Kellen
Nothing announced several new products this morning, one of which I’ve been testing for the past week+. I’ve had my hands on their newest budget phone, the Nothing Phone (4a). Since this phone won’t come to the US, a full review isn’t in the cards, but I’d still like to share some thoughts before we get to the phone that is coming here, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro.
What is the Nothing Phone (4a)?
This is the new budget phone from Nothing that starts at £349 and tops out at £399 if you max the storage and RAM to 256GB and 12GB. That maxed out version is the model I’ve been testing. It comes in White, Black, Blue, and the new Pink. It’s up for pre-order today and should arrive by March 13.
As for specs, it runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, uses UFS3.1 storage and LPDDR4X RAM, and features a 5080mAh battery with 50W wired charging. The AMOLED display measures at 6.78″ and refreshes up to 120Hz. You’ll also find a triple rear camera system with dual 50MP sensors for main and periscope lenses, along with an ultra-wide that Nothing doesn’t appear to want to talk much about. There is a 32MP selfie camera too.
You have a clear backside in classic Nothing styling, along with a centered camera housing and Glyph Bar to show notifications, incoming calls, etc.
The phone is quite large in the hand with flat sides that are at least easy to grab onto. It supports a regular ol’ SIM card (not eSIM) and USB-C charging. There are volume and power buttons on the right side and a programmable Essential key on the left side that can add things to the Essential Space and take notes for you.
Overall, this is a budget friendly phone with specs and design that probably punch a little higher than the price suggests.
Is the Nothing Phone (4a) good?
In short, yes, this is a very good mid-range phone. As you saw yesterday, I’ve also been testing the Pixel 10a (full review) at the same time and in many ways, this phone is better than Google’s newest A-series device. The display is better, performance is much better, and even some of the software touches from Nothing are things I’d love to have on other phones. While the camera is a bit lackluster and the phone is on the larger side, there’s a lot to like. For me, the Nothing Phone 4a wins because of that price and the polished experience.
Nothing does software right by keeping it close to what you find on the Pixel line from Google, but then adds meaningful features on top. It looks clean up front, then adds a really nice set of custom widgets, brings widgets to the lock screen in a way that makes sense, lets you hide labels of apps on the home screen, and brings a Nothing style that is elegant and modern without being obnoxious. Nothing also does notifications properly, unlike Samsung and OnePlus who have both broken how notifications are supposed to work on Android.
Battery life on this phone has also been very good. Like with the Pixel 10a, I stopped worrying about battery life within a day or two of testing. On at least one day, I hit 3.5 hours of screen on time and went to bed with 52% remaining. The large 5080mAh battery lasts and lasts, even if you hammer on it. With 50W wired charging at the ready, you can top it off quickly if you need to too. Unfortunately, there is no wireless charging, so making sure this phone is charged to 100% by the time I wake up each morning has been difficult, since all of my bedside chargers are wireless. This isn’t a dealbreaker, just something that’s been a bit annoying to deal with.
The large display is beautiful, fast, responsive, and the right amount of colorful. It’s really the star of the show here and looks like a display that doesn’t belong on a phone this inexpensive. Viewing angles and brightness (4500 nits peak) are top tier, the phone has far less aggressive Adaptive Brightness than the 10a did, and has a proper dark theme with an “Extra dark mode” with even more contrast.
The design of this phone is fun enough and adds some character to a price range that typically lacks in that area. It’s easy enough to hold, since it’s not that heavy, but as I mentioned earlier, it is on the larger side. There’s that Glyph Bar on the back, but look, I don’t set my phone face-down ever. This is not a feature from Nothing that I’ll ever use or care about.
My biggest complaint with this phone is the camera system. Sure, it’ll take pics and attempt to do a decent job in low light, but the processing is pretty poor. This phone ramps contrast, boosts colors a bit much, and over-sharpens to the point that most images look edited. The photos it takes certainly come off as dramatic, but that’s not exactly my taste in pictures from my camera. I’m sure Nothing can dial all of that back or you could after the fact.
So yeah, the Nothing Phone 4a is a really solid mid-range phone and if it came to the US, I’d probably tell you to consider it if your budget is around $400. I’d probably choose it over Google’s Pixel 10a, mostly because the display is much better and the software has some extra stuff I really like.
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