You’re about to spend the same amount of money on two phones that couldn’t be more different. One has flagship power with a “boring” design. Then the other, some “flashy” features, but with no flagship chipset, a compromise on the durability of the screen, and a secret downgrade compared to last year that you won’t even notice, but with better specs when it comes to the camera.
So, how do you decide which one actually gives you more? Well, let me show you what they are NOT telling you.
Design & Build
Design-wise, you get Samsung’s signature style design on the S25. It’s clean and minimal and nothing too flashy. But on the other hand, you get this asymmetrical camera, triggering many OCDs out there on the Nothing Phone (3), which I’ll talk about the cameras later on.
However, while many have said that they hate this design, for me, I’m in the middle because I like how it’s different from any other smartphones out there, similar to their headphones, this will stand out more. And this was definitely a decision that Nothing thought about because let’s face it, the previous two Nothing phones, it looks like an iPhone.
Then as for the durability or the build quality, there’s the Armor Aluminum 2 frame on the S25 and regular Aluminum on the Nothing Phone (3). But there is a cost cutting on Nothing’s end because the front is using a Corning Gorilla Glass 7i and Victus on the back, but the S25 has Victus 2 both on the front and also at the back.
So, this was a weird decision from Nothing because it’s like giving you a sports car with bicycle brakes. Because the idea of having this Glyph Matrix at the back is to put your phone face down, right? So, shouldn’t the front glass be more durable? And more on this Glyph Matrix later on.
Both feel good in the hands, very premium, but I do like the refreshing feeling of holding a smaller S25 phone in my hand. But the Nothing Phone (3) surely feels heavier at 218 g compared to just 162 g on the S25, not only because of the size, but the materials of the phone as well.
So, while the design of the phone is a tie because it does come down to a personal preference, when it comes to durability, this phone, the S25, wins over here.
Display
There is quite a difference in the phone’s display. The S25 has a smaller 6.2”, and the Nothing Phone (3) has a 6.67”. Both are high-end AMOLED HDR10+ with PWM dimming.
But while Samsung has 2,600 nits of peak brightness, Nothing has a massive 4,500 nits of peak brightness. Both are crisp and clear, there’s no issue in bright daylight as well, especially on the S25, even though it has a smaller value of the peak brightness.
Samsung has 416 PPI and the Nothing has 460 PPI. While the numbers suggest that Nothing is better when it comes to the PPI value or the sharpness, the display size adjusts because of the fact that the S25 has a smaller display, it does look the same when it comes to the sharpness as the Nothing Phone (3).
But Nothing lacks one thing. The Phone (3) has a different display tech which refreshes the display from 60 Hz to 120 Hz. Whereas the Samsung has the advanced LTPO tech which goes all the way from 1 Hz to 120 Hz.
To be honest, Nothing should have just given us this 1 Hz feature because this would definitely help when it comes to saving battery. But the question is, does it really affect the battery that much? Well, stay tuned for the battery test later on when using this phone daily.
What’s even sadder is the fact that the previous Nothing Phone (2) had the same high-quality LTPO display tech as mentioned on the Samsung. So this is what I meant by a sneaky decision that Nothing did that we didn’t really see or even notice.
But the Nothing Phone (3) has the Glyph Matrix, and they want people to use it by placing the phone on the table face down. So this has a set of 489 individual LEDs that works as a secondary display.
And what can be displayed here besides the digital clock is what Nothing calls the Glyph Toys where you can add or remove them from the Glyph Interface menu in the settings that can show other toys like spin the bottle, battery percentage, stopwatch, having an 8-bit mirror of yourself called the Glyph Mirror, playing rock paper scissors with it, perfect for people like me who have no friends…
These can be changed via the Glyph haptic button at the back of the phone. And there’s more that you can also choose within these Glyph Toys as well and manage it accordingly in the settings.
You can even choose ringtones that will show up over here through the Default Sound Engine either by displaying the “diode” or even “chemical”, but it doesn’t fix the issue that other Nothing phones have which is the fact that not everyone puts the phone face down.
This Glyph Matrix might be a useful feature in the future since it is open to developers, but my prediction is that people will easily forget that this even exists. I said that about the first two Nothing phones and guess what? No more Glyph Lighting. So, will this little screen that allows you to see an 8-bit version of yourself stay for good? I highly doubt it.
But because Nothing came up with something different, I would give a draw in the overall display department for these two phones.
Camera
So, let’s talk about the cameras next. Specs-wise, the Nothing Phone (3) features four 50 MP cameras: the front, the main, the ultrawide, and the periscope telephoto lens.
Samsung on the other hand has a 12 MP front camera, a 50 MP main, a 12 MP ultrawide, and a 10 MP telephoto lens.
Before anything, Nothing’s phone camera app has this very unique feature where if you swipe up, there are different presets for you guys to choose from and even share that with a friend. So, that was really cool.
But let’s compare side by side with the S25 based on the preset straight out of the camera.
Ultrawide Lens
Starting from the ultrawide lenses, both look very close to each other with the S25 looking a little bluer on the skies, but when it comes to the dynamic range and the edge distortion, it was good on both.
Main Lens & Zoom
The main lenses also look very close on both, so was the 2x zoom.
But from the 3x zoom onwards, you’ll see more color difference on both with the Nothing Phone (3) looking a bit more saturated compared to the S25, where the S25 maintained the same colors throughout the two previous two lenses.
But when you switch to the 6x zoom or 140mm, here’s where you see the S25 losing its colors.
From the 240mm onwards is where you can see a cleaner image on the Nothing Phone (3) if you really pixel peep.
Then the S25 can only go up to a max zoom of 30x compared to 60x on the Nothing Phone (3). But the quality on the Nothing Phone (3) was better at this 700mm or 30x zoom.
So if you’re just using the main and the telephoto lenses, you’ll get similar results where the Nothing Phone (3) does better on the overall digital zoom because of the bigger MP count.
Portrait Mode
Human portraits were best on both 50mm onwards or 2x zoom where the edge detection on the Nothing Phone (3) was just a little better towards the hair. The bokeh on the 70mm was just a little nicer to look at on the S25.
Once again, the edge detection on the Nothing Phone (3) was better. So, it was on the 100mm.
But where you see the Nothing Phone (3) fail is when it comes to portrait mode on objects. While Samsung nailed this particular 24mm portrait shot, the Nothing Phone (3) was confused on which to focus on.
Even in this 50mm shot, the red flower was tack sharp on the S25.
However, it was a bit better on the 70mm and the 100mm on the Nothing Phone (3).
But if it’s more of a complicated object, you’ll see the Nothing Phone (3) struggle again on this particular shot of the flower as seen side by side. And this is the same on every portrait mode focal length compared to the S25 where it did a fantastic job nailing the focus with better understanding on which to focus and going through the edge detection very well too.
Selfie portraits on both looks very nice. The S25’s colors are a bit bluer on the skies. Once again, the advantage the S25 has over here is of course the fact that there’s a wider selfie option, but quality wise, you can get very good selfie photos on both during the day.
Night Photography
Ultrawide Lens (Night)
Then switching over to night photography, the ultrawide lenses on the S25 did better when it comes to having more accurate colors as the Nothing Phone (3) made it warmer in color compared to how it was in real life. But the overall image is brighter on the Nothing Phone (3) due to the bigger sensor once again.
Main Lens & Zoom (Night)
Then the nighttime main lenses were better and good on both. So was the 50mm and the 70mm.
But do expect some crappy images on both when it comes to the 240mm or 10x onwards.
However, in a more balanced environment like this second nighttime main lens picture, you’ll get similar great images on both up to 70mm, but definitely not 240mm or 10x zoom with grainy or crappy colors on both.
Portrait Mode (Night)
Human portrait photos at night once again were very nice of both, even up to 100mm portrait mode.
But for objects, both weren’t that good because this particular plant itself was very confusing.
I was quite annoyed with the fact that my usual plant that I take my night portrait mode shots with was not there anymore. Disappeared. So I had to take this instead. So I guess it’s time for me to choose a better night object when it comes to portrait mode in the future.
Selfie (Night)
Then selfies at night were equally as good with the S25 just being a little brighter on the face, but still looking nice on the Nothing Phone (3).
Videography
[Check out my YouTube for all the sample video footage]
As for video, the S25 can record up to 8K. So, let’s just compare the 4K video quality instead.
Ultrawide & Main Lens (Quality)
For the ultrawide lenses during the day, I didn’t like how overexposed the buildings were on the S25. Even without turning on the HDR mode on both phones, the Nothing Phone (3) looked better exposed. That was the case for the main lenses as well.
But what’s funny is that only when you go up to 3x zoom, that’s where you see the S25 did better on the exposure. And you can go up to 12x zoom on both where the S25 will give you sharper footage. But then again, who zooms up to that amount when it comes to video?
Ultrawide & Main Lens (Stabilization)
Then as for stabilization wise, the ultrawide video was excellent as expected, but you would see a little movement on my steps for the main lenses on the Nothing Phone (3), more so for the 3x stabilization.
Front Camera Video
Then the front video camera can record up to 4K and it handled the exposure changes very well. Stabilization for the front video was also great on both.
Nighttime Videos
Then as for nighttime videos, while the S25 was strangely a bit brighter on the ultrawide lenses, even though with a smaller MP count. But it was better on the main lenses on both, quality-wise.
The ultrawide lenses on both were good, balancing well on the highlights and the shadows, even better on the main lenses too, even with the 3x video quality as well.
Then the selfie video was surprising at night because while both handled the exposure well, but my skin tones looked a bit pasty on the S25. It wasn’t an issue before, but yeah, it is something that you can clearly see in this footage. But stabilization wise, the S25 was better.
Do check out my Youtube video for a vlogging test.
Software
Nothing OS
Personally, I really love the Nothing OS software. It feels like a blessing to the eyes and the overall usability as well. Many of you also agree with the fact that when we ask you what is the saving grace of the phone in our YouTube community post.
So yeah, Nothing has always been a software optimizing company like the Google Pixel. The widgets were great on the phone. They also allow you to adjust the size of the notification icons and even a red recording button at the back when the video is recording.
But of course, the highlight is the fact that the idea of having the Essential Key over here where with a single click, you can take a screenshot or take a photo directly from the gallery to the Essential Space and saving it with a caption was a really nice touch. You can also long press to record a voice note and save it as a transcription as well.
But what’s even cooler is the fact that there’s a feature called “Flip to record” where how this works is that when you put your phone face down, just press and hold the Essential Key and just like that, you’re recording your meetings or just being a spy. Then if you double press this button, it will enter the Essential Space as well.
And then there’s also Nothing’s version of Apple Spotlight search where you can search for anything on your phone or on the web by either swiping up from the home screen or you can customize to have the search over at the home screen as well.
One UI
But Samsung also has the best One UI customization and the AI features too like how it has its own Galaxy AI and Google Gemini which are practical to use like the Now Bar and the Brief section and which are actually simple and usable from a day-to-day life.
But mind you, these AI features in Samsung are free till December 2025 so let’s wait and see what happens after that, right?
Samsung also offers 7 years of OS and security updates compared to just 5 years of OS updates and 7 years of security updates on Nothing, which does sound like a clear win for Samsung with the extra headroom that Samsung provides.
But if I tell you logically, 5 years is still more than enough because online data says that the majority of the people change their phone about 3 to 4 years.
So I would give this a point for Nothing for just being different and slightly being a little unique than the S25. So I would say that this was almost a draw over here.
Performance
But there’s a clear winner in the performance department. The Samsung S25 has the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy, which believe it or not is the top selling chipset currently for Qualcomm. Yeah, not even the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Whereas the Nothing Phone (3) has a knockdown version of the Snapdragon 8S Gen 4, which yes, is a step down or step behind from the 8 Elite. So, it’s like ordering a Wagyu beef and then they give you a “Premium Australian Beef”.
But Nothing does put a lot of effort when it comes to optimizing the processors for the smartphone. I saw it in the Nothing Phone (2) and the CMF Phone (2) Pro as well. But considering the pricing, Nothing should have given a better processor.
Although it doesn’t lag and stutter when it comes to simple tasks, it does show a difference when it comes to gaming on the phone. Whether or not it is the overall performance or even the long-term comfort, the S25 feels better and of course more optimized as well.
But gaming aside, we would love that extra headroom if you’re paying 800 USD, right? So, Samsung gets the performance department over here.
Battery
But that does not make the Nothing Phone (3) a poor option because there’s one place that Nothing is obviously winning, which is on the battery.
This Phone (3) has 5,150 mAh of battery, but a bigger 5,500 mAh in India only because apparently India has fewer restrictions as compared to the US and the EU in the transport regulation. So, globally here in Malaysia, unfortunately, we are only getting 5,150 mAh whereas the Samsung S25 has 4,000 mAh.
Again, numbers might tell you that Samsung is going far behind. And the answer is… yes, they are way behind compared to the Nothing Phone (3).
Because while I was getting an average around 6 hours plus of screen on time when I was at 10% battery on this S25, the Nothing Phone (3) gave me a whopping 10 hours of screen on time when I was at 10% battery with dark mode turned on. Very close to the best battery life I had this year, which is the Google Pixel 9a at 11 hours of screen on time. So yes, this Nothing Phone (3) gets this point.
Conclusion
So should you buy the Nothing Phone (3)? Well, the answer is not as straightforward and as easy as it may look.
Considering Nothing is a baby company or a startup, they are very close but not there in competing with the giants. So, it does come down to which is your priority when it comes to this comparison review.
But at this point in time, I think that Nothing should be concentrating more on their audio products instead because that has been great and on point as of late.
Related:
– Nothing Debuts Nothing Phone (3) with Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and Headphone (1) in Malaysia
– Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Base: The SHOCKING Truth!
