Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

Nothing phones are different, both in terms of software and hardware. The aluminium, semi-transparent design is, in my opinion, fantastic. As in the case with the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, which is still slim, has an aluminium metal unibody coupled to the vapor cooling, and while it may look fantastically futuristic and brittle at the same time, it's rated at IP65 with Nothing claiming that they have tested it in 25 cm of water. The side holds a programmable "Essential" button that can be used for a lot of things, and being very vanilla myself, I used it for screenshots.

To add to its unique design, the Pro has a glyph interface of 137 pixels that are lit up by mini-LED at 3,000 nits. The idea is that it will provide additional information before you have even unlocked your phone. It's a very interesting concept when combined with Nothing OS 4.1, but it does however have limited functionality, and given that most people will mainly use it for updates on what time it is, I treat it as a fun little feature and don't grieve over the fact that it could theoretically be used for a lot more. Life is too short for that.

Nothing OS is vastly different to everything else on the market and I love it. While everything seems different, it's also very intuitive and I do like the added privacy options, including a separate password for a vault where you can store whatever you like, similar to how the dual-sim card - only found in very expensive phones - offers added flexibility.

The 6.83" AMOLED display runs at 1.5K resolution and 144Hz with extremely thin bezels, 1.82 mm thin, and 1,500 nits brightness at normal use with a 5,000 nits peak. I am pretty sure this is the brightest screen I have ever tested. For gaming, it runs at 2,500 Hz touch sampling rate, beating even dedicated gaming phones. It's bright, fast, and fluid. The speakers are fine as well. Oh... and there is a transparent case included in the box, something that really should be standard for all phones.

The chipset is Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 and this means a respectable 8 cores, but no Wi-Fi 7. The battery is 5,080 mAh, which lasts two days with no problems and charges at 50 Watt. However, due to the metal body of the phone, it does not support wireless charging. Yes, I am aware that it's technically possible but it must have been too expensive to implement. I charge with a cable on the regular, but for those that have transitioned to a wireless life, this will be a dealbreaker.

One thing that Nothing underplays a bit too much is the brilliant triple camera setup that uses their own TrueLens engine. A 50MP main camera using the Sony IMX896 sensor, an 8MP Sony-based ultra-wide, and a Samsung JN5-based 50MP periscope giving you 3.5x optical, 7x "lossless", and 140x ultra-zoom. While a few other phones have slightly better image quality overall, nothing beats this in the price range and the image noise reduction is clearly visible when zooming in afterwards. I am, however, less impressed by the colour calibration as to me it seems like the three cameras don't match entirely in colour profile by default and there is a very clear difference between the optical and the digital zoom, despite the digital zoom being better than what it normally is. I always recommend to avoid digital zoom and stay with the optical and that advice also applies here. Unfortunately, they also use "Ultra Zoom" (140x), which works using generative AI. That means that some of the pixels in your image aren't there, as they are generated, and that is a serious problem in my opinion. That belongs in post edit of the image and not when capturing it.

Despite the zoom capability being in focus, I am actually much more impressed by the night photography. These are perhaps the lowest image noise night-time photos I have ever taken, which is pretty impressive for a phone in this price bracket. It works by combining seven frames into one image and then using AI for noise reduction. This is how you should implement AI in your products! Despite this extremely powerful photo feature, the phone only does 4K/30FPS and can't offer 60FPS, which I think it needs to effectively cross blades with the flagship models from other brands.

The pricing is simple, €429 gets you 8GB+128GB and €499 gets you 12GB+256GB. You'll want to get the latter. There are three years of Android updates and six years of security updates promised.

I am somewhat conflicted as I do love the metal body of the phone and how it feels, however, the semi-transparent, circuit board, futuristic look is downplayed, and that is what I like the most about Nothing phones. The display is great and seems way over the top for a phone in this price tier and I found no hiccups or delays using it for gaming or heavy multitasking. The battery life is great and so is the camera performance, at least when kept within the boundaries of the optical zoom.

It's a solid 8/10. 60FPS/4K video, Wi-Fi 7, better optical zoom, and wireless charging is needed if it should jump an higher. still, I am a bit in doubt as I have fallen in love with the OS and general aesthetics of the phone.