Nothing has begun the rollout of its new (b) series with the Phone (4b), pitched by the company as the most accessible entry point into its smartphone line-up in the new reality of increased memory and storage prices. The device combines a unibody shell and a polycarbonate back with the focus-saving Glyph Bar first seen on the Phone 4a, now housed for the first time inside a clear camera module. The only difference, it has five LEDs instead of seven. The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset and ships with the ever clean and bloatware-free Nothing OS 4.1, based on Android 16.
This first impressions piece was an important one for me. We got to spend a couple of days with the phone during a brief escapade in the beautiful union territory of Ladakh. In this brief time, I got to test the camera, the display, and, by accident, the phone’s toughness.
My hands-on testing, with particular attention to design, colour-material-finish, overall execution and the camera system, all mentioned below.
The Nothing Phone 4b starts at Rs 34,999.
Design: Nothing Phone 4b
First things first. The Nothing Phone 4b utilises the transparent design language that the brand made popular over the years by housing the Glyph Bar inside a clear camera module for the first time.
The shell itself is built from high-strength polycarbonate, finished with a primer coat, a colour coat and a UV top layer, which Nothing says reduces fingerprint marks and gives the surface a smoother, skin-friendly feel.
Around the camera housing, a precision-injected thermoplastic polyurethane enclosure keeps the internal mechanics partly visible, in keeping with the exposed-hardware aesthetic Nothing has built its identity around since the original Phone 1.
This is accompanied by a textured back panel and metallic accents around the clear enclosure, along with four screws intended to add contrast and character. At the bottom left corner, you have the Nothing badging, while at the bottom right corner, you can find micrographics that can be found on all Nothing phones.
Durable? Yes
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On the durability front, the Phone 4b carries an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance, and Nothing states it can withstand submersion in up to 25 centimetres of water for up to 20 minutes.
The company also claims the new unibody is 20 per cent more bend-resistant than the Phone 3a Lite that was launched in 2025.
During one of our stops in Leh, I happened to place the Nothing Phone 4b atop the Toyota Innova to shoot some b-roll. The tripod of the second camera placed there by a peer acted as a pillar of support for the phone. The winds, however, had other plans. The phone fell from approximately 6 feet above the ground, full of sharp gravel. The aftermath? The Phone 4b escaped with all its parts and functions intact. The screenshot of the exact moments is attached below.
Dimensionally, the phone measures about 164 millimetres in height, 78 millimetres in width and 8.60 millimetres in depth. It weighs 210 grams.
The New Glyph Bar
In a recent interview with Akis Evangelidis, President of Nothing India, I tried to get a definitive “we are over the glyph era” from the co-founder but could not. He reiterated something that we have heard him say before. “It is an evolution”. The Phone 4b goes on to materialise that.
The rear panel carries the evolved Glyph Bar, i.e., a grid of 45 mini-LEDs that Nothing describes as arranged across five squares, up to 40 per cent brighter than previous Glyph interfaces, with no light leakage claimed across brightness levels.
Functionally, it continues to handle ride and delivery tracking, charging status, camera countdowns and custom notification patterns, alongside a dedicated red recording light, carried over from the flagship Phone 3. It can still be turned off, though.
CMF: Colour, Material And Finish
Over the course of the last couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that Nothing Phone 4b will manage to easily create its own identity. In a market full of copycats and unoriginal designs, the Phone 4b stands out without breaking a sweat. At the same time, it does make it loud and clear that it still very much belongs to the Nothing family of phones. Just like a very popular Game of Thrones character once said, “The seed is strong”.
The material story sits close to the CMF phones, actually. The same polycarbonate body, a similar finish, a texture that reminded me of how I felt when I held the OG CMF phone.
Taken together, the material and finish direction continues Nothing's now-familiar language of deconstructed, semi-transparent electronics, setting the Phone 4b apart from the more conventional glass-backed designs common at this end of the market.
Camera System
The Phone 4b's camera hardware is built around a 50-megapixel primary sensor from Samsung, i.e., a 1/2.76-inch sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and 74.2-degree FOV. The sensor is clubbed with dual-axis optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation.
The second shooter is an 8MP 1/4-inch sensor with an ultrawide lens, with an aperture of f/2.2, and an FOV of 119.5 degrees field of view. A 16MP camera at the front has a 1/3-inch sensor, an aperture of f/2.4, and an FOV of 81.8 degrees.
Nothing has also added a 360° ambient light sensor beside the flash, which the company says improves ambient light detection, reduces screen flicker during capture and delivers what it calls "a 100 per cent better exposure control."
The 50MP primary shooter is adept at taking sharp photos. The quality of the photographs does not leave anything to complain about, that is, until you try the ultrawide and 2x in-sensor zoom modes. I found the 2x digital zoom to be inconsistent. There were moments when the 2x zoom captured good results and there were moments when the results were just not that good.
The ultrawide camera is actually good on multiple fronts such as colour consistency, sharpness, and saturation, but it still lacks behind the primary sensor in terms of overall quality. The field of view and that distortion that ultrawide cameras are known for are very much there.
The image processing runs through what the company calls TrueLens Engine 4, combining AI-based tone mapping with semantic segmentation across 12 layers, per the specification sheet, to adjust highlights and shadows contextually.
On the video side, the Phone 4b supports 4K recording at 30fps and 1080p recording at 30 or 60fps. There is also 1080p slow motion at 120fps, and 4K/1080p time-lapse. Dual Video Capture allows simultaneous recording from the front and rear cameras, which is useful for reaction-style content or vlogging. I was unable to find a dedicated macro mode, though.
The RCB Limited Edition
Nothing also introduced a limited edition RCB variant which will probably be sold out by the time this write-up is live but it is worth mentioning. The phone has a red exterior and the RCB logo at the back at the centre.
A Few Things Worth Noting
- Performance: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 (4nm), paired with a 20,829 square millimetre cooling system that includes a 4,400 square millimetre vapour chamber, does its best to offer a smooth ride. Nothing claims up to 240 per cent stronger AI performance, 15 per cent greater CPU performance and 25 per cent improved GPU performance over the Phone 3a Lite, with the new 6 Gen 4 chipset.
- Display: The 6.77-inch Samsung Super AMOLED panel (2344 x 1080, 381 PPI) with 120Hz adaptive refresh, up to 2,000 nits peak brightness and an in-display optical fingerprint sensor is quite the package. In my brief time using the phone, even in the harshest of sunlight up in the Himalayas, using the display was never an issue.
- Battery: The 5,200mAh for global markets and a larger 6,000mAh cell for the Indian variant, which Nothing says lasts up to an hour longer than the Phone 4a, with 90 per cent capacity retention claimed after 1,200 charge cycles. The battery seemed solid during my usage. With 2 whole days of just shooting 1080p 60FPS videos and taking photos of picturesque mountains, the phone still held on to over 20 per cent charge.
- Software: Nothing OS 4.1 on Android 16, with 3 years of Android version updates and 6 years of security patches confirmed. New additions include a Soundscape widget for ambient audio, Live Updates support (currently Uber, Google Calendar, Zomato, Just Eat and Google Maps), and most importantly, the Essential Key suite covering Essential Voice, Essential Space, Essential Search and Essential Apps.
Initial Thoughts On The Nothing Phone 4b
I believe that the Nothing Phone 4b is a bold initiative by the company given the massive disruption that the memory prices have caused in the smartphone industry. This bet seems to be banking heavily on the brand’s seamless integration of its Nothing OS and its strong and loyal user base.
The spec sheet is stacked with utilitarian features, and the phone takes a very holistic approach in its value proposition. The 50MP sensor is a standout feature that takes good photos and videos. The OIS is worth mentioning and was outright impressive during video shoots. The display is a Super AMOLED panel that leaves nothing to chance. Lastly, the design plays a huge role in making the phone look distinct in a sea of same of, same old.
The Phone 4b starts at Rs 34,999, and with bank offers, the price tag gets as low as Rs 29,999. At this price point, the competition is fierce, but at the same time, the playing field has been levelled. Phone prices have already seen price hikes multiple times in 2026 are expected to keep rising till late 2027.
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