I’ve Only Used iPhones… Until Now – Nothing Phone 3a First Impressions

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So as

a lifelong iPhone user, I finally made the

switch to Android and I decided to go with

the Nothing Phone 3a. Don't worry about

this weird thing here, I'll explain later.

I'm currently filming this video on my old

iPhone, iPhone 12 mini, and it's about 5

years old now and I thought to myself,

it's about time I upgrade to a more modern

smartphone without breaking the bank. So I

went for the Nothing Phone 3a because it

just came out, I think, a few weeks ago,

and it's not a high-end flagship, it's

more of a mid-range spec phone. So I

decided to go for this one because of the

price point, and also I wanted a bigger

screen and I wanted a bigger battery than

my iPhone 12 mini was offering me. And

I've been using it now for a few days now,

and actually it is pretty good. I have no

complaints about it so far apart from just

tiny little nitpicks. And yeah, it is

quite interesting going from iOS to

Android, but things haven't been that

different, to be honest. So in this

specific skin of Android, you actually get

this home button at the bottom which acts

identically to iPhone. The Samsung phones

don't seem to have this, they just have

the little 3 buttons at the bottom. It

seems like Google Pixel and also Nothing 3

have this kind of mimicking swipey gesture

button that you'll find on iOS, which as a

long-term iOS iPhone user, I really

appreciate this. So it basically works the

same way, so you can do this Swipe, swipe

sideways to switch between different apps.

So if you've got open like that, swipe up

to go back to your home screen, long swipe

up to open up all the apps that are open.

And you can also do cool things like split

screen mode, pop-up mode. So yeah, as you

can see, you can do split screen mode.

I've got my stocks at the top, I've got

Google Maps at the bottom, and that's

pretty cool. You can't really do that on

iOS. You do split screen mode, or you can

even do a pop-up mode. So for example,

you can have your calculator open and go

into pop-up view, and you'll just have it

here floating like that, which is, uh,

pretty nifty. So you can click here

and you can like resize it, drag it around

like that. So you can have the calculator

up there on top of whatever you have in

the background. So the versatility and the

adaptability of the Android ecosystem is

quite cool compared to what you can do on

the iOS iPhones. One of my favorite

features has to be the GPS spoofing

ability. So you can get all these apps on

Android Play Store where you can just

trick your phone into thinking it's in a

different location. And you might be

thinking, why would you want to do that?

And, um, you might be surprised that

there's quite a lot of situations you

might get yourself into where you need to

trick your phone into thinking you're in a

different place to where you're actually

at. So that's a really cool feature,

really helps me in my day-to-day life,

and I just can't seem to be able to do

that on iPhone because I think you need to

jailbreak the iPhone to be able to do

that, plug it into a computer, and I just

can't be bothered to do that. So there's

also developer options in Android, so you

can change all kinds of settings like,

um, how many background apps can be active

at the same time. Maybe just one, maybe

just 2. There's so many different things

you can change in the developer options

that you just have no access to on iPhone.

As for the cameras, I don't really have

any complaints. You have your wide angle,

your standard, 2x, 4x for photos,

And stabilization on the video is also

very good, so you can do wide angle. You

can tell the stabilization is in effect,

so you can just see how smooth it is

without shaking everywhere. So yeah, the

camera's pretty good, mic's pretty good.

I don't really have any problems with the

cameras. And one thing I

don't like is because it's such a big

phone, they've put the buttons in the

middle of the phone, which makes sense.

So you got the buttons there and there,

so they're basically in the middle of the

phone. So when you're holding it like that

you can easily press them. And that makes

complete sense because if the buttons were

at the top, you would constantly be having

to shuffle around like that to get to the

top of the phone, or you'd have to use 2

hands and press them. So I see why they've

done that. The problem with that is, um,

when you put the phone into a tripod or

a car mount, anything that grips the phone

and you want that to grip the middle of

the phone, it's going to accidentally

press the side button. So I can't really

use my tripods anymore with this phone

because, uh, yeah, it keeps accidentally

pressing the buttons. With the iPhone 12

Mini, all the buttons at the top, so I can

put this thing into my tripod and there's

no buttons getting in the way. Also, I had

to put this, um, so I really missed

MagSafe. MagSafe has to be one of the best

things about iPhone. And yeah, okay, you

can get MagSafe cases for Android phones,

but for some reason I couldn't find a

MagSafe case for the Nothing Phone 3a. So

what I did was I took my Samsung S10+

MagSafe case and I just cut out the

magnetic bit of the back, and then I super

glued it onto the back of the Nothing

Phone 3a's case. So I got this transparent

plastic case. I didn't super glue it

directly onto the phone, and it works. So

I've got this magnetic MagSafe car mount

phone holder in my car. And it's just such

a, such a life changer where you can just

slap it onto the mount and just pick it

up. You don't have to keep squeezing

buttons or clamps. You just put it on,

take it off, put it on, take it off. And I

really missed that, so I had to get myself

a case and then cut this magnet bit out.

And yeah, well, it looks ugly, I guess.

You can't really see the cool design

anymore, but you know, functionality over

appearance. It would have been just really

nice if they just made a case with MagSafe

or built MagSafe into the phone. Also, I

kind of miss wireless charging because my

MagSafe car mount phone holder is also a

wireless charger, and I used to charge my

iPhone whilst it was mounted, and that was

really good. You can't do that on this

phone. They didn't put wireless charging

in, and his reason, the CEO's reason for

not putting it in, was because not many

people were using it. Uh, okay, but I was

using it. Just because not everyone was

using it doesn't mean no one uses it, and

I really don't think it would have cost

that much money, just put a wireless

charger onto it, would have cost like $5.

Also, I was running into problems with the

app that I use for work. So I have this

special app for work and it runs

flawlessly on my iPhone, it works

perfectly, um, but when I wanted to use it

on this phone, it kept crashing over and

over again. It was so annoying, I had to

switch back to my iPhone mid-shift

and then figure out how to fix it back

home. So I did manage to fix it, I don't

exactly know what I did fix it. I just

fiddled with the options like background

usage, allow background data usage,

allow. I went into the developer settings

and I put, um, disable,

um, disable executing cached apps or

something. So I don't know why it was

crashing, but it seems like it didn't

crash at all today, not even once. And I

used it for about 3 to 4 hours. I must

have done something in the settings.

Like, I have no idea why

it was crashing, to be honest. Some kind

of background task thing, like it was not

running in the background when it needed

to be. So I had to fiddle with the

settings for hours and hours and hours

yesterday to get the app that I use for

work to work without crashing. And on the

iPhone, it just works without having to do

anything. So that was a bit annoying. Why

don't I just use my iPhone for my work

app? Because the iPhone battery is

just not very good, and it's nice to have

a bigger screen. That's the whole point I

bought this phone, is because I wanted to

use my work app on an Android phone

instead of an iOS phone. Yeah, there's a

lot of customizability on this phone. So

for example, I can have a large app icon

instead of a small one, and that's quite

good when you're outside and you just want

a big button to press because these are

quite small. And what's this compass

widget, which is pretty cool. So I can

like spin it around and it'll tell me

which way I'm facing. So that's pretty

cool. There's time widget. And you've got

cool little features like double tap to

lock and also pick up to unlock, and it

automatically scans your face and unlocks

without having to press anything. Look,

I'll just pick it up, scans my face,

unlocked straight away. It's really

useful. As for the essential button,

I find it to be kind of pointless, and I

keep pressing it by accident. So basically

all it does is it takes a screenshot like

that, and then you can add a note to it or

add a voice memo, but you can't edit it.

You can't crop it, you can't draw on it.

I don't know why. It's like a worse

version of the normal screenshot where you

just press power and volume down. You can

do a normal screenshot like that, and then

you press it, and now you can squiggle on

it and crop it. I think that's way more

useful than adding a voice memo. I don't

know why. Also, if you hold it down,

it'll record a voice memo like this. So I

guess if you really need to record a voice

memo urgently, you've got it there. But to

be honest, this is why it's so stupid,

because I never ever— I think I used voice

memo once. When I was at the hospital and

I was listening to the doctors. This was

like 6 years ago and I wanted to quickly

record what they were saying to hear it

later. That was the only time I've ever

used voice memo. And then they're like,

oh, we're going to get rid of wireless

charging because not many people use it.

But then they put in this stupid button

where its only function is to do a voice

memo and a screenshot when there's already

a screenshot button. So they're saying

that— they're saying— what are they

saying? That more people want a button

where they can do a voice memo instead of

more people who want a wireless charger.

I'm pretty sure more people would want

wireless charging than people who want a

special button that does a voice memo. I

never use voice memos. Anyway, yeah, it's