Finally, a Nothing phone that feels like a tool. My (4a) Pro review.

tracingben

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro - The Creative’s Essential

I’ve spent the last week with the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, trying to see if I could strip my workflow down to the absolute essentials.

PREET AJMERI

tracingben Great review! The phone shows strong photo capabilities: just curious, does it perform better than Phone (3)? I’d also love to see you test the claimed 140× zoom from Nothing. Looking forward to your next video!

tracingben

PREET AJMERI Thank you for your comment! I was very surprised by how it handled the same scenarios I tried the Phone (3) in, and gotta be honest I think it performed better! I’ll be doing a more in depth video about the cameras soon.

chris_tann

I really enjoyed your review, thank you! And the stripping back to something simpler is a massive appeal to me!

Can I ask, is there any way to interact with the Glyph Matrix without turning the screen around? Ideally I want my phone facing away from me whilst I work, but say I get a notification and want to dismiss it or go back to the clock, can I do that without having to turn the phone around and interact with the screen?

tracingben

chris_tann

Great question! That ‘hidden’ workflow is exactly why I fell in love with this aluminum unibody, it’s designed to let you stay off the screen.

You actually don’t need to flip it. On the (4a) Pro, Nothing leaning into sensor-based interactions instead of physical buttons:

Shake to Dismiss: You can enable a gesture where a quick ‘shake’ of the phone while it’s face-down silences an alarm or dismisses a notification pulse.
Tilt to Cycle: If you have multiple Glyphs active (like a Timer and the Clock), a slight tilt of the device on your desk will cycle the Matrix display between them.
Essential Notifications: I’d definitely recommend setting your ‘must-have’ contacts to Essential. The Glyph stays lit until you physically tap or acknowledge the phone, so you never have to wonder ‘did I miss that?’ while you were focused.

chris_tann

tracingben Thank you for your fast and thorough response, this definitely makes the 4a Pro even more appealing!