Nothing Phone 4a Pro adds aluminium body and rear LED screen

Nothing’s latest phone moves away from the company’s usual transparent glass designs. The Phone 4a Pro uses a solid aluminium body with a camera island that keeps some of the transparent look from earlier models.

The phone costs £499. That price sits above the regular Phone 4a at £349 and below the Phone 3 at £699. It competes with phones such as the Google Pixel 10a.

The aluminium body feels solid, but the phone is large. It has a 6.83-inch OLED screen on the front that requires two hands for most tasks. The back carries a large camera island with a bright circular dot-matrix LED screen. The screen can show the time, notification icons, timers, volume and battery levels. It can also act as a rough selfie screen or display widgets such as a moon phase tracker.

The LED screen follows the same Glyph interface used on earlier Nothing phones. Some features feel gimmicky, but showing the time or notification icons on the back proves useful in daily use.

The Phone 4a Pro runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor with 8 or 12GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage. It ships with Nothing OS 4.1 based on Android 16. The phone supports 5G, eSIM, Wi-Fi 6, NFC and Bluetooth 5.4. It measures 163.6 by 76.6 by 7.9 millimetres and weighs 210 grams. Water resistance reaches IP65.

Battery life reaches more than two days with normal use. The phone lasts over seven hours of screen time across Wi-Fi and 5G for messaging, browsing and video. Heavy gaming cuts battery life by about 30 percent per hour, but the phone still ends most days with charge remaining.

Nothing OS 4.1 offers standard icons or dot-matrix designs. It supports live notifications on the lock screen and includes Google’s Gemini along with Nothing’s own AI tools. The Essential Space app backs up images, text and voice notes to the cloud. A new Essential Voice feature cleans up dictation and recognises phrases such as “my phone number.” The tools require an internet connection and run slower than some rivals.

The company promises three years of Android updates and six years of security patches. Some apps such as Netflix do not support HDR playback on the screen due to certification limits.

The rear camera system includes a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel 3.5x telephoto lens and an 8-megapixel ultrawide. The front camera is 32 megapixels. The main camera produces detailed shots with good dynamic range in daylight but softens in low light. The telephoto lens delivers sharp images and supports effective 7x zoom before digital zoom takes over. The ultrawide camera lacks detail. Video recording stays solid but does not reach 4K at 60 frames per second.

The battery holds at least 80 percent capacity after 1,200 charge cycles. The phone uses recycled aluminium, plastic, steel and tin and carries a carbon footprint of 50.5 kilograms of CO2 equivalent.

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro stands out for its aluminium build, large screen and rear LED display. It offers strong software and solid battery life. The main and telephoto cameras perform well for the price. At £499 it costs more than some rivals with stronger performance or cameras, and the cheaper Phone 4a covers many of the same features for less money.