I’ve been using the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro for a week, and it’s absolutely brilliant

Ben Schoon | Mar 19 2026 - 6:00 am PT

Since its announcement earlier this month, I’ve been pretty excited for the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro’s debut and, after using it as my daily phone for a week, I’m all the more sold by this device.

Nothing is a relatively polarizing brand in the modern smartphone market, but it really seems to have found what it’s good at with mid-range models. The Nothing A-series releases have been some of my favorite phones of the past few years and, right away, Nothing Phone (4a) Pro might be topping all of them simply by evolving.

Kicking off with the hardware, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro forgoes the usual look of Nothing Phones by ditching much of the transparency. That’s instead locked to a “window” at the top of the display which, yes, is basically a pseudo-iPhone look. The rest of the backplate is now aluminum with a matte finish. I didn’t expect to like this change but, after a few days, I’m pretty happy with it. I guess I forgot how much I like the feeling of “fully” metal smartphones. The look has also really grown on me. It’s quirky and unique like every other Nothing Phone, but in a way that feels a little less like it’s yelling “hey look at me!“

The hardware is great, but with two downsides. Firstly, it’s quite heavy, surprisingly so, even. Beyond that, the lack of wireless charging is a bit annoying, but that’s mostly a matter of personal preference. I stuck an adhesive magnet on the included case so I could continue mounting the phone in my car, on my desk, and putting my wallet on it when out.

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Other core pillars here are solid too.

The display is sharp, bright, and vivid, though the auto-brightness can be a little wonky on the current software build. The speakers are excellent, with lots of depth and impressive volume – this might be the most underrated thing in smartphones.

And the battery life has been very good thus far.

I’m usually getting through a full day without hitting 40%, and the speedy 50W wired USB-PD charging has me in a habit of just not bothering to charge it overnight, but just top off at my desk or while I’m in the shower.

Performance on the whole has been great. Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is a perfectly acceptable chip across the board, and the upgrade to UFS 3.1 makes this feel noticeably quicker compared to Nothing Phone (3a) and prior. For the most part, this feels just about as fast as Phone (3) in the bulk of usage, outside of the occasional hiccup in social apps or while multitasking. I think you’ll end up with a faster experience with a Pixel 10a – Tensor G4, for all of the crap people love to give it, is still a better chip than this Snapdragon – but this is quite good. Nothing OS 4.1, on top of it all, is clean and easy to use.

The new Glyph Matrix, though, remains basically just as useless as it felt on Phone (3). It’s just an always-on display with less functionality – and it led to me immediately scratching up the pre-installed screen protector.

So why isn’t this a full review?

The camera, mainly. I’ve simply not had enough time to put this camera through the proper paces just yet, but early results aren’t half bad. The previews shown are often iffy, but Nothing’s processing has been top-notch. The results are always a tiny bit better than I expect. More to come!

But, anyway, that’s where I’m at after a week with Nothing Phone (4a) Pro.

So far, I’m very impressed. The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro isn’t a flagship, nor does it try to position itself as a “flagship killer,” but I think the latter is exactly where it slots in. Sort of like a Pixel, this is all of the phone you “need,” and since the fundamentals are so good, I don’t find myself wanting a whole lot more. Nothing won’t be releasing a proper flagship this year and, frankly, I don’t think they really need to.

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is available for pre-order in the US on Amazon now, and starts shipping on March 27. It costs $499 for the 8GB/128GB model, though I am testing the higher 12/256GB model (which is the only way to get it in pink), so keep that in mind.