Nothing takes a different tack with its phone series. For the second time in a row, its midrange entry-level A-series smartphones debuted ahead of its next flagship device. The company has even warned that we wonât be getting the Nothing Phone 4 until next year. Until then, the Phone 4a Pro is here to make an impact, with a more restrained design, a less obtrusive camera bump and specs that beat out last yearâs Nothing Phone 3 â all for $499. In 2026, Nothing is truly aiming to dethrone the Pixel 10a.
Hardware
Mat Smith for Engadget
Itâs a new look. Thatâs often the case with Nothingâs smartphones as the company typically reimagines or rejigs what you can see through the clear back panel. This year, however, Nothing is making bigger changes: this is its first metal (aluminum) unibody phone.
With a new periscope telephoto camera design, the jarringly thick camera bump of last yearâs Phone 3a Pro is thankfully gone, resulting in a slice of smartphone that feels â and to some, looks â more premium and more refined than Nothingâs âflagshipâ Phone 3.
However, compared to the Nothing phones that came before, it also feels muted, and a little safe. The playfulness of Nothing has been hemmed in a little. You might prefer it, but Iâm not sure I do.
Those identifiable Nothing design flourishes â red details, visible screens, lots and lots of circles â are now squeezed into a camera panel. This oblong area with curved corners houses a trio of cameras, a âNow Recordingâ red light and a tweaked Glyph Matrix, which we last saw on the Nothing Phone 3.
This new Glyph Matrix is bigger and brighter, but at a lower âresolution,â thatâs made of 137 mini-LEDs. Thatâs fewer than the Nothing Phone 3âs 489-strong dot-matrix, but the LEDs here are 100 percent brighter. So bright, in fact, that I had to turn them down to their lowest brightness when I was using them.The 4a Pro, however, lacks the rear button on the Phone 3 that lets you cycle through Glyph functions. Does this mean the company has made it easy to switch between Glyph toys and notifications in the phoneâs UI? Sadly not.
You can dip into the Glyph options through the main settings menu, but to change what the Glyph displays is hidden in a sub-tab. I also noticed that the offering of âtoysâ was limited, with fewer items than even the Nothing Phone 3 had at launch. Hopefully, this will expand once the phone officially launches.
The 4a Pro packs a bigger screen than the companyâs flagship, with a 6.83-inch AMOLED screen running at 1.5K resolution. It also has a higher refresh rate than the 6.67-inch Phone 3. And on top of that, the Phone 4a Proâs display has a peak brightness of 5,000 nits, making it Nothingâs brightest smartphone yet.
Iâve handled so many phones over the last four weeks that itâs often hard to discern the difference between brighter displays. Fortunately, I have the Nothing Phone 3 (and 3a Pro) to compare against the Phone 4a Pro. Itâs noticeably brighter, and as we slowly get into sunnier weather, a smartphone thatâs easier to read outdoors is always very welcome.
The Phone 4a Pro also has improved IP65 water and dust resistance, while Nothing says it's 42 percent more bend-resistant than the Phone 3a Pro as well. Itâs also almost 0.5mm thinner, if you ignore the camera bump for those measurements. Factor that in and the Phone 4a Pro is almost 1.5mm thinner than its predecessor. This design change also makes Nothingâs newest phone feel far less top-heavy than the 3a Pro. Regardless of the aesthetic changes, this is unmistakably refined hardware.
Cameras
Mat Smith for Engadget
Besides the streamlined camera unit, with a new tetraprism periscopic lens that takes up less space, the Phone 4a Pro has improved imaging capabilities (almost) across the board. The new 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens (which Nothing says also uses less power) has a 3.5x optical zoom, plus computational photography magic that can now crank it up to a (mostly unusable) 140x hybrid zoom.
The main 50MP sensor also features a bigger sensor for improved low-light performance. With an f/1.88 lens though, it doesnât quite match the Phone 3âs main camera (f/1.68), both on paper and in practice. The array is rounded out with an 8MP ultrawide camera, which sounds like the weakest link, but I rarely use the ultrawide cameras on any phone aside from review testing. Oddly, the selfie camera is a technical downgrade in resolution, with a 32MP sensor on the 4a Pro, down from 50MP on the 3a Pro.
Mat Smith for Engadget
One new addition was co-developed by Google. Ultra XDR blends Androidâs native HDR processing with Nothingâs own approach, capturing 13 RAW frames at different exposures and combining them to deliver greater dynamic range and detail. However, as proof of how new they are, your Ultra XDR images canât be shared as easily. They do work with Google Photos and Instagram, at least. If itâs any consolation, Ultra XDR so far doesnât seem hugely far away from typical HDR capture. Iâll keep testing the cameras and if I figure out where it really shines, Iâll update this review.
Mat Smith for Engadget
If one thing disappoints on the 4a Pro, itâs recording video. Switching between zoom levels will often completely derail exposure settings. Even if you record on a single camera at the same focal length, exposure levels seem extremely sensitive and struggle to stay locked. Footage is often muddy and low-light performance isnât great, even if using the Ultra XDR video mode. You arenât forced to endure this with the Pixel 10a, but then again, thereâs no zoom on Googleâs mid-range phone â just a lossless crop. In more forgiving lighting, video is adequate, but quality drops off beyond the 3.5x optical zoom. Still, the versatility and quality of the still images from both the main camera and the telephoto lens put it above every other smartphone at this price.
Performance and software
The Phone 4a Pro is now powered by a more capable processor: Qualcommâs Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. Nothing claims that, in addition to its own on-device optimizations, it improved CPU performance by 27 percent, GPU performance by 30 percent and AI performance by 65 percent compared to the Phone 3a series.
Thereâs certainly a big difference in performance while gaming. While the 3a series struggled with more complex games, the 4a Pro kept up with Red Dead Redemption and Diablo Immortal. Itâs not the most polished interpretation of Decard Cain and the lands of Sanctuary, but it's responsive and playable, even at 60 fps, with only a few frame drops.
The Phone 4a has a 5,080mAh battery, roughly equivalent to its predecessor. It supports up to 50W fast charging, a tad faster than the Pixel 10a, though it lacks wireless charging support, unlike Googleâs midranger. Itâs one of the few signs that this isnât Nothingâs âtrueâ flagship, even if it looks the part.
I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life, too. Typically, phones are getting increasingly bigger batteries, but as I mentioned, thatâs not the case here.. However, the 4a Pro lasted 24 hours in our battery rundown test, five hours more than last yearâs model.
The Phone 4a Pro has all the software features either present or teased in older Nothing Phones. Essential Search is a system-wide search that can find terms in messages, files and the rest of your phone. Thereâs also a new Breathing Break widget; we definitely need that in 2026.
Essential Memory is Nothingâs name for its background algorithms and analysis, scrutinizing your phoneâs contents as well as whateverâs saved in Essential Space. Nothing has added cloud storage for Space, aimed at devoted upgraders, meaning everything you saved on older compatible Nothing phones can be transferred over. Sure, itâs a little niche, but it was an early frustration while testing the Phone 3 after the 3a series. If, for some reason, you have to reset your device, keeping everything in Space backed up elsewhere is a boon.
Mat Smith for Engadget
Also, while itâs technically a hardware tweak, Nothing has also moved the Essential Key to the left edge of the phone, making it far less likely to be triggered when youâre adjusting the volume and more in line with other phones and my own smartphone muscle memory.
One caveat from previous Nothing devices remains. The company says it will deliver three years of Android updates and an additional three years of security patches. Compare that to Samsungâs seven years of Android updates for this yearâs S26 series (and Googleâs Pixel 10a), and you can see how it falls short.
Wrap-up
The Phone 4a Pro punches well above its $499 price tag. Nothing has successfully refined its hardware into a more premium, all-metal unibody, losing the jarring camera bump of its predecessor in favor of a sleek design that houses a genuinely impressive camera. The improved camera versatility, coupled with its class-leading 24-hour battery life and a more capable processor, makes this a serious threat to the Pixel 10a.
However, some of Nothing's signature playfulness has been dialed back. The Glyph Matrix, while brighter, is lower-resolution and its âtoysâ are disappointingly limited at launch. The lack of wireless charging is another nod to its midrange status.
Nothingâs Phone 4a Pro is a device with a clear identity, delivering on the essentials for half the price of many rivals.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/nothing-phone-4a-pro-review-glyph-matrix-130042005.html?src=rss
