The Nothing Phone 3a and Nothing Phone 3a Pro are incredible value for what they offer users, but both could spoil that slightly by requiring a subscription to use their most advanced features, according to findings by Android Authority.
To recap, the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro both feature an "Essential Space," where screenshots and recordings made using the phones' new Essential Key live. The Essential Space can then index these files to help you search for them later, or turn them into notes, summaries or to-do list items.
We found the system a bit bare-bones in our reviews, but Nothing promises more features are coming which could address that complaint.
However, another upcoming addition to the Essential Space could be mandatory payments to use at least parts of it.
According to the code Android Authority discovered during an APK teardown of Essential Space, there's text explaining how new users will be able to get a year's free trial of Essential Space features. This could apply to only currently unreleased abilities also mentioned in the code, like Smart Collections or Flip to Record.
But outside of that trial, users will have to pay for AI credits, with a $120 fee also being mentioned. It's not clear how much AI time 120 bucks would get you though, although I'd expect this is at least a year's worth of use, if not a lifetime subscription.
Nothing commented to AA that it's currently offering a free early access period for Essential Space, and that "no decisions have been made yet around potential pricing." But the presence of the code suggests that it's seriously considering the idea, even if it ends up being a different amount.
Extra paid smartphone features seem oddly difficult to implement
Phone makers appear keen to add AI-related features to their new phones, but none of them seem entirely certain how to monetize it. Even if they clearly want to.
Last year, when Samsung debuted the Galaxy S24 series and its Galaxy AI feature package, there were rumors of Samsung considering charging a subscription fee. But here we are a year later, with the Galaxy S25 series out and still offering its AI features for free, and claims from Samsung high-ups that there are no plans to change things right now.
While Apple isn’t charging anything for Apple Intelligence (at the time of writing at least), it got on this trend earlier by claiming it would charge owners of an iPhone 14 or a later iPhone for Crash Detection or Emergency SOS via Satellite.
But after originally claiming you'd have to subscribe after two years, Apple extended the free trial for the iPhone 14 to three years, kicking the can further down the road.
It's not just smartphones trying this either. Over in the wearables department, the Samsung Galaxy Ring was also considered for subscription-locked features, although currently there's nothing to pay beyond the price of the ring itself. Garmin's trying it out too, with a Connect+ subscription that unlocks advanced features in the Garmin Connect app, similar to how Nothing's subscription could work.
With phones costing more than ever, locking many of the key features behind additional payments is never going to go over well with phone buyers. Especially when these new features make up most of the upgrades from previous generations of the same phone.
Optional extra features need to add a lot of value to be seen as worthwhile, such as cloud storage. And as clever as some of these AI features are, none of them have proven to be as universally handy as off-device storage yet.
Perhaps 2026 will see a flurry of companies suddenly paywalling their AI features as the generative AI market matures and settles, with Nothing among the first going by its current level of preparedness.
I'm still not convinced the phone-buying public's sold enough on these features to pay for them separately though.
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