Not anything Telephone (3) overview | TechCrunch by means of NewsFlicks

Carl Pei led electronics producer OnePlus from being a scrappy logo for tech fans providing reasonably priced telephones to at least one that produces a couple of traces of units, together with flagship telephones that problem Samsung and Apple. He’s working a equivalent playbook with Not anything, a five-year-old, venture-backed {hardware} startup that simply introduced its maximum formidable instrument, the Telephone (3), previous this month. The telephone, priced at $799, is meant to compete with units from Samsung and Apple.

Whilst OnePlus serious about offering value-for-money specs and revel in in its early days, Not anything serious about design and tool as a differentiator to stick out from different telephones. The startup produces crowd pleasing units with a clear design that attracts consideration.

As my former TechCrunch colleague Brian Heater mentioned, Not anything Telephone (1) was once cool, and the Telephone (2) was once a powerful mid-range instrument whilst keeping up the newness. The Telephone (3), whilst keeping up the clear design ethos, invokes combined feelings against its design.

The telephone has numerous uneven components at the again, together with the surprisingly organized digicam module. In case you have a look at the reactions on the web, some other folks favored it as a result of it’s not like different telephones, whilst some hated it. If you’ll be able to recover from the asymmetrical association, you may just like the instrument.

Not anything additionally took away the glyph LED association that was once outstanding in earlier Not anything telephones. This association made units stand out much more after they illuminated to signify an incoming name or a message. Through the years, the corporate made it extra customizable, permitting you to assign other patterns for various contacts. It even created an SDK for builders, which didn’t take off.

With Telephone (3) the LED association is substituted with Glyph Matrix, a circle-shaped 2d display within the peak right-hand nook to show additional info. It could actually show elementary data similar to time and battery stage whilst you press the button at the again.

The corporate has additionally incorporated mini apps similar to spin the bottle, a stopwatch, and rock, paper, and scissors. That is extra of a a laugh gimmick that you may use to blow their own horns your telephone.

A 2d display on a tool isn’t a brand new idea, and it doesn’t resolve the issue of getting to show the telephone to learn the message. You’ll assign an emoji to a touch, but it surely simply tells you that you were given a message from that touch, however doesn’t let you know what it’s. So you must flip your telephone on anyway. Is the matrix cool? Roughly. Is it helpful? Now not by means of a lot but.

The corporate is inviting builders to construct equipment for it, which might beef up issues if there’s adoption.

{Hardware} and Digicam

The corporate is the usage of a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, constructed on a 4-nanometer structure, which is a step under the Snapdragon 8 Elite used within the Galaxy S25, OnePlus 13, and Xiaomi 15 Extremely. Alternatively, for your daily utilization, that wouldn’t subject so much.

The instrument additionally features a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with 1.5K answer, which is safe by means of Gorilla Glass 7i as a substitute of a more potent Gorilla Glass Victus. The display is shiny and has punchy colours. Whilst it helps HDR for YouTube, Not anything mentioned that Netflix hasn’t whitelisted its units to run HDR content material.

The Telephone (3) options 3 50-megapixel cameras for various functions. The principle digicam has a 1/1.3-inch sensor, which is 20% larger than Telephone (2), at a f/1.68 aperture; the periscope telephoto lens gives 3x optical zoom, 6x in-sensor, and 60x virtual zoom with AI Tremendous Res Zoom; and the ultra-wide lens supplies a 114-degree box of view. There’s additionally a 50-megapixel selfie digicam with an f/2.2 aperture.

Whilst Not anything claims that this telephone is its “true flagship,” top-tier units similar to iPhones and Samsung Galaxy telephones have completed distinct digicam high quality with years of labor. Not anything Telephone (3) takes just right pictures, however colour accuracy wishes paintings to compare different flagship telephones. Plus, if the lights was once now not splendid, the telephone produced beaten shadows and overblown highlights in darkish or shiny spaces of pictures.

The telephone has a 5150mAh battery for global variations, which is just right sufficient to remaining you an afternoon of reasonable to heavy utilization. You’ll price the instrument thru 65W stressed charging and 15W wi-fi charging.

AI options

Not anything debuted a customizable {hardware} key referred to as the Very important Key with the Not anything Telephone 3a and 3a Professional. This key ports over to the brand new flagship and opens up the Not anything Area app, which helps you to save screenshots with notes. However surprisingly, you’ll be able to’t save simply notes.

The corporate may be debuting Very important seek, which doubles up as an web and internet seek the usage of AI.

You’ll seek for information and occasions by means of typing in key phrases, or you’ll be able to additionally ask a question like “Who received Wimbledon in 2024?” after which faucet at the AI button to floor internet effects the usage of Google’s Gemini fashions. That is comparable to Apple integrating ChatGPT with Siri to go looking the internet for sure queries.

The telephone additionally will get a gathering observe transcriber, which data your assembly and in addition summarizes key issues. You’ll cause this by means of retaining the Very important key and flipping the telephone. You’ll double-press the Very important key to file a voice snippet with transcription. Alternatively, customers don’t have a method to get right of entry to those recordings and transcripts out of doors the Not anything telephone, except they explicitly export them.

In a talk with TechCrunch, CEO Pei mentioned that smartphone is the most efficient medium to distribute AI and the corporate desires to make AI options helpful for customers.

“We need to be actually serious about construction issues [AI features] which are helpful [for end users] and now not simply name our telephones ‘Not anything AI telephones’ with some having some symbol era and make contact with it an afternoon,” he mentioned. “[We are thinking about] how we will actually leverage this new era to lend a hand other folks. The theory isn’t to compete with other folks or to take their jobs away. How will we lend a hand other folks transform higher and in addition extra ingenious?”

Whilst this ambition is a great one to have, Not anything’s function set, which additionally comprises an AI-powered wallpaper era device, is consistent with different telephone makers.

Not anything’s positioning

Not anything is making the telephone to be had thru its web site and Amazon within the U.S. In Canada, it’s partnering with Very best Purchase.

At $799, the instrument at once competes with the Samsung Galaxy S25, Google Pixel 9, and the iPhone 16. Since it’s not being introduced thru wi-fi provider bundles, the telephone continues to be geared toward other folks purchasing unlocked telephones and on the lookout for possible choices to Samsung, Apple, and Google.

In India, the corporate’s largest marketplace, this can be a other tale for the reason that telephone begins at ₹79,999. Even supposing the corporate gives reductions and exchanges, the costs are on par with or above the iPhone 16 and the Galaxy 25, relying at the dealer. Preliminary reactions on social media urged that the shoppers discovered the associated fee prime, which might affect the corporate’s gross sales.

Not anything has taken it upon itself to problem Samsung and Apple of the arena, however this present day, quite than direct festival, the telephone is a great, less expensive selection to these units.