Watch: Nothing Phone (3a) teardown video reveals large vapour chamber and more

Published On: 18 Mar, 2025

Nothing recently unveiled the Nothing Phone (3a) series smartphones for the global markets, including India. PBK Reviews, a well-known YouTube channel, has uploaded the teardown video of the Phone (3a). The video reveals the internals and repairability score of the latest handset from Nothing.

Nothing Phone (3a) teardown

The video begins by removing the SIM tray, which has a gasket for providing dust and water resistance. The user applies heat with a hair dryer to avoid breaking the glass panel and then uses a pry tool to open the rear panel.
The camera bezel can be replaced by applying heat directly to it. It avoids the need to remove the back panel.

The glyph LED lights, NFC antenna and spotlights are integrated into the top of the motherboard cover. It also has graphite film on the rear to transfer the heat.
The main board houses the primary camera with OIS, ultrawide, telephoto, secondary microphone, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, copper tape and graphite films.
The rubber gaskets are also seen around the connectors to protect from debris, water and moisture from entering the main board. It also has a liquid damage indicator sticker, selfie camera, and thermal paste.
An additional thermal paste is also present on top of the processor and RAM, which is visible after removing the copper chamber.

The vapour chamber in the Nothing Phone (3a) is significantly larger than the one present inside the Phone (2a). The sub-board has rubber gaskets around the connectors and USB Type-C port. Nothing has labelled the two pull tabs which need to be pulled to remove the battery. The screen can be removed by disengaging the screen cable beneath the battery.

The Phone (3a) gets a repairability score of 4.5 out of 10, which is lower in comparison to 5 out of 10 of the Phone (2a). The screen replacement on the Phone (3a) is harder than its predecessor, as the screen cable is underneath the battery. The other factors remain the same as the Nothing Phone (2a).