Today Nothing has revealed the 4A and 4A Pro, its latest midrange phones. The two look startlingly different from one another, with varying designs and Glyph Light interfaces. The Pro is especially striking: it’s the first Nothing phone to almost entirely abandon the brand’s trademark transparent design.
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 that the phone still features a “refined transparent design,” but you’ll only find it in the camera module, which also houses 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 a soft pink.
In person, that pink looks closer to silver than anything else — it’s certainly subtle, with Nothing saving its bolder colors for the regular 4A. The Pro feels impressively slim though, now less than 8mm thick, and I like the layout of the new camera island, especially the larger dot matrix display — though since it’s lower resolution than the Phone 3’s, and the phone no longer includes an extra button for interacting with it, actual usability has been reduced. And if the metal design has lost something in uniqueness, it does add a premium feel that Nothing’s otherwise plasticky handsets have occasionally lacked.
The move away from transparency comes as a bit of a shock from the brand, though after my initial surprise I think the look mostly works — and perhaps we should have seen it coming after the stripped back look of the 3A Lite. Many will no doubt miss Nothing’s retro transparent finish, which hinted at, though never truly revealed, the inner workings of the phone. But I suspect this design will prove more popular than the divisive Phone 3’s awkward, asymmetric aesthetic.
Besides, if you’re all-in on transparency, there’s always the 4A. I’ve had the 4A for a week or so, and it both looks and feels closer to Nothing’s previous handsets, apart from the introduction of the new Glyph Bar lighting, a small column of LEDs used for Nothing’s usual array of custom notifications, alerts, and interactive features. The 4A also comes in a brilliant array of colors, the usual white and black joined by a truly excellent pink (beating both the Pro’s and the recent iPhone 17E’s) and my personal favorite, a vibrant blue.
Still, you’re giving up on a few specs by doing so. The 4A Pro’s display is slightly bigger, brighter, and faster than the 4A’s, and the metal design has helped keep the phone thinner. Its Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is faster than the 4A’s 7s Gen 4, it has slightly better waterproofing with an IP65 rating, and an improved main camera — though the telephoto, ultrawide, and selfie cameras are identical. (Well, almost: only the Pro is capable of “140x ultra zoom,” but since the two use identical telephoto camera hardware, this is apparently a limitation of the 4A’s chipset — judging by the frankly unusable test photos I took today, you won’t miss it anyway). Both phones have the same 5,080mAh battery (larger at 5,400mAh for phones 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 a choice 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 from £349 / €349 ($400-450), with preorders today ahead of an official release on March 13th. The Pro costs $499 / £499 / €479, and preorders open on March 13th before a full release on the 27th.
The two phones have been joined by the Headphone A, an over-ear follow-up to last year’s Headphone 1 that cuts the price by $100, mostly by compromising on call quality and dropping the carrying case. It also echoes the 4A Pro by moving towards a more opaque aesthetic, perhaps signaling that Nothing really is ready to turn its back on transparency.
It might be a while before we see if that thinking will extend to Nothing’s flagships though. The company has confirmed that it won’t be releasing a flagship Phone 4 this year, meaning the 4A Pro is likely to be the most powerful phone hardware the company releases in 2026.
Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge
Update, March 5th: Added hands-on impressions and photos.
