UK-based tech firm Nothing has made a name for itself with bold and brashly designed smartphones, earbuds and headphones, and the new Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is no different – apart from the fact it nearly entirely ditches the firm’s transparent aesthetic for stark aluminium.

It’s on sale from March 27 but available to pre-order now. I’ve had my SIM stashed in the (4a) Pro for two weeks to see if it’s an Android phone you should consider spending your money on.

One way to review the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro would be to take its £499 price and compare it to the £499 Google Pixel 10a and the £599 iPhone 17e. I would tell you that compared to those two phones – from two industry-dominating titans – the (4a) Pro lacks full waterproofing and wireless charging, and it will only get three years of Android version updates.

But buying the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is a decision of the heart, not the head. It’s a far more interesting and exciting purchase than the bland Pixel and iPhone, and is a reminder that personal tech can be thoughtfully designed rather than conform to expectation. That a startup is challenging the status quo in this way is a cause for celebration.

Your phone doesn’t have to be boring anymore.

The (4a) Pro launched alongside the cheaper Phone (4a), which has Nothing’s expected see-through back plate. The Pro has an entirely new look with a small transparent camera section across the top on the back (to allow passthrough for NFC for contactless payments), with triple cameras and a unique circular screen called the ‘Glyph Matrix’ that has 137 LED lights.

This can be used when the phone is face down, programmable to show you incoming calls and messages from certain contacts, or alert you to whatever you want. You can set up whatever you like, though the low resolution does mean it’s a little limited in functionality. I set it to show when my wife has messaged or if I have a missed call, which went a surprisingly long way to stopping my phone distracting me during the work day.

The rest of the phone is a cool-to-the-touch aluminium, a breath of fresh air in 2026. It comes in black, subtle pink or silver. It reminds me of the iPhone 6 or the HTC One M8 – Nothing cleverly shooting straight for the heart of this nostalgic millennial, while also appealing to Gen Z with its fashion-first social media presence.

Around the front is a massive 6.83-inch AMOLED screen with up to 144Hz refresh rate, impressive at this price point. I wish it was a smidge smaller, but this is also Nothing’s slimmest phone yet at 7.95mm. IP65 water proofing means it may not survive a dunk in the pool, but for rain and splashes you’ll be fine. For what it’s worth, Nothing claims it’ll “handle full submersion in up to 25 cm of water for up to 20 minutes.” So shallow puddles only, please!

These design tweaks make for a more premium-feeling phone than the £349 Phone (4a). But does spending £150 more make this phone “Pro”? I’m not so sure, given the triple cameras here are close to identical to the cheaper model.

The only difference is that Nothing has used a faster Sony sensor on the (4a) Pro, which I found was better at autofocus, though when tapping to crop into a 2x digital zoom it often did not re-focus, so I ended up with several blurry images. This is a very camera system with sharp, crisp images, but you do need to tap to focus often.

I’ll concede the Pixel 10a has a better main lens overall, but the (4a) Pro encourages you to be more creative with photography thanks to pre-made and user created presets, which are essentially filters.

The telephoto lens offers 3.5 optical zoom, though it is a smaller sensor than on the Phone (3a) Pro from last year. Despite that, you are getting a capable lens here when the Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e do not offer a telephoto at all. That said, the 140x digital zoom is terrible.

The less said about the 8MP ultra-wide lens the better – it’s not great. But at £499, you can’t have everything, including a top-tier chipset. The phone uses the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, though I found this more than enough power given I am not a mobile gamer. Spec hunters will complain, but this phone feels incredibly responsive, though that may be down to Nothing’s secret weapon, which is its excellent software.

Nothing OS is hands down my favourite phone software, a very considered take on Android 16. It’s a shame you’ll only get three years of platform updates to Android 19 in 2029, but Nothing will support the phone with six years of security patches to take you to 2032.

You can turn all app icons monochrome, which in dark mode looks great, giving a minimalist look while taking away the allure of your distracting app icon colours. Widgets for media playback and weather are well-designed, and Nothing will soon offer its Playground service that lets users create their own.

Battery life is also great. I easily got two days on a charge, and although there’s no brick in the box, you can refill from dead in an hour at 50W speeds with the correct charger. On the other hand, the haptics (that is, the vibrations when you type on the keyboard and other taps) aren’t great, with an audible buzz in a quiet room. A nitpick, but a reminder of the cheaper components.

Two weeks with the Phone (4a) Pro has been a welcome palate cleanser away from the homogenous trio of iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel. Nothing has pared back its design by using metal, but this device still has bags more personality than anything Apple, Samsung or Google is offering.

You’ll compromise on a few things such as camera consistency, waterproofing and wireless charging, but it’s a trade-off worth making to get an Android phone that’s trying to push the envelope rather than look and feel like its competitors.

Buy the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro