Nothing Phone (4b) reviewed: This smartphone is superfluous
17.8.2026
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Jan Johannsen
The Nothing Phone (4b) costs less than the (4a), but offers less in return. However, the price advantage is too small to justify giving up features like the telephoto camera.
With the Phone (4b), Nothing is offering a more affordable version of its impressive Phone (4a). However, the price difference of 30 francs is too small to justify sacrificing performance, display brightness, charging speed, and a camera. Especially when that difference no longer exists in reality.
The Glyph remains, the display gets darker
Visually, the Phone (4b) with its unibody back is closer to the Phone (4a) Pro than the Phone (4a). However, a cheaper material is used in the form of plastic. Overall, the design is less striking than is typical for Nothing. The manufacturer has not dispensed with the Glyph Bar, which consists of six squares with a total of 63 mini-LEDs. It uses various light patterns to show you, for example, who is calling you or which app has a new notification.
The differences to the (4a) regarding the 6.77-inch AMOLED display are barely noticeable. A size difference of 0.1 inches cannot be seen with the naked eye. The reduced resolution of 2344 × 1080 pixels – compared to 2720 × 1224 pixels on the Phone (4a) – is hardly a difference in quality for the naked eye. Only the visible area of a webpage is reduced slightly.
The reduced brightness is noticeable: 600 instead of 800 nits in standard mode, 1200 instead of 1600 nits in «High Brightness Mode». While the screen content of the Phone (4b) is easy to see even in sunlight, the brighter Phone (4a) is more comfortable for the eyes. For display protection, Nothing relies on scratch-resistant Dragontail Pro Glass instead of the better-known Gorilla Glass 7i, which is said to withstand drops better.
One camera less
Nothing has omitted the telephoto camera on the Phone (4b). The digital zoom at 3.5x magnification is no substitute, as the comparison with the telephoto camera of the Phone (4a) shows.
Since the different focal lengths of the main cameras result in different image sections when zooming, here is a detail of the shot. The difference in quality speaks in favor of the (4a).
The ultra-wide-angle cameras are identical, and the main cameras each have a resolution of 50 megapixels. The Phone (4b) offers a slightly larger aperture at f/1.8 and has a smaller image sensor at 1/2.76 inches. The focal length converted to 35mm format is 28 millimeters. For the Phone (4a), it is f/1.9 and 1/1.57 inches, as well as 24 millimeters. This results in a noticeable difference to the detriment of the Phone (4b), especially in the dark.
For the front camera, Nothing has halved the resolution to 16 megapixels but uses a slightly larger image sensor. In terms of quality, I don't see any difference in the selfies. For use on the smartphone or social media, the image quality of the Phone (4b)'s front camera is sufficient.
Less performance, larger battery
To save costs, Nothing has installed a weaker chipset in the Phone (4b) with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 than in the 4a models. Furthermore, the smartphone is only available in one memory variant with eight gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage. The storage is slower with UFS 2.2 compared to UFS 3.1 on the Phone (4a), which is only noticeable during heavy everyday use. The same applies to the overall performance of the smartphone. Benchmarks show differences of about ten percent in CPU performance and almost 30 percent in GPU performance.
Interestingly, the chipset brings Bluetooth 6.0 to the Phone (4b), while the Phone (4a) still has to make do with version 5.4. But the improvements are not necessarily essential.
The battery of the Nothing Phone (4b) is slightly larger with a capacity of 5200 mAh and lasts 18 hours and 39 minutes in the PCMark battery test at half display brightness. The Phone (4a) only reaches 17 hours and 18 minutes with its 5080 mAh battery. The only advantage of the more expensive smartphone: it charges faster at up to 50 watts compared to the (4b), which reaches a maximum of 33 watts.
Like all current Nothing smartphones, the Phone (4b) features the Essential Button on the left side. It can be used to save screenshots and voice memos in the Essential Space, where an AI sorts them and keeps track for you. There is no difference in software and AI tools compared to the a-models. This also applies to the three Android updates and six years of security updates. However, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are pre-installed, which is something Nothing has only been doing since this year. They can be deleted with little effort. Nothing OS 4.1, based on Android 16, runs on the Phone (4b) out of the box.
In a nutshell
The price difference is too small
The Nothing Phone (4b) is superfluous. While it's not a bad smartphone on its own, the premium for the Phone (4a) is so small that opting for the cheaper model isn't worth it. Especially the missing telephoto camera is the reason for me to avoid the (4b) at this price. The slower chipset, the darker display, the slower memory, and the lower charging speed are minor disadvantages in comparison.
In the end, it doesn't help much that the Phone (4b) has a slightly longer battery life and offers Bluetooth 6.0. I would still go for the Phone (4a).
Pro
- long battery life
- Bluetooth 6.0
Contra
- no telecamera
- slow charging speed
Header image: Jan Johannsen
Jan Johannsen
Senior Editor
Jan.Johannsen@galaxus.deAs a primary school pupil, I used to sit in a friend's living room with many of my classmates to play the Super NES. Now I get my hands on the latest technology and test it for you. In recent years at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, now at Digitec and Galaxus.
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