Deals: Nothing Phone (3) has a discount from the get-go, plus some better looking alternatives
The hotly anticipated Nothing flagship is here – and everyone is talking about it. Unfortunately for Nothing, most of the discussion is about the price and the design and let’s just say that people aren’t heaping praise on the Phone (3). We can’t do anything about the design, but we can help with the price.
The Nothing Phone (3), the 512GB model specifically, is already discounted by $100. You can think of this as a free storage upgrade. Note that the phone is still on pre-order and will only start shipping on July 15.
The Phone (3) features a 6.67” 1260p+ 120Hz OLED display, not an LTPO panel, and is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. It has four 50MP cameras, including a large 1/1.3” sensor in the main and a small 1/2.75” sensor in the 3x periscope. The ultra-wide and selfie cameras are also 50MP. The international model comes with a 5,150mAh battery with 65W wired and 15W wireless charging.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge had its first major discount last week and is at around the same price right now (it went up $30). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so we leave that to you. But we will say that this one is thin (5.8mm) and light (163g). Battery life from the 3,900mAh cell is predictably nothing special, but it’s not too bad either.
The 6.7” display has 1440p+ resolution and is an LTPO panel, befitting a flagship device. And the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy offers flagship performance. The 200MP main camera is responsible for zooming in and it does okay at 2x. There’s also a 12MP ultra-wide.
If the $200 gap between the Nothing and Edge seems too big, the Samsung Galaxy S25+ is cheaper. It’s thicker (7.3mm) and heavier (190g) than the Edge, but it’s still a lot thinner and lighter than the Nothing Phone (9mm and 218g).
The display is again a 6.7” 1440p+ LTPO panel, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is the same overclocked “for Galaxy” model as the Edge and you get 1,000mAh more in the battery. The main camera is only 50MP, but you get a dedicated tele lens with this one – a 10MP 3x/67mm module.
The OnePlus 13 carries a modest discount at the moment – we’ve seen bigger discounts, though they are rare. This phone also has a 1440p+ LTPO display, a 6.82” OLED panel. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the base chip and is still a good deal faster than the 8s Gen 4.
The triple 50MP camera on the back of this one has a 1/1.43” main sensor and a bigger 1/1.95” inside the 3x/73mm periscope module. The battery is practically huge at 6,000mAh and super fast with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging.
OnePlus 13R discounts are even rarer, however, this model is well worth keeping an eye on. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 may be one gen older, but it is faster than the 8s Gen 4 by a small margin. And the 6.78” 1264p+ display is an LTPO panel, unlike the Nothing.
The 50+50+8MP is short on zoom (2x/47mm) and the ultra-wide has a lower resolution sensor. The battery is still huge at 6,000mAh, though it loses wireless charging (it still has 80W wired charging). The last thing to mention is the relatively low water resistance with an IP65 rating (vs. IP68 on the Nothing). Still, the 13R is more of a mid-ranger and doesn’t pretend to be a flagship.
As a reminder, Amazon Prime Day starts next week and will run for four days (July 8-11). You can already score some early Prime deals – it goes without saying that you need an active Prime subscription, but see if you can get the 1-month free trial.
The Amazon Fire Max 11 is a great tablet for streaming and light work. It has a good quality 11” IPS LCD and stereo speakers. Storage is expandable, but you may want to pick the 128GB model anyway – for $50 more you get double the storage and no lockscreen ads (it costs $15 to remove the ads on the 64GB model).
The Amazon Fire HD 10 is dirt cheap – we don’t mean that in a bad way, when else have you seen a 10.1” tablet under $100? The storage upgrade is a no-brainer on this one (it’s only $10), though note that it doesn’t remove the ads – that’s a $15 extra.
There’s also the Amazon Fire HD 8. It’s more portable and the 32GB variant is cheaper. Plus, the 64GB model has a bit more RAM (4GB vs. 3GB), but it costs $5 more than the larger Fire HD 10 64GB.
This was just the appetizer, we will dive into the Amazon Prime Day deals next week.
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