I’m a digital minimalist, which is why I think more Android phone makers need to take cues from Nothing OS
Publish Date: 2026-06-26 01:01:00
Source Domain: www.techradar.com
I’ve 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 — it’s 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 UI’s 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 didn’t know I needed.
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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 Samsung’s One UI has a wide range of icon packs to choose from. But where you have to manually opt to have this minimal look, it’s the default on Nothing OS. It’s in no way a groundbreaking innovation, but it’s my favorite part of using the Nothing Phone 4a Pro.
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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 2×2 arrangement) that match the…
