Nothing Phone (3) makes big move into premium phone market

UK tech brand Nothing announced the Phone (3) overnight, a $1,500-plus handset destined to rival the top end of town dominated by Apple and Samsung. It’s what the company calls its “first true flagship smartphone” after previously prioritising the competitive mid-range market with devices like the Phone (3a) and its CMF sub-branded phones.

Unlike the annual release cycle most phone makers opt for, it’s actually been two years since major flagship handset launches from Nothing. Carl Pei, Nothing CEO, wanted to avoid making a “boring” phone that “looks the same, feels the same, does the same” as other devices.

“That’s why we took our time,” Pei said via a press release. “After two years of focused development, Phone (3) is our answer: a flagship built to make tech feel personal again.”

On the front, the Nothing Phone (3) has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display, supporting an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It also boasts a peak HDR brightness of 4,500 nits, boosting its visibility in direct sunlight.

But, as is tradition with Nothing phones, what’s on the back is equally as interesting. There’s a newly designed Glyph Matrix next to the cameras, an array of customisable micro-LEDs. It has various uses, like notification alerts when the phone is face-down, acting as a fill light, and even for playing spin the bottle.

One of the most useful-sounding features is the Glyph Matrix’s ability to show an approximation of what the camera sees, letting you frame selfies using the rear camera. Developers will also be able to take advantage of the LEDs via a publicly available SDK.

Looking under the hood

On the inside is the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, which is an interesting choice. Nothing deliberately chose it over Snapdragon’s Elite variant to keep costs down and not compete in a sheer specs showdown.

Presumably, considering the starting price is already $1,509, Nothing wanted to avoid breaking the $2,000 barrier, like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. In a pre-announcement briefing, the company claimed that the top-of-the-line processors only benefit the absolute edge use cases, like graphically intensive gaming.

Instead, the focus is on Nothing’s software mix, which uses Android 15 as the basis of the Nothing OS 3.5 ecosystem. A lot of it is driven by AI, including generative AI search functionality, and integration with platforms like ChatGPT. There are also other software tools like a built-in voice recorder and transcription feature.

AI is a big focus of Nothing’s new phone. Image: Nothing.

Back to the internals, the Nothing Phone (3) has a fairly big 5150mAh battery, with support for 65W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. There are two models with different storage and memory counts: the base model has 12GB of memory and 256GB of built-in storage, while the pricier version has 16GB and 512GB respectively.

Rounding out the hardware are four 50MP cameras. Three are on the rear, including a 3x optical zoom sensor, while the selfie camera shares the same megapixel count.

Nothing Phone (3) price and release date

Australians can pre-order the Nothing Phone (3) starting on 2 July via Optus and JB Hi-Fi, ahead of its 15 July release date. The 12GB + 256GB model costs $1,509, while the 16GB + 512GB version costs $1,689, sitting somewhere between Apple and Samsung’s core flagship phones and their high-end models.

Coinciding with the Nothing Headphone (1) launch, Optus has an offer where you get the headphones at no cost when buying the Nothing Phone (3) with a SIM plan. The headphones cost $549 alone, so the offer could sway those looking for a complete upgrade.

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Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 review: To be seen and heard

7.8

I have loved Beyerdynamic headphones for a few years now. They’re not the brand most people first think of when considering headphones, but the company probably made the headphones the artist wore while recording the music you’re listening to.

Beyerdynamic headphones are known for their excellent sound quality. But, how does the Aventho 300 stack up on battery life and noise cancelling?

Table of contents

• First impressions
• Specifications and price
• Performance
• Comfort and design
• Sound quality
• Noise cancelling
• Who is the Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 for?

First impressions

Taking it out of the box, these look like regular over-ear headphones, but a bit nicer. A bit more premium. The metal accents connecting the ear cups to the band look lovely.

To my dismay, there are touch controls, but there are still a few physical buttons, which are enough to get by.

The ear cups are really soft, which is a double-edged sword because it means more comfort, but less passive noise isolation.

Image: Alice Clarke.

Setting them up is relatively easy. It’s just the usual task of pairing them to my phone via Bluetooth. The rub is that they definitely need a firmware update, and the only way to get the headphones to update is when you first connect them to the app. Only then do you get a pop-up saying they need to be updated.

However, I didn’t get that the first time I set them up and had problems, so I had to set them up a couple more times before the software actually updated. There is no way to manually check for updates, which is ridiculous. If you use them without the firmware update, they’re ok, but have some reliability issues.

All up, my first impression is that they’re beautiful and comfortable, but the setup process could be smoother.

Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 specifications and price

Transducer Type	Dynamic
Wearing type	Over-ear
Frequency Response	5 – 22.000 Hz
Supported codecs	AAC aptX Lossless aptX Adaptive LE Audio
Spatial audio	Dolby Atmos with Dolby Head Tracking technology
Range	Up to 15m
Battery	Up to 50 hrs (with ANC on) Charging time approx. 2 hours
Weight (without cable)	319g
Price (RRP)	$649
Warranty	One year
Website	Beyerdynamic Australia

The big highlight here is a whopping 50 hours of battery life with ANC on, which is impressive.

The other highlight is the inclusion of Stellar.45 drivers. These are the same drivers used in the company’s studio headphones, so you hear the music the same way that the artists recorded it, which is a touch I really love.

Other standouts are Spatial Audio functionality, Bluetooth 5.4 compatibility, and Lossless compatibility.

On paper, the Aventho 300 is brilliant.

Performance

There are three main factors when it comes to assessing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones like these: comfort, sound quality, and noise-cancelling. But, it’s important to remember that unless you’re spending huge money, or find a unicorn, it’s very rare to find a pair of headphones that excels on all three sides of the triangle.

Comfort and design

If the headset has 50 hours of battery, the makers clearly expect you to spend a long time wearing it. Luckily, they realised that means that the headphones have to be comfortable. These are some of the most comfortable headphones I’ve tried in a long time.

Image: Alice Clarke.

The ear cups are so soft (which is a blessing and a curse), and the headband strikes the right balance between soft and supportive. With the Sony XM5s, I tend to get a sore skull after only around eight hours. I have never gotten skull pain from the Beyerdyamic Aventho 300. I wore them pretty much non-stop on a flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles, along with all the faffing about time in the airport, with no issues at all.

Sound quality

Sure, they’re great at comfort, but this is where the Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 really shine. It’s just an absolute pleasure to listen to any music I throw at them.

It produces a sound stage that is so wide and spacious, and music sounds decadent on it. These are the sort of headphones that I look forward to getting to listen to new music on because I know the song will get the space it deserves.

“Before The Sky Falls” by Grace Potter, from her album Medicine, is just the perfect song for the Aventho 300. The bass is rich, but doesn’t colour her voice, and the guitar in the background is given space to breathe. Every part of the song is presented well; it’s grounded, but not unnaturally so.

“Georgiana” by Dario Marianelli, on the other hand, soars. The delicate piano strokes flutter gorgeously, the high notes ringing true. It’s suffused with joy.

I haven’t yet found a style of music that doesn’t sound amazing on these headphones, which is a rare feat. Everything from metal to classical music just sounds exactly as it should, with all the emotion and tones you’d want. Frankly, they sound much more expensive than they are.

Noise cancelling

There’s no sugar coating it, the noise cancelling is bad. I have used it on many flights now, and every flight, I am hit by the crushing disappointment that it doesn’t block plane sounds effectively, or the sounds of those around me. I had a full conversation while wearing them, assuming I was in transparency mode, only to later discover I was already in noise-cancelling mode. It wasn’t even a loud conversation.

Calling the noise cancelling completely useless would be going too far; they still cancel some noise. But they don’t behave the way I would expect noise-cancelling headphones in this price range to work.

Who is the Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 for?

These are the Bluetooth headphones you get when you want over-ear cans that sound incredible, but don’t really do much noise cancelling. The 50-hour battery life is truly impressive. It’s very rare that I have to charge them. And the sound quality is superb for this price point.

Those looking for noise-cancelling above all else should look elsewhere. But if you want comfort and excellent sound quality, and don’t mind too much about noise cancelling, then these are the headphones you’ve been looking for.

Beyerdynamic Aventho 300

If you want comfort and excellent sound quality, and don’t mind too much about noise cancelling, then these are the headphones you’ve been looking for.

Features

7

Value for money

9

Performance

7

Ease of use

8

Design

8

Positives

Comfortable

Sounds amazing

Absurdly good battery life

Negatives

Noise cancelling sucks

App could be more user friendly

7.8

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Clever AI bots trick scammers from reaching actual people

As scammers use more sophisticated methods to trick Aussies out of their money, CommBank has a novel way of fighting back: using AI chatbots to prevent scammers from reaching real people.

Through a collaboration between CommBank and Macquarie University startup Apate.ai, AI bots can intercept scammers’ calls and text messages, stringing them along in a fake conversation. It’s a clever idea; if a scammer wastes time unknowingly chatting to a bot, that’s less time available to target humans, right?

CommBank and Apate.ai’s strategy works via a series of phone numbers held purely for the purpose of being targeted by scammers. If a scammer calls one of these numbers, the chatbot responds in real-time, as if having a conversation. A demo shared by CommBank shows just how eerily authentic the AI sounds. The AI even throws in filler words and Aussie slang for good measure!

Fingers crossed it can make a dent in Australia’s scam losses, which already surpassed $119 million earlier this year.

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Cheapest NBN plans: Low-priced internet from $39 a month

Are you looking for the cheapest NBN plans to save money on your internet bill? We’ve compared many of the biggest telcos to find the best deals for you in each speed category.

A lot of the most popular NBN plans are going up in price thanks to annual wholesale cost increases. That means higher prices for customers, particularly those with major telcos like Telstra.

So, what’s the solution? Shop around frequently. Many internet service providers (ISPs) offer introductory deals, including generous discounts for the first six months. Afterwards, it’s always worth comparing providers so you’re not left paying more than you should. Most ISPs don’t use lock-in contracts, making it relatively easy to swap to a better-value plan.

Australians are downloading more than ever, and choosing faster plans accordingly. Make sure you regularly assess whether your current internet plan serves your needs, as recommended by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

With that in mind, here are the current cheapest NBN plans in Australia from a wide range of telcos. You can also compare the cheapest NBN 50 plans, the cheapest NBN 100 plans, and the cheapest NBN 250 plans to save on faster internet. Looking for a new phone plan? Compare the cheapest SIM plans to save even more money.

Contents

• Cheapest NBN plans
• NBN 12 plans
• NBN 25 plans
• NBN 50 plans
• NBN 100 plans
• NBN 250 plans
• NBN 1000 plans
• What you need to know
• Which NBN plan?

Cheapest NBN Plans

Here are the cheapest NBN plans at the time of writing. We update this article monthly, but the prices listed in the tables update frequently, giving you up-to-date and accurate information.

Many of the retailers display promotional prices aimed at new and returning customers. These offers generally involve paying a discounted rate for six months before reverting to a standard price. To view the details of promotional offers, click on the green text labelled ‘deal’, which will also show the standard price.

Each plan featured here includes unlimited data. Some providers let you save a few dollars every month by choosing a plan with a data cap. If you know you don’t need much data, use this search tool to find plans with monthly data allowances.

NBN 12 plans

Aimed at people who only need the internet for browsing online and checking emails, an NBN 12 plan isn’t blazingly fast but saves money.

$47.80 per month from Moose NBN is the best you can get from an NBN 12 plan, which is a discounted price for the first six months.

For the most part, you’d be better off scrolling down and looking at faster speeds available for the same price or less.

NBN 25 plans

Suited for streaming videos in HD and basic online tasks, an NBN 25 plan gives you a bit more flexibility and much more value for money. Flip has the current standout deal among NBN 25 plans, with a clear gap between its discounted $39 monthly pricing and the nearest competitor. After the six-month promotional period ends, the regular price of $59.90 kicks in.

Other than Flip, most other telcos sell discounted NBN 25 plans for less than $50 a month for the first six months.

Without discounts, the cheapest NBN 25 plans cost roughly $60 per month, so it’s a relatively cost-effective speed tier.

NBN 50 plans

Australia’s most popular internet plan, NBN 50 balances value with performance. These plans support 4K video streaming and can sustain multiple simultaneous users. It’s not as cheap as it once was, but there are still plenty of good deals available.

Dodo is the cheapest NBN 50 plan at the moment, costing $62.90 for the first six months. Only a few dollars separate Dodo from Moose, TPG, Flip, and Superloop, giving you plenty of competitively priced internet options.

After promotional pricing, NBN 50 plans sit close to $80 per month. Buddy Telco, from Aussie Broadband, is one of the cheapest non-discounted plans, priced at a flat $75 each month.

NBN 100 plans

NBN 100 plans let your household stream multiple 4K videos at once, download files, and still have bandwidth for online gaming. Marginally more expensive than the slower 50Mbps tier, NBN 100 plans are still good value for most people.

Between Dodo, TPG, Southern Phone, and Moose, you’re looking at roughly $65 per month for the first six months of an NBN 100 connection. After discounts, Moose is one of the cheapest NBN 100 plans at $84.80 per month, although most telcos are $90 and above as a result of the higher wholesale costs.

NBN 250 plans

Not content with just streaming videos, NBN 250 plans significantly reduce the time waiting for large downloads. Whether you want to download the latest video game or save a whole bunch of media for offline viewing, this gets it done quicker.

For sheer value, Southern Phone’s NBN 250 plan sticks out because of its 12-month discount. It means you pay $75 per month for the first year, before the price goes back to a monthly $98.90.

After discounts, the cheapest NBN 250 plans routinely cost just below $100 each month.

NBN 1000 plans

You don’t like waiting for downloads to finish, that’s why you’re looking at this section. As long as you don’t expect to hit full speeds during peak periods, NBN 1000 plans are for households that live on the internet. They’ve even got faster in recent months, delivering more consistent performance during busy hours.

Exetel made waves after announcing its “One Plan” structure, stripping away all of its tiers in favour of a single product with 500Mbps download speeds. At a flat $80 per month, it’s even cheaper than most NBN 250 plans. While you don’t get the absolute fastest speeds, there’s also the option to “hibernate” your plan whenever you’re away, saving $1 per day in the process.

Exetel’s parent company, Superloop, has one of the fastest NBN plans, averaging 860Mbps download speeds during busy hours. The same applies to Southern Phone, with both telcos priced at $85 per month while discounted. Southern Phone works out to be cheaper in the long run, with its discount lasting 12 months, compared to Superloop’s six months.

Over the long term, Buddy Telco’s $99 plan continues to be a highlight. Providing typical evening download speeds of 875Mbps, it’s one of the fastest residential plans available. Another positive is that the $99 price is set in stone; it’s not a discounted price, so it’s cheaper in the long run than most competitors.

What you need to know

If you want broadband internet in Australia, your main and most reliable choice is via the National Broadband Network (NBN). Although the NBN provides the internet backbone, it does not sell plans directly to the public. Instead, telecommunication vendors package up retail and business plans, which include different features and levels of customer support.

NBN availability

The NBN is available to all Australians, but the way you access the NBN may be different. This might include a fixed cable into your home, wireless access via an antenna on your roof or a satellite dish.

To see what technology is available to you, start by visiting the NBN getting connected page. After entering your address, you will be shown the technology available at your address. You will also see which providers or NBN retailers sell access in your area. In Sydney alone, we were presented with 123 different retailers.

Speed and reliability

It is important to understand that the speed and reliability of your NBN plan can differ by retailer. Each buys internet capacity from the NBN. This capacity is then shared with a certain amount of the retailers’ customers. This means that a retailer may have faster speeds in one suburb versus another based on how many customers are accessing the overall capacity. It’s always good to ask your neighbours who they are with and their experience with a particular NBN retailer.

It’s also worth checking the ACCC website regularly. They publish quarterly broadband performance results, measuring how well telcos deliver on advertised internet speeds. You want to be certain that you’ll get the speeds you pay for, so this is a good starting point.

For those customers looking for an NBN alternative, we suggest the following GadgetGuy guides: How does 5G fixed-wireless stack up as an NBN alternative and Caravanner’s guide to connecting to the internet anywhere.

Having good internet speed is more than just a fast broadband connection. For more, be sure to check out GadgetGuy’s guide to improving your internet for more information.

Which NBN plan?

When evaluating an NBN plan, consider the following criteria:

• Data Limits – Is there a monthly download limit of data, or is the plan unlimited?
• Download Speed – Best measured at its busiest in megabits per second (Mbps) typical evening speed. Is it enough to watch Netflix? (Netflix requires 10-25Mbps depending on resolution quality.) Larger households with members using the internet simultaneously will require higher download speeds.
• Cost – How much do you pay each month, and is there a connection fee?
• Contract – Are you locking yourself to a retailer for a period, or is it month to month?
• Telephone – Is a fixed-line telephone service bundled into the plan?
• Customer service – What hours are supported, and is it an Australian-located call centre?
• Upload speed – Important for people who save large files online, like photos and videos.

Changing providers

If you wish to change internet providers, the process involves signing up with the new retailer in-store or online. You may receive a new Wi-Fi router, and you may have to return your old router to your previous retailer. The retailer-provided router is generally low quality but provides a fixed-line telephone connection if selected.

Your retailer might offer you an email address. Still, we recommend using a non-telco-specific email address such as Gmail or Hotmail, allowing you to easily change NBN retailers.

The NBN changeover process can take less than an hour, but depending on the location and NBN technology, it could take a few days. To take advantage of introductory offers, you could swap your provider every six months.

Suppose you do not wish to leave your existing provider. In that case, you may be able to negotiate a better rate by comparing it to cheaper offerings.

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