Today Nothing has revealed its latest midrange phones, the 4A and 4A Pro. Both look amazingly different from each other with different designs and glyph light interfaces. The Pro is particularly attractive: It’s the first Nothing phone to almost completely abandon the brand’s trademark transparent design.
I’m currently at Nothing’s launch event in London, where I’ll be getting a first look at the 4A Pro in person, so stay tuned for hands-on impressions coming soon.
The 4A Pro, which will go on sale in the US later this month, adopts a metal unibody design instead of the usual clear plastic. In a press release the company claims the phone still has a “sophisticated transparent design,” but you’ll only find it in the camera module, which also features a larger version of the Glyph Matrix display introduced in last year’s Phone 3 flagship. The rest of the phone is covered in opaque aluminum, available in black, silver, or light pink.
This change is a bit surprising for the brand, although after my initial surprise I think the look mostly works, and perhaps we should have seen it after the stripped back look of the 3A Lite. No doubt many will miss the Nothing’s retro transparent finish, which hints at, though never actually reveals, the inner workings of the phone. But I suspect this design will prove more popular than the awkward, asymmetric aesthetic of the divisive Phone 3.
Plus, if you’re into complete transparency, there’s always 4A. I’ve had the 4A for about a week, and it looks and feels close to Nothing’s previous handsets, apart from the introduction of new glyph bar lighting, a small column of LEDs used for Nothing’s usual range of custom notifications, alerts, and interactive features. The 4A also comes in a great range of colors, from the usual white and black to a really excellent pink (beats both the Pro and the recent iPhone 17E) and my personal favourite, a vibrant blue.
Still, by doing this you are giving up some features. The 4A Pro’s display is slightly larger, brighter and brighter than the 4A, and the metal design has helped keep the phone slim. Its Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is faster than the 4A’s 7S Gen 4, has slightly better waterproofing with an IP65 rating, and a better main camera – though the telephoto, ultrawide, and selfie cameras are the same. (Well, almost: only the Pro is capable of “140x ultra zoom”, but since both use the same telephoto camera hardware, that’s either a software block or a limitation of the 4A’s chipset). Both phones have the same 5,080mAh battery (larger than 5,400mAh for the phone sold in India) and will receive the same three Android OS updates and six years of security patches.
Depending on where you live, you may not get an option anyway. While both 4A phones are releasing in the UK, Europe, and India, only the Pro model is going on sale in the US. The regular 4A will start at £349 / €349 ($400-450), with preorders going up today ahead of an official release on March 13. The Pro is priced at $499 / £499 / €479, and preorders open on March 13th ahead of a full release on the 27th.
Both phones are joined by the Headphones A, an over-ear follow-up to last year’s Headphones 1 that cut the price by $100, mostly by compromising call quality and eliminating the carrying case. It also echoes the 4A Pro in moving towards a more opaque aesthetic, perhaps signaling that Nothing is really ready to turn its back on transparency.
However, it may be a while before we see if this thinking will extend to Nothing’s flagships. The company has confirmed that it will not release a flagship Phone 4 this year, meaning the 4A Pro will likely be the most powerful phone hardware the company releases in 2026.
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