Nothing Phone 4(b) first impressions

Nothing is not shying away from the fact that the unprecedented demand for memory have forced the company to raise the prices of its phones. But the company has found a way to balance the consumer demand and the products it is offering by launching (b) series, Phone (4b) is the best starting point for students to experience smartphones.

Nothing's new (b) series kicks off with a phone that borrows design cues from its pricier siblings, packs the longest-lasting battery in the Nothing lineup, and brings the full Nothing OS experience to a more accessible price pointNothing has a straightforward pitch for the Phone (4b): everything you actually need, none of the excess you do not, keep the Nothing experience accessible without cutting corners in the places that matter most.

Having spent some time with the device, here are our first impressions.

Design and built: Familiar

The Phone (4b) draws its design DNA from some of its siblings: the unibody form of the Phone (4a) Pro and the Glyph Bar of the Phone (4a). The unibody is made from high-strength polycarbonate, coated with primer, a colour layer, and a UV top coat that reduces fingerprints and gives the surface a smooth. It is comfortable to hold and does not attract the smudges that plague glossy-finish phones.

True to Nothing’s transparent design ethos, the camera module is clear, and the curves of the clear enclosure follow the edges of the unibody. Durability is solid for the price. The Phone (4b) carries an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance, and claims that it is 20% more bend-resistant than the Phone (3a) Lite.

The Glyph Bar has been meaningfully changed on the Phone (4b). It now consists of a grid of 45 mini-LEDs arranged across five squares, sitting inside a clear camera module — and it caimed to be up to 40% brighter than previous Glyph Interfaces, with no light leakage across brightness levels.

You can set custom light patterns for specific contacts, create rules triggered by keywords in messages, or configure app notifications — so the bar flashes, for instance, every time cricket scores update.

Performance: For everyday use

Under the hood, the Phone (4b) runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4: a chip Nothing says delivers 15% greater CPU performance and 25% improved GPU performance compared to the Phone (3a) Lite. For gaming, the Snapdragon chip is backed by a substantial cooling system: a 20,829mm² total cooling area with a 4,400mm² Vapour Chamber.

Nothing claims this reduces surface temperatures by up to 2°C during gaming and cuts peak CPU temperature by up to 18.8°C.In everyday use, the phone feels responsive. App launches are snappy, multitasking is smooth, and the 120Hz adaptive Super AMOLED 6.77-inch display with LTPS technology and an in-screen optical fingerprint sensor makes everything look and feel fluid. Dual stereo speakers round out the multimedia experience.

Cameras: A capable setup

The camera system centres on a 50MP main sensor with dual-axis Optical Image Stabilisation and Electronic Image Stabilisation. An 8MP ultra-wide lens with a 119.5-degree field of view handles wider scenes, and a 360° light sensor next to the flash improves ambient light detection and reduces screen flicker.

The colour science is closer to what we have seen in previous Nothing phones: leaning toward natural, true-to-life colours rather than overly bright edits.

The photos are sharp, with good depth and accurate skin tones. The camera does well in bright light but we noticed some grain or noise in darker shots.Nothing’s TrueLens Engine 4 handles AI-powered processing. The co-developed Ultra XDR feature, built with Google, captures 13 RAW frames at different exposures and merges them for improved dynamic range, with output compatible with Google Photos and Instagram.Video recording goes up to 4K at 30fps, and a Dual Video Capture mode lets you shoot simultaneously with the front and rear cameras.

Editing tools are generous: seven manual adjustments, custom styles, community-sourced presets from Nothing's Playground platform, and two Phone (4b)-exclusive filters — Disco for vibrant, dynamic tones and DV for an analogue film aesthetic.

Battery life is one of the Phone (4b)’s strongest selling points. It comes with a 5,200mAh cell globally and a larger 6,000mAh version for India – the longest-lasting battery Nothing has ever put in a phone.

According to Nothing, it lasts up to an hour longer than the Phone (4a). The battery also features Safe Cell Technology for impact resistance and is rated to retain 90% of its capacity after 1,200 charge cycles, which is roughly three years of regular use.The Phone (4b) ships with Nothing OS 4.1, built on Android 16. That means the full suite of Essential AI tools: Essential Voice for speech-to-text with automatic translation across 100+ languages, Essential Space for saving and recalling content, Essential Search for on-device and web queries, and Essential Apps — personalised widgets users can create themselves through the Playground marketplace.

Long-term software support stands at three Android version updates and six years of security patches.

What we think

The Nothing Phone (4b) makes a strong first impression as an entry point into the Nothing ecosystem. It does not feel like a stripped-down version of something better but a well-built phone that knows exactly what it is trying to be. The design is distinctive, the software experience is complete, and the Glyph Bar remains one of the most genuinely useful and characterful features in the mid-range market.