GSMCritic Take:
Featuring a transparent design and interactive Glyph lighting, the phone makes a strong visual impression, though it is bulky. Its telephoto camera performs solidly, while low-light and ultrawide photography is limited.
Screen:
6.78"
Weight:
205g
Not waterproof
Charging:
50W
Optical Zoom:
3.5x
Thickness:
8.6mm
Screen covers
87.2% of body
Reviews
Overall rating and the reviews that impact it
Pros
Camera
Telephoto Camera: Dedicated 3.5x periscope lens delivers strong zoom performance and stands out in the camera system.
Color Consistency: Cameras maintain consistent color reproduction across different lenses.
Creative Camera Features: Includes LUT integration for in-camera color styling.
Respectable Main Camera: Overall camera performance is described as respectable or excellent for its price.
Performance
Stable Performance: Smooth everyday usage with stable behavior even under sustained workloads.
Excellent Thermal Management: Efficient heat control prevents performance drops during extended use.
Phone Appearance
Distinctive Design: Transparent exterior with Glyph Bar lighting system creates a highly recognizable and refined aesthetic.
Improved Button Placement: Essential Key placement is considered an improvement.
Display
High-Quality Display: AMOLED panel offers high resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, and delivers sharp, fluid, and vibrant visuals.
Good Brightness: Display provides good brightness levels for a clear viewing experience.
Battery
Solid Battery Life: Provides dependable endurance suitable for extended daily use.
Software
Functional Glyph System: Glyph Bar acts as both a visual signature and functional lighting system with added features over previous versions.
Clean Software: Nothing OS is fast, uncluttered, responsive, and free from ads or unnecessary additions.
Cons
Camera
Camera Weaknesses: Ultrawide camera is basic, low-light performance is mediocre, night images can be overly soft, selfie camera underperforms, HDR preview is misleading.
Limited High Zoom: Zoom performance beyond 10x is largely unusable.
Removed Feature: Glyph Fill Light has been removed from the camera system.
Performance
Weak Raw Performance: Processing power is underwhelming for its price with only minimal improvement over predecessors.
Phone Appearance
Large and Heavy: Device is bigger and heavier than competing phones.
Average Durability: Does not stand out in durability and is limited to an IP64 rating.
Poor Fingerprint Placement: Fingerprint sensor is positioned slightly too low, affecting usability.
Battery
Battery Not Class-Leading: Battery life is sometimes described as middling despite being dependable.
No Wireless Charging: Lacks wireless charging capability.
Software
Glyph Limitations: Glyph matrix functionality is somewhat limited and does not fully meet expectations.
Software Support Concerns: Long-term software support is considered less competitive.
Inconsistent AI Features: AI functionality behaves inconsistently.
Connectivity
Missing Connectivity Features: No NFC support and no eSIM functionality outside the Japanese variant.
Rankings
Where Nothing Phone (4a) stands in 2026
Best Phone Of 2026
#39
Highest Optical Zoom
#12
Largest Screen
#27
Smallest Screen
#18
Lightest
#20
Thinnest
#30
Fastest Charging
#33
Highest Screen Ratio
#40
Cheapest
#5
