Nothing has unmistakably alerted the Pixel 10a with the new Phone 4a Pro
If aesthetics are a crucial aspect of a smartphone for you, it’s likely that London-based Nothing has caught your eye. Founded by ex-OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei, the brand has prioritized design to differentiate itself, and its most recent release, the Nothing Phone 4a Pro, upholds this principle.
Unveiled today in London, the Phone 4a Pro stands as the most refined Nothing smartphone to date, both in terms of hardware and design. It boasts some of the finest specifications yet seen in a Nothing device, but also illustrates the company’s readiness to adapt its design based on customer feedback.
The outcome is a smartphone that showcases an impressive design, with one notable exception. I recently had a hands-on experience with the Nothing Phone 4a Pro in London, and here’s what I discovered.
The Phone 4a Pro boasts a remarkable design
Make no mistake: the Phone 4a Pro features the finest design of any Nothing Phone to date. In contrast to the Phone 4a — more on that later — which (re)introduces the Glyph bar, the Phone 4a Pro reinstates the Glyph Matrix display from last year’s Phone 3, while addressing all major criticisms of that version.
The two main issues with the Phone 3, which was the first to substitute the Glyphs with a dot-matrix display, were that activation of the display required pressing a button, and its small size made it easy to overlook. The Phone 4a Pro resolves both issues with a larger Glyph Matrix display that’s straightforward to see, enhancing its functionality.
I appreciate how the Glyph Matrix display now integrates seamlessly into the camera design, unlike the Phone 3, where it seemed like an additional feature. This also emphasizes the cameras, marking another domain where Nothing has enhanced its A-series devices with this latest release.
The Phone 4a Pro offers an impressive camera on paper
<p(Set at $499 or £499, the Nothing Phone 4a Pro is intended to directly compete with the Google Pixel 10a. In addition to its eye-catching design, the Nothing Phone 4a Pro’s camera may pose a challenge to the Pixel 10a.
Google’s latest entry-level Pixel sports a single 48MP camera, and while Google excels at software processing, it’s hard to envision how it can rival Nothing, as the Phone 4a Pro is equipped with a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide lens, and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens that provides 3.5x optical zoom, and up to 140x zoom.
Indeed, it’s more than merely hardware, and I will need to extensively assess this camera, but this configuration could establish a new benchmark for affordable