Nothing Phone (3) Problems: Battery, Camera, Updates and Fixes

“Goodbye Nothing Phone (3) – 10 months of innovation” is the title of a widely read Nothing Community thread, and it reads like a list of the Nothing Phone (3) problems other owners keep raising. The poster describes screen ghosting, a green tint in dark scenes and a phone that got uncomfortably hot even during light use like YouTube and Instagram. They criticise support replies that the team was “looking into it”, and they weren’t happy with the trade-in value either.

That’s one person’s experience, not a measure of how many phones are affected. But heat, battery and display quirks come up again and again in community threads, and Nothing has fixed several of them in software. Since there won’t be a Phone (4) this year (more on that below), the Phone (3) that launched in July 2025 stays Nothing’s top model for a while. It’s worth getting yours working properly.

Battery drops fast, especially overnight

Right after any Nothing OS update the phone re-optimises apps, and Nothing itself warns it may run warmer and use more power while an update installs. So give it 48 hours before you judge. If it’s still draining after that, the usual suspects are apps running in the background, always-on features and weak mobile signal.

Nothing OS 3.5 (V3.5-250911-2112, reported by GSMArena in September 2025) specifically cut battery use in certain scenarios. Make sure you have it or something newer:

1. Go to Settings › System › System update and install the latest Nothing OS release for your region.
2. Open Settings › Battery › Battery usage. For any app with heavy background use, tap it, then Battery usage › Restricted.
3. Turn off Always-on display and always-on Glyph Toys if you can live without them.
4. Lower the refresh rate in Settings › Display if battery matters more to you than smoothness.
5. Where 5G is weak, switch to LTE in Settings › Network & internet › SIMs › Preferred network type.
6. Check battery health and charging settings in Settings › Battery, and try not to leave the phone hot at 100% for long stretches.

Hot during YouTube, Instagram or charging

The back and frame heat up while you stream, scroll social media, use the camera or charge. Nothing OS 3.5 listed “lowered heating in some cases” among its fixes, so updating comes first here too.

After that, restart. A stuck process is a common reason for heat during light use. Don’t lean on the phone heavily while it fast-charges, and take off a thick case. Settings › Battery › Battery usage will show an app with unusually high usage if there is one.

Still hot? Boot into Safe Mode (hold power, then long-press Power off). If the heat stops there, a third-party app is responsible. If it carries on in Safe Mode even after a factory reset, Nothing support needs to look at the hardware.

Tint, haze and noise in photos

Early reviews and owners flagged colour tint, hazy video and noisy action shots. Nothing OS 3.5 dealt with a lot of it. According to GSMArena, the update smoothed manual exposure adjustments, fixed a tint problem in some scenes, sharpened text in AI SuperRes Zoom, reduced noise grain in Action Mode, improved clarity in third-party apps and gave video better contrast with less haze.

So, as with everything on this phone, update first. Many camera complaints date back to the launch firmware. Then wipe all three rear lenses, because smudges cause most haze. In low light, use Action Mode for anything that moves instead of standard Photo mode. And if the Camera app lags or crashes, clear its cache in Settings › Apps › Camera › Storage & cache.

Ghosting or a green cast on dark screens

Image retention, or a green cast in very dark scenes, can come from firmware or from the panel itself. Update, turn brightness down for dark content, and test in Safe Mode. If it doesn’t go away, film it and send logs to Nothing (instructions further down) before asking for a warranty repair. A video makes it much harder for support to brush off.

Glyph Matrix lights or Glyph Toys misbehaving

The Phone (3) swaps the older Glyph strips for a circular Glyph Matrix on the back, controlled by the Glyph Button. When it acts up:

• Open Settings › Glyph Interface and check that Glyph features and the individual Glyph Toys are switched on.
• No lights for notifications? Turn off Do Not Disturb or Flip to Glyph.
• If lights or toys behave strangely, clear data for the Glyph-related apps and the Essential app (Settings › Apps › See all apps › the app › Storage & cache › Clear storage), then set your preferences again.
• Update. Nothing OS 3.5 included an optimisation for always-on Glyph Toys in multi-user mode.

If part of the matrix stays dark in every mode, that’s a hardware fault.

Updates that don’t arrive, or arrive broken

Nothing rolled out Nothing OS 4.0, based on Android 16, to the Phone (3) on 21 November 2025, with older models about a week later. It didn’t go smoothly everywhere. PhoneArena reported that Nothing temporarily halted and pulled the 4.0 rollout for the Phone (2a) and (2a) Plus after users saw a confusing Android Beta Program message and bugs such as status bar icons resetting. A hotfix followed.

Nothing staggers its rollouts. If an update hasn’t appeared, check Settings › System › System update every few days instead of sideloading builds from forums. If something breaks after an update, restart, clear the affected app’s cache and look for a hotfix. To report a bug properly, use Settings › System › Feedback: describe the problem and attach system logs so Nothing can reproduce it.

And the Phone (4)? Not this year. In a video reported by Android Authority on 29 January 2026, CEO Carl Pei said Nothing “won’t launch a flagship phone in 2026”, and would focus on the Phone (4a) series and audio products instead. He pointed to fierce competition for smartphone components, which he expected to push phone prices up. For Phone (3) owners, ongoing software support matters more than an upgrade path.

Buying a used Phone (3)

Run a manufacturer and model check to make sure the exact model and region match the listing, and check the IMEI against the GSMA blacklist; a blocked phone won’t connect to networks. Confirm it’s Play Protect certified and on official software (the Play Protect certification guide shows how). In person, test the Glyph Matrix and all three rear cameras, and play a dark video to look for ghosting or tint. The seller should remove their Google account in front of you.

Taking a hardware fault to Nothing support

Some faults won’t respond to updates or resets: Glyph Matrix sections that stay dark, ghosting or tint that remains in Safe Mode after a factory reset, heat while the phone sits idle, a battery that swells or empties in hours with nothing running, or a camera that won’t focus at any distance. Before you contact support:

1. Back up your data.
2. Dial *#06# and note the IMEI.
3. Record a short video of the fault.
4. Send logs through Settings › System › Feedback so there’s a record.
5. Check your consumer rights where you bought it. A phone bought in July 2025 is past a one-year warranty in many countries, but UK and EU consumer law often gives longer protection for defects.