Hands-on with the new Nothing Phone (3a) Community Edition, a playful Y2K throwback

Nothing hasn't been shy about letting its community steer the ship, but the new Phone (3a) Community Edition feels like the moment the whole experiment snaps into focus and is equally as playful as last year's glow-in-the-dark Nothing 2(a) release. But this isn’t just a fan-inspired colourway but extends Nothing's collaboration with its community more deeply.

Across nine months and more than 700 submissions, the project went further than simply designing the phone, as four emerging talents were chosen to redefine hardware, software, accessories and the campaign identity. The result? A device that feels both distinctly Nothing and intriguingly something fresh, a true one-off.

Read our breakdown of the Nothing Phone (3a) vs the Nothing Phone 3(a) Pro to see what these smartphones look like before the Community Edition redesign.

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Looking at the hardware, Emre Kayganacıl’s winning Community Edition design nods unapologetically to the late ’90s and early 2000s, that era when gadgets leaned into fun, colour, and character – think vibrant iPad colourways, gel-like PlayStation memory cards and transparent Nintendo N64 consoles. But instead of relying on pure nostalgia, the Phone (3a) CE lands somewhere far more interesting: a grown-up interpretation of a childhood memory.

The soft-touch, rubberised transparent back immediately stands apart from Nothing’s usual glass-backed minimalism. At a glance, it looks playful, but in the hand, it feels premium. The lime-acid green coloured rear panel gets punctuated by tiny hits of yellow and pink, a palette that sounds chaotic on paper but, in the hand, works.

Then there’s the texture. Viewed dead-on, the circuitry beneath pops sharply into view. Tilt it a few degrees, though, and the transparency softens, almost like the phone is revealing and concealing itself in real time. It’s a clever, tactile bit of interaction, more playful than Nothing’s usual transparency, and more surprising too. I've caught myself turning it over just to rewatch the effect.

Not just a new phone

This playful ethos extends beyond the handset. For the first time, Nothing opened an accessory category, and Ambrogio Tacconi and Louis Aymonod delivered Dice; tactile, six-sided reminders of chance, strategy, and shared moments. Each face is rendered in Nothing’s Ndot 55 font, blending a centuries-old iconography of play with the brand’s modern, precise aesthetic. It’s an accessory that perfectly complements the phone’s character: small, charming, and full of personality.

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Inside the device, Jad Zock’s lock screen and wallpaper designs continue the theme of considered play. The custom clock face declutters the display while guiding the eye intuitively to the time, a subtle exercise in functional elegance. Complementing it, four exclusive wallpapers echo the rear panel’s colours, hiding playful easter eggs and bridging the gap between the hardware’s tactile personality and the interface you see every day.

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Even the marketing celebrates this spirit. Sushruta Sarkar’s Made Together campaign doesn’t just showcase the finished phone. As cursors float across the screen, messages pop in and community names appear, it tells the story of collaboration, of fans and creators shaping the product side by side with Nothing’s design, software, and marketing teams.

The phone itself is a conversation starter, but the campaign positions it as a celebration of the process that brought it to life.

The Phone (3a) Community Edition is a rare release, with just 1,000 units being made worldwide, based on the 12GB/256GB model. You can register your interest from 9 to 11 December, ahead of the limited sales window opening on 12 December via nothing.tech.

Priced at £379, the new limited-run smartphone will also be available through select retail partners from 12 December, with one of the first in-person opportunities at Nothing Store Soho in London, opening at 11:00 GMT on 13 December. This is a genuinely collectible edition, and once it’s gone, that’s it.

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