The Nothing Phone 3a’s Essential Key is a great idea, but there’s a big problem

One of the star features of the new Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro is the Essential Key. It’s a new hardware button that controls an app called Essential Space. Using AI, Essential Space allows you to combine screenshots (or photos) with voice recordings and automatically turn them into actionable tasks. It’s an interesting idea and, with some more polish, it could become a hit.

The problem, though, is the location of the Essential Key. For some reason, Nothing chose to put it right underneath the power button. During my time with the phones thus far, I’ve accidentally hit the Essential Key instead of the power button numerous times. I’ve also accidentally held down the power button, thinking I was holding down the Essential Key.

Nothing must have known this would be a problem because it designed the Essential Key to have a glossy, rounded look, which is different from the flat matte design of the power button. Unfortunately, this still doesn’t stop me from mistaking which was which and wishing the Essential Key wasn’t even there.

Let this be a lesson to Nothing and any other manufacturer thinking of adding a new button to their latest smartphones: it’s a good idea to stay away from the power button!

Nothing phones have what I call a “button split design,” with the power button and volume rocker on separate sides, similar to iPhones and OnePlus phones. This leaves a ton of room on either side of the phone for a new button.

Instead of putting it on the right side of the phone underneath the power button, Nothing could have put the Essential Key on the left side underneath the volume rocker, for example. As long as there was enough separation between the volume keys and the Essential Key, no one would ever mistake the latter for the former — and they certainly wouldn’t mistake it for the power button.

Conversely, Nothing could have put the Essential Key above the power button, near the very top of the phone. This would have put enough separation between the two while also preventing your thumb from naturally covering the Essential Key when you’re blindly hunting for the power button. My big problem is that I put my thumb on the right side of the phone and press the first key I feel. But if the Essential Key were way high up, that wouldn’t happen. I would need to purposefully go to the Essential Key when I wanted to use it.

Of course, there is the notion that the button doesn’t need to exist at all. As it stands, the Essential Key only operates Essential Space. That limited functionality could easily have been transferred to the volume keys (hold down both volume keys simultaneously, for example) or even a power button shortcut (double-pressing the power button traditionally opens the camera, but Nothing could choose to transfer that to Essential Space).

I’m sure Nothing avoided doing that because it would be too easy for users to ignore Essential Space. Having a dedicated button there puts it front and center, for better or worse.

Outside of some extremely niche smartphones, the power button is always in the same place. It’s always on the right and easily accessible by your thumb when held in your right hand. Even Apple abides by this rule. Apple also seems to understand that it shouldn’t mess with it. It smartly put the new Camera Control button very low under the iPhone’s power button and made it flush with the side so the two don’t feel anything alike.

Granted, some companies put all their buttons on the right and then put the power button above the volume rocker, with Google being the most prominent example. This might seem backward to Samsung users who are used to the right-sided setup but with the power button below the volume rocker. Either way, though, the power button is always on the right and easily accessible by your thumb. In both cases, should Google or Samsung decide to add a new button, it would almost certainly need to go on the left side of Pixel and Galaxy phones, where there currently are no buttons. This wouldn’t mess with the established norms.

Nothing seems to be the only company that thinks this design rule isn’t that important. I’m interested to see how Nothing users react when they get their new Phone 3a or Phone 3a Pro. I’m sure that, over time, muscle memory will adjust, and they’ll stop doing what I’ve been doing over the past week and mixing the buttons up. Even assuming that will happen, though, it still would have been better for everyone if the Essential Key were in a less confusing spot in the first place.

What do you think? Vote in our poll above and sound off in the comments with how you feel about the sanctity of the power button’s location!