Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge | TechTalkTown
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Nothing
8.5
The $499 phone to beat
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Samsung
6.8
Gorgeous compromise
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.
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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.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
What Reviewers Agree On
At 5.8mm and 163 grams the Edge genuinely feels transformatively lighter and thinner in hand than any other current flagship — picking it up is repeatedly described as a surprise even by reviewers skeptical of thin phones.
Build quality is premium and durable for the form factor — titanium frame, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front (first phone to use it), Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, IP68 rating intact.
The 6.7-inch 1440p LTPO AMOLED is one of the best smartphone displays in 2025 — 2,600-nit peak brightness, 120Hz, sharp and bright in any lighting.
Short-burst performance from the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy + 12GB RAM matches or beats the S25 Ultra in single-shot benchmarks, with no noticeable lag in everyday use.
The 200MP main sensor (inherited from the S25 Ultra) takes genuinely strong photos with crisp detail, and the new wider 12MP selfie camera is a small upgrade for group shots.
Samsung commits seven years of OS and security updates, matching the industry's best long-term support window.
Deal Breakers
The 3,900 mAh battery is the smallest in the entire Galaxy S25 lineup — smaller even than the base S25's cell — and real-world endurance trails the S25+, S25 Ultra and most rivals by a meaningful margin.
There is no telephoto camera at all — only the 200MP main and a 12MP ultrawide — making it the only S25 phone without optical zoom and a hard sell for anyone who shoots distant subjects.
Under sustained 3DMark stress tests Notebookcheck measured GPU performance dropping to roughly half its initial score (46.3% Wild Life stability), confirming the slim chassis can't dissipate enough heat for long gaming sessions.
Wired charging is capped at 25W and wireless at 15W — well behind the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi rivals, with a full charge taking about 1 hour 20 minutes from the wall.
Samsung skipped the new silicon-carbon battery chemistry already shipping in the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 and other competitors — the single technology that could have made the thin form factor work, repeatedly flagged by MKBHD, Dave2D and Mrwhosetheboss.
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.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Pros
At 5.8mm and 163 grams the Edge genuinely feels transformatively lighter and thinner in hand than any other current flagship — picking it up is repeatedly described as a surprise even by reviewers skeptical of thin phones.
Build quality is premium and durable for the form factor — titanium frame, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front (first phone to use it), Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, IP68 rating intact.
The 6.7-inch 1440p LTPO AMOLED is one of the best smartphone displays in 2025 — 2,600-nit peak brightness, 120Hz, sharp and bright in any lighting.
Short-burst performance from the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy + 12GB RAM matches or beats the S25 Ultra in single-shot benchmarks, with no noticeable lag in everyday use.
The 200MP main sensor (inherited from the S25 Ultra) takes genuinely strong photos with crisp detail, and the new wider 12MP selfie camera is a small upgrade for group shots.
Samsung commits seven years of OS and security updates, matching the industry's best long-term support window.
Cons
The 3,900 mAh battery is the smallest in the entire Galaxy S25 lineup — smaller even than the base S25's cell — and real-world endurance trails the S25+, S25 Ultra and most rivals by a meaningful margin.
There is no telephoto camera at all — only the 200MP main and a 12MP ultrawide — making it the only S25 phone without optical zoom and a hard sell for anyone who shoots distant subjects.
Under sustained 3DMark stress tests Notebookcheck measured GPU performance dropping to roughly half its initial score (46.3% Wild Life stability), confirming the slim chassis can't dissipate enough heat for long gaming sessions.
Wired charging is capped at 25W and wireless at 15W — well behind the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi rivals, with a full charge taking about 1 hour 20 minutes from the wall.
Samsung skipped the new silicon-carbon battery chemistry already shipping in the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 and other competitors — the single technology that could have made the thin form factor work, repeatedly flagged by MKBHD, Dave2D and Mrwhosetheboss.
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'.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
At 5.8mm and 163 grams the S25 Edge is the thinnest and lightest Galaxy flagship ever, and nearly every reviewer concedes that picking it up changes their opinion of thin phones — even those who came in skeptical. The frame is grade-5 titanium with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 (a smartphone first) on the front and Victus 2 on the back, IP68 rating preserved. The camera bump protrudes enough that the phone wobbles noticeably on a flat surface, and several reviewers point out a case immediately negates the thin-phone benefit.
After living with the Edge for two weeks, the lighter weight repeatedly tricked the reviewer into thinking she'd left her phone at home — the slimmer dimensions make a tangible difference in pockets and small bags the way no other modern big phone does.
At 5.8mm it is 2mm thinner than the iPhone 16 Plus and weighs 36 grams less despite the same 6.7-inch screen — picking it up genuinely feels strange and, surprisingly, not cheap.
Samsung kept the titanium frame and IP68 rating, and the Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 panel is a smartphone first — the Edge is undeniably enchanting in sheer feel and aesthetics.
The titanium frame meets the glass at a minutely chamfered edge that banishes the sharp digging-into-the-palm sensation of the S25 Ultra — for an hour straight it never once felt fatiguing.
The Edge ruined the reviewer's previously positive experience with the S25 Ultra in 24 hours — the Ultra suddenly feels thick and noticeably heavy by comparison.
Even on video of his own hands holding it the difference looks subtle, but it is very noticeably thinner to hold — the kind of feel-it-to-believe-it engineering you don't get from a spec sheet.
Picking up the Edge was very reminiscent of his first time picking up a MacBook Air or a new iPad — 30% thinner and 25% lighter doesn't sound transformative on paper but absolutely feels it.
Just under 4mm thick, the camera bump on the back is quite prominent — including the lenses the Edge is almost as thick as the S25+, and on a table it wobbles back and forth considerably.
The phone rocks a lot on a table due to the camera bump and even with a case the Edge won't stop wobbling because case-makers want to preserve as much thinness as possible.
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.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
The 6.7-inch QHD+ LTPO AMOLED is essentially the same panel as the S25+ — 120Hz, sharp, very bright. Samsung says it skipped the S25 Ultra's anti-reflective Gorilla Armor 2 coating because the coating itself would have added thickness, so the Edge gets the glossier finish back. PWM dimming only reaches 480Hz which Notebookcheck flags as a potential issue for sensitive eyes.
The 6.7-inch panel is just as vibrant and wonderfully colourful as the S25+ — same OLED, same 120Hz refresh rate, no compromise on screen quality.
With auto-brightness enabled the panel exceeded 2,600 nits in HDR content and regularly cleared 1,000 nits, with even the manual SDR brightness boost hitting 700–800 nits in real testing.
Slimmer bezels on an absolutely gorgeous display make the Edge feel like holding a portal — and the 2,600 nit peak brightness is right in line with the S25 Ultra's spec.
The display is also fantastic, and the QHD+ AMOLED is one of the highlights of using the phone — battery aside, the screen alone makes the Edge a treat.
Samsung skipped the Ultra's anti-reflective coating because — and this is on the record — Samsung says the coating itself would have increased the phone's thickness.
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.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
The 3,900 mAh cell is the smallest in the entire S25 family — even smaller than the base S25's 4,000 mAh battery. Engadget's local video rundown clocked 25 hours 59 minutes (about 3.5 hours less than the Ultra and two hours less than the standard S25); Notebookcheck reached almost 18 hours of simulated web browsing. Real-world experience is split: The Verge survived a heavy Google I/O day with 20% left; Wired needed mid-day top-ups; Trusted Reviews hit 5% by midday after only two hours of screen-on time. Wired charging caps at 25W. The single most-flagged complaint is Samsung's decision not to use silicon-carbon battery tech that competitors already ship.
A full day covering Google I/O with three hours of screen time and an hour-ish of hotspot use ended with 20 percent left — not amazing, but fine for a heavy use day if you can plug in by evening.
Engadget's local video rundown lasted 25 hours 59 minutes — about three and a half hours less than the S25 Ultra and two hours less than the base S25.
Almost 18 hours of simulated web browsing and over 25 hours of HD video playback in lab testing — sufficient for a day of intensive use even if it doesn't quite beat similarly priced rivals.
Software & AI
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.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Same One UI 7 on Android 15 as the rest of the S25 lineup, same Galaxy AI feature suite (Now Brief, generative photo editing, Gemini integration), same seven-year OS and security update commitment. No platform differentiator over the cheaper S25 or S25+ — software is identical, so the Edge's pitch lives entirely on hardware design.
Same One UI 7 on Android 15 as the rest of the S25 lineup, with the full Galaxy AI feature set including Now Brief, generative editing and Gemini as the default assistant.
Seven years of major Android upgrades and monthly security patches until 2031 — matches the best long-term support in the industry.
Very pleasing and fluid One UI experience, DeX support, seven major OS updates — listed as a pro across the verdict even by reviewers cool on the hardware.
Shout-out to the realtime visual Gemini Live feature — you can be on a video call with the AI and point at an object and have it answer contextual questions, real-world impressive AI even if execution isn't perfect.
Selfie camera supports log video recording — a small but real software differentiator the rest of the S25 series doesn't currently have.
At $1,099 the Edge sits between the cheaper S25+ ($999) and the only-$100-more S25 Ultra ($1,299), and reviewers across The Verge, Wired, GSMArena and Ars Technica agree neither end of that bracket is a comfortable place to land given what you give up.
Wireless charging works through a 'Qi2 Ready' label rather than built-in magnets — you need a separate magnetic case for MagSafe-style accessories, the same issue Engadget called out on the S25 Ultra.
There is no S Pen support and no S Pen slot — the Ultra's signature feature is gone, removing the one reason you'd traditionally pay over $1,000 for a Samsung flagship without compromise.
At $1,099 the Edge sits between the cheaper S25+ ($999) and the only-$100-more S25 Ultra ($1,299), and reviewers across The Verge, Wired, GSMArena and Ars Technica agree neither end of that bracket is a comfortable place to land given what you give up.
Wireless charging works through a 'Qi2 Ready' label rather than built-in magnets — you need a separate magnetic case for MagSafe-style accessories, the same issue Engadget called out on the S25 Ultra.
There is no S Pen support and no S Pen slot — the Ultra's signature feature is gone, removing the one reason you'd traditionally pay over $1,000 for a Samsung flagship without compromise.
The Ultra's anti-reflective glass is missing on the Edge — losing that anti-glare property is genuinely a downgrade if you've used the S25 Ultra outdoors.
The AMOLED flickers at a comparatively low 240Hz at minimum brightness rising to 480Hz at higher levels, and the amplitude isn't particularly flat — PWM-sensitive viewers may notice eye strain.
After only four hours of screen-on time the phone hit 15% — only light-to-average use will get you a full day, and travelling I/O coverage required mid-afternoon charging anxiety.
Off a full charge at 3pm, the phone hit 30% by morning and 5% by midday with only two hours of total screen time — Trusted Reviews calls this 'the phone that reintroduces battery anxiety' for the modern era.
Wired charging tops out at 25W and a full charge takes 1 hour 20 minutes — pedestrian numbers for a smartphone in this price category.
The Edge sticks with regular lithium-ion battery tech, not the silicon-carbon anode chemistry rivals like the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 and several Honor phones already ship — a 15–20% battery boost left on the table.
Skipping silicon-carbon was 'a big miss' — if Samsung had used it, the same thin chassis could have held meaningfully more capacity and the battery debate would have evaporated.
If this were a more energy-dense silicon-carbon battery the conversation would be entirely different — but it isn't, and within a few years as the cell degrades buyers may regret prioritising thinness over capacity.
Wireless charging is 'Qi2 Ready' rather than fully Qi2 compatible — there are no magnets inside the phone, so MagSafe-style accessories require a separate magnetic case or adhesive ring.
