Nothing Phone 4a has 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom on a phone that starts at £349. Nothing just made every other budget phone maker in 2026 look behind. Here is the full breakdown after a week of testing.
Introduction
Nothing has unveiled the Nothing Phone 4a and Nothing Phone 4a Pro, and the headline feature is one that usually sits far above this price bracket. Both phones arrive with periscope zoom cameras, a hardware upgrade more commonly seen on premium flagships.
Let that sink in for a moment. Two years ago, periscope telephoto cameras were reserved for phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 9 Pro, devices that cost $1,000 or more. And now, a London based startup is putting the same type of lens inside a phone that costs £349.
I am Ameer Hamza, and at Global Tech Press, we have had the Nothing Phone 4a in our hands for over a week now. Nothing is back with two new smartphones, the entry level Phone 4a and the mid range Phone 4a Pro.
With the base 4a in particular, there’s no shortage of substantial hardware upgrades since the 3a, even if the design doesn’t quite stand out as much.
Nothing CEO Carl Pei had confirmed earlier this year that the company would not launch a flagship phone in 2026. That does not mean the brand is sitting out of the market, though.
Instead, Nothing has done something far more interesting. It poured its flagship ambitions into its mid range lineup. And the Nothing Phone 4a is where you feel that decision the most.
The Camera: A 50MP Periscope at £349 Changes Everything
Let me start with the reason this phone exists in the conversation at all. The Nothing Phone 4a has a similar set of cameras — a 50MP main with an f/1.88 OIS lens is the one notable difference as it uses a 1/1.57 inch Samsung GN9 sensor instead of the Sony sensor. The 3.5x 50MP periscope, 8MP ultra wide and 32MP selfie camera use the same hardware as the Pro.
That is worth repeating. The Nothing Phone 4a gets the exact same periscope telephoto lens as the Pro model. The same 50MP Samsung JN5 sensor, the same 3.5x optical zoom with OIS, and the same 7x lossless in sensor zoom capability.
How Does It Actually Perform?
On paper, this is a stellar camera system seen in this segment, with a 50MP 3.5x tetraprism periscope lens as the highlight. The results are so good that I have already taken over 500 photos in just a week of using it. Nothing says the main camera, with a new Samsung GN9 50 megapixel sensor, captures up to 64 percent more light than similarly sized camera sensors. The company has also upgraded its computational photography and tone mapping, which help it deliver on a new 70x ultra zoom mode.
In my own testing at GTP, the main camera produced clean, well exposed shots in daylight with honest colors. The 3.5x telephoto is where this phone genuinely surprised me. Portrait shots had natural separation between the subject and background.
You’ll get up to a 7x lossless zoom by combining the 3.5x optical zoom with sensor cropping, which works well.
The Honest Weakness
The ultra wide camera didn’t get any love — it’s the same 120 degree 8MP unit with a Sony IMX355 sensor as last year.
That is the one area where Nothing clearly cut costs. The 8MP ultrawide produces passable results in good light but falls apart in anything less than ideal conditions. Given the low resolution, the shots won’t hold any detail when you zoom into them. It also suffers from colour disparity between the main and telephoto cameras.
If you are someone who relies heavily on ultrawide shots, this might bother you. But honestly, at this price, having a periscope telephoto at all is the bigger story.
The Display: 1.5K AMOLED with 4,500 Nits Peak Brightness
The Phone 4a has a 1.5K (1,224 x 2,720) display, up from the full HD display (1,920 x 1,080) on last generation’s phone. It supports up to 120Hz refresh rates and has a peak brightness of 4,500 nits for HDR content.
That resolution boost means Nothing’s meticulously designed UI and icons look sharper and everything is easier to see when using the 4a in the bright spring sunlight. The large display is beautiful, fast, responsive, and the right amount of colorful. It’s really the star of the show here and looks like a display that doesn’t belong on a phone this inexpensive.
The panel is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, which is a significant step up from last year’s Panda glass. This is something I’ve wanted to see Nothing improve on its cheapest phones.
At 6.78 inches, the Nothing Phone 4a has a large screen. It is not a compact phone by any stretch. But the visual quality of this AMOLED panel, with its deep blacks and vibrant colors, punches well above the price tag.
The Glyph Bar: A New Direction That Will Split Opinions
This is the change that longtime Nothing fans will feel the most.
As for the elephant in the room, or at least the obvious change to any Nothing phone, or anyone familiar with Nothing’s first few phones: yes, the Glyph Light bars are gone. And with that, it appears those LED strips have been consigned to history. The base model includes a “Glyph Bar” with 63 LEDs, while the Pro features a “Glyph Matrix” with 137 LEDs for enhanced notifications.
What the New Glyph Bar Actually Does
Instead of several curved strips, there’s one vertical stacked line of square LEDs that make up one pulsing, flashing light system to the right of the camera. Just like before, you can have it pulse and animate when notifications come in, or use it as a visual countdown timer, and the bottom, red LED will light up when recording video or audio. It even has integration with third party apps like Uber and Google Calendar, to act as a live visual for updates and events.
I personally find the new Glyph Bar more mature and cleaner than the scattered LED strips of previous generations. This approach feels more sophisticated in my opinion, instead of having multiple lights spread across the back of the smartphone.
But I understand the people who loved the original Glyph Interface will feel like something has been lost. That is a fair reaction.
Battery Life: Two Day Endurance Without Any Tricks
Nothing says the new Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor offers 10 percent better power efficiency, but what will make the Phone 4a go the distance is more likely the 5,080mAh battery — the biggest yet in Nothing’s mid range phones.
Here is where the Nothing Phone 4a quietly became one of my favorite devices to carry this week.
There was never a concern for me that I wouldn’t make it through the day. In fact, it was virtually a two day phone for me in most of my testing. Even on that day, having taken it off charge at around 7 am, I started the next morning with 54% left. Included in those tests was an hour long session watching Sweet Tooth on Netflix at 50% brightness, which only drained 5% of the battery.
The phone supports 50W wired fast charging. A full charge from 0 to 100 percent takes approximately 64 minutes, while reaching about 50 percent takes around 22 minutes.
The One Missing Feature
Unfortunately, there is no wireless charging, so making sure this phone is charged to 100% by the time I wake up each morning has been difficult, since all of my bedside chargers are wireless.
At £349, the lack of wireless charging is not unexpected. But in a market where competitors are starting to include it at similar prices, it is worth noting.
Performance and Software: Clean, Fast, Familiar
The Nothing Phone 4a features a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset, 5080 mAh battery, 256 GB storage, 12 GB RAM, Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. Under the hood is Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 and UFS 3.1 storage, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage by default, with upgrades available to 12GB/256GB. Even the storage has been upgraded, with 47% faster read and 380% faster write speeds. I almost immediately clocked the improvement while attempting some light video editing and installing a few games.
The Nothing Phone 4a runs Nothing OS 4.1 based on Android 16 out of the box. The devices run Nothing OS 4.1 (Android 16) with three years of software updates and six years of security patches.
Nothing OS continues to be one of the cleanest Android experiences on the market.
The Essential Key Is a Thoughtful Addition
There are volume and power buttons on the right side and a programmable Essential key on the left side that can add things to the Essential Space and take notes for you. Essential space is there again this year, with its dedicated button that allows you to quickly capture voice notes or screenshots and save them directly to what is effectively a digital corkboard to help you remember things that have inspired you.
I found myself using the Essential Key more than I expected. Quick voice memos while walking, capturing screenshots of things I wanted to revisit later, it adds a layer of functionality that most phones in this segment simply do not offer.
The Design: Transparent, Refined, and Lighter Than Expected
Having used both the Nothing Phone 2a and Nothing Phone 3a in the past, the new Nothing Phone 4a feels like the most refined version of this formula yet. In hand, the device feels solid. The flat frame offers a comfortable grip, and the phone feels balanced despite the glass back.
It does not feel overly heavy, nor does it feel fragile. It comes with IP64 dust and water resistance, and is also physically tougher: Nothing says it has increased bend resistance by 34 percent. The two new color options (blue and pink) are gorgeous additions to the usual monochrome duo of white and black.
The Nothing Phone 4a weighs 204.5 grams and measures 8.6mm in thickness. It is not the lightest phone in its class, but the flat edges and balanced weight distribution make it comfortable for one handed use throughout the day.
Nothing Phone 4a Verified Specs at a Glance
| Spec | Nothing Phone 4a |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.78 inch 1.5K Flexible AMOLED, 2720 x 1224, 120Hz, 4,500 nits peak, Gorilla Glass 7i |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (4nm TSMC) |
| RAM / Storage | 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB, 12GB + 256GB (LPDDR4X, UFS 3.1) |
| Main Camera | 50MP Samsung GN9, 1/1.57 inch, f/1.88, OIS |
| Telephoto | 50MP Samsung JN5, 3.5x optical, 7x lossless, 70x ultra zoom, OIS |
| Ultrawide | 8MP Sony IMX355, 120 degree FoV |
| Front Camera | 32MP |
| Battery | 5,080mAh (5,400mAh in India) |
| Charging | 50W wired, 7.5W reverse wired, no wireless |
| Software | Nothing OS 4.1 on Android 16 |
| Updates | 3 years OS upgrades, 6 years security patches |
| Durability | IP64, Gorilla Glass 7i |
| Glyph | Glyph Bar, 63 mini LEDs, 7 zones |
| Dimensions | 164 x 77.6 x 8.6mm, 204.5g |
| Colors | Black, White, Blue, Pink |
| UK Price | £349 (128GB), £399 (256GB) |
| India Price | ₹31,999 (8GB/128GB) |
| Europe Price | €349 (128GB) |
| US Availability | Not available (Pro only in US at $499) |
| Sale Date | March 13, 2026 |
The US Problem: You Cannot Buy the Nothing Phone 4a in America
Here is the frustrating part for American readers.
The base Phone 4a won’t be sold in the US, but the Pro will be available.
If you live in the United States, the Nothing Phone 4a is simply not coming to your market. Only the Pro model, starting at $499, will be sold there.
For US buyers, the closest alternative at a similar price point remains the Google Pixel 10a. The US is starved of good mid range smartphones. Of course, the Pixel 10a is excellent (and offers a lot more software updates) at the same $499 price point.
But for everyone in the UK, Europe, India, and beyond, the standard Nothing Phone 4a offers something the Pixel 10a does not: a periscope telephoto camera. At £349 versus £499 for the Pixel 10a, that is a significant price difference for a phone that, in many ways, competes directly.
Who Should Buy the Nothing Phone 4a?
If you like the look of the phone, want good cameras, prefer a mostly clean, stock Android look, and don’t mind giving up some performance then the Nothing Phone 4a is the perfect device for you.
After a week of daily use, here is my honest take.
Buy the Nothing Phone 4a if you want a phone that looks different from everything else, takes solid photos with genuine zoom capability, lasts two days on a single charge, and runs one of the cleanest software experiences in the Android world. At £349, the value is undeniable.
Skip it if you are a heavy gamer who needs top tier sustained performance, or if you rely heavily on ultrawide photography. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 is perfectly capable for daily tasks but it is not a gaming chip. And the 8MP ultrawide is the weakest link in the camera system.
If you already own the Phone 3a, this isn’t a must upgrade device unless the new telephoto camera or larger battery specifically appeals to you.
My Honest Take
The Nothing Phone 4a is a really solid mid range phone and if it came to the US, I’d probably tell you to consider it if your budget is around $400.
The periscope telephoto camera is the headline. But what makes this phone work is everything around it. The display is sharper and brighter than last year. The battery genuinely lasts two days. Nothing OS 4.1 remains one of the most pleasant Android skins to use daily. And the design, while polarizing, gives this phone a personality that no Samsung or Pixel in this range can match.
The Nothing Phone 4a’s true value lies in its lifestyle centric appeal rather than in being a jack of all trades.
Nothing did not try to make a flagship killer with the Nothing Phone 4a. It made something more interesting: a mid range phone that does not feel mid range where it matters most. The camera zooms. The battery endures. The software stays clean.
And at £349, it makes you wonder why anyone would pay three times as much for a phone that does not offer three times the experience.
