Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs OnePlus 15

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 15

A 6.78-inch flat LTPO AMOLED that drops the OnePlus 13's QHD+ for a 1.5K (FHD+) panel but adds a 165Hz refresh rate and a dedicated touch-response chip. Lab-measured brightness (~1,200–1,950 nits depending on test) trails the iPhone, but reviewers find it bright, smooth and a standout for gaming.

• The OnePlus 15 has a slightly smaller 6.78-inch display with a lower 1272×2772 resolution, down to FHD+ from QHD+, but it hit 1,940 nits at 10% fill and 2,187 nits at 75% fill, and confirmed 165fps gaming.
• OnePlus claims 1,800 nits HBM; lab testing reached 1,951 nits in a 1% window, and the display refreshes up to 165Hz in gaming mode.
• Wired charging is now 120W and the screen reaches 1,800 nits full-screen; the bezels are even thinner at just 1.15mm and the LTPO panel genuinely drops to 1Hz.
• Independent testing measured peak brightness of 1,222 nits — an improvement over the OnePlus 13's ~1,140 nits but still trailing the iPhone 17 Pro Max by a wide margin.
• For gaming it stands out like no other phone — incredibly bright and colourful with the 165Hz refresh.

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 15

The most divisive part of the phone. OnePlus ended its 5-year Hasselblad partnership and moved to smaller in-house-tuned 'DetailMax' sensors: a triple 50MP wide + ultrawide + 3.5x telephoto. Some reviewers rate the results among the best camera phones; many call it a regression from the OnePlus 13 with color-accuracy and high-zoom issues.

• OnePlus's 5-year Hasselblad partnership has ended and the rear sensors are smaller than the OnePlus 13's — every rear camera sensor is smaller, which doesn't bring joy.
• The camera is consistently inconsistent — a recurring theme across reviews of this phone's imaging.
• The photos were usually just as good as the best camera phones, and in some cases the OnePlus 15 shots were the best compared to the Pixel 10 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra — and it's the best camera phone tested for fast-moving subjects.
• It has three 50MP rear cameras (wide, ultrawide, 3.5x optical telephoto); both it and the iPhone 17 Pro are impressive zoom shooters, but the iPhone is the obvious selfie winner.

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 15

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with up to 24GB RAM and a custom tri-chip setup — it tops benchmark charts, beats the iPhone's A19 in multi-core and runs games at up to 165fps. The asterisk is sustained thermals: day-to-day it stays cool, but extended stress benchmarks repeatedly overheat and shut down.

• Across a benchmark suite the OnePlus 15 performed 19–22% better than the OnePlus 13 and 14–19% better than the S25 Edge, and outperformed the OnePlus 13 by 10% in the stress test.
• Geekbench shows the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 easily beating the A19 with a multi-core score over 11,000; in Genshin Impact it averaged 119fps vs the iPhone 17's 107fps over 30 minutes, running cooler at under 36°C.
• BGMI runs native 120fps (165fps with frame interpolation) at under 35°C and under 4W power draw, making it one of the best phones for gaming with its 165Hz panel and bypass charging.
• In a 15-minute 20-thread CPU throttle test it throttled to 82% of max performance at a controlled 34–35°C with only 3% battery drain.
• It flashed an overheating warning after barely 8 minutes of a peak-load benchmark, shutting it down and disabling the flashlight and hotspot — though in day-to-day use it runs smoothly with only moderate warmth.

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 15

The single biggest reason to buy this phone. A 7,300mAh silicon-carbon cell delivers the best smartphone battery life ever measured — a record ~25-hour drain test and 2–2.5 days of real use — with 120W wired charging refilling it in ~40–51 minutes plus 50W wireless.

• The OnePlus 15 lasted an insane 25 hours 13 minutes in the drain test — officially the best phone for battery life, beating the iPhone 17 Pro Max's 17h54m and lasting over 10 hours longer than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
• The OnePlus 15 just delivered the best battery life we've ever measured — a very, very good phone and a strong value pick for late 2025.
• In real use it averaged 2 days 11 hours on a full charge, and 7–8 hours of screen-on time is effortless thanks to the 7,300mAh cell and aggressive standby management.
• 120W SuperVOOC charged 1→50% in 22 minutes, 75% in 36 minutes and a full 1→100% in 51 minutes; other tests hit a full charge in roughly 40–43 minutes.
• It also keeps 50W AirVOOC wireless charging — about 30% in 30 minutes and ~85% in 92 minutes, with the device staying cool around 34–35°C.

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 15

OxygenOS 16 on Android 16 — clean and fast, and a clear AI redemption after the OnePlus 13: Plus Mind (via the new plus key), AI Eraser, plus Google's Gemini Live and Circle to Search. The reservation is the 4-year OS / 6-year security commitment and the lingering uncertainty over OnePlus's regional operations.

• OnePlus redeems the OnePlus 13's lack of AI with OxygenOS 16 — AI Eraser, the Pixel-Screenshots-like Plus Mind via the dedicated plus key, plus Gemini Live and Circle to Search.
• Under all the AI trends OxygenOS still feels like OxygenOS — clean, light and more customisable than a Pixel, with one of the best dark-icon implementations in the segment.
• OnePlus commits to 4 years of major Android updates and 6 years of security patches — not elite, but solid for a phone at this price, though it trails Google and Samsung's 7 years.
• OnePlus does its usual ~1-month post-launch update that fixes some camera issues, and despite overheating reports two reviewers couldn't get their units to overheat in normal use.

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 15

At $899 (12/256) / $999 (16/512), the OnePlus 15 undercuts the $1,000+ Pixel 10 Pro XL, Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max while matching or beating them on battery, performance and charging. The recurring caveat: it's an outstanding-value flagship that camera-focused buyers may still pass on.

• OnePlus has gone from flagship killer to flagship — available for $899 (12/256) or $999 (16/512).
• It's not trying to be better than everything else — it's trying to be the best phone for $899, and it absolutely nails that, even if cameras are a bit of a letdown.
• I'll just call it the best phone you can buy and the first phone I have tested that deserves a perfect score — OnePlus's best phone, not a step down.
• The honest counterpoint: I'm not angry at the OnePlus 15, I'm just disappointed — the camera and identity sacrifices undercut an otherwise excellent phone.
• From a US perspective the performance and longevity make it a fantastic value compared to the much more expensive $1,000–1,200 offerings from Google, Samsung and Apple — the 'downgrades' are mostly hair-splitting.