Nothing Phone (3) vs Apple iPhone 17e
79
out of 100
VS
79
out of 100
Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.67-inch Nothing Phone (3) (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4) that was released on July 2, 2025, against the Apple iPhone 17e, which is powered by Apple A19 and came out 9 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Nothing Phone (3)
- The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
- Higher display refresh rate β 120 Hz
- Has a 0.57 inch larger screen size
- Comes with 1145 mAh larger battery capacity: 5150 vs 4005 mAh
- Delivers 84% higher peak brightness (1514 against 824 nits)
- Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
- Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
- Supports higher wattage charging (65W versus 25W)
- Fingerprint scanner
- Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
- Has 2 SIM card slots
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 17e
- Shows 23% longer battery life (28:10 vs 22:56 hours)
- Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
- 70% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3595 and 2117 points
- The phone is 9 months newer
- Weighs 49 grams less
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.67 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1260 x 2800 pixels | 1170 x 2532 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 460 ppi | 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (60-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 1600 nits | 800 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 4500 nits | 1200 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 7i | Ceramic Shield 2 |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 88.5% | 87.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 95.5% | 99.8% |
| PWM | 90 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Response time | 4 ms | 4 ms |
| Contrast | β Infinity | β Infinity |
Screen space comparison
Phone (3)
6.67β³ (20:9 ratio) = 16.6 in2
iPhone 17e
6.1β³ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~17% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 160.6 mm (6.32 inches) | 146.7 mm (5.78 inches) |
| Width | 75.59 mm (2.98 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.99 mm (0.35 inches) | 7.8 mm (0.31 inches) |
| Weight | 218 g (7.69 oz) | 169 g (5.96 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black | White, Black, Pink |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
| Repairability | Good (3.34/5) | Average (2.79/5) |
| Drop resistance | Good (C) Β· 90 drops | Very good (B) Β· 180 drops |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 | Apple A19 |
| Max clock | 3210 MHz | 4260 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 2 cores at 2.02 GHz: Cortex-A720 - 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A720 - 3 cores at 3 GHz: Cortex-A720 - 1 core at 3.21 GHz: Cortex-X4 |
- 4 cores at 2.6 GHz: - 2 cores at 4.26 GHz: |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 825 | 4 core Apple GPU |
| GPU shading units | 1024 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 1150 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~2355.2 GFLOPS | ~2073.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 18674 | 31620 |
| Single-core score | 2117 | 3595 |
| Multi-core score | 6798 | 9245 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 707936 | 694087 |
| GPU | 802873 | 750153 |
| Memory | 376970 | 238765 |
| UX | 483914 | 589170 |
| Total score | 2371693 | 2272175 |
| Samples | [9 tests] | [2 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 61% | - |
| Graphics test | 13 FPS | 13 FPS |
| Graphics score | 1749 | 1752 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | 30 FPS | 31 FPS |
| Section 1 | 34 FPS | 34 FPS |
| Section 2 | 31 FPS | 31 FPS |
| Section 3 | 25 FPS | 25 FPS |
| Graphics score | 7966 | 8032 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 13254 | - |
| Video editing | 6510 | - |
| Photo editing | 27186 | - |
| Data manipulation | 13887 | - |
| Writing score | 19394 | - |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#179th place)
Recent User Tests
Nothing Phone (3)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-23 (Val) | AnTuTu 12 | 2658288 |
| π 2026-07-15 (Leo) | AnTuTu 11 | 2371693 |
| π 2026-07-10 (Sumit Pandit) | AnTuTu 11 | 2392977 |
| π 2026-03-14 (Michael) | AnTuTu 11 | 2428616 |
| π 2026-02-01 (TheFunder) | AnTuTu 11 | 2270521 |
Apple iPhone 17e
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-14 (kpvas) | AnTuTu 11 | 2134388 |
| π 2026-06-10 (Cocoon) | AnTuTu 11 | 2272175 |
| π 2026-06-03 (Cosgun) | AnTuTu 11 | 2060838 |
| π 2026-05-31 (Cosgun) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 3595 / 9245 |
Memory
| RAM size | 12 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory clock | 4800 MHz | - |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 256 GB | 256 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 16 | iOS 26.3 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27) |
| ROM | Nothing OS 4.0 | - |
| OS size | 26 GB | 20 GB |
| OS updates | 5 years | 7 years |
| Security updates | 7 years | 7 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 5150 mAh | 4005 mAh |
| Max charge power | 65 W | 25 W |
| Battery type | Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | Yes (15 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | - |
| Bypass charging | No | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (63% in 30 min) | Yes (59% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:00 hr | 1:34 hr |
| Battery cycles | 1400 cycles | 1000 cycles |
| Web browsing | 08:36 hr | 11:40 hr |
| Watching video | 13:19 hr | 16:33 hr |
| Gaming | 05:45 hr | 06:37 hr |
| Standby | 117 hr | 135 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#87th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 48 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 8064 x 6048 |
| Zoom | Optical, 3x | Digital |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | No | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 240 FPS (1080p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 114Β° | - |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Telephoto: 50 MP 3) Ultrawide: 50 MP |
1) Standard: 48 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode | - Bokeh mode |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.7 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 24 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Omnivision OV50H | - |
| Sensor size | 1/1.3" (β 0.77 inch) | 1/2.55" (β 0.39 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.2 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.7 | - |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KJN5 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.75" (β 0.36 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | - |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | - |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KJN1 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.76" (β 0.36 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | - |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 50 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/1.9 |
| Focal length | - | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KJN1 | CMOS |
| Sensor size | 1/2.76" (β 0.36 inch) | 1/3.6" (β 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | No | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 6.0 | 5.3 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | No | No |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | No | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Mid-range |
| Announced | July 2025 | March 2026 |
| Release date | July 2025 | March 2026 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $799 | $599 |
| Sensors | - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
| Bundled charger | Not included | Not included |
Further details
Notes on Phone (3):
- The Indian model has a 5500 mAh battery, compared to 5150 mAh in the international one, (including the U.S. version).
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
If the display, camera, and connectivity are more important to you, then choose the Nothing Phone (3). But if the performance, gaming, battery life, software, design, and sound are more of a priority β go for the Apple iPhone 17e.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 7