iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

iPhone 16 Pro Max

A 6.9-inch LTPO OLED with 120Hz ProMotion and ~2,000-nit peak — bigger and excellent, though later models pushed brightness much higher.

• The 6.9-inch panel is one reason it's the iPhone to get for a maxed-out feature set — bigger than the 15 Pro Max.
• The 120Hz ProMotion display still feels buttery smooth months later and the screen is a daily highlight.
• Even against the 17 Pro's 3,000-nit screen, the 16 Pro's ~2,000-nit display is still really decent outdoors.
• Owners switching in love how crisp, snappy and premium the display looks.

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.

iPhone 16 Pro Max

The headline strength: a ~4,685mAh battery delivering the best flagship endurance reviewers had measured — undercut by slow charging.

• Battery life is the best of any flagship phone in the last few years — extremely efficient.
• In a robotic intensive battery test, the iPhone 16 Pro Max beat all the competition.
• Even after a year of daily use it still measured 100% battery health and reached 10h07m screen-on-time in a 7-phone drain test (best result observed: 12h44m on iOS 18.3.2).
• It charges slowly: ~39% in 30 min and a full charge in ~2h03m, versus a Galaxy S25 Ultra's 1h17m.
• Max wired charge is only ~30W and Apple doesn't even sell a 30W adapter (you must buy the 40W one); MagSafe is 25W.
• Heavy users report finishing the day with 40–50% remaining — a huge jump coming from a 15 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.