‘Just flat-out fun’ — I was a Nothing-design skeptic, but 3 things I found when reviewing the Phone (4a) Pro turned me into a believer

Nothing ventured

09 Apr 2026, 14:00 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/josh-russell · TechRadar

Opinion By Josh Russell published 9 April 2026

(Image credit: Future)

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On occasion, I make the wrong call. Like the time I claimed Disney Plus would never take off, saying, "Who wants to pay yet another subscription for a bunch of kids' movies?" Or the occasion I passed on an interview with Ed Sheeran because I'd "never heard of him", months before he became a household name.

Well, here's another thing I'm happy to add to the list: I've realized I was totally wrong about the design of Nothing's phones. While I once thought the brand's debut phone was more about style than substance, getting my hands on their latest model, the Phone (4a) Pro, has utterly converted me.

Don't get me wrong: I was fully convinced by Nothing's mission. Phone designs have become polished, but their iterative improvements have also become incredibly predictable, resulting in a lot of identical-looking handsets. And that’s why I was definitely open to some of the rule-shattering rhetoric leading up to the release of Nothing’s first handset, the Nothing Phone 1.

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And yet on the release of that device in 2022, I’ll admit I wasn’t totally blown away. While the brutalist-looking design dreamt up in collaboration with Teenage Engineering was definitely distinctive, I didn’t feel like it quite matched up to either the hype of a whole new direction in phone design, or to the best phones of the time in terms of hardware.

The much-vaunted transparent design didn’t seem to actually be, you know, transparent, while the limited utility of the Glyph Lights made them feel flashy yet a little gimmicky. It looked decent, but it wasn’t quite trailblazing enough to make me want to trade in my staid but still gorgeously refined flagship.

But Nothing has been consistently evolving its formula since then, releasing handset after handset with improved looks and more versatile features. And the more I followed its journey, I began to appreciate how well the brand adapted its design language to new products, from the Nothing Ear earbuds to the Headphone (1) over-ears. So by the time the opportunity came up to test its latest model for my Nothing Phone (4a) Pro review, my curiosity had been fully piqued.

Putting the phone through its paces, I quickly realized how wrong I’d been in my judgments of Nothing's debut. Not only does the company's latest handset feel incredibly well built, but I actually think its design is pitched perfectly, looking distinctive enough to draw comment when you draw it out of your pocket while feeling wonderfully polished. And Nothing has put serious work into making features like its evolved Glyph Matrix feel actually useful, offering you countless ways to utilize it during your everyday activities. Its design feels smart without tripping into the self-seriousness so many smartphone brands fall into these days.

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