At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Stylish metal design
- Excellent display
- Unique UI
- Versatile camera system
Cons
- Far more expensive than 4a
- Glyph system not always useful
- Limited software support
Our Verdict
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro stands out with its sharp design, excellent display, flexible camera system, and unique user interface. While it offers a distinct alternative to brands like Apple, Google, and Samsung, its price, significantly higher than the Nothing Phone (4a) and with many similar specifications, makes its value less compelling.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Prices Today: Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The decision by Nothing not to release a flagship phone in 2026 comes amid a challenging market with rising component costs. This shift highlights the London-based brand’s new mid-range premium model, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro.
Featuring a bold design, enhanced performance, and a distinctive UI, along with a versatile camera system, this phone challenges the necessity of a flagship model. However, it is the priciest model in the A-series, starting at £499/$499, significantly more costly than the regular Phone (4a), raising questions about its value.
Design & Build
- Appears entirely different from the (4a)
- Unibody metal design with a transparent camera module
- Glyph Matrix from Phone (3)
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro’s design marks a departure from its predecessors, showing lessons learned from the Nothing Phone (3a) series. The ‘Nothingness’ predominantly resides in the camera module, which adopts a rounded, semi-transparent style reminiscent of the company’s earbuds cases.
The rest of the body suggests a post-iPhone 12 design with a flat rim and a mostly plain back, featuring some unique touches like a metal unibody and a subtle circular indentation. Despite its 7.95mm thickness and 210g weight, it feels premium, though its IP65 water resistance doesn’t match the Google Pixel 10a’s standards. A plastic barrier strip separates the metal body from the Gorilla Glass 7i display, which, while not the most premium feature, is noticeable to the touch.
These LEDs can combine to supply various context-sensitive animations and images in striking fashion
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
The Glyph Matrix, taken from the Nothing Phone (3), is an eye-catching feature on the camera module. It features 137 mini-LEDs, covering 57% more area and offering twice the brightness. These LEDs can display context-sensitive animations and images, like a missed call or custom notifications, and offer always-on animations for time and battery status. Unlike previous models, it lacks a dedicated Glyph Button, simplifying its usage.
Jon Mundy / Foundry
There’s an option to activate notification states when the phone is face-down, like showing an incoming caller ID with a shake. The phone’s design requires a face-down approach, which might not be ideal for everyone due to potential screen scratches. The Essential Key, a shortcut to the Essential Space feature, has been repositioned for better accessibility, opposite the power button, with the volume buttons moved to the other side, offering a cleaner layout.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
Screen & Speakers
- 6.83-inch AMOLED display
- 1.5K resolution and 144Hz refresh rate
- Stereo speakers
The display of the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro has seen significant improvements. It’s larger, sharper, smoother, and brighter than its predecessor. This 6.83-inch AMOLED screen boasts a 1.5K resolution and supports a 144Hz refresh rate, offering an unusually fluid experience.
While the high refresh rate is impressive, it’s worth noting that its benefits might not be fully utilized unless using high-performance applications or games. The phone’s touch sampling rate has been enhanced to 2,500Hz, ensuring more responsive inputs.
bigger, sharper, smoother, and brighter
This display is an LTPS panel, not LTPO, meaning it can’t scale as efficiently down to lower refresh rates for static content. However, its peak brightness reaches an impressive 5000 nits, the brightest yet for Nothing, making it ideal for HDR playback. It reaches 1600 nits outdoors and 800 nits with auto-brightness off, ensuring visibility in bright conditions.
Jon Mundy / Foundry
Colour accuracy is also strong, though for the most natural tones, switching from the default ‘Alive’ mode is recommended. The stereo speakers provide clear sound with good separation, though they lack bass compared to some competitors.
Specs & Performance
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 SoC
- 5300 mm² VC system
- LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, while not a flagship, runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor, a competent mid-range option. It’s already proven effective in the Motorola Edge 70, a pricier device.
Nothing claims a 27% and 30% improvement in CPU and GPU performance over its predecessor, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. My Geekbench 6 results support the CPU improvement, showing a similar advantage over the Nothing Phone (4a).
Jon Mundy / Foundry
It matches the Google Pixel 10a in CPU performance but falls short of the iPhone 17e’s mid-range prowess. In GPU tests, it nearly doubles the score of its non-Pro sibling but lags behind the Google Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e.
AI performance has been boosted by 65%, bringing it closer to Snapdragon 8 series devices for on-device tasks.
dependably smooth
With 8 or 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro operates smoothly in daily use. Launching the camera app isn’t as fast as the iPhone 17 Pro, but app switching is quick.
