Nothing Phone 4a Pro
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Pros: Bold design in a rather stale market, NothingOS is smooth and responsive, larger battery with fast charging
- Cons: Glyth Interface is less intuitive now, no US carrier availability, no wireless charging
on Google.
I won’t bury the lede: Nothing Phone 4a Pro
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro looks great in pink.
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is a departure from last year’s maximalist approach, and for good reason. You now get a metal build that feels more premium in the hand. In comparison, the Galaxy A56 looks basic, while the Pixel 10a pops in red and has an “affordable phone” feel.
I love the new subtle pink color on the Phone 4a Pro. It is perhaps my favorite phone color this year. I like that brands are choosing to offer more shades than boring blacks and whites, and Nothing’s execution is perfect. You can also buy the device in silver or black.
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Nothing borrowed its Glyph Matrix from the more expensive Phone 3 and put the feature inside a translucent camera module on the Phone 4a Pro. The Matrix is placed adjacent to the cameras and works as before, notifying you about the apps of your choice or showing you the time and battery level. The feature is open to developers for creating new tools.
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro in action.
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
On the front, you get a brighter and slightly larger screen than before. The Phone 4a Pro has a 6.83-inch AMOLED display that supports a 144Hz refresh rate (down to 30Hz) and 5,000 nits of peak brightness for HDR content, which is about 66% brighter than its predecessor.
The screen is comfortably legible outdoors for the price. Like other $500 phones, the device’s screen can struggle in harsh sunlight due to high reflectivity. But, other than that, there’s not much to fault. The screen is a vibrant panel that offers an enjoyable content-consumption experience.
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset, paired with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending on the storage variant. In my five-day period, the phone was fast, responsive, and easy to use. The apps loaded quickly, jumping between social media was swift, and adding thoughts to my Essential Space was intuitive.
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Essential Space is Nothing’s AI productivity app that launched last year. The feature serves as a common space for storing screenshots and voice notes, aiming to make sense of your random thoughts. I find Essential Space useful because I’m always looking for pitch ideas, and they arrive at the most random moments in my testing periods. The feature lets me quickly capture my thoughts with the press of a button. I like it.
London buildings shot on the Nothing Phone 4a Pro.
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
The Phone 4a Pro captures decent colors with good detail. The phone truly shines in the sun when there’s plenty of light. I like the contrast and certain aspects of Camera Presets. Urban adds a nice vignette effect and warmer tone, while Soft Focus gives your portraits a dreamy look.
Sure, this function isn’t as functional as I’d like, but I love the phone’s non-generic, distinct design language — something much needed in a landscape where larger manufacturers are branding old parts as new.