As reported earlier, Nothing will not release a flagship device in 2026, a move that may disappoint some fans. However, this does allow us ample time to discuss the company’s latest midrange lineup, the Nothing Phone (4a) series. And I’ve been tasked with finding out if the Pro variant lives up to the hype.
When a company releases a base model alongside a premium version, it’s easy to assume the higher-end model is a huge step up. That’s partly true for the Phone (4a) Pro. It does come with a few noticeable upgrades over the base model, but in most areas, the improvements are fairly modest. The most notable difference between the two is that the Pro comes with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, compared to the vanilla model’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4. The Pro also has slightly better water resistance, a marginally larger screen, and an extra storage option.
Despite having minor increments over its sister device, the company has still given the device the “Pro” moniker. With this in mind, you can make the argument that the company designed this device just so it could say that it launched a Pro model, a pro for pro’s sake, if you will. That said, there’s still plenty to like about this device. Here are my thoughts.
Specifications
Looks And Functionality
Whenever I look at a Nothing-branded device, the first thing that catches my attention is its design. The company has carved out a place in the smartphone industry with its distinctive aesthetic while offering robust and sometimes unique functionality. However, compared to other Nothing handsets, I found the Phone (4a) Pro to be a tad basic.
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro drops the all-transparent back and instead opts for an aluminium unibody design. Design aside, this change makes the device feel more premium in hand. At just 8mm thick, it’s among the sleekest smartphones on the market—comfortable to hold, though a bit slippery if you’re not careful. And yes, the back still attracts fingerprints like no tomorrow. For durability, the aluminium unibody gives it a dense, sturdy feel, though I’d still recommend using a case.
To be frank, the body has zero interesting features, save for a shallow divot at the bottom-left corner of the handset that serves zero function in my testing. If it weren’t for the camera bump, it might easily pass for any other device. Speaking of which…
What breaks up the monotony of the design is the transparent camera plateau. It features a unique camera arrangement on one half and the company’s Glyph Matrix on the other. Other objects of interest include a flashlight, a rear microphone, and a red recording light. Though the design isn’t entirely original, the company took some steps to make sure that it still has a Nothing-inspired coat of paint.
Moving on to functionality, the Glyph Matrix returns with 137 mini-LEDs, down from 489 on the Nothing Phone (3). It still offers Glyph Toys and similar features but drops the dedicated button. Overall, some of it still comes across as gimmicky, but largely because I don’t always get to see it. Personally, I still find the original Glyph Lights more visually appealing and interesting than the Glyph Matrix. That said, considering the Phone (4a) only gets a single light strip on the side, I’m not going to complain too much.
Placing the phone face down automatically switches it to silent mode and activates the Glyph Matrix, even if this is not exactly a new feature. You can also set up custom notifications using conditional rules, which adds a nice layer of personalisation. In practice, it encourages you to leave the phone face down most of the time, only picking it up when something important comes through.
Brightness is another thing worth noting. The LEDs can get surprisingly bright, which is great for visibility but less ideal when you are trying to sleep. Thankfully, there is a scheduling option, so it will not light up and disturb you at night.
Elsewhere, the company has refined the button layout on the Phone (4a) Pro. The Essential Key now sits on the left-hand side, while the power button and volume rocker are placed on the opposite side. For reference, the Phone (3) had both the power button and Essential Key on the right, with the volume rocker on the left. The buttons are also positioned slightly lower this time, making them easier to reach.
As for the display, the Phone (4a) Pro brings a larger, brighter, higher-resolution panel with improved protection compared to the Phone (3a) Pro. It also includes an under-display fingerprint sensor, although its low placement makes it a bit awkward to reach and often forces an uncomfortable grip adjustment.
The device has a modest amount of AI built into it. There is the established and aforementioned Essential Key and Essential Space for your note-taking, some ChatGPT-powered widgets, and the Essential News widget. Of those features, the last one stood out to me the most, though it is a shame it does not offer a way for me to verify the news independently.
On the software side, Nothing OS 4.1 offers extensive customisation. It lets me tailor the device to my needs, particularly with better home screen options. Support for community-made widgets is a nice touch, and users can browse them on the Nothing Playground website. Through this online store, you can download things such as dice rollers, currency exchange rates, and even Tetris. Even so, I do wish the company offered more than three years of OS updates.
Like many smartphones in this day and age, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro has a stereo speaker setup. Quality is quite ok for an upper mid-range phone. It can also get pretty loud, which is a plus in my books.
Performance And Battery
In terms of performance, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 SoC, a solid mid-range (bordering on upper mid-range) chipset that delivers smooth scrolling and respectable gaming performance. The benchmark scores support this idea with some pretty decent numbers. That said, I did notice a few interesting details while I was using the device.
The company promises a refresh rate of up to 144Hz, but when I enabled the refresh rate indicator, I found the display typically running at around 120Hz. With further testing, I noticed it only reaches 144Hz under specific conditions, such as when running apps that support the higher refresh rate. Still, it doesn’t really ruin the experience for me, as 120Hz is still pretty serviceable for your everyday use.
Navigating the device feels smooth, snappy, and responsive, even without a top-tier chipset. It helps that the phone comes with UFS 3.1 storage, which plays a part in keeping the overall experience fast and fluid. The Nothing software experience is also quite nice, as it is highly customisable and hardly has any excessive bloatware that could tank the device’s performance.
As for actual gaming performance, the device holds up pretty well. Using Where Winds Meet as my test title, the Phone (4a) Pro was able to maintain a consistent 60 fps even at Ultra graphics settings for a considerable period. However, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the device still experiences some hiccups here and there. Of course, you still need to contend with the device’s battery. I noticed that the device lost about 20% worth of charge under an hour of gameplay.
Before proceeding to battery life, it’s worth noting that I didn’t run into any overheating issues during my time with the device. The only time it got noticeably warm was during an extreme 3DMark stress test, and even then, it cooled back down within a minute or two.
Moving on, I discovered that the Phone (4a) Pro can achieve slightly over 24 hours of continuous video playback before shutting down. As a daily driver, it can easily last you through the day, even with continuous music streaming and heavy social media use. The fact that the device can reach full charge after an hour is also equally impressive.
Camera
For imaging, the handset has a 50MP main, a 50MP periscope telephoto, and an 8MP ultrawide, while the front has a 32MP snapper. In my testing, the Phone (4a) Pro still delivered an enjoyable photography experience, though not without a few drawbacks. Both the main and telephoto cameras capture plenty of detail in good lighting, but images can come out slightly washed out. Thankfully, a quick filter adjustment is enough to fix it.
I have mixed feelings about telephoto in particular. On the one hand, it can produce some really good shots with a bit of tweaking. On the other, getting there can be a bit frustrating. There were times when the bokeh and the post processing felt overly aggressive, to the point of blurring portions of my subject’s face. Moreover, the camera had a nasty habit of locking onto the wrong subject just as I was about to take the shot.
Great but frustrating portrait images aside, if you look a little closer, it becomes clear that the device leans quite heavily on AI to enhance its photos. A good example is the phone’s zoom performance. It offers a respectable 3.5x optical zoom, which is about what you would expect from a mid-ranger. Push beyond 7x zoom and you will start to see noticeable noise and artefacts. The AI tries to clean things up, but it does not always catch everything.
Despite these AI enhancements, I noticed that the ultrawide lens still falls short compared to the other two sensors. The sensor is understandably smaller, and as a result, you lose a lot of fine details, especially in brickwork and foliage. Meanwhile, the 32MP front camera still delivers reasonably sharp shots, but with the same resolution as the previous Phone (3a) Pro, any meaningful improvements are hard to notice at best.
My biggest concern has to be the phone’s night photography. Light sources almost always come out blown out and harsh, making scenes feel unnatural. Meanwhile, darker areas tend to be grainy, which really highlights the sensor’s limitations in low-light conditions. The gallery above should prove my point.
Competition
Tecno Camon 50 Ultra
Launched this past March, the Tecno Camon 50 Ultra is a solid midrange device that’s a rung or two below Nothing’s latest handset. It features a 6.78-inch 1.5K curved AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 4,500 nits. In terms of performance, however, the Nothing device has the edge, as the Camon 50 Ultra runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultimate SoC paired with 8GB of RAM. That said, it does offer up to 512GB of storage. It also packs a large 6,500mAh battery with support for 45W charging.
The Camon 50 Ultra also sports a triple camera array, featuring a 50MP main, 50MP telephoto, and an 8MP ultrawide. However, it does have a bigger 50MP selfie snapper compared to the Phone (4a) Pro’s 32MP. The cheapest variant of the device goes for RM1,499.
vivo V70
The vivo V70 has a 6.59-inch 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED screen with 5,000 nits of peak brightness. Under the hood is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset, which is less powerful compared to the Phone (4a) Pro’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. The vivo midranger matches the Nothing device with 12GB of RAM, but pulls ahead with storage options going up to 512GB. The vivo V70 also packs a larger 6,500mAh battery, and this time it supports charging speeds of up to 90W.
As for imaging, the vivo V70 has a 50MP main, a 50MP periscope telephoto with 3x zoom, and an 8MP ultrawide. On the other side, the device has a 50MP front camera. By the way, all lenses have been tuned by ZEISS. When it comes to price, the cheapest configuration, which is 8GB + 256GB, goes for RM1,999.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to like about the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, and for the right user, it’s well worth its RM2,299 price. It holds its own against other upper midrange devices, thanks to its solid performance and dependable battery life. The device had all the makings of a great all-rounder, but the company made compromises. The camera takes the biggest hit, especially in low-light conditions. I also wish the company offered more than three years of OS updates, especially for users who plan to hold on to their device long term.
@lowyatnet The Nothing Phone (4a) series and Headphone (a) are now available for pre-order in Malaysia. The headphones retail for RM699, while the handsets get a starting price of RM1,999. #NothingPhone4a #NothingHeadphoneA #NothingMalaysia
The fact that you can get a solid device without any excessive bloatware is the cherry on top, especially when many other devices in this price range are guilty of exactly the opposite. However, as mentioned earlier, there are no major differences between the base and Pro models, aside from the chipset. If you prefer the traditional Nothing aesthetic while saving a few hundred ringgit, the base variant is still a viable option that’s well worth considering.
