Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025: Budget battle

If you want a relatively affordable smartphone, you are probably looking outside of the top three major brands. Two options to consider are the Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025. Both sell for under $300, though the Nothing Phone 3a Lite is exclusive to select markets in the U.K. and Europe, for now at least. You can, it should be noted, get its step-up variant, the Nothing Phone 3a, in North America for a bit more. As far as sub-$300 phones go, however, both these devices are worth considering if you can get your hands on them.

Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025: Design and basic features

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite was introduced in late October 2025 as the company’s budget-friendly option. It features a 6.77-inch flexible AMOLED HDR10+ display with a 2,392 x 1,084 resolution, which is quite impressive for a phone of this price. The up to 3,000 nits peak brightness also makes it comfortable to view outdoors in bright sunlight. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate is another impressive feature for such an affordable phone.

Made with high-grade tempered glass and machined aluminum accents, it comes in only black or white, yet still stands out from other phones. That’s thanks to Nothing’s signature panda glass finish with glyph light that’s designed to help you cut down on screen time. Rather than the phone dinging and pinging every time you get a message or notification, this light serves as your guide to only address what’s important.

There are custom light patterns for notifications, like contacts and calls. It will flash only for essential notifications based on keywords, contacts, and apps you set. It also functions as a countdown for a timer when you’re taking a photo.

The glyph interface encourages you not to grab for your phone and see what’s going on every time it beckons. You won’t miss out on an important message from your mum, child’s teacher, or spouse, but you also won’t be distracted by the mundane notifications designed to keep you glued to your screen unnecessarily.

The phone isn’t terribly durable, but it does meet a decent IP54 rating, which means it can withstand limited dust exposure and light splashes of water. The 5,000mAh battery will provide up to 2 hours of YouTube viewing or 16 hours of mixed use, so it won’t even last a full day. It does, however, charge at a rate of 33W and supports fast charging, allowing you to reach 50% in just 20 minutes; it takes one hour to charge to full capacity. It also supports 5W reverse charging.

Storage options are 128GB and 256GB, but the good news is that it is expandable via memory card up to 2TB. This is a rarity, as few phones nowadays have a memory card slot, sacrificing it for slimmer and sleeker designs, along with a focus on cloud storage. It does not, however, have a headphone jack.

Topping this off is a fingerprint sensor, NFC with support for Google Pay, dual SIMs, 5G connectivity, and Bluetooth 5.4. Notably, the Nothing Phone 3a Lite features a single mono speaker, so you may not want to listen to music or engage in intense gaming sessions with this phone, as there’s no immersive experience.

What about the Moto G Power 2025? Introduced in January 2025, the Moto G Power 2025 comes in Leaf Green or Slate Gray. Android Central managing editor Derrek Lee calls the Leaf Green in his review of this phone a standout, describing it as vibrant. The phone has a slightly larger 6.8-inch LCD screen with a smidge lower resolution of 2,388 x 1,080. You get a 120Hz refresh rate that affords a smooth navigation experience. Brightness taps out at 1,000 nits, though Lee says it’s “plenty bright,” and he had no trouble viewing the screen in any lighting conditions.

Made with vegan leather on the back that pleasantly doesn’t attract fingerprints, combined with a Gorilla Glass 5 screen, durability is a strong point with this phone. It not only meets MIL-STD-810H certification for withstanding drops, bumps, and falls, but it also meets both IP68 and IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance. So, it can not only be submerged in water for a limited period, but it can also withstand high-pressure water jets and extreme temperatures.

It has the same 5,000mAh battery and supports a slightly slower charging rate of 30W, but with Motorola TurboPower. It also adds 15W wireless charging to the mix. Lee says the Moto G Power 2025 comfortably lasts throughout a full day. It taps out at 128GB storage, but like the Nothing Phone 3a Lite, you can expand this via an optional microSD card. Though it only supports cards up to 1TB in capacity.

The Moto G Power 2025 not only features a microSD card slot, but it also has a 3.5mm port, music to the ears of those who prefer traditional wired headphones or earbuds; however, many of the latest wired headphones also connect via USB-C. It features two microphones and stereo speakers, with support for Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio, and Bass Boost, providing a competitive edge in the audio department. It also features a fingerprint reader, along with face unlock, and comes with ThinkShield security built in, alongside Moto Secure and Family Space.

You get three years of Android updates and six years of security patches with the Nothing Phone 3a Lite, but only two years of software upgrades with the Moto G Power 2025 and three years of security patches. This means you basically only have one year of software updates left for the Moto device, which is approaching its one-year anniversary.

Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025: Specs

Before diving into performance, let’s see how they compare head-to-head on specs.

Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025: Features and productivity

The focus of the Nothing Phone 3a Lite is to help you focus, eliminating distractions so you can use the phone only when needed. It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro 5G processor, paired with 8GB RAM, which is decent but not groundbreaking.

It runs on Nothing OS 3.5, powered by Android 15, providing a unique user experience. This includes the handy side-mounted Essential button, which you can use to save content of any kind. The phone will automatically organize and catalog it for you using AI and secure encryption.

Long-press the Essential key to perform actions such as recording voice notes, and double-press it to access the catalog. To find something, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and type a keyword to locate it. The Smart Drawer also organizes apps for you, surfacing the most used ones at the top, and others sorted by category.

The phone utilizes ChatGPT to accept on-the-go voice prompts through the bespoke Nothing widget. Speaking of widgets, you can create custom shortcuts and widgets as well as shared widgets to use to send content to others. All your files, apps, and documents are password-protected to ensure a secure experience. Additionally, use the Dot Engine to create bespoke animations, icons, and fonts to further personalize the experience with this phone.

As an older model, the Moto G Power 2025 features a step-down MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor and offers 8GB of RAM, along with the RAM Boost feature that converts unused storage into RAM. Note, however, that Lee finds the feature almost unusable, negatively impacting performance in a way that suggests you’re better off not using it at all. Nonetheless, sticking with just the 8GB RAM should be fine for basic productivity, even light gaming like Minecraft.

Running Android 15 with Hello UX, it works with gesture controls as well, which Lee loves. You can do things like double-chop the phone to turn on the flashlight, double-twist to launch the camera, and double-tap on the back to open a favorite app. He also appreciates the Sidebar feature for housing frequently used apps. What he doesn’t love, however, is the amount of bloatware that comes with the phone, including pre-installed apps you might not want and have to go through the trouble of uninstalling if desired.

Overall, Lee says performance with the Moto G Power 2025 isn’t as big of an issue as you might think, with managed expectations. “The phone can surprisingly manage [Honkai: Star Rail] at visual settings set to ‘High’ and at 60fps, which is honestly still a great way to play the game.” AI features are missing from this pretty bare-bones device, so you’re getting what you pay for in this respect. However, the Nothing Phone 3a Lite also lacks high-end AI features.

Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025: The cameras

Neither of these phones has cameras to rival premium phones, but they will capture decent photos. The Nothing Phone 3a Lite features a triple camera system with the TrueLens Engine, which includes a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, a 2MP macro lens, and a 16MP front-facing camera. You get from 0.6 up to 10x zoom, which is not bad.

Features include Ultra XDR, auto tone, portrait optimizer, motion photo, night mode, macro mode through the dedicated lens, and video capture up to 4K at 30 frames per second (1,080P at 30 or 60 fps). There aren’t any fancy AI features, though there is AI stabilization in low-light conditions. You can also capture slo-mo videos and time-lapse with EIS image stabilization.

That’s pretty much all there is to say about the cameras. We haven’t tried them out, but Android Central’s Nicholas Sutrich notes in his review of the step-up Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro that the camera system in the Nothing Phone 3a is pretty impressive. It has a similar 50MP primary sensor but larger sensors for the other cameras. So you likely won’t get the same performance with this Lite model, but you’ll be able to snap fun photos and videos for social sharing.

Comparatively, the Moto G Power 2025 has almost identical camera specs to the Nothing Phone 3a Lite with a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera with a macro-vision lens, and a 16MP front camera. The front camera has a Face Retouch feature to help reduce wrinkles and blemishes.

It has an ambient light sensor while OIS ensures blur-free images. There’s also Quad Pixel technology, so you get good photos in various lighting conditions. Lee says you can get good shots in favorable lighting, and selfies are decent. But he admits images are noisy and often lack detail, while the phone doesn’t perform well in low-light situations. Auto Enhance, however, is useful, helping improve images after they have been captured.

Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. Moto G Power 2025: Which one should you choose?

Both these phones rank among the best sub-$300 Android phones you can buy. The obvious elephant in the room between the Nothing Phone 3a Lite vs. the Moto G Power 2025 is that the former is not available in North America right now. You can opt for the step-up Nothing Phone 3a, which costs approximately $100 more, or the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, which is about $150 more. If you do this, you’re getting plenty of improvements, most notably more RAM, a Snapdragon processor, and better cameras.

Choosing a Nothing phone like the Nothing Phone 3a Lite is about wanting to reduce screen time. You can still accomplish all the important tasks with this phone, including surfing the web, accessing social media, snapping photos and shooting videos, and even playing games. But it’s designed to help you disconnect as much as it is to connect.

The Moto G Power 2025’s design may not outright promote it, but it is a basic phone designed for teens, the elderly, those on a budget, or individuals with only light productivity and entertainment needs. Lee calls it a “solid $300 phone,” basically noting that you get what you pay for, and it’s alright. There are no frills, and it can feel sluggish if you try to overtax the system. But it’s great for battery life and fast charging, and it’s ultra tough for grandma or your kid who tends to drop their phone several times a day.

Assuming you can get your hands on either phone and your budget is airtight for under $300, the decision comes down to what’s most important. However, I’d recommend saving up that extra hundred bucks to upgrade, rather than trying to find your way around; getting the budget Lite version is a good option if you aren’t in the U.K. or Europe anyway.