The Nothing Phone 4b’s is one of the first budget smartphones pushing into the mid-range category due to high memory costs. Launching at INR 34,999 (~367), its price is a bit of a shocker. The new Phone 4b sits below the Phone 4a series in the company’s lineup and is closer to the Phone 3a Lite than the 4a.
The Nothing Phone 4b brings the largest battery (in India) on a Nothing phone, runs my favorite Android skin, and borrows crucial design elements from its more expensive siblings. Whether those upgrades justify the price is another question.
Like the Nothing Phone 4a Pro, the Phone 4b sports a unibody design, but instead of metal, it is made out of “high-strength polycarbonate.” It retains a smooth finish on the back to reduce fingerprints and borrows the same Glyph Bar with a brighter output. It is claimed to be 40% brighter than previous Glyph Interfaces. You can use it to track the progress of deliveries, volume, and timers, set custom light patterns for callers, and more.
The Phone 4b is IP64-rated for a dust-tight and splash-resistant design. I have the blue variant, and I like its black buttons. The volume rockers, Essential Key, and power button are all black on the blue sides, which gives it a sportier look. The new Nothing device weighs 210 grams and measures 8.6mm thick. Overall, it is comfortable to hold, but I wish it was slimmer and had curved sides to be more usable with a single hand.
On the front lies a 6.77-inch Super AMOLED display. It is an 8-bit panel with support for a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, a 2,344 x 1,080-pixel resolution, 1,200 nits of outdoor brightness, and 600 nits of typical brightness.
I didn’t have trouble seeing the camera viewfinder or navigating Maps under direct sunlight. However, it isn’t the most immersive Nothing screen. The non-uniform bezels have odd curvature at the corners. This isn’t a deal-breaker, but it is one of those things that you can’t unsee.
The Nothing Phone 4b has a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with OIS and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera with a 1/4-inch sensor and a 119.5-degree field of view. On the front lies a 16-megapixel selfie shooter.
I took a few photos yesterday, and the default tuning is too contrasty with fewer details. I recommend playing around with the Nothing filters to get the best output. For example, Urban is great for harsh lighting, Soft will give you nicer-looking portraits, and Wide-Angle outputs vibrant shots for ultra-wide photos.
Under the hood, you get a previous-generation processor. The Nothing Phone 4b is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip, paired with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB/256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.
I haven’t pushed it to the limits in my one day of use, but it should be enough for daily usage. Nothing claims it can deliver 15% greater CPU performance and is 25% better in GPU-intensive tasks compared to the Phone 3a Lite. It runs Nothing OS 4.1 based on Android 16 and is promised to get three years of OS upgrades and six years of security updates.
I’ve always liked Nothing’s user interface, thanks to its smooth and responsive tuning. However, the Android 17 stable version is already out, so you’re practically getting two more Android OS releases despite the promised three years of OS support. Xiaomi has had a similar approach with its Redmi Note series for years, and I’m not a fan of this strategy, especially at this price point.
The best upgrade (vs. the Phone 3a Lite) on the Phone 4b is perhaps its battery, but it is limited to one market. Nothing says it has the “longest-lasting battery” of any phone it has shipped to date.
The Nothing Phone 4b packs a 6,000mAh cell (with 33W fast charging) in India. It is claimed to last “up to an hour more than the Phone 4a” and retain “90% of its capacity after 1,200 charges” for about three years of regular use. However, the Phone 4b will ship with a 5,200mAh cell (with the same 33W fast charging) in all other markets.
The new Nothing phone is priced at INR 34,999 for the base 8GB RAM/128GB storage variant. You can get it for INR 29,999 with offers. That said, it is a significant jump from the Nothing Phone 3a Lite’s INR 20,999 launch price, and the rising memory costs aren’t helping.
