iPhone 15 Pro vs Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

iPhone 15 Pro

Apple

8.6

Smaller, lighter Pro — same A17 + USB-C 3.0, no 5x periscope

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

Nothing

8.5

The $499 phone to beat

iPhone 15 Pro

What Reviewers Agree On

Grade-5 titanium frame drops weight to 187g (~19g lighter than 14 Pro) — most-praised in-hand feel of any small flagship
Same A17 Pro 3nm chip with hardware ray tracing, 8GB RAM, NVMe — same performance as the $200-more Pro Max
Same USB-C 3.0 (10Gbps), Action Button, ProMotion 120Hz, 2000-nit peak as the Pro Max — Pro features in a compact body
Same Apple Intelligence support on iOS 18+ — future-proofs through iOS 23+ in 2030s
Genuinely pocketable 6.1-inch flagship — increasingly rare in a 6.7"+ Pro-Max-dominant market
WIRED 8/10 — 'iPhone 15 Pro is the small Pro that finally tempts large-Pro owners'

Pros & Cons

iPhone 15 Pro

Pros

Grade-5 titanium frame drops weight to 187g (~19g lighter than 14 Pro) — most-praised in-hand feel of any small flagship
Same A17 Pro 3nm chip with hardware ray tracing, 8GB RAM, NVMe — same performance as the $200-more Pro Max
Same USB-C 3.0 (10Gbps), Action Button, ProMotion 120Hz, 2000-nit peak as the Pro Max — Pro features in a compact body
Same Apple Intelligence support on iOS 18+ — future-proofs through iOS 23+ in 2030s
Genuinely pocketable 6.1-inch flagship — increasingly rare in a 6.7"+ Pro-Max-dominant market

Detailed Comparison

Cameras

iPhone 15 Pro

48MP main + 12MP ultrawide + 12MP 3x telephoto + 12MP TrueDepth front. The notable miss vs the Pro Max is no 5x Tetraprism periscope — the Pro is stuck at 3x optical, the first time Apple meaningfully gated zoom by phone size.

Cameras: 48MP main (f/1.78, sensor-shift OIS), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 12MP 3x telephoto (77mm, f/2.8), 12MP TrueDepth selfie.
NO 5x Tetraprism periscope — Apple kept it Pro Max exclusive. The 15 Pro caps at 3x optical telephoto with computational zoom to 15x.
48MP main + ProRAW + ProRes via USB-C 3.0 enable creator-grade workflows the smaller phone can now handle.
Daylight photo quality matches the Pro Max — sensor, processing and software are identical except the periscope.

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Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

What Reviewers Agree On

The new metal unibody makes the 4a Pro look and feel more premium than Nothing's own £799 Phone 3 — the slimmest, most 'pro'-feeling Nothing yet.
The 6.83-inch 1.5K 144Hz AMOLED is the best display Nothing has ever shipped, with strong real-world outdoor visibility around its realistic 1,600-nit figure.
The dual 50MP main plus 50MP 3.5x periscope-telephoto system is rare flagship-tier camera hardware at $499 and the single biggest reason to buy.
Nothing OS 4.1 on Android 16 is clean, bloat-free and has some of the best design consistency of any Android UI, Google included.
At $499 — the exact price of a Pixel 10a — it's outstanding value, with several reviewers preferring it outright to the 10a.
50W wired charging beats anything Google, Apple or Samsung offer below £500.

Deal Breakers

Only 3 years of OS updates (6 years of security patches) — well behind the 7 years Google and Samsung give at this price.
No wireless charging at all — sacrificed for the metal back.
The battery is only an 80mAh increase over last year and runs marginal next to 6,000–7,000mAh budget rivals.
Measured brightness (~700 nits SDR, ~1,550 HDR) is nowhere near the 5,000-nit headline.
The camera is inconsistent — low-light and deep zoom are merely average rather than class-leading.

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

Pros

The new metal unibody makes the 4a Pro look and feel more premium than Nothing's own £799 Phone 3 — the slimmest, most 'pro'-feeling Nothing yet.
The 6.83-inch 1.5K 144Hz AMOLED is the best display Nothing has ever shipped, with strong real-world outdoor visibility around its realistic 1,600-nit figure.
The dual 50MP main plus 50MP 3.5x periscope-telephoto system is rare flagship-tier camera hardware at $499 and the single biggest reason to buy.
Nothing OS 4.1 on Android 16 is clean, bloat-free and has some of the best design consistency of any Android UI, Google included.
At $499 — the exact price of a Pixel 10a — it's outstanding value, with several reviewers preferring it outright to the 10a.
50W wired charging beats anything Google, Apple or Samsung offer below £500.

Cons

Only 3 years of OS updates (6 years of security patches) — well behind the 7 years Google and Samsung give at this price.
No wireless charging at all — sacrificed for the metal back.
The battery is only an 80mAh increase over last year and runs marginal next to 6,000–7,000mAh budget rivals.
Measured brightness (~700 nits SDR, ~1,550 HDR) is nowhere near the 5,000-nit headline.
The camera is inconsistent — low-light and deep zoom are merely average rather than class-leading.

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.
Low-light performance isn't the best, and image quality when you zoom right in isn't the best out there — not bad, just not class-leading.
The 140x zoom headline grabs attention, but in use it's more about how far the camera can push digitally than something you'd rely on day-to-day.
Not super impressed by the camera or the giant protruding bumps the lenses sit in.

Performance

iPhone 15 Pro

Same A17 Pro 3nm chip with hardware ray tracing, 8GB RAM and NVMe storage as the Pro Max. Apple Intelligence on iOS 18+ requires this chip. Launch overheating issues real but largely fixed via iOS 17.0.3.

A17 Pro 3nm with 8GB RAM and NVMe storage — fastest mobile silicon at launch, identical to the Pro Max.
Apple Intelligence support on iOS 18.1+ — A17 Pro is the minimum chip required, future-proofs the phone.
Hardware ray tracing enables console-grade ports: Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding, Assassin's Creed Mirage run natively.
Launch overheating: A17 Pro ran hot in gaming and 4K shoots; iOS 17.0.3 mitigated but didn't fully eliminate — affects the smaller Pro slightly more due to thermal headroom.
In 2025, A17 Pro remains an absolute performer for everyday + intensive use — aged extremely well.

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 with UFS 3.1 storage is a clear, tangible step up from the Phone (3a) generation — Nothing claims +27% CPU, +30% GPU and +65% AI. It's a perfectly capable everyday chip that feels noticeably quicker, but it's explicitly not a gaming powerhouse and warms up under sustained heavy load.

Backed by OS optimisations and a custom CPU scheduler, the chipset delivers 27% better CPU, 30% better GPU and 65% better AI performance than the Nothing Phone (3a); storage is 147% faster in reads and 380% faster in writes.
Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is a perfectly acceptable chip across the board, and the upgrade to UFS 3.1 makes this feel noticeably quicker compared to the Nothing Phone (3a) and prior.
The CPU performance difference between the 4a Pro and the vanilla 4a is not massive, but it is still very much notable.
Available in 8GB+128GB, 8GB+256GB and 12GB+256GB configurations, all running near-stock AOSP-style Nothing OS.
Like most phones in this segment, it shows some basic heat build-up during really extensive tasks like gaming or 4K editing in high-end software, though it stays responsive while gaming.