Google announced its Pixel 10 phones a few days ago, with a starting price of Rs 79,999 for the base model. That’s the exact same price as the Nothing Phone (3). Of course, Nothing’s social media team took this opportunity to take a dig at Google, posting a GIF of Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s song with the lyrics, “Main karu toh character dheela hai,” which essentially translates to “If I do it then my character is loose.” What Nothing is clearly trying to say here is that, despite the similar pricing, people were more critical of the Phone (3) than the Pixel 10. But does Nothing have any merit in this stance? Does the Phone (3) actually look better in comparison to the Pixel 10?
When Nothing launched the Phone (3) at Rs 79,999, it took a lot of people by surprise, and for a few reasons. Firstly, Nothing fans or general smartphone buyers are not used to seeing Nothing launch a flagship phone for Rs 80,000. The Phone (3) is, in fact, the brand’s first true flagship phone. For people used to seeing Nothing play in the sub-Rs 40,000 segment since its debut, this new price tag was a hard pill to swallow.
The pill would have gone down easier, though, if Nothing had launched the Phone (3) with a chipset fitting for the segment, such as a Snapdragon 8 Elite or MediaTek Dimensity 9400. Instead, the phone arrived with an upper mid-range Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. Now, don’t get me wrong. This is an excellent chip in its own right. It is a 4nm processor that powers the likes of the POCO F7 and iQOO Neo 10 under Rs 40,000. It’s a performance-focused chip that delivers a score close to 2 million on AnTuTu. However, the issue is that this chip is commonly found in phones priced under Rs 40,000. Google, on the other hand, has developed a new Tensor G5 chipset that’s based on TSMC’s 3nm process, promising advanced, on-device generative AI features and improved performance gains.
Even if you can forgive the Phone (3)’s choice of chipset, the camera is another area where it’s good, not great. As I mentioned in my Phone (3) review, when launching a phone around Rs 1 lakh, the cameras must be great, since this is where brands like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Vivo show their superiority. The Phone (3)’s 50MP sensors are capable, but I noticed a lack of sharpness and detail in many scenes, something rivals like the iPhone 16, Pixel 9, and Vivo X200 handle better. The Pixel 10, meanwhile, adds a telephoto lens even on the base model, and while Google may not have the clear dominance it once did, the Pixel brand still carries strong trust in computational photography, an area where Nothing is still finding its footing.
Where the Nothing Phone (3) stands out, without a doubt, is its design. It’s a controversial one for sure, but the transparent back with the new Glyph Matrix display for notifications and Glyph Toys make the Phone (3) one of the most unique-looking phones in the segment. Add to that a brilliantly attractive display, a solid battery life with 65W charging support, a clean software experience with five years of promised OS updates, and the Phone (3) starts looking like a flagship phone more and more. These are some areas where one might feel the Pixel 10 is lacking, especially with its smaller battery, slow charging speeds, and a largely unchanged design philosophy.
So, does the Nothing Phone (3) look better compared to the Pixel 10? Was Nothing right in taking a dig at Google? The answer depends on what you value. The Phone (3) wins on design (if what you’re looking for is unique), charging speeds, and battery life, whereas the Pixel 10 leans on a proven camera reputation, a new 3nm Tensor G5 with advanced AI, and longer software support. Nothing might poke fun at Google for matching its price, but experience counts, and that may be the Pixel’s strongest weapon in the eyes of buyers in India.
Nothing Phone 3 Images
