I like the Nothing Phone 3a — the Phone 3a Pro, too, for that matter. I think they’re the best phones the company has put out in its short history, and I believe they are well worth the price of admission. And, for most of the world, I can say that you should go out and buy one. I can tell you that they make significant improvements over their predecessors, the Phone 2a and 2a Plus, and that they deliver even better value with new triple-camera setups and shiny Qualcomm chipsets.
But I have bad news for US-based Android enthusiasts like myself. Like all of the upstart brand’s recent releases, neither the $379 Nothing Phone 3a nor the $459 Nothing 3a Pro will work properly on major US networks, making this pair of exciting budget phones complete non-starters stateside. Here’s why that decision frustrates me and why I hope it changes really soon.