Nothing Phone 4A/Pro Review: I Have a Theory

0:02 All right.

0:02 So, this is the new Nothing

0:04 Phone 4A [music] and 4A Pro.

0:09 Two of the most compelling

0:10 new budget phones available right now.

0:12 So, this 4A is €349

0:16 getting released in Europe and a few

0:17 other markets.

0:18 And then this 4A Pro is

0:20 starting at $499 US.

0:23 And notice there is no nothing phone

0:25 4, just 4A and 4a pro.

0:30 We'll get to that

0:30 in a minute.

0:31 But these are good phones.

0:32 I happen to think they're the two best

0:33 looking Nothing phones of all time.

0:35 The 4a, this blue one, is definitely the

0:37 most competitively priced.

0:39 It's running the Snapdragon 7S Gen 4 and has triple

0:42 cameras, a higher fresh rate OLED

0:44 display, a 5,000 plus millah battery,

0:46 and I'll put all the specs up actually

0:48 here for both phones.

0:49 So, we can just

0:50 get that out the way.

0:50 You can see them

0:51 all here.

0:51 and you'll see the 4a Pro is a

0:53 slightly higherend version of the 4a on

0:56 paper, but it also has a few unique

0:57 design features of its own.

0:58 So, in a world where the pretty underwhelming

1:00 Pixel 10a just came out for 499 bucks

1:04 and the iPhone 17 just came out for 100

1:07 bucks more than that, this is a perfect

1:08 slot for nothing to just jump right in

1:10 and just be the alternative.

1:12 And this blue one is so nice.

1:13 It's got the matte

1:14 blue sides all the way around.

1:15 The semi-transparent back with the classic

1:18 nothing dotted text and all these

1:20 textures and shapes seen through the

1:22 plastic back.

1:22 It's nice and has the

1:23 triple cameras up here.

1:24 So when you see

1:25 the iPhone 17e with one single camera

1:27 and the Pixel 10a with dual cameras,

1:29 this starts looking even better.

1:31 And then the Nothing software experience has

1:33 been gradually improving over time.

1:35 So this is nothing OS 4.1 on top of Android

1:37 16.

1:38 And I really liked how well they've

1:39 always done with the smoothness and

1:40 responsiveness.

1:41 So, phones without super

1:43 high-end chips still feel really nice to

1:45 use.

1:45 They've also majorly updated the

1:47 storage to UFS 3.1, so apps will open

1:50 faster, and the animations throughout

1:52 the OS continue to get refined.

1:53 So, I say the snappy factor is super high.

1:56 But there's also just straight up more home

1:58 screen customization features now, too.

2:00 There's more control over like how the

2:02 folders appear on your home screen.

2:03 And this is also my first time using the

2:05 playground, which is the communitydriven

2:07 store on the web where people can make

2:10 even more insane custom widgets that you

2:12 can add to your home screen, like this

2:14 one, which is literally just an arcade

2:16 game in a little 1 in x 1in box.

2:19 Or this one, which just counts down how much

2:22 time is left in the day, the week, the

2:24 month, and the year.

2:26 And oh my god,

2:27 we're already so far into 2026.

2:30 Anyway, yeah, uh I I like the Nothing software

2:33 clearly.

2:33 Uh it's got good character.

2:34 I feel like sometimes I'll use a Nothing

2:36 phone for a while and then I'll move to

2:37 another phone and I'll find myself

2:39 missing some of the Nothing home screen

2:42 features specifically cuz no other phone

2:44 has quite the same set of stuff.

2:45 And then the lights on the back, of course.

2:47 How can we forget the lights on the back

2:49 of the Nothing Phone?

2:50 For this year's phone, it's just a straight up bar of

2:53 them.

2:53 So, seven LED dots lined up on the

2:56 right hand side with the bottom one

2:58 being red.

2:59 So, it can do things like uh

3:00 being a volume indicator for music when

3:02 you're playing stuff and flip the phone

3:04 over, or it can be a progress bar

3:06 indicator for an upcoming Uber or Google

3:09 calendar notification, or a glyph timer

3:11 as it counts down.

3:12 And also, yes, the

3:13 red dot blinks as a video recording

3:15 indicator, which hey, maybe more phones

3:18 should have, you know, the rest of the

3:20 hardware though, it's not super premium,

3:21 but it's just fine for this price.

3:24 It's fine.

3:24 like the 128 gigs of starting

3:26 storage.

3:26 It's a little crazy on the $600

3:28 Pixel 10, but here makes sense.

3:31 It's fine.

3:32 Uh it's a good mix of like plastic

3:34 and some recycled materials.

3:35 It's Gorilla Glass 7i on the front and uh

3:39 it's IP64 rated.

3:41 It's fine.

3:42 But if you want a little bit more or if you live in

3:44 the US where you can't get this phone,

3:45 uh then there's this one which is the

3:47 Nothing for A Pro.

3:50 And just as soon as

3:51 you hold it, you can feel that it's just

3:53 a little nicer.

3:54 Like it's doing this

3:55 thing where it's emulating a lot of the

3:57 highest end big ultra flagships, but

3:59 without actually being one.

4:01 Like this body is now unibody aluminum.

4:04 It is also extremely fingerprinty and kind of

4:06 annoyingly hard to clean for some

4:08 reason.

4:08 But you're holding cold metal

4:10 every single time, which is awesome.

4:12 And then the cameras and this new glyph

4:14 matrix up at the top are in this like

4:15 clear cutout, which I really like.

4:17 Still triple cameras, but bigger sensors and

4:19 with more of an ultraon looking plateau

4:22 and it keeps the red dot which is fire.

4:24 I love that.

4:25 So then the bezels around

4:26 the display are a little thinner.

4:27 So in a slightly smaller footprint, you

4:29 actually get a slightly larger screen.

4:31 The chipset inside is a Snapdragon 7 Gen

4:34 4 instead of the 7S Gen 4.

4:35 And then the glyph interface on the back can tell you

4:38 even more because it's this whole pixel

4:40 dotstyle display.

4:41 It's basically a scaled up lower resolution but brighter

4:45 version of what the Nothing Phone 3 had

4:47 a whole array that's fully customizable

4:49 unless you put entire images basically

4:52 on the back of the phone here.

4:53 So like if I miss a Slack notification, I have

4:55 the phone face down, I have this

4:56 specific icon show up on the Matrix and

4:59 then I know I missed Slack.

5:01 Or if I miss

5:02 a message from Bay, then you get this

5:04 heart to show up.

5:05 And there's this whole

5:06 set of pre-made icons that you can use

5:08 for any sort of notifications or

5:10 contacts.

5:11 And you can even kind of make

5:13 your own by using a custom image.

5:15 But I also kind of wish I could actually just

5:17 draw something specific on the matrix

5:19 myself.

5:20 Maybe that's a feature for a

5:21 software update.

5:21 Carl, also the countdown animation for a timer is super

5:25 intricate, but it's too bad I'll never

5:27 use it because it doesn't integrate with

5:29 the built-in clock app on the phone.

5:30 Either way, I like it.

5:32 I I like that it

5:33 encourages you to basically just keep

5:35 your phone face down most of the time

5:36 and then you can choose if you see the

5:39 notification you want to engage with to

5:41 then pick it up and use your phone, but

5:43 most of the time you can leave it face

5:44 down.

5:44 I think that's nice.

5:45 Some of the other stuff is kind of gimmicky, but I

5:47 appreciate that bit of functionality.

5:49 Now, neither of these Nothing phones has

5:50 a ton of AI features, which is music to

5:53 some people's ears these days, but you

5:54 know, the S26 Ultra we just saw has like

5:56 a ton of photo editing stuff and

5:58 playground stuff.

5:59 Not so much here.

6:00 They do put all their AI stuff in this

6:02 intelligence toolkit is what they're

6:04 calling it.

6:05 Cool.

6:06 But that's where you

6:06 can see that it is pretty minimal.

6:08 There's an AI wallpaper generator and

6:10 there's some custom chat GPT widgets.

6:12 And then there's the essential space

6:13 that they've had for a few years now,

6:14 which is still accessible by this

6:16 shortcut button on the side of the

6:17 phone.

6:18 So, I have this theory about

6:20 nothing as a company that is basically

6:24 they they just don't want to make a

6:26 high-end competitive flagship phone

6:28 right now because they can't.

6:31 They actually it's it's kind of impossible

6:33 for them at this moment to make a

6:35 competitive super high-end flagship

6:37 phone.

6:37 Like, the last time we saw them

6:38 really try a high-end phone was the

6:40 Nothing Phone 3 last year for $800, and

6:43 that did not go well.

6:44 It was a decently

6:46 interesting phone, but not very

6:47 competitive for the price.

6:48 And fans did not love that price tag.

6:50 So then a few

6:51 weeks ago, there's this video on the

6:53 Nothing YouTube channel where Carl CEO

6:55 just basically says like, "We're just

6:57 not going to do a flagship this year."

6:59 They straight up said, "We're not going

7:00 to make a new flagship phone every

7:02 single year just for the sake of it."

7:03 Just because every other company has a

7:05 new flagship every year doesn't mean we

7:06 have to.

7:07 And the framing of it, of

7:07 course, is very clever and thoughtful.

7:09 you know, they want every upgrade to

7:11 feel more meaningful, so they'll wait

7:12 longer between flagships till they have

7:14 something to share.

7:15 Totally valid.

7:16 But also, they are a relatively small

7:20 company in the smartphone space.

7:21 So, the order sizes that they're placing from

7:23 suppliers is smaller than the Samsungs

7:27 and Apples and Xiaomi's of the world.

7:28 So, that means they pay more for the

7:30 same parts.

7:32 And that combined with the

7:35 skyrocketing RAM prices that we all have

7:37 to deal with now just means it's harder

7:40 to compete.

7:40 Like the bigger companies,

7:41 they're not immune to higher RAM prices,

7:43 but a lot of them have placed larger

7:44 orders or or had longer lead times so

7:46 that they're they're kind of locked in

7:48 for old prices a little bit longer and

7:51 can save off the price increase maybe

7:53 one more year.

7:54 So, nothing is clearly

7:55 not going to do a full-on flagship phone

7:57 with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 16

7:59 gigs of RAM and a 7,000 mAh silicon

8:02 carbon battery.

8:03 That stuff is all super

8:04 expensive and harder to get.

8:06 And they also happen to know that that's not

8:08 really the reason why people are buying

8:10 nothing phones.

8:12 So, they're just going

8:13 to avoid that super crazy flagship stuff

8:15 altogether.

8:16 But they also know that

8:18 their most savvy fans are intelligent

8:21 enough that if they made a new flagship

8:24 but didn't put the flagship chip in it,

8:27 they'd probably get called out.

8:28 So instead, they're making a mid-range

8:30 phone and an upper mid-range phone.

8:33 So that's the 4A and the 4A Pro.

8:37 So there is no nothing phone 4 with a Snapdragon

8:40 8 Elite Gen 5.

8:41 Now, the thing is the 4a

8:43 Pro does a lot of stuff that emulates

8:45 the big flagship, like I said, without

8:47 going all the way to being one.

8:48 Like, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 isn't the highest

8:51 end chip, but it's definitely a really

8:53 good one.

8:54 And when combined with their

8:55 refined animations and the quicker

8:57 storage, I think honestly without

8:58 playing a high-end game or running a

9:00 benchmark, most people would be

9:01 hardressed to tell the difference.

9:03 It's shaped like a flagship.

9:04 It has the camera plateau of a flagship, but then

9:06 there's also some things that look kind

9:09 of flagship on the spec sheet, at least

9:10 more than the 4A, but that I actually

9:12 don't feel like really make that much of

9:14 a difference.

9:15 Like the peak brightness

9:16 number, for example, on the 4A Pro is

9:18 5,000 nits compared to 4500 on the 4A,

9:22 which is again a nice number, but I

9:23 don't really see much of a difference

9:24 holding them side by side.

9:26 Uh the 4A Pro

9:27 is IP65 rated instead of IP64, which

9:30 theoretically means it can survive more

9:32 water pressure than the 4a, but you

9:34 know, they can both get splashed fine.

9:36 Uh the Nothing Phone 4a also doesn't

9:38 have wireless charging.

9:39 The 4a Pro, like

9:40 the iPhone 17 Pro, gets all this nice

9:42 new metal unibody construction, which

9:44 feels great in the hand, but unlike the

9:46 iPhone, they didn't add a cutout in the

9:49 back, so it also doesn't have wireless

9:51 charging.

9:52 Both the 4a and 4a pro have

9:54 LTPS displays.

9:56 So meaning they are

9:57 variable refresh rate from 30 Hz up to

9:59 their max of 120, but you'll notice on

10:01 the spec sheet it says the max of the 4a

10:03 pro is actually 144, which it even says

10:06 in the settings.

10:07 And it definitely sounds like more of a flagship number,

10:09 but when you turn on the frame rate

10:11 indicator, you'll see that it basically

10:13 never actually hits 144 hertz.

10:15 You can even force peak refresh rate, it stays

10:17 at 120.

10:18 It's kind of the same situation

10:19 as those other Asus phones from a few

10:21 years ago where it's just a couple

10:24 supported games where it'll bump up to

10:26 144.

10:27 Otherwise, you might as well never

10:28 notice.

10:28 And then while the triple

10:29 cameras here of the 4a Pro are meant to

10:31 be an upgrade from the triple cameras of

10:33 the 4a, uh, honestly, none of them are really

10:37 that standoutish.

10:38 It's nice to have

10:38 triple cameras, don't get me wrong.

10:40 Like I said, the 17e Pixel 10a aren't doing

10:43 that.

10:43 But I don't think anybody should

10:44 be buying these phones expecting

10:46 anything other than perfectly average

10:48 cameras.

10:49 Photos I'm getting are

10:50 serviceable, but often a little HDR

10:53 sometimes and often a little bit noisier

10:55 than I was expecting.

10:56 The focal lengths are essentially the same across both

10:59 phones.

10:59 It's an 8 megap ultrawide, then

11:01 a 50 megapixel main and a 3.5x

11:04 telephoto.

11:04 Also, neither of these phones

11:06 can shoot 4K video from their ultrawides

11:08 because 4K is 12 megapixels and these

11:11 ultrawides are both 8 megapixel sensors.

11:13 The only extra functionality I could

11:15 find in the Pro phone over the regular

11:18 4a was instead of tapping out at 70x

11:20 zoom, the Pro has the world's first

11:25 140x ultra zoom.

11:28 Wow.

11:29 But I mean, why stop there?

11:30 You might as well be a nice even 150 or 200.

11:34 But what's stopping you?

11:35 It's just digital crop.

11:36 Just go to a th00and at

11:37 that point.

11:38 It clearly doesn't make a

11:39 huge difference.

11:40 This 4a pro is less of

11:41 a pro version of the phone and more of a

11:45 slightly upbadged upfeatured version of

11:47 the same thing for 150 bucks more for

11:49 the US market.

11:50 Still a fine phone,

11:51 [music] but the 4a is where it's at.

11:55 Thanks for watching.

11:57 Catch you guys in

11:57 the next one.

11:58 Peace.

11:59 [music]