Weekly poll: will you buy the Nothing Phone (4b)?

Nothing is narrowing its scope – in January, it announced that it won’t release a flagship in 2026 and last month it canceled the CMF Phone 3 Pro. This only leaves the (4a) phones and now a (4b) model too, a new mid-ranger that was announced earlier this week.

The Nothing Phone (4b) is a bit cheaper than the Nothing Phone (4a) but not as cheap as the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite (is the (4a) Lite canceled too?). Here is a quick price comparison for 8/128GB units. Note that there is an 8/256GB configuration of the (4b) available exclusively in India.

The price gap between the (4b) and (4a) varies quite a bit depending on where you live – ₹5,000 is €46, so the difference in India is comparable to the difference in the EU. And note that the Indian (4b) has a 6,000mAh battery, while the one sold in Europe (and everywhere else) only has a 5,200mAh battery. But the £80 price difference in the UK is a tough pill to swallow.

Nothing advertises the Phone (4b) as its longest-lasting phone. For comparison, the Phone (4a) has a 5,080mAh battery in the global model and 5,400mAh in units sold in India. We haven’t tested it yet, so we can’t vouch for that claim.

But even if it’s true, getting a Nothing Phone (4b) has a lot of downsides. The phone has worse cameras than the (4a) – a smaller 50MP sensor in the main (1/2.76” vs. 1/1.57”), no telephoto module (the (4a) has a 50MP 3.5x/80mm tele camera) and a lower resolution selfie camera (16MP vs. 32MP).

The (4b) phone has worse performance too – the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 is essentially a down-clocked Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (that’s the chipset inside the (4a)). And here it is paired with slower LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage compared to LPDDR5X and UFS 3.1 for the (4a).

Nothing Phone (4b) in White, Black and Blue

The screen isn’t as good either – the 6.77” panel is about the same size, but it has lower resolution (1080p+ vs. 1224p+), lower brightness (2,000 nits peak vs. 4,500 nits) and worse glass (Dragontail Pro Glass vs. Gorilla Glass 7i).

Looking at other brands, a Poco X8 Pro (with an 8/256GB configuration no less) can be had for €350. This gets you the faster Dimensity 8500 Ultra chip and a larger 6,500mAh battery.

If you don’t like HyperOS, what about a Samsung Galaxy A57 with One UI? An 8/128GB unit is €320 at the moment and in Europe, the battery is almost the same (5,000mAh). Plus, you get 6 years of OS updates instead of 3 years on the Nothing and 4 years on the Poco.

Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro • Samsung Galaxy A57 • Honor Magic8 Lite

If you look around, you can find an 8/256GB Honor Magic8 Lite for under €300. This has the same Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip as the (4b), but pairs it with a 108MP main camera, 7,500mAh battery and a higher IP69K rating.

Well, what do you think about Carl Pei’s latest creation? Is it a phone that you can see yourself buying or do you have something else in mind?

Nothing Phone (4a) 5G