Nothing is a unique smartphone design company. It launched its new Phone 3a series in India on 4 March. The Nothing Phone 3a is a budget-friendly smartphone with its unique design and impressive specs. It is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (4 nm) chipset and 5000mAh battery backup. But is it good for gaming?
In this post, “The Gaming Test Team” share Nothing Phone 3a gaming performance, testing frame rates, thermal performance, battery efficiency, and more. Whether you’re a casual player or a hardcore gamer, find out if this phone is good for gaming to read this post.
Nothing Phone 3a Hardware review for Gaming Performance
Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 Processor review
| Specifications | Nothing Phone 3a |
| Processor | Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (4 nm) |
| GPU | Adreno 710 (940 MHz) |
| RAM Type | LPDDR4X |
| Storgae Type | UFS-2.2 |
| Antutu score | 815168 |
| CPU Throttling | 80% |
The Nothing Phone 3a is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (4 nm) chipset, which delivers good performance. Because it is a 4nm processor designed for mid-range 5G devices for day-to-day life tasks and casual gaming.
Honestly, this processor is for good gaming, it can handle 90fps BGMI, 60fps CoD Mobile gaming, and Genshin Impact supports 45fps. I haven’t seen any lag during daily use and day-to-day normal tasks.
Also read: Realme Narzo 80x 5G specification, antutu score and Geekbench result
Graphics (GPU) and Touch Sampling Rate
Every good gaming smartphone requires good graphics hardware for a better gaming experience, and the Nothing Phone 3a has a mid-range gaming GPU. The Nothing Phone 3a is equipped with an Adreno 710 (940 MHz) GPU, ideal for 90fps gaming and providing a smooth frame rate.
This phone touch response is excellent, though the exact touch sampling rate isn’t specified, but it works smoothly in-game.
LPDDR4X- RAM
The Nothing Phone 3a has 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, it is good. LPDDR4X RAM type consumes less energy and offers more power-saving capabilities, providing smooth multitasking, app switching and casual gaming.
UFS-2.2- Storage
The Nothing Phone 3a has UFS 2.2 storage. At this price UFS-2.2 storage type is not a value for money option. Some other Brands offer UFS 3.1 at this price. But this phone software experience is excellent, and its storage read and write scores are good, while we compared it the other smartphones.
UFS-2.2 storage supports fast File transfers, copy-paste actions, downloading, and transferring files from other devices through the Easy Share option, working quickly.
Phone 3a- Antutu and Geekbench Scores
- AnTuTu: The Nothing Phone 3a antutu score 815168.
- Geekbench: Single-core score of 1,037, multi-core score of 2,984.
- CPU Throttling: 80% of peak performance
- 3DMark Wild Life: Achieved a 99.9 stability, showcasing its ability to handle graphically intensive games
These benchmark scores highlight the Nothing Phone 3a’s decent performance for gaming, except throttling, high graphics demanding games like BGMI, PUBG Mobile, and Call of Duty run with major frame drops after longer sessions of gaming.
Also read: Vivo T4x 5G Gaming Test: it is good phone under 15,000 price?
Nothing Phone 3a: Display review
| Display | Nothing Phone 3a |
| Size | 6.77 inches |
| Type | AMOLED Screen |
| Refresh Rate | 120Hz |
| Touch Sampling Rate | 240Hz |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2392 pixels |
| PPI | 387 ppi |
| Peak Brightness | 3000nits (peak) / 1300 nits (HBM) |
| IP Rating | IP64 |
The Nothing Phone 3a has a 120Hz AMOLED screen with HDR10+ visual quality support for smooth visuals and vibrant colours, with a 240Hz touch sampling rate (300+ touch rate is best), which responsive time is average in BGMI and CoD Mobile.
The 3000 nits peak brightness and 1300 nits HBM provide better outdoor visibility. When we play games and do other tasks in outdoors, it is easily visible and it enhances our gaming performance.
It has HDR10+ display, on YouTube is support HDR video but, now it doesn’t support HDR on Netflix videos.
Phone 3a: Network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Speaker
- During our long gaming session, the Nothing Phone 3a’s strong network and 5G VoNR capabilities significantly boosted gaming performance.
- Its Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 6 work great with no connectivity issues. Bluetooth supports A2DP and LE connection, providing excellent bass and cleared sound quality.
- It has Dolby stereo speakers sound quality is greet and 3.5mm headphone jack is not available, you can connect earbuds.
Nothing Phone 3a Gaming Test review:
BGMI Graphics Settings and Gameplay Review
| BGMI Graphics | Nothing Phone 3a |
| Smooth | Extreme+ |
| Balanced | Extreme |
| HD | Extreme |
| HDR | Extreme |
| Ultra HDR | Ultra |
| Extreme HDR | NA |
BGMI Gaming Test Setup
We tested BGMI on the Nothing Phone 3a using two graphics settings to evaluate its gaming performance across different setting:
- Graphics Settings: Smooth + Extreme+ (90 FPS) and HDR + Extreme (60 FPS)
- Session: 1-hour continuous play
- Monitoring Tools: We monitored real-time FPS meter for checked frame drops, and recorded battery drain and device temperature after 1 hour of continuous gameplay..
BGMI Gameplay
- My Noting Phone 3a delivered an impressive performance during a 40-minute BGMI session with smooth + extreme plus settings.
- I experienced minimal lag and no significant heating issues. The phone maintained a stable frame rate, delivering 87-90 FPS during TDM matches and 77 to 88 FPS throughout gameplay on various maps like Erangel, Sanhok, and Livik.
- Occasional frame drops to 35-56 FPS occurred on the Livik map, but the phone quickly recovered to its smooth performance.
- Additionally, the battery drain was 14% after 40 minutes of play, and the phone remained cool even with the highest settings.
Overall, this real-world BGMI test of the Nothing Phone 3a’s capabilities is 60fps, not 90fps gameplay, and it is good for casual players, below average gaming, and it may be improved after the update.
COD and Genshin Impact Settings
Call of Duty on Nothing Phone 3a runs at 60 FPS without any frame drops. It also runs heavy games like Genshin Impact at 45fps and gives a 32 to 38fps frame rate.
Battery: 5000mAh
- Every smartphone battery plays a major role for every gamer. It comes with a 5000mAh battery with a 50W charger support, but this charger is not available in the box and also 5W wireless charging support.
- The battery drain was 14% after 40 minutes of play, and the phone remained cool even with the highest settings.
- You can play games for 4 to 5 hours and perform any heavy tasks. For normal day-to-day life with social apps, it can last one day easily.
- The 50W charger takes 1 hour to fully charge, which is really good. So, the batter performance well good and gives you long gameplay.
Nothing Phone 3a Pros & Cons
Here’s a quick guide of Nothing Phone 3a pros and cons to help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
Pros
- Affordable Price: Rs 27,999 with discounts. Affordable because of good camera, premium design and decent performance.
- Strong Connectivity: 8+ 5G bands network, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.4.
- High-Quality Display: 6.77-inch AMOLED 120Hz display with HDR10+ visual quality.
- Thermal: Improved cooling system to reduce throttling.
- Battery Life: Large 5,000mAh battery for extended gaming sessions.
Cons
- Processor Limits: Not ideal for heavy gaming.
- Slower Storage: UFS 2.2 storage (vs. UFS 3.1/4.0) leading to slower load times.
- Frame Drops: Occasional dips to 33-38 FPS during intense gameplay.
Conclusion
The Nothing Phone 3a is casual 60fps gaming who prioritize a balance performance, good software experience, battery life, with affordable price. However, if you’re a hardcore gamer and your priority top graphics games with high frame rat, you might be consider Snapdragon 8 series processor or Dimensity 9200+ processor.