00:00It's been a while since we've had a true flagship killer and I think this smartphone
00:05just might be it. Introducing the Nothing 3A Pro in black.
00:11Getting into the box is rather interesting. I imagine the sleeve is supposed to come off
00:15easier than this, but I'm going to be honest, there's nothing super satisfying about this
00:20particular unboxing experience until you finally get to the nothing that's inside. I'm a huge fan
00:25of transparent devices. Also in the box we have a long white USB-C cable as well as the classically
00:31clear nothing SIM card removal tool. Not quite as glitzy as the gold plated Red Magic SIM ejector,
00:37but definitely a good looking close second. Nothing has dropped two phones at the same time
00:42this year. The 3A Pro on the left and the regular blue 3A on the right. Both nearly identical in build
00:48quality and hardware, just different cameras and camera placements and of course a different price.
00:54The 3A Pro is an extremely reasonable $459 and the regular 3A is an even more extremely
01:01reasonabler $379. A sub $400 smartphone in this economy is truly a treasure. I hope it survives.
01:11Since both phones have the same size and physical build minus the camera bump, I'll be focusing most
01:16of my attention on the black nothing 3A Pro, which has a substantial raised ring in the center to contain
01:22the massive periscope camera. For reference, this hump is about the height of two car keys,
01:27exactly three quarters, or if you're outside the USA, there's a really nifty trick you can do with
01:32the back end of a set of calipers that reveal the exact dimension of 5 millimeters. The less expensive
01:383A has a more reasonabler gradient on its own linear triple camera setup instead of the massive plateau.
01:45When it comes to the front of the phone however, instead of Gorilla Glass this time around, we have
01:49something called Panda Glass, which appears to be a more budget friendly alternative to Gorilla Glass,
01:55and it's made in China. A panda seems way more cuddly than a gorilla, but that's besides the point.
02:00It's still chemically strengthened like Gorilla Glass, and while I can't speak to Panda's impact
02:05resistance, its scratch resistance levels are what we would expect on a flagship, with scratches at a
02:10level 6 and deeper grooves at a level 7. The same glass covering the screen also covers the 50 megapixel
02:17front facing selfie camera and razor thin earpiece slit. It's on the side of the phone where we
02:22finally find out how nothing managed to make this nothing so inexpensive.
02:30Plastic, which to be honest I'm totally fine with. Single use plastics need to be banned off the face of
02:36the earth of course, but plastic on a phone that has 6 years worth of security updates? Sign me up.
02:42The polished essential key is made from metal along with the metal power button.
02:46A plastic frame just makes a lot of sense. There are no antenna lines and honestly I didn't even
02:51realize it was plastic when I first grabbed it. The individual volume buttons are both made from metal
02:57and the bottom of the phone with this lower loudspeaker and 50 watt USB-C port is also plastic.
03:03However, this year we do have an official IP64 rating, as we see with the rubber ring around the
03:08edge of the dual SIM card tray. IP64 means we have protection against rain or mist,
03:13but submerging your nothing is still a bad idea. Nothing has upgraded the back panel to glass this
03:19year which is nicely scratch resistant. The plateau as well is topped with a single circle of glass
03:25protecting each of the camera units. The top left camera is the 8 megapixel ultra wide. The 50 megapixel
03:31main camera is on the bottom left. The 50 megapixel periscope telephoto camera is the big boy in the center.
03:37And the single LED flash is up top with the large ring around all three cameras being made from metal.
03:46It appears the only real compromise, if it can even be called that, is using plastic on the frame.
03:52Since the screen on both phones is still a massive 6.7 inch 10 bit 3000 nit 120 hertz 1080p AMOLED,
03:59which survives for about 20 seconds under the heat from my lighter without any permanent visible
04:04blemish. It has of course evaporated the oleophobic coating so don't try this at home. You'll be
04:09surprised at how many moms get mad at me for that one. I am a professional however so feel free to
04:14leave the testing to me. Both phones do have an under display optical fingerprint scanner which when
04:20slathered with level 7 deeper grooves is still able to read my fingerprint and unlock the phone every
04:25single time. So thumbs up for that. Finally, the bend test. Being plastic, I thought that we would
04:31at least get some delightful destruction or some blissful bending or maybe an educational experience.
04:37But for some reason, probably due to the ultra rigid glass on both sides, which is embedded into
04:43the plastic clips of the frame, we don't get any movement. No cracking, no creaking, and no catastrophic
04:49carnage. Even the less expensive regular 3A, which is built in the exact same way with glass on the
04:55back survives just fine when bent from both the front and the back. Glass is indeed helpful for
05:00that rigid structure, but as we know, glass is glass, so keep that in mind as drops are still going to be
05:06an issue. Like I said earlier, the main difference between the two phones are the camera units, so I
05:12vote that we see what that periscope camera looks like from the inside, which means the back glass needs
05:17to come off. I'll warm it up until it's barely too hot to touch and slide my razor blade between the glass and
05:22the plastic frame. I did that, obviously, as an example of what not to do since the adhesive was
05:32obviously not fully soft enough to start pulling on. Anyway, with the adhesive now fully sliced away,
05:38it's cool seeing the camera units basically already exposed. The camera housing comes away with the
05:42tinted back glass. I thought it was kind of interesting here that the directional microphone
05:46on the back glass has its own waterproofing mesh over the whole opening. This microphone is used for ambient,
05:52noise reduction during phone calls, and picking up better audio during video recordings. We also
05:57have two gold contact pads for the LED flash. The Glyph interface, which I forgot to show you earlier,
06:03is still attached to the phone body. If the 3A Pro survives the teardown, I'll have to show you what
06:07that looks like when it turns back on, which reminds me I should probably turn it off first. Now here's
06:13where we have to be a little more careful. There are 9 visible T5 screws which need to be removed,
06:18but there are also some hidden Phillips head screws just waiting to mess everything up. If you lift up
06:23some of the decorative embellishments you can find most of the screws. These embellishments are designed
06:28to mimic the large ribbon cables that traverse the space between the motherboard and the charging port
06:33board. There are 3 more Phillips head screws on the bottom and 7 Phillips head screws at the top,
06:38one of which is hidden extremely well and I didn't end up finding that last hidden location until it was
06:43too late. But now we all know where it all is and I'm happy to take one for the team. The battery
06:48comes out easy enough. Nice work nothing. Big fan of that. Every smartphone needs to be recycled
06:55eventually and it's nice to plan for the future. Making that 5,000 milliamp power battery easy to take
07:00out makes future material separation and recycling easier. With the battery gone we get a look at what
07:09the real ribbon cables actually look like. The two long ribbons sit right on top of the vapor chamber.
07:14The lower 50 watt charging port board can come out and nothing's loud speaker which has its
07:19waterproofing mesh over the opening as well as has balls inside. A $460 smartphone with balls inside is
07:26a pretty solid deal. To get access to that 50 megapixel telephoto camera I'll unplug the longer ribbon
07:31cables that connect to the motherboard just like little Legos. There are two more small Phillips
07:36head screws holding on the motherboard, one at 3 o'clock and the other up around 10 o'clock. Then
07:41the motherboard can ungoopify itself from the aluminum midframe. Apparently this aluminum midframe
07:46is made from 100% recycled material and is probably what helped the phone stay in one piece during the
07:52bin test. There is an extraordinary amount of thermal paste up in here. Down at the bottom of the frame
07:57we have a super small square vibrator motor, the optical fingerprint scanner, and more waterproofing
08:02mesh over the loudspeaker opening. Grabbing the motherboard with this camera still attached,
08:07remember these upgraded camera units are the main difference between the 3A and the 3A Pro.
08:12Up top is the 8 megapixel ultra wide camera with no OIS. Then we have the 50 megapixel main camera which
08:18does have OIS and the 50 megapixel telephoto with internal OIS. Normally I like to keep these cameras in
08:25one piece, but considering I'm bored today and we already broke the back glass, let's dive a bit deeper
08:31than usual. A zoom lens or zoom camera requires a bit of extra distance between the lens and the camera
08:37sensor. The longer the lens, the longer you can zoom. Instead of nothing making the phone over an inch
08:43thick in just one spot, which would be kind of funny actually, they decided to extend the sensor out
08:47horizontally and use a prism or mirror to redirect the light into the sensor. This isn't new obviously,
08:54it's just new for nothing. The inner portion of the lens rides on magnets to focus the image and just
08:59like on the main sensors that are flat, these electromagnets can also provide internal optical
09:05image stabilization. You can see how the prism, which can be seen from the camera bump, is taking the
09:10image and throwing it horizontally to the sensor that I shattered a few seconds ago. Honestly I think
09:15it's a pretty cool setup and I think nothing is on the right track here with the inexpensive line
09:20of flagship phones. The nothing 3A Pro can accomplish 90% of what a flagship 3 times its price can
09:26accomplish and the plastic frame does not bother me in the slightest. A plastic back also wouldn't
09:31bother me but I do see the benefit of glass and a heavier phone just feels more premium even if that's
09:37all in my head. I did say I would show off the Glyph interface and lucky for us the phone is still
09:41fully functional. Nice work myself. I specifically didn't mention a giveaway at the beginning of
09:49this video so it would be just for those who make it to the end. I'll pick three random people in the
09:54comments who tell me their favorite ice cream or dessert and they'll receive one of my remaining
09:58nothing 3As or the one unopened nothing 3A Pro. Hit that subscribe button and as always thanks a ton for
10:05watching. I'll see you around.
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