Nothing CEO Carl Pei has confirmed that the company’s upcoming hardware, which may be the Phone (4a) series, will feature a significant jump in storage performance. The new devices launching before the end of March 2026 will reportedly adopt UFS 3.1 storage.
Nothing Phone (4a) Series
The upgrade from the UFS 2.2 standard used in last year’s Phone (3a) models promises faster read and write speeds. However, this performance boost comes with a warning. Pei noted that the smartphone industry is facing a “simple choice” due to skyrocketing RAM costs driven by massive global investments in AI data centers. According to the CEO, manufacturers must now either “raise prices by 30% or more in some cases, or downgrade specs.”
Pei further asserted that the “more specs for less money” business model, which many value-oriented brands were built on, is no longer sustainable in 2026. This suggests that the Nothing Phone (4a) lineup may debut with much higher price tags than its predecessors. Industry rumors already point to a potential starting price of approximately USD 475 for the base model, a notable increase from the USD 379 entry point of the previous generation.
Started his freelancing adventure in 2018 and began doing freelance Audio Engineering work and then started freelance writing a few years later.
Currently he writes for Gadget Pilipinas and Grit.PH.
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