Pixelated rear screen allows Nothing Phone (3) users to play spin the bottle

https://www.dezeen.com/2025/07/01/nothing-phone-3-smartphone-headphone-1/







Consumer-tech startup Nothing has launched a smartphone that it calls "a statement on where we are going as a company", as well as its first over-ear headphones. Nothing's Phone (3) is a significant design departure from its two predecessors, Phone (1) and Phone (2). It ditches the "glyph" light display that characterised those products in favour of a new "glyph matrix" – a small pixelated screen in one corner of the reverse side.







Nothing has called Phone (3) its first "flagship" product. Operated via a dedicated button, this micro-LED screen can show app- or person-specific notifications, or enable the user to play with digital "toys". These range from useful everyday tools, such as a stopwatch and battery indicator, to micro-games like rock, paper, scissors and spin the bottle. "Now you might be thinking, 'When am I going to use these toys?'" Nothing CEO Carl Pei said at a launch event in London on Tuesday. "And yeah, you know, some of them are just for fun, because we believe that fun also deserves a place in tech too."







Nothing users will be able to create new functions for the glyph matrix via the Nothing Community platform, with a magic eight-ball already co-developed. Phone (3) also reinterprets the inside-out look that Nothing employs across its product range compared with the brand's previous smartphones. The back of the phone now features a three-column grid, designed in reference to the three circuit boards inside the phone.







The glyph matrix includes the option to play micro-games like rock, paper, scissors. "Phone (3) design builds on an idea that we had ever since the Phone (1), turning the internal logic of the phone into something visual and emotional and even architectural," Pei told the event. As well as improved performance, other changes from previous iterations include the addition of a third, periscope-lens camera, a thinner bezel around the edge of the screen, and a red-dot light on the reverse that flashes during filming.

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