Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs OnePlus 12 | TechTalkTown
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs OnePlus 12
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Nothing
8.5
The $499 phone to beat
OnePlus 12
OnePlus
8.5
Flagship-killer value, software caveats
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.
Pros & Cons
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.
Detailed Comparison
Design & Build
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.
A $499 phone that looks and feels higher-end than last year's flagship Phone 3, helped in large part by the new metal design.
An upgraded metal unibody ditches the iconic transparent back for a more minimal look in the bottom half, while a new rectangular camera island in Nothing's distinctive style helps it stand out.
It's the slimmest Nothing phone ever and just feels more pro and more premium in the hand.
The Glyph Matrix uses 137 mini-LEDs that are 57% larger and twice as bright as the Phone 3's interface — and the silver version is the best-looking, while the black metal can look almost plasti-dipped.
TechTalkTown may earn a commission from purchases made through links below. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not influence our reviews. Learn more.
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.
OnePlus 12
What Reviewers Agree On
Outstanding value — reviewers repeatedly call it a 'flagship killer' and 'the best value in an Android flagship', undercutting Samsung and Google substantially.
Battery life is a defining strength — the big 5,400mAh cell delivers 6–10 hours of screen-on time and is the single feature owners praise most, even those who switched away.
Charging is exceptional — 80W (US) / 100W (international) wired fully charges in roughly 30 minutes (owners report ~40 min real-world), plus 50W wireless.
The 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED is among the best phone displays — 120Hz, Dolby Vision, and a 4,500-nit peak that stays readable in harsh sunlight.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with up to 16/24GB RAM delivers top-tier performance that still feels fast a year-plus later.
Deal Breakers
OxygenOS has regressed and software-update longevity lags Samsung/Google — a recurring concern that makes some buyers hesitate.
The curved screen frustrates ergonomically and makes finding a good screen protector a genuine, repeated headache.
US connectivity is compromised — no Forced SA/VoNR support and occasional Wi-Fi-to-mobile-data handoff bugs.
The camera island is strikingly bulky and the periscope struggles in low light versus the main sensor.
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.
OnePlus 12
Pros
Outstanding value — reviewers repeatedly call it a 'flagship killer' and 'the best value in an Android flagship', undercutting Samsung and Google substantially.
Battery life is a defining strength — the big 5,400mAh cell delivers 6–10 hours of screen-on time and is the single feature owners praise most, even those who switched away.
Charging is exceptional — 80W (US) / 100W (international) wired fully charges in roughly 30 minutes (owners report ~40 min real-world), plus 50W wireless.
The 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED is among the best phone displays — 120Hz, Dolby Vision, and a 4,500-nit peak that stays readable in harsh sunlight.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with up to 16/24GB RAM delivers top-tier performance that still feels fast a year-plus later.
Cons
OxygenOS has regressed and software-update longevity lags Samsung/Google — a recurring concern that makes some buyers hesitate.
The curved screen frustrates ergonomically and makes finding a good screen protector a genuine, repeated headache.
US connectivity is compromised — no Forced SA/VoNR support and occasional Wi-Fi-to-mobile-data handoff bugs.
The camera island is strikingly bulky and the periscope struggles in low light versus the main sensor.
It's IP65 dust- and splash-resistant — one step below the IP64-rated regular Phone (4a) only on splash, and below the IP68 some early articles wrongly listed; the Glyph is massively slimmed from the Phone 3's 489 lights down to 137.
The 4a's design is gorgeous, but the Pro 'looks like an AI-generated design' — Nothing's look is now seen by some as a parody of its original transparent, Teenage Engineering-like identity.
Even people who don't always love Nothing's designs appreciate that the brand is trying to make a phone more unique than a 'plain black glass slab'.
OnePlus 12
Premium curved glass-sandwich build with a polarising circular Hasselblad camera island. Reviewers and owners love the in-hand feel; the camera bump and curved edges divide opinion.
The OnePlus 12 feels great in hand right out of the box — curved front and rear glass and a smooth matte rear panel make it comfortable to hold without flat edges digging in.
The familiar circular rear camera housing on a glass-sandwich design stands out with character and contributes significantly to the phone's premium appeal.
The camera module is strikingly bulky and carries a Hasselblad watermark unless you opt to remove it.
Reddit reaction to the design is split — 'the ugliest camera layout in the game' versus owners who find the Flowy Emerald finish gorgeous.
Versus the S24+, owners note the Samsung is cleaner, thinner and lighter — the OnePlus is the chunkier of the two.
Display
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.
OnePlus 12
A 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED with 120Hz, Dolby Vision, 2160Hz PWM dimming and a 4,500-nit peak — widely rated one of the best phone panels available, with the only knock being curved-edge ergonomics.
These are some of the best OLED panels you can get on a smartphone right now — and it gets brighter than the iPhone 15 Pro at 4K HDR YouTube playback.
HBM mode delivers excellent outdoor visibility even under harsh sunlight, and the QHD panel is noticeably sharper than a 1080p screen.
Notebookcheck rates the display the standout — scoring it 114% in their weighted display metric.
The curved edges add a premium flair with good palm rejection, but finding screen protectors is a real headache — most UV guards bubble within a month.
Cameras
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.
OnePlus 12
A Hasselblad-tuned triple system — 50MP main, 64MP 3x periscope, 48MP ultrawide — that delivers a genuine flagship experience and the best OnePlus camera yet, though it still trails Pixel/Galaxy for stills and the periscope weakens in low light.
Triple rear: 50MP f/1.6 main with OIS, 64MP f/2.6 3x periscope telephoto with OIS, and 48MP ultrawide — plus 8K/24fps video.
The OnePlus 12 delivers on its camera promise — impressive detail and reliable zoom, easily one of the best camera efforts from OnePlus.
The 3x periscope is a daily-driver favorite — used 90% of the time — and 3x portrait mode is the standout, though it produces warmer tones and struggles in low light versus the main sensor.
In a three-way test against the Pixel 8 Pro and S24 Ultra, owners were 'honestly surprised at how good the cameras of the 12 are' — but the Pixel still took the best, most true-to-life pictures.
Performance
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.
It's by no means a top-notch gaming phone, although the processor is better than the regular 4a's and squeezes out a bit more performance and FPS.
OnePlus 12
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with up to 16/24GB RAM makes it 'uber-powerful' — top-tier speed that holds up well over time, with only thermal-throttled gaming as a caveat.
Powered by the high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with up to 16GB of RAM — 'uber-powerful' and one of the best phones money can buy.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 12GB LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 keeps the phone feeling as fast in 2025 as it did on day one.
Notebookcheck scores performance 86% — strong, with the OnePlus 12 carrying the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (the 12R uses the older Gen 2).
Gaming is smooth and lag-free, but the phone restricts frame rates to 60fps once temperatures hit 40°C.
Battery & Charging
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.
Roughly 13 hours of continuous playback at maximum brightness in a streaming test — impressive for what Nothing is doing at this price.
OnePlus 12
The 5,400mAh battery is the phone's most-praised feature — multi-day-feeling endurance with 6–10 hours of screen-on time — paired with class-leading 80W (US) / 100W wired and 50W wireless charging.
The huge 5,400mAh battery is one of the key reasons the OnePlus 12 excels in long-term use, consistently delivering 6–7 hours of screen-on time at a constant 120Hz.
It easily lasts 9 to 10 hours of screen time on moderate use; at 6 months, 7–8 hours with all features on.
Charging spec: 100W wired 100% in 26 min (international) / 80W in 30 min (USA), plus 50W wireless to full in 55 min.
Real-world the battery fully charges from ~5% to 100% in about 40 minutes (occasionally up to 50) — and OnePlus includes the 100W SuperVOOC adapter in the box.
Even owners who sold the phone agree the one thing it did better than any other phone they've used is the battery.
Value vs Competition
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
At $499 it directly undercuts the experience-per-dollar of the same-priced Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e, and several reviewers would take it over the 10a without hesitation. The closest internal threat is its own cheaper sibling, the standard Phone (4a), which shares the same cameras for $150 less.
From the design to the software and cameras, this is a phone that should absolutely not be slept on — at the price of a Pixel 10a, 'I'd take this 10 out of 10 times over a 10a.'
Vibes and great value for under $500 — a balanced all-rounder.
Against its immediate rivals the Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e it looks impressive: a larger, brighter, faster display, more cameras, and Nothing's unique design including the Glyph Matrix.
A premium balanced package with polished software and really good cameras — recommended, even if it's not perfect on the IP rating or front-camera 4K.
The biggest problem for the 4a Pro is its own little brother — the standard 4a costs much less and gets the exact same cameras.
While the (4a)'s design is still the best in the Nothing range, the (4a) Pro is a close second, and its speakers sound better than the standard model's.
OnePlus 12
The OnePlus 12's core argument: flagship hardware that materially undercuts the Galaxy S24 and Pixel, with frequent discounts to ~$650 making the value case even stronger.
9to5Google's headline verdict: 'OnePlus 12 Review: The best value in a smartphone in 2024'.
Forbes / Moor Insights framed it bluntly: 'Samsung beware — OnePlus debuts a flagship killer with the OnePlus 12'.
It is significantly lower priced than comparable mainstream flagships — about 57% cheaper than an equivalent S24+ in one owner's market — squarely back in flagship-killer territory.
Reddit consensus: being significantly less expensive than the S24 Ultra makes it the top choice for most people; r/Android dubbed it 'The Best Premium Phone of 2024 (in the USA)'.
It frequently drops to ~$650 — a record low — making an already strong value proposition even better.