Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs OnePlus 13R

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 13R

A 6.78-inch 1.5K 120Hz LTPO AMOLED with 1,600 nits in High Brightness Mode and a 4,500-nit peak, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, plus Aqua Touch 2.0. Reviewers consistently rate it a strong suit that punches above the phone's price — the only nitpick is the 1.5K (≈1264p) resolution rather than QHD.

• A 6.78-inch AMOLED with 120Hz refresh, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits in HBM, carrying the OnePlus 13's Aqua Touch 2.0 tech.
• The 6.78-inch OLED brings everything to life with vibrant colors and a very bright 4,500-nit peak — a strong suit that belies the mid-range positioning.
• The display shines with 1,600 nits HBM, enabling easy use under direct sunlight, with vivid, accurate color covering 100% of the Display P3 gamut.
• On paper it peaks at 4,500 nits, and in real life that means you can reply to messages in direct sunlight without squinting.
• Six months to a year in, the screen still feels like one of the best in its class and 'flagship level'.

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 13R

A triple 50MP main + 50MP 2x telephoto + 8MP ultrawide system with a 16MP selfie. The main and telephoto are dependable and good in daylight, and portraits at 2x are a highlight — but the ultrawide and selfie are the consensus weak points that stop it scoring with true flagships.

• Triple camera: a 50MP main, a 50MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom and an 8MP ultrawide, plus a 16MP selfie; the main records up to 4K 60fps with EIS and OIS.
• The camera doesn't disappoint on quality but fails to stand out — the ultrawide and selfie keep it from an excellent score, and alternatives are better at stills and video.
• The camera is very respectable for a modern Android phone and beats expectations for the price.
• Five months in, the 50MP main still holds up well and portrait mode is very good (excellent 2x portraits); low-light 2x is okay but not flagship level — overall average quality, good for the price.

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 13R

Last year's flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 12GB LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 — reviewers agree it's the most powerful phone in its price bracket and still fast a year on. The caveat is thermals: Notebookcheck found drastic throttling under sustained load, and stress-test stability sits in the 58–74% range.

• It packs the full Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with up to 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage — last year's flagship chip rather than a mid-range part, which reviewers were glad to see.
• Among the value flagships it's the top performer with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and a capable all-rounder with excellent performance.
• In testing the OnePlus 13R revealed a high level of waste heat which led to the processor being throttled drastically.
• It scores better than 93% of devices on the market for $599 — probably faster than even some flagship phones — averaging ~30fps in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme.
• Sustained gaming holds near 120fps in PUBG and Call of Duty Mobile with no noticeable lag or frame drops over 30–40 minute sessions.

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 13R

The headline strength: a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon cell that reviewers and labs single out as one of the best in any phone — 8–10 hours of screen-on time, 1.5–2 day endurance, 25h+ Wi-Fi / 40h+ video in lab tests. 80W SuperVOOC wired charging is fast, but there is no wireless charging.

• The silicon-carbon 6,000mAh battery delivered an extremely strong runtime of over 25 hours in the Wi-Fi test and over 40 hours in continuous video playback.
• It packs a bigger 6,000mAh battery and supports 80W wired charging, taking it from 20% to 100% in just 50 minutes.
• Reviewers regularly report 8, 9, even 10 hours of screen-on time — very impressive for a mid-tier device — with a ~0–60% recharge in about 30 minutes.
• One owner hit 10 hours 22 minutes of screen-on time, with battery still strong even using a 20–80% charging pattern.
• The trade-off versus the OnePlus 13: a single-cell rather than dual-cell battery, weaker front/back glass, a slower out-of-box recharge and no wireless charging.

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.

OnePlus 13R

OxygenOS (now on the Android 16 / OxygenOS 16 track) is clean, fast and customisable, with iPhone-like split quick-settings, global search and a 'Live Alerts' dynamic-island clone. The update promise is 4 OS versions + 6 years of security — solid but behind Google and Samsung's 7 years — and recent OxygenOS 16 builds have drawn some criticism.

• OnePlus promises 4 years of Android updates and 6 years of security patches — solid, though Google and Samsung now push 7 years on their flagships.
• OxygenOS is clean and customisable, with a split quick-settings/notifications layout, global search, and a 'Live Alerts' dynamic-island clone that's handy for music controls.
• OnePlus is expanding AI: AI Translation pulls text, voice, camera and screen translation into one app, plus an AI-curated 'Mind Space' screenshots feature.
• OnePlus pushes updates in a timely manner and after a year the software has been smooth with no notable issues.
• The OxygenOS 16 update measurably lowered benchmark scores and raised CPU temps in one test, and OnePlus's new Anti-Rollback (ARB) policy stirred controversy among power users.

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 13R

The whole pitch: $599 for most of a flagship. Reviewers overwhelmingly frame it as the real 'flagship killer' — the bulk of the OnePlus 13 for $300 less, beating the Pixel 9 by $200 — with the only dissent being that camera-led buyers might prefer a Pixel.

• At $599.99 it's actually the OnePlus 13R that could really be the 'flagship killer' OnePlus wants its more expensive device to be.
• At $599 the value can't be understated — you get the bulk of the flagship OnePlus 13 at $300 less while beating the Pixel 9 by $200 and rivaling it across the board.
• If you're willing to make a small compromise in the camera department you won't find a more powerful handset for the asking price, with excellent battery life — a capable all-rounder.
• After switching from the OnePlus 13, it's honestly an absolute steal at $599 MSRP.
• Owners overwhelmingly call it the best phone at its price point — fast, charges even faster, with the best battery life many have ever seen — and would buy it again.