Nothing 3a Lite vs Nothing 3a & Nothing CMF 2 Pro: Which Budget Phone Should You Pick?

Nothing has come out with a new smartphone, the Nothing Phone 3a Lite, and in addition to that, it has made a statement about its upcoming launch in India very soon. The company has not specified a particular date or price yet.

The Lite variant, which is positioned below the Phone 3a, is predicted to be priced below Rs 20,000 which is obviously a more economical option for buyers who are keeping an eye on the budget. The move to this extent has been taken due to competition from Nothing's offshoot CMF, which has hit the market with a similar pricing strategy namely the CMF Phone 2 Pro.

To throw light on the matter, the CMF Phone 2 Pro was priced at Rs 18,999 when it was launched in India and the Phone 3a is currently being sold at Rs 22,999. Below is a comprehensive comparison of the three gadgets.

All three devices get their looks from Nothing’s design philosophy and the characteristics of clean and minimalist aesthetics. The 3a Lite adopts a slightly less transparent version of the brand's classic look used in the Phone 3a. The CMF Phone 2 Pro features an eye-catching design with a detachable back cover along with a lanyard-friendly attachment point and a control wheel located at the bottom. The three models each have their own visual identity that will please different classes of users.

In terms of the display, both the Phone 3a Lite and the CMF Phone 2 Pro have 6.77-inch Full-HD+ AMOLED screens that are capable of 120Hz refresh rate and 3,000 nits peak brightness, besides having HDR10+, adaptive refresh rates and Panda Glass protection. The Phone 3a has the same display as the standard one.

The performance of the phones varies a lot among the three. Both the 3a Lite and the CMF Phone 2 Pro are powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro which is a 4nm mid-range chipset coupled with 8GB of RAM and a maximum of 256GB of storage. The CMF model also comes with RAM Booster feature, allowing virtual expansion to 16GB.

The Phone 3a, on the other hand, is given life by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which makes gaming and overall performance far better than the other phone's. Also, it can handle up to a whopping 12GB RAM which makes the device highly suitable for heavy use with multiple tasks going on at once.

The camera features tell a lot more about the phones' differences. The Phone 3a Lite camera consists of a 50MP major sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, and a third sensor that is not yet mentioned, together with a 16MP front-facing camera.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro takes the superior camera setup one step further with a 50MP main sensor, a 50MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom, and an 8MP ultrawide lens. And the Phone 3a produces even a better picture than both, having two 50MP rear sensors (telephoto and ultrawide), an extra 8MP ultrawide shooter, and a 32MP front camera. Advanced imaging features like TrueLens Engine and Night Mode are common in 3a as well as CMF 2 Pro while 3a is benefiting from the TrueLens 4.0 for better motion and image processing.

The battery capacity remains at 5,000mAh for all three models. The charging rates are different, however: 3a Lite and CMF Phone 2 Pro support 33W fast charging, while the Phone 3a comes with a whopping 50W fast charging. On top of that, CMF has added the feature of 5W reverse wired charging for the gadgets. The consumers are advised not to forget that the Nothing smartphones do not come with a charger.

All the devices are being powered by Android 15 along with Nothing OS (v3.1 or higher). Each handset promises three major Android updates and six years of security patches. The user interface stays simple yet fast, adhering to the brand's uncluttered design philosophy.