Google Pixel 9 Pro XL vs Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

A 6.8-inch LTPO 'Super Actua' OLED at 120Hz with a 3,000-nit peak — one of the brightest, best displays on any phone.

• An improved 6.8-inch Super Actua LTPO OLED, 486ppi, 120Hz, up to 3,000 nits peak with always-on display.
• Peak brightness rose to 3,000 nits (up from 2,400); measured a remarkable 2,365 nits in adaptive mode and 1,300+ nits manually.
• The new Actua-class display is 35% brighter than the Pixel 8 — better than both the iPhone 15 and Galaxy S24.
• The non-typical 1,344x2,992 resolution at 486ppi keeps text and content crisp.

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.

• Nothing's best-ever display: a 144Hz panel with 1,600 nits of outdoor brightness and a claimed 5,000 nits peak; the main camera is solid too with nice detail and well-reproduced colours.
• A claimed 1,600-nit outdoor brightness is realistic — no major visibility issues outdoors even in strong sunshine, putting it among the best affordable phones, and Nothing OS has some of the best design consistency of any Android UI.
• The 4,500-nit HDR peak was only validated with specific HDR test files, not actual video playback — real-world output is around 700 nits in SDR and 1,550–1,600 in HDR.
• The '5,000-nit peak brightness' spec means nothing in practice — a marketing figure pulled from a single-pixel measurement.
• 144Hz refresh (vs 120Hz on the regular 4a) and 1,600 nits white brightness / 5,000 nits peak, marketed as 66% brighter than the Phone (3a) series — though there's no extra output on a small 10% window.
• High-frequency PWM dimming makes it better suited to users sensitive to screen flicker, although slight flickering is still present.

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

A 50MP wide, 48MP ultrawide and 48MP 5x telephoto plus a 42MP selfie. Excellent computational photos, but the hardware was barely updated and it lost a shootout to the iPhone.

• It takes incredible photos, as expected from a premium phone — a class camera system.
• Camera spec: 50MP wide, 48MP ultrawide, 48MP telephoto and a 42MP front camera.
• In an iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Pixel 9 Pro XL shootout, the iPhone won — its images looked brighter and it preserved highlights better.
• Reviewers were surprisingly critical of camera and especially video quality for a Pixel, and noted the camera hardware wasn't noticeably updated this year.
• Some units shipped with a viewfinder bug where the image tilts significantly to one side when using zoom.
• Magic Editor can auto-reframe, suggest the best crop and expand an image — the AI photo tools remain a Pixel standout.

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.

• Triple rear system: 50MP Sony LYT-710 main (f/1.9, OIS), 8MP ultrawide, and a 50MP periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom (80mm, f/2.9, OIS).
• Both the main and periscope-zoom cameras are 50MP and deliver strong results for this price range; the zoom in particular stands out from competitors and even allows for extreme digital zoom.
• Having a proper dedicated telephoto shooter is a genuine love, although the camera experience itself is a little bit inconsistent at times.
• It's not clinically the best camera, but the shots have a bit more soul to them.

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

A 5,060mAh battery with new 45W charging — improved over the Pixel 8 Pro, but Tensor inefficiency means the worst endurance among premium flagships.

• A 5,060mAh battery with 45W wired (37W actual, ~70% in 30 min advertised), 23W wireless via Pixel Stand and Battery Share.
• Google introduced a new 45W Power Delivery brick; measured 67% at the half-hour mark with a Samsung 45W charger.
• Still the worst battery life of the premium phones due to the weak Tensor processor.
• Owner battery is ~26–30 hours on normal use, where a OnePlus easily gets ~48 hours.
• Despite the small year-over-year capacity bump (5,060 vs 5,050mAh), one owner found it has significantly more battery life than a Pixel 7 Pro.

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.

• Endurance has improved across the board in all tests compared to last year's Nothing Phone (3a) Pro; with a 68W USB-PD charger the phone peaked at around 42W.
• The review unit gets through a day without problems, but it'll certainly be into the red and close to done after about 15 hours of use; the OnePlus 15R has a much meatier battery to last longer.
• It's only an 80mAh increase over last year — small fry next to budget rivals like the Poco M8 Pro, which uses silicon-carbon tech to reach 6,500mAh.
• 50W wired charging is very respectable at this price — besting anything Google, Apple or Samsung offers below £500.
• Because the processor isn't power-hungry and the battery is large for the chip, real-world battery life is excellent.

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Pixel 9 Pro XL's deepest strength — the best on-device and Gemini AI suite of any phone, plus seven years of updates and a year of Gemini Advanced.

• Google continues its push for more AI-powered features alongside a more durable design and a new compact Pro model.
• Gemini Advanced is included for a year — roughly a $240 value bundled with the phone.
• The new Screenshots app, which uses AI to recognise text within saved screenshots, is a standout software feature.
• Some units suffered post-Android-16 connectivity loss (no calls/texts/data away from Wi-Fi until a restart), an OS-update reliability concern.
• Setup was the best the owner had ever experienced, including seamless conversion of a Verizon SIM to eSIM.

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.

• Nothing OS sticks close to a clean, near-stock Android (AOSP) experience in functionality, but stands out with its distinctive visual identity.
• After a week the phone is 'absolutely brilliant'; software is where Nothing phones shine, even if the camera 'window' at the top of the display is basically a pseudo-iPhone look.
• Software is where Nothing phones absolutely shine — the clearest reason to pick this over rivals.
• There's a smattering of AI here, but it's not shoved down your throat — and the software is basically the same clean setup as the regular Nothing Phone (4a).
• Unlike Samsung's Galaxy AI which is in your face from day one, Nothing's AI stays out of the way — an impressive, restrained package overall.
• Nothing's take on Android 16 has some of the best design consistency you'll find on any Android UI, Google included.