I'm a digital minimalist, which is why I think more Android phone makers need to take cues from Nothing OS

Date:
Fri, 26 Jun 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Description:
The monochrome design may not be for everyone, but Nothings take on Android feels tailor-made for me and the cool innovations and community
contributions are welcome bonuses, too.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Ive always favored clean, minimal phone homescreens the fewer icons, the better, with the wallpaper fully visible. This usually means I have to delete a lot of icons and widgets after initial setup, especially with a Samsung Phone and an iPhone to achieve that look. Pixel phones are much less cluttered in comparison, though I still have to tweak some settings a bit to personalize the homescreen fully.

Then, a few months back, I got my hands on the Nothing Phone 4a Pro , and it was love at first sight. Not only does it look great and punch above its weight class with its hardware, but Nothing OS seemed tailor-made for me its now my favourite Android skin. The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is pretty, but it's got so much more going for it. (Image credit: Future | Nico Arboleda) I found the monochrome color scheme and minimal interface very appealing, reminding
me somewhat of Pixel UIs stock Android experience but with more character.
The home screen widgets follow the same design philosophy, and community-made ones add extra functionality and whimsy I didnt know I needed. Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Clean, distraction-free bliss My usual homescreen setup features just a single row of my most-used apps at the bottom, with icons set to a monochrome color scheme and maybe one or two widgets.

These settings are readily available on iOS and Pixel UI, and easy to apply, while Samsungs One UI has a wide range of icon packs to choose from. But
where you have to manually opt to have this minimal look, its the default on Nothing OS. Its in no way a groundbreaking innovation, but its my favorite part of using the Nothing Phone 4a Pro. You may like I was a Nothing-design skeptic, but the Phone (4a) Pro made me a believer Nothing is proving that smartphones can still be chic, and I hope other Android manufacturers are paying attention Samsungs budget Galaxy A57 looks like a flagship, but how does it stack up against other new mid-range Android phones? My usual homescreen setup on Nothing OS and Pixel UI. (Image credit: Future | Nico Arboleda) Nothing OS widgets also set themselves apart from typical Android
or iOS widgets they come in small square tiles (just enough to fit 4 icons
in a 2x2 arrangement) that match the icons look. Even when I load up the 4a Pros homescreen to the brim with widgets and icons, it still looks clean and slick.

Dont care for the default widgets? No problem. There are plenty of community-made ones you can download from Nothing Playground, a portal for widgets (found under Essential Apps in Settings) and equalizer profiles for audio. These are unique and can show off your personality too. Some of my favorite community-made widgets include a tic-tac-toe game, a functioning piano, and a meter that tracks CPU usage and temperature. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

The latest major Nothing OS update introduced simple breathing exercise widgets one each for Focus, Calm and Relax with on-screen prompts that tell you when to inhale and exhale while music plays. Again, its not
revolutionary, but I like being able to tap a widget on the homescreen
instead of digging through menus in a dedicated health app.

These little things add up to making a fabulous user experience in my books. Innovations and experiments In my opinion, an even more impressive addition
in that update is Essential Voice, an AI-powered speech-to-text feature that has produced the most accurate results Ive seen on a phone so far. What to read next Xiaomi 17T review: a supremely capable Android phone with a decent price tag After WWDC I cant believe Im considering a switch to Apple I tested the 7 top flagship phones of 2026 here's which models I recommend

Powered by Gemini 3 Flash, Essential Voice automatically removes filler words and sounds like um, ah and basically something I tend to do a lot myself
and also auto-formats bullet lists. I tested this feature by dictating my rather long, rambling notes into Google Docs and it produced a neat outline
to build the article I was working on.

Theres support for more than 100 languages and regional variants, which I tested by reciting phrases in Spanish, Italian, French and Filipino the results were clean and accurate. While a similar feature called Rambler is coming to more phones via Android 17 , its nice to see it already in action
on Nothing OS. While Im not quite ready to forgo keyboards just yet and talk to my phone instead, I still think its a fantastic shortcut to typing.

Nothing OS also lets you try experimental features like using the Glyph
Matrix (the secondary screen on the 4a Pros back) as a progress bar for third-party apps (it only supports Uber, Zomato and Google Calendar for now) and improving Apple AirPods support well, for an Android phone at least. Theyre not the most earth-shattering features, sure, but theyre a promising sign of Nothings willingness to try new ideas and let users play around with them. Nothing OS' experimental features include limited Apple AirPods
support. (Image credit: Future | Nico Arboleda) Admittedly, Nothing OSs
quirky design wont be for everyone, as some users will prefer more conventionally designed widgets or colorful icons that are easy to identify, but the short 3-year software support window is whats most disappointing
here, especially when Samsung and Google offer 7 years, while Apple is
pushing that to 8 years in some cases.

Nevertheless, Nothings phones stand out as aesthetically pleasing handsets that punch above their price range, with the software experience as the unheralded star of the show at least for me. Its the perfect minimalist experience out of the box, without sacrificing functionality, and it includes some useful extras enhancing the experience.

With Nothing changing its flagship release schedule for 2027 , Im curious to see how Nothing OS will evolve alongside a potentially more powerful phone. Perhaps it will offer more ways to encourage community innovation? Either
way, Im certainly keeping my eyes peeled for whats next. Today's best Nothing Phone (4a) Pro and Nothing Phone (4a) deals Contract Deals Sim Free Nothing Phone (4a) Pro 36 months Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 5GB data 30 upfront 38.55 /mth View Deal at EE See all prices We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/nothing-phones/im-a-digital-minimalist-which- is-why-i-think-more-android-phone-makers-need-to-take-cues-from-nothing-os


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