Phones from British tech startup Nothing have never failed to impress us with unique designs that set them apart amid the otherwise mundane landscape of similar-looking Android devices. The design of the Phone 4B, which Nothing announced on Tuesday alongside the Nothing Ear 3A, isn't quite as distinctive as the company's other handsets, but at first glance, there's still plenty to recommend it.
Let's start with the battery. In our review of the Phone 4A, which the company unveiled back in March, one of our few criticisms of the device was that the battery life could be better. The Phone 4B actually comes with the biggest ever battery of any Nothing phone, at 5,200 mAh, even though this model is significantly cheaper than the Phone 4A.
It's still unlikely to rival the best phones on the market for battery life -- Apple's latest iPhones and the OnePlus 15 in our independent testing -- but we're talking about a budget phone here. But it's great to see Nothing acknowledging that battery life is one area in need of improvement and taking action relatively quickly.
Nothing's design language has always hinged on its deployment of transparent elements, and the Phone 4B, while largely opaque, nods to this with a transparent camera bump on the top rear side of the phone. Under this bump is a refined version of its light-up Glyph bar -- a row of individually controlled mini-LEDs that provide notifications, charging progress, recording indicators and personalized alerts.
It's touches like this that continue to set Nothing apart from its rivals -- especially at the budget end of the phone spectrum. There's no cost-cutting on the processor either, with a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip inside. That's one model removed from the processor inside the 4A, but Nothing says the Phone 4B comes close to its older sibling in performance.
Again, like the Phone 4A, the 4B offers a 50-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera, but doesn't have the 4A's telephoto camera with optical zoom. Small compromises like this throughout have allowed the Nothing to keep the price low, which for many people in search of an affordable but fun phone, will be compromises worth making.
The Nothing Phone 4B will be available in black, white and blue starting at £299 ($400), with drops happening in the company's stores from July 11, before going on sale online on July 17.
