
Best camera, compact, weak Tensor

Nothing
The $499 phone to beat
Google Pixel 9 Pro
Google Pixel 9 Pro
Google Pixel 9 Pro
A premium redesign in a genuinely compact 6.3-inch body — the long-requested small Pro Pixel, widely praised as one of the best-looking phones of the year.
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The defining change this generation: a metal unibody that ditches the transparent back for a minimal lower half and a distinctive rectangular camera island, topped by a slimmed-down Glyph Matrix. Reviewers overwhelmingly call it the slimmest, most premium Nothing ever — but the redesign is genuinely polarising, and the IP65 rating is one notch below the flagship norm.
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Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Google Pixel 9 Pro
A 6.3-inch LTPO Super Actua OLED at 120Hz with a 3,000-nit peak — class-leading brightness in a compact phone.
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
A 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED at 144Hz with 2,160Hz PWM dimming — reviewers agree it's the best screen Nothing has built, with realistic outdoor brightness around 1,600 nits. The headline 5,000-nit peak, though, only materialises with special HDR test files; everyday brightness is far lower.
Google Pixel 9 Pro
A 50MP wide, 48MP ultrawide and a much-improved 48MP 5x telephoto plus a 42MP selfie — the system reviewers say cements the Pixel as the best camera phone.
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The headline value play: a 50MP Sony LYT-710 main with OIS, a true 50MP 3.5x periscope telephoto (80mm) with OIS, and an 8MP ultrawide — flagship-tier hardware Samsung and Apple don't put in phones at this price. Output is characterful and the telephoto is a genuine win, but reviewers consistently flag inconsistency, average low-light and a gimmicky 140x digital zoom.
Google Pixel 9 Pro
A compact ~4,700mAh battery that reviews praised as 'great' but heavy users find can't last a day — the Pixel 9 Pro's most polarising trait.
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The ~5,080mAh cell reliably gets through a day and endurance improved across all of GSMArena's tests versus the 3a Pro — but it's only an 80mAh bump over last year and looks small next to 6,000–7,000mAh budget rivals. 50W wired charging is the trade-off win; there is no wireless charging at all.
Google Pixel 9 Pro
The Pixel 9 Pro's defining strength — the best Gemini/AI suite on any phone, plus seven years of updates and a year of Gemini Advanced.
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Nothing OS 4.1 on Android 16 is the universal favourite: near-stock AOSP functionality with a distinctive monochrome visual identity, almost no bloatware, and AI that's present but not forced. The one hard reservation is update length — only 3 years of OS upgrades against 6 years of security patches.