If there’s any phone brand whose devices you’d recognize a mile off, it’s Nothing. Its blocky, see-through retro-aesthetic handsets are, for better or worse, incredibly distinctive.
Despite being a big fan of a funky-looking mobile, I’ve never really been won over by the company’s handsets. I don’t want a phone that looks plucked straight out of a Matrix movie.
However, at MWC 2026, I passed the company’s small stall, where it was showing the four Nothing Phone (4a) color options, each under a glass box.
I was only visiting to pick up an Android-themed pin as part of a scavenger hunt the conference puts on, but my eyes were immediately turned.
Not by the phone in general. It’s more of the same that Nothing fans have come to expect. If you followed the launch, you’ve seen it in much better detail than I did at that time.
But the Nothing Phone (4a) has personality, and one of its color options is completely unlike any phone I can remember seeing recently, and even a glance towards the device made me fall in love with it.
Why the Phone (4a) Pro is the Nothing phone for people who hate Nothing
Like no other Nothing phone before it
Meeting the Nothing Phone (4a) family
Including the chosen one
There are four Nothing Phone (4a) models. White and black will be familiar to anyone who’s bought a phone in the last decade-plus.
As someone who’s tested white Nothing handsets in the past, that model looked just like more of the same. Looking at my camera folder from after the show, I apparently found these two options so boring that I didn’t even take pictures of them.
The third member of the family on offer is a pale blue model. I’d just finished testing the full Samsung Galaxy S26 color range, and Nothing’s blue handset felt reminiscent of the Sky Blue device from that family, albeit with some Nothing twists and a more vibrant shade of azure.
Then we come to option four, which is the one that won me over. It’s a pink model, with a more vibrant border and pastel hues in its back pattern for a layered look.
As soon as I clocked this member of the family, the other three disappeared. It was all about this model.
Why the pink Nothing Phone is best
A real pink phone
It’s hard to justify why I like the pink model of Nothing Phone (4a) on its own merits. I like how it walks the line between the blindingly saturated look of some bright phones, and the pastels that brands like Apple tend to use.
But I have no particular tie to pink over, say, blue or purple or orange. I was initially surprised that I was taken in by the pink Nothing over the blue one.
But it makes more sense when you compare these handsets to the wider smartphone world, and the options we commonly see in phones… or, more relevantly, don’t see in mobiles.
Outside of novelty phones like the HMD Barbie phone, we don’t see much pink in the smartphone world. It’s different, enough that it grabs the eye.
Other brands have danced with pink smartphones, but they’re either too washed-out to really count (yes, you, Apple) or dark enough that an argument could be made that they’re red rather than pink.
The only other pink phone I can think of recently was the Moto G86, which came in a Pantone Chrysanthemum hue. Again, this could be considered too dark to be “proper” pink for many — and it didn’t release in the US anyway.
Plus, I don’t imagine many journalists would be keen to cover it, given how much of a nightmare Chrysanthemum is to spell!
Anyway, we have to remove Motorola from conversations about how colorful modern smartphones are. Its partnership with paint company Pantone has offered us a smorgasbord of colorful, classy and moody mobiles, but it’s simply not representative of how most mobiles look.
The new age of colorful smartphones
It’s not black-or-white
Seeing a bright pink Nothing Phone (4a) is exciting, and it’s because it’s part of a larger trend.
For a good few years, I’ve seen far too many phones that are only available in black or white, but I think colorful phones are coming back.
There’s a reason for this. Perceived wisdom in the tech world is that black, white, and neutral phones sell well, while colorful ones don’t. But this could have been a “chicken and egg” situation. For years, you only ever saw these hues on sale.
That’s clearly changing now, and it only takes looking at physical or digital store shelves to prove it.
Each member of the Google Pixel 10 family had one colorful option: Berry for the Pixel 10a, yellow for the Pixel 10, and Jade for the Pixel 10 Pro.
And I’ve already mentioned Motorola’s slow takeover of the entire color spectrum.
Apple has even offered us a bright orange iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S26 colors include blue and pink models. For colorful phone fans like me, it’s a great time to be on the tech market.
