it could be a grid of replaceable parts but the review doesn't mention it.
That would be worth being ugly like driving a 1999 Big Box Chevy truck.
I get vibes of when I bought an Essential PH-1 though.
OnePlus-Carl Pei (Score:1)
So "Nothing" I'd buy.......lolol (Score:2)
I'm unsurprised... (Score:3)
I know that Slashdot's unofficial tag line is "tomorrow's news next week"...but as a Nothing Phone 2 owner, the NP3's floundering is completely unsurprising.
They hyped up the reveal, as they tend to do, and when release day finally came...the entire comment section was like, "wait, wut?"
I don't *necessarily* think the $800 price point is the dealbreaker, at least in a direct sense. The bigger issue is that the NP3 shifted from the Glyphs - a unique function that all of their other phones have - and moved to the 'Glyph Matrix'. This wasn't a completely bad thing, but they took away the regular glyphs to do it. Now, I understand that the Glyphs come across as gimmicky for most, but it's a very visibly distinct element of their phones, so messing with it was a gamble...and it seems that Carl Pei is learning that a niche vendor needs far fewer people disliking their product for a company to have a 'New Coke' moment.
To continue, the press releases and announcements leading up to the NP3's release seemed to focus on their AI functions. I'm not convinced that was wise, because I think it's much more difficult to compete in that space. For the folks who *want* AI in their phone, a Pixel 9 costs the same as an NP3; I don't think Nothing is going to favorably compete with Google on those merits. Similarly, the 3(a) and 3(a) Pro releases spent so much time focusing on how amazing the camera was...it almost seemed like they were selling a camera that incidentally had a phone bolted onto it. This is a selling point for many, granted, but Samsung and Google and Apple all have fantastic cameras on their phones. Again, these devices seemed to compete in the most crowded of spaces.
Meanwhile, the areas Nothing *could* be competing in, they aren't. Batteries aren't removable. Headphone jacks aren't present. MicroSD slots are unavailable. Bootloaders are still unlockable (for now), but LineageOS only *just* got official support on the NP2, two years after its release. They don't offer any first-party alternatives to the Google services; no custom e-mail addresses or a variant of F-Droid for their custom apps and Glyph-enabled ringtones.
I can appreciate the desire to scale to the point where they compete competitively with Apple and Samsung, but pissing off the base isn't a worthwhile way to do it...and I think enough people are voting with their wallet that Carl is getting the message. My guess is that they'll try marketing it a bit more for the next month or two, and if they don't sell, they'll bring the price down to $599 to clear out inventory and fast track the NP4...which will probably have an $899 price point, but at least this time the people in the focus groups who say "don't do that" will probably be given a bit more credence, so the phone might actually be desirable.