The 5,000-mAh battery is enough for most days, and the Nothing Phone (3A) Lite can probably last for two days of light use. When it gets low (no wireless charging) you have to plug in and the rate goes above 33 watts. That’s not bad, enabling you to go from zero to 80 percent in less than an hour. It has 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.3 support, but expect the battery to drain much faster on 5G networks.
Where the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chipset and 8GB of RAM really struggled for me was the camera. On several occasions, it took a few seconds to open and I had to reboot the phone once to load the camera app. I encountered occasional lag when opening and switching apps, but camera performance was a bother as general use feels relatively easy for a budget phone.
It doesn’t help that the camera system is disappointing. The main 50-megapixel shooter is capable, if a little slow, with a large-ish 1/1.57-inch sensor and f/1.8 aperture that handles many scenarios quite well. But the 8-megapixel ultrawide is bad, and the 2-megapixel macro is a complete waste of time. Comparing close-up with macro and the main camera (see flower photos) shows how useless it is. There’s a 16-megapixel shooter on the front that’s fine for selfies and video calls.
You would think that a design-based company like Nothing would be more capable of adding features that simply add value. If ultrawide and macro are only going to produce lackluster results, ditch them and stick to a single, solid primary camera.