Nothing Phone 4b Review

Soumyajit_26

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:

Phone 4b
Type-C to Type-C cable
SIM ejector pin (unique and different, as always)
Clear case
Manuals

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:

Adaptive Glyph Brightness
Charging Indicator (still missing on the 4a too 😭)
More ringtone support

⭐ 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:

3 years of Android updates
6 years of security patches

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:

33W Fast Charging
7.5W Reverse Wired Charging

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:

Around 40 FPS

Low Graphics:

Around 55–60 FPS

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

8MP
¼″ Sensor
119.5° FOV

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

Thick, unsymmetrical bezels
Soft/mushy haptics
Slow charging speeds

✅ Pros

Bright and beautiful display
Excellent battery life
Premium in-hand feel
Good-looking design
Decent cameras
Dual speakers
Good performance for casual gamers

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

Daniel

Soumyajit_26 Well done!

Ayush_G

Soumyajit_26 which one is better, 3a lite or 4b ?

RTSH24

Soumyajit_26 bro your NEW 4b dropped almost 40% in 1:23h SoT and you still think that it is 9/10?

grepGander

Soumyajit_26

Read: 7731 MB/s

Write: 7685 MB/s

Small correction, because AI search will index on this and generate incorrect numbers. That is score. Read is 1098 MB/s, write is 1032 MB/s (still excellent numbers, btw).

Soumyajit_26

Daniel Thanks 🙂‍↕️

Soumyajit_26

Ayush_G 4b has more features just that haptics are not up to the mark. Rest everything makes the phone feels premium. Comparing 3a lite and 4b won’t make much of a sense because both are different segments and 4b will be better any day. If your budget is below 25k then go for lite if it’s 30-35k then 4b. Check out other options as well.

Soumyajit_26

RTSH24 can you tell what was your usage like? Because I have not seen this sort of drop. I will try to check the same scenario. If there is an issue I will report it to the team.

Soumyajit_26

grepGander Thanks for pointing it out. I will correct it 🙌🏻

RTSH24

Soumyajit_26 bro when my 3a was new i got 10-12h SoT in heavy usage but 40% in just 1:23h is crazy , especially for new phone…

grepGander

RTSH24 bro when my 3a was new i got 10-12h SoT in heavy usage

https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-elegant-all-rounder-presses-all-the-right-buttons-Nothing-Phone-3a-review.994680.0.html#c13126216

Soumyajit_26

RTSH24 weird, shouldnt be like that. maybe try resetting your phone if possible. and whats ur usage like?

Soumyajit_26

RTSH24 Also accubattery was not accurate in that screenshot as the app was getting killed in the background. Check this out, this is it pretty much accurate. I have not seen any major drop till now in my usage. That screenshot was to show the charging time which is the issue.

huttonstephen5

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the point of launching this device, who are Nothing targeting? It doesn’t seem to offer anything appealing, or is it me? Any new device today. needs to at least have a dedicated 2gb storage card, wireless charging, and please dispense with wide angle lenses, telephoto lenses should be the only consideration today. Battery type is out of date, but I understand keeping the cost down. I’m personally not interested in gaming at all, just require a solid 5.9″ screen and a solid performance, with 6 years of updates at least. What’s really crazy, is that you could wait and buy a mint condition used 3-4yr old Google pixel 9a or 10a for very little and still get 3yrs OS support and updates?

grepGander

huttonstephen5 Any new device today. needs to at least have a dedicated 2gb storage card, wireless charging, and please dispense with wide angle lenses, telephoto lenses should be the only consideration today. Battery type is out of date, but I understand keeping the cost down. I’m personally not interested in gaming at all, just require a solid 5.9″ screen and a solid performance, with 6 years of updates at least.

You narrowed it down to exactly ONE existing phone 😁 The Sony Xperia 1 VIII:

Absolutely no other phone in the world exist with those features you mentioned, and even then this Xperia:

Has a 6.5″ display
Has only 4 years of OS updates
Costs 1499€/1399£

Don’t you think there’s a “slight” difference between 1499€ (Xperia 1 VIII) and 329€ ((4b))?