Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S25 FE | TechTalkTown
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S25 FE
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Nothing
8.5
The $499 phone to beat
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE
Samsung
7.6
Closest-to-flagship FE yet, but Exynos still bites
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 FE
What Reviewers Agree On
The 6.7-inch 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED display is bright, vivid, HDR10+ accurate, and at 1,900 nits one of the best screens you can get at this price.
Battery life comfortably lasts a full day on the 4,900 mAh cell — the largest ever in a Samsung FE — and matches the S25+ on capacity.
Seven years of OS and security updates is the longest support commitment in the midrange and beats every direct rival including the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15T Pro.
The full Galaxy AI suite — Now Brief, Generative Edit, Audio Eraser, Circle to Search, Gemini — works identically to the more expensive S25 series, so you do not pay an AI tax for the FE label.
One UI 8 on Android 16 ships out of the box and is currently Samsung's most polished, slick interface to date.
The new thinner, lighter 190g design with slimmer bezels brings the FE much closer to the S25+ in look and feel than any previous Fan Edition.
Charging has finally been bumped to 45W wired (matching the S25+) and 15W Qi2-Ready wireless, a big jump from the S24 FE's 25W.
Deal Breakers
The Exynos 2400 chipset noticeably throttles in demanding 3D games like Fortnite, Honkai: Star Rail and Minecraft — multiple reviewers measured the phone climbing to 49°C and dropping to 13 fps in sustained gaming sessions.
Camera hardware is identical to the S24 FE — same 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 8MP 3x telephoto — meaning anyone upgrading from a recent FE gets essentially no imaging improvement, and the 8MP telephoto is now dated against the Pixel 10 and Nothing 3a Pro.
At $649 it sits in an awkward pricing valley: the base Galaxy S25 was discounted to roughly $10 more during Prime Day, and Reddit users on r/gadgets and r/Android repeatedly describe the FE as a 'foolish edition' for that reason.
Base configuration is still only 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage — felt outdated by reviewers given a seven-year support window where future Android versions will demand more memory.
Qi2 is 'Ready' only — no built-in magnets, so MagSafe-style accessories require a separate magnetic case, the same complaint reviewers had with the full S25 series.
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 FE
Pros
The 6.7-inch 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED display is bright, vivid, HDR10+ accurate, and at 1,900 nits one of the best screens you can get at this price.
Battery life comfortably lasts a full day on the 4,900 mAh cell — the largest ever in a Samsung FE — and matches the S25+ on capacity.
Seven years of OS and security updates is the longest support commitment in the midrange and beats every direct rival including the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15T Pro.
The full Galaxy AI suite — Now Brief, Generative Edit, Audio Eraser, Circle to Search, Gemini — works identically to the more expensive S25 series, so you do not pay an AI tax for the FE label.
One UI 8 on Android 16 ships out of the box and is currently Samsung's most polished, slick interface to date.
The new thinner, lighter 190g design with slimmer bezels brings the FE much closer to the S25+ in look and feel than any previous Fan Edition.
Charging has finally been bumped to 45W wired (matching the S25+) and 15W Qi2-Ready wireless, a big jump from the S24 FE's 25W.
Cons
The Exynos 2400 chipset noticeably throttles in demanding 3D games like Fortnite, Honkai: Star Rail and Minecraft — multiple reviewers measured the phone climbing to 49°C and dropping to 13 fps in sustained gaming sessions.
Camera hardware is identical to the S24 FE — same 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 8MP 3x telephoto — meaning anyone upgrading from a recent FE gets essentially no imaging improvement, and the 8MP telephoto is now dated against the Pixel 10 and Nothing 3a Pro.
At $649 it sits in an awkward pricing valley: the base Galaxy S25 was discounted to roughly $10 more during Prime Day, and Reddit users on r/gadgets and r/Android repeatedly describe the FE as a 'foolish edition' for that reason.
Base configuration is still only 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage — felt outdated by reviewers given a seven-year support window where future Android versions will demand more memory.
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 FE
Samsung has trimmed the S25 FE to 7.4mm and 190g — 8% thinner and 11% lighter than the S24 FE — while wrapping it in the same Enhanced Armor Aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus+ used on the S25 and S25+. Reviewers near-universally agree the phone now looks indistinguishable from the S25+ in the hand, though several note that the design also resembles every other 2025 Samsung phone including the much cheaper Galaxy A56. Colour options are limited to muted Navy, Icy Blue, Jet Black and White — a step back from the playful Mint and Yellow of the S24 FE.
At just 7.4mm thick and 190g the FE is 8% thinner and 11% lighter than the S24 FE, while somehow housing a bigger battery.
For the first time the FE looks and feels every inch the flagship the 'S25' in its name suggests, with an IP68 rating and Armor Aluminum frame nearly matching the S25+.
When I first took the S25 FE out of the box, I thought Samsung had played a cruel trick on me — the phone looks identical to its predecessor and I had to dig the S24 FE out of my drawer to compare them.
It looks almost identical to the Galaxy S25, which in turn looks like a carbon copy of the Galaxy A56 — Samsung's phones are now hard to tell apart.
It's hard to spot any difference between this phone and the Galaxy S25 Plus — only the slightly asymmetrical bottom bezel and camera ring design give it away.
The sides of the phone are flat and unfortunately pretty sharp, which can dig into the hand during long sessions.
The new matte back finish instead of last year's gloss is less prone to fingerprints — a welcome change.
The Navy colourway with silver aluminium railings is one of the nicest-looking phones I've tested all year — a real shame Samsung dropped the Mint and Yellow options.
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 FE
The 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel runs at 120Hz with 1,900 nits peak brightness, HDR10+ support, and 1080p (FHD+) resolution. Reviewers consistently call it the standout feature of the phone — practically indistinguishable from the S25+ in everyday viewing — though several note it falls short of the S25's 2,600 nits peak and is technically not an LTPO panel like the more expensive Galaxy S models. DxOMark singled out improved colour accuracy and viewing-angle uniformity versus the S24 FE.
It's easy to see the screen in bright sunlight thanks to 1,900 nits of peak brightness, and with HDR10+ support it's great for watching YouTube and Netflix.
With 1,900 nits, Samsung's Dynamic AMOLED panel and HDR10+, everything comes through with such vibrancy and contrast that you can't look away — like having a mini tablet on your person.
Slimmer, more uniform bezels give the phone an improved screen-to-body ratio and a more premium look closer to the S25+.
Peak brightness of 1,900 nits is lower than the flagship S25 models' 2,600 nits in HBM, which can hinder readability in strong sunlight.
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 FE
The 4,900 mAh battery is the largest Samsung has put in any FE phone and matches the Galaxy S25+. Real-world endurance is consistently described as a solid full day with battery to spare — Trusted Reviews ended a heavy day at 22%, Dave2D measured 24 hours of HD YouTube playback, SuperSaf gets a day with no anxiety. Charging finally jumps to 45W wired (from 25W on the S24 FE) and 15W Qi2-Ready wireless — but real-world full-charge times of 69-74 minutes still trail the Nothing 3a Pro and other rivals in the price bracket.
The S25 FE has the largest battery Samsung has ever put in an FE handset at 4,900 mAh (up from 4,700 mAh), with 45W charging giving 50% in 30 minutes.
In our YouTube HD video battery drain test, the S25 FE manages a respectable 24 hours of constant playback at max brightness — only two hours under the S25 Ultra and 5 hours more than the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
On a heavy day involving social, hotspotting, video, calls and gaming, the phone went from 9:25am to 10:40pm with 22% left in the tank.
From dead I clawed back 67% in just 30 minutes and a full charge took 69 minutes — definitely not the fastest around, but handy in a rush.
Charging speed in real-world tests still lags rivals: a full charge takes 69-74 minutes even on a 130W charger, well behind the Nothing 3a Pro's 50W and cheaper Chinese midrangers.
Qi2 is 'Ready' only — no built-in magnets, so MagSafe-style accessories require a separate magnetic case, the same complaint reviewers had with the full S25 series.
Charging speed in real-world tests still lags rivals: a full charge takes 69-74 minutes even on a 130W charger, well behind the Nothing 3a Pro's 50W and cheaper Chinese midrangers.
Peak brightness sits at 1,900 nits, which is a downgrade from the S25+'s 2,600 nits, but you can still use it under the sun — it'll just look a little dim.
While Samsung hasn't officially labeled this as an LTPO panel, the display can drop as low as 1Hz when idle compared to 60Hz minimum on last year's model — a genuine improvement.
The 120Hz refresh rate combined with the chipset's performance creates fast-paced, engaging gameplay, elevated by impressive stereo speakers with a surprisingly deep soundscape.
Plugged into a 130W charger the S25 FE took 1 hour 14 minutes to charge from 10% to full — only slightly faster than its predecessor despite the 45W spec.
If battery life is important to you, the Nothing 3a Pro and Pixel 9a are better bets — both have bigger batteries and the Nothing gets 50W charging.
There's 15W Qi2 wireless charging but no MagSafe-style magnets — you need a third-party case to align with magnetic accessories.
Battery life is definitely better on the S25 FE than the S24 FE — it's a genuine full-day phone, though it won't stretch to two days.
