- RATING
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is an impressive Android smartphone with an attitude and design all of its own. It has the look and feel of a flagship device and the features to match. This Nothing is really something.
The one thing you can’t call the Nothing Phone 4a Pro is average. Nothing has made a name for itself for thinking outside the square when it comes to design and function.
And they have certainly achieved that with the Phone 4a Pro which has a matte metal finish and a sleek look.
DESIGN
This is where the Nothing Phone 4a Pro veers off the same track created by other smartphones.
What we’ve seen in the past is Nothing adopt wildly different design ideas, including transparent panels and unusual camera bumps.
It has reached a nice balance with the Phone 4a Pro which features a more subtle camera bump that not only includes the camera lenses but also its unique glyph interface.
The volume and power buttons are now on the right edge of the device, while the Essential Key sits alone on the left edge.
The Essential Key is a shortcut to make notes, record audio reminders, save links and images.
It’s basically the entry to a digital scrapbook for you to store ideas, inspirations, screenshots and anything that comes to mind.
DISPLAY
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro has an impressive 6.83-inch AMOLED 1.5K 144Hz display the peak brightness of 5,000 nits.
Like other premium smartphones, it has thin bezels (93.4 per cent screen to body ratio) to give the screen an edge-to-edge look.
It comes with a pre-installed screen protector that is hardly detectable and provides day to day protection and for those times we place the phone face down on our desk.
FEATURES
Another huge difference to other smartphones is the Nothing OS 4.1 which runs on top of Android 16.
This layer is designed to reflect Nothing’s own design language and gives your apps and wallpapers a unique look.
But Nothing doesn’t hold a gun to your head when it comes to using their interface.
It does allow you to choose whether to make it the default layer rather than assuming you’d want it.
For fans of the brand, they can really roll their sleeves up and customise the phone to look like no other device on the market.
But for others, including ourselves, we preferred the more conservative look and were able to configure the phone and wallpapers to our taste.
PERFORMANCE
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor which makes the phone pretty slick and fast when opening apps, moving between apps and accessing menus.
Over the previous model, the new chip delivers 27 per cent faster CPU performance, 30 per cent improved graphics and 65 per cent stronger AI capabilities.
While performance here isn’t at the flagship level, users will hardly notice the difference when it comes to day-to-day use of the device.
And you’re still able to easily access AI applications like Gemini to access writing tools, help you with your tasks and generate images. It just takes a few seconds longer.
All in all, the device was pretty responsive across the board.
GLYPH
Another standout feature, exclusive to the Nothing Phone 4a Pro, is the Glyph interface.
It’s a circular LED display on the rear panel beside the cameras.
It can be used in a variety of ways from distinguishing various notifications and knowing when certain people are calling.
It can be used to display the time, as a timer, or even to notify you how soon your Uber will arrive using its graphical interface.
And while it’s a great concept, we wished it was a little easier to customise.
CAMERA
On the camera side, the Phone 4a Pro has a main 50-megapixel camera, a 50-megapixel periscope, and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide.
And on the front is a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
The camera is one of the main selling points for any smartphone, and the good news is the Nothing Phone 4a Pro delivers and is a huge improvement over previous models.
Images are crisp with accurate colour. The shots we took with the device were clear and punchy with natural warm colours.
The device can also hold its own in low-light situations and deliver results comparable to smartphones in this price bracket.
On the video side, the Phone 4a Pro can shoot 4K up to 60 frames per second.
BATTERY AND CHARGING
Under the hood is a 5,080 mAh battery which powered through the day and had plenty left in the tank to take us into the next day.
Usually, your smartphone gets little top-ups through wireless charging when it’s in your car and on your desk.
But you’re not getting that with the Nothing Phone 4a Pro because it does not have wireless charging capabilities.
This is a glaring omission, especially for a phone of this price.
As a result, you don’t get those little top-ups throughout the day, but the battery still has enough capacity and power efficiency to still get you through the day.
PRICE
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is priced at $949 which puts it up against devices like the Google Pixel 10a and the iPhone 17e which offer comparable features and camera systems.
And while the Phone 4a Pro may have the upper hand against these other devices in the camera department, it does lack a basic feature like wireless charging.
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is available now.
VERDICT
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is an impressive Android smartphone with an attitude and design all of its own. It has the look and feel of a flagship device and the features to match. This Nothing is really something.
