Nothing Phone 3a video leak hints at mystery button’s AI purpose

The Nothing Phone 3a series is set to be unveiled on March 4 at this year’s Mobile World Congress, but a steady stream of leaks has given us an almost complete list of specs, with only two key details left to reveal: the price and the purpose of mystery button that you’ll “love to click many times a day.”

The latter may just have been revealed nine days ahead of schedule, thanks to a couple of official-looking videos promoting both the regular handset and the slightly enhanced Nothing Phone 3a Pro.

The videos come via the X leaker Arsène Lupin, who previously revealed key details about Apple’s PowerBeats Pro 2 headphones ahead of release. The French tipster published promo videos of both the regular handset and the Pro model, and both feature a button shortcut to something called “Essential Space.”

Essential Space seems to be an AI-curated to-do list. In the videos, the phone screen is seen browsing Instagram, and then seeing a post promoting Milan Design Week. The side button is then pressed before a microphone bar pops up along the bottom, with the accompanying text reading “Remind me to buy tickets tomorrow.”

A screenshot is captured and whisked off to the side of the screen, and we see a text reading “I’ve set a reminder to buy the tickets tomorrow for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile” with the correct dates of the event underneath. We’re then shown a list of the demo unit’s other to-do items, each with a deadline. “Essential Space organizes content and generates action points,” the accompanying text reads.

Elsewhere, the videos largely reiterate the core specs we’ve heard before. For the most part, the phones are set to be the same right down to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processors and 6.77-inch 120Hz AMOLED screens (this is actually 0.05 inches more than previous leaks have suggested, but close enough.)

The difference is the camera setup. While both use the same 50MP main camera and 8MP ultrawide sensor, the telephoto lenses and front-facing cameras are different. For the latter, the Pro model has a 50MP lens while the former drops to 32MP, which should make a modest difference in selfie quality.

But it’s the third rear-camera lens that will make the main difference. While the regular handset has a 2x telephoto lens, the Pro version is set to have a 3x periscope model. Both of these are a first for Nothing, and unheard of for handsets at this expected price point. It’s worth noting that neither the OnePlus 12R nor the Google Pixel 8a — two of the best cheap phones you can buy — have any kind of telephoto lens.

Hopefully that doesn’t mean the Nothing Phone 3a will leapfrog them in terms of price. The company’s last release — the Nothing Phone 2a Plus — started at $399, while both the OnePlus 12 R and Pixel 8a sell for $100 more. We’ll find out if Nothing can stay competitive in just under two weeks.