Hello community! 👋
I’m back with yet another review, and this time it’s… drum rolls 🥁… the Nothing Phone 4b!
I’ve been using this device as my primary phone for the past 8–9 days, so everything in this review is based on my actual experience. Don’t worry though—this is just the beginning. I’ll also be posting long-term reviews after spending more time with the device to see how it holds up over time.
For now, I hope this review helps you decide whether the Nothing Phone 4b deserves to be your next smartphone.
You know the drill, so let’s dive right into it! We’ll go through all the pros and cons, evaluate every major aspect of the phone, and see what it does well, where it falls short, and whether it’s actually worth your money.
1. Unboxing Experience
The unboxing experience still remains the same—simple but satisfying.
Box contents:
Yep… still no charger in the box. 🥲
⭐ Rating: 8.5/10
2. Design & Build
Design is always subjective, but personally, I really like how the Phone 4b looks. It takes a lot of inspiration from the Phone 4a Pro, and honestly, that’s not a bad thing at all.
In terms of build, it’s very similar to the 4a Pro with its unibody design. The material is polycarbonate, but just like previous Nothing phones, it feels surprisingly premium in hand for the price. (Except the Phone 3… although at its current price, it’s honestly a steal. I’ve reviewed that one too, so do check it out.)
The Phone 4b comes with an IP64 rating, which is decent, although I do wish Nothing had pushed it a bit further.
⭐ Rating: 8.5/10
3. Glyph Bar
The Phone 4b carries forward the Glyph interface from the 4a, although it’s a little smaller this time.
The Glyph Bar consists of 45 mini LEDs arranged across 5 squares.
You still get all the useful features like:
Glyph Progress
Glyph Timer
Volume Indicator
Essential Notifications
Camera Countdown
Glyph Torch
Flip to Record
Flip to Glyph
However, it still misses out on:
⭐ Rating: 8/10
4. Display & Multimedia
The display on the Phone 4b is genuinely good.
Specs:
6.77″ Rigid Samsung Super AMOLED
LTPS Panel
Adaptive 120Hz Refresh Rate
2000 nits Peak Brightness
1200 nits Outdoor Brightness
600 nits Typical Brightness
And yes, all these numbers actually translate well into real-world usage.
Outdoor visibility is excellent, colors look vibrant, and everything feels crisp and sharp.
My only complaint is the bezels—they’re noticeably thick and, more importantly, not symmetrical.
The dual speakers sound clean and loud enough, so watching content or gaming won’t be an issue.
⭐ Rating: 9/10
5. Performance
Specs
Snapdragon 6 Gen 4
4400 mm² Vapor Chamber
Benchmarks
Geekbench
Single Core: 1074
Multi Core: 3045
Battery Drop: ~1%
AnTuTu
- Was not able to run this test but I will be doing more tests which I will be sharing on my X account. So stay tuned.
3DMark
Wild Life Extreme
Score: 946
Battery Drop: 0%
Wild Life Extreme Stress Test
Score: 959
Battery Drop: ~2%
Wild Life
Score: 3647
Battery Drop: 0%
Wild Life Stress Test
Score: 3700
Battery Drop: ~4%
Storage Speed
Score: 93,414
Read: 1098 MB/s
Write: 1032 MB/s
Battery Drop: 0%
CPU Throttling
Max: 264001 GIPS
Average: 252912 GIPS
Minimum: 233376 GIPS
Battery Drop: ~3–4%
Overall, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 performs really well for day-to-day usage. It isn’t trying to be a flagship chip, but for the price, it’s more than capable.
6. Software & UI
The Phone 4b comes with Nothing OS 4.1 based on Android 16 out of the box.
Overall, the software experience is smooth. You’ll occasionally notice a few frame drops or jitters, but they’re quite rare. Animations feel fluid, and the overall UI experience is exactly what you’d expect from Nothing.
One thing I really appreciate is that Nothing doesn’t artificially limit software features across its devices. (Well… except a few widgets and ringtones. 😶)
Software support is also pretty solid:
RAM management is excellent as well. Heavy apps and games stay in memory for around 30 minutes or even longer. There are occasional refreshes, but nothing out of the ordinary.
⭐ Rating: 9.5/10
7. Battery Performance
The Phone 4b packs the biggest battery we’ve seen on a Nothing phone.
Global Variant: 5200mAh
Indian Variant: 6000mAh
Charging
You get:
However, during my testing, charging was surprisingly slow. On average, it took around 2 hours to charge completely.
I’ve already reported this issue to the Nothing team, so hopefully it gets fixed in a future update.
Discharging
This is where the Phone 4b absolutely shines.
Thanks to the massive 6000mAh battery, it easily lasts an entire day even with medium to heavy usage.
On days when I used it continuously, I consistently got around 8 hours of screen-on time.
With lighter usage, it comfortably lasted 1.5 days with around 5–6 hours SOT, which is really impressive.
⭐ Charging: 6/10 ⭐ Battery Backup: 9/10
8. Gaming
Now let’s see how all those benchmark numbers translate into actual gaming.
I tested BGMI, COD Mobile and Genshin Impact.
BGMI
1 hour gameplay
Battery Drop: 17%
HDR: 50–60 FPS
Smooth: 75–90 FPS
There are occasional frame drops here and there, but it’s still very playable.
Thermals are managed extremely well. The phone barely got warm. (Although, to be fair, Bangalore weather definitely helped. 😂)
COD Mobile
30 minutes gameplay
Battery Drop: 5%
Average FPS: 55–60
Heating was almost non-existent.
Genshin Impact
30 minutes gameplay
Battery Drop: 8%
High Graphics:
Low Graphics:
Again, heating is negligible, and the game feels much smoother on lower graphics settings.
9. Camera Performance
Specs
Main Camera
50MP Samsung
½.76″ Sensor
OIS + EIS
74.2° FOV
Ultra-wide Camera
Front Camera
16MP Samsung
⅓″ Sensor
81.8° FOV
1x Shots:
2x Shots:
0.6x Shots:
Night Shots:
Video Shots:
Portrait Shots:
Overall, the Phone 4b captures good photos when lighting is great.
Once the lighting gets a little challenging, you’ll definitely notice some inconsistency.
That said, unless you’re a hardcore mobile photographer, I don’t think you’ll have any complaints. For casual users, this camera system gets the job done.
⭐ Rating: 7.5/10
10. AI & Essential Space
Nothing OS 4.1 introduces Essential Voice, which converts your speech into text.
Essential Space itself remains pretty much unchanged from what we’ve already seen since the Phone 3a.
⭐ Rating: 8.5/10
11. Network & Connectivity
Specs
NFC
Bluetooth 6.0
Wi-Fi 6
Dual Nano SIM
No issues with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or network connectivity during my testing.
⭐ Rating: 9/10
Final Thoughts
Before wrapping things up, here’s a quick summary.
❌ Cons
✅ Pros
If these cons don’t bother you much, then the Phone 4b is an easy recommendation.
However, if you’re someone who prioritizes top-tier performance, amazing cameras, or premium haptics, then this probably isn’t the phone for you.
Personally, I’m okay with almost everything on this phone—even the unsymmetrical bezels.
But the mushy haptics? Those genuinely should’ve been better because they slightly take away from the premium feeling while using the device.
That said, if you’re a casual user and can live with that compromise, the Phone 4b definitely won’t disappoint.
Pricing
Now… the controversial part. 😅
Nothing and controversy seem to go hand in hand, and this launch is no different.
For the specs on offer, the pricing definitely feels a little on the higher side. Looking at the current market, I understand why Nothing priced it this way, but I still feel they could’ve made it a bit more competitive.
Personally, I think:
Base variant: ₹25,000–26,000
Top variant: ₹29,000–30,000
would’ve made this phone an absolute no-brainer.
Overall, the Phone 4b is a solid package with a few compromises. If those compromises don’t affect your priorities, you’ll genuinely enjoy using this phone
