Nothing Phone (4a) Pro goes official: are you ready for 140x zoom?

On the final day of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), Nothing officially presented the Phone (4a) Pro.

While it's a true-blood mid-ranger, the new phone comes with an interesting feature: 140x zoom. Now, that's not optical zoom, but digital. That means the camera relies on software to magnify the image rather than dedicated (and super bulky) zoom hardware. So, image quality at 140x will surely drop off, but it's interesting to see just how bad it'll go.

The Nothing Phone (4a) is also a thing now and it, naturally, dials some Pro features down.

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro and Phone (4a) overview:

• Chipset: Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 on the (4a), Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 on the Pro with better CPU and GPU performance.
• Display: both big AMOLED screens, but Pro bumps it to 144Hz and higher brightness.
• Battery: same 5,080 mAh and 50W charging on both.
• Cameras: Pro adds a 140x digital zoom; both keep 50 MP main and 50 MP telephoto.
• Design: transparent look on both, but Pro gets a bigger Glyph setup.

Chipsets, battery and display

The non-Pro, "vanilla" Nothing Phone (4a) comes with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, while the Phone (4a) Pro packs the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. These are Qualcomm's mid-range chips: you can't expect the same performance levels of the, say, the Snapdragon 8 Elite (not to mention the current-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5), but, at the end of the day, you're saving money with the 7-series Qualcomm silicon.

CPU performance could be up to 27% faster on the new Pro model, compared to its predecessor. Graphics should also see a significant boost by about 30%. The Pro model offers LPDDR5X type of memory and UFS 3.1 storage. That's behind what UFS 4.0 and UFS 4.1 offer, but you'll be just fine for nearly everything you do on your phone.

There isn't a difference when it comes to battery numbers: the capacity on both models is 5,080 mAh (which is respectable) with not-too-bad 50W fast charging. You'll be able to get to 60% in about half an hour.

Nothing's new champs are big – the Phone (4a) Pro comes with a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display, while the "vanilla" mid-ranger (what an odd thing to say) offers a 6.78-inch AMOLED display. That's not the only difference. The Pro model's panel goes to a 144Hz refresh rate and 5,000 nits of brightness. The non-Pro phone offers a 120Hz refresh rate and a 4,500 nits brightness. Both phones come with Gorilla Glass 7i protection.

The big camera picture

The ultimate camera experience is to be found on proper (and expensive) flagships, but Nothing's two new phones will try to tempt you for sure.

The Phone (4a) Pro offers the Sony LYT700C sensor for its main camera. That's a 50 MP, 1/1.56-inch sensor that offers Pantone Validation and it's all about color accuracy. It's claimed that this sensor can reproduce a range of 110 skin tones.

Next, there's the 50 MP periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom, which – as I mentioned above – goes to 140x. Phones often struggle with digital zoom even above 10x, 20x, so who needs 140x? We'll perform our PhoneArena tests and we'll let you know.

The ultra-wide is packing an 8 MP sensor (ouch), but the selfie offers a 32 MP sensor.

The Phone (4a) also offers the 50 MP (main) + 50 MP (3.5x telephoto) + 8 MP (ultra-wide) + 32 MP (selfie snapper) setup.

Of course, both phones offer features for enhancing whatever you're capturing and AI tools.

Bold design

Nothing is not ready to give up on its design language yet. That's great news for its fans.

The "vanilla" Phone (4a) comes with a Glyph Bar on its back that has 63 mini-LEDs built in different zones. These can show you notifications or alarms, or even act as a bright light for taking portraits in sub-optimal conditions.

The Phone (4a) Pro, being Pro, offers a Glyph Matrix with 137 mini-LEDs, so the experience should be superior.

While both phones are still (sort of) transparent, the new Phone (4a) Pro offers IP65 rating for dust and water resistance and it's 7.95 mm thick.

The Phone (4a) comes with an IP64 level of protection.

Software, availability and price

Android 16 out of the box – naturally – plus, Nothing's OS 4.1 comes with fresh icons and floating apps. There's also a new AI Dashboard. If you get either of these phones, you should get three years of Android updates and six years of security updates.

The Phone (4a) starts at €349 (~$405 when directly converted). The Phone (4a) Pro, which is already listed at Nothing's US store site, starts at $499.

Sales for the Pro model will start on March 27.

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