Nothing is comparing its coming budget Phone 3A’s camera against that of the iPhone 16 Pro Max in a new YouTube video released today. Specifically, it’s showing off the performance of the Phone 3A’s 50MP periscope camera, which appears in the bottom right of the triangular three-camera array in the photo (emailed to the The Verge) at the top of this story.
Nothing says the periscope camera offers a 3X optical zoom and up to a 60x “ultra zoom” for macro photography and 70mm focal length, compared to the 5X optical zoom, 25x digital zoom, and 120mm focal length of the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s tetraprism camera. The company says in its email the camera’s computational photography uses AI tone-mapping and scene detection to tweak the look of images.
In its email, Nothing says the 3A’s 50MP main camera gathers “64% more light at a pixel level meaning it has a 300% greater full well capacity” than the 2A. In the video, Nothing explains that full well capacity refers to how much light the sensor’s individual pixels can collect before becoming oversaturated. All four of the phone’s camera sensors — the three rear cameras and its front-facing camera — support Ultra HDR, while the main camera and front camera record at 4K video and feature night photography enhancements.
The comparisons involve outdoor pictures of graffiti, food, and buildings. The YouTube video’s description includes a link to a Google Drive containing some of the pictures it took, such as the two below comparing depth-of-field between the phones, with the Nothing Phone 3A’s shot on the left and iPhone 16 Pro Max’s on the right.
Nothing has been trickling bits of information and teases of the Phone 3A lately, such as a social media post hinting at a new button or a press release confirming that it will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip that’s 25 percent faster than the Phone 2A’s MediaTek CPU. The company has said it will unveil the Nothing Phone 3A on March 4th at 10AM GMT / 5AM ET.
