Nothing's Phone 4b is a plastic reincarnation of the iPhone 5c for a generation that can barely afford a smartphone. Launched Tuesday at Rs 34,999 (about $420). The device is not a budget phone, and Nothing does not want you to call it one.
It is an "accessible" device, a semantic distinction that matters because of what is happening to the memory chip market.
Prices for DRAM, a key component in every smartphone, surged 80 to 90 percent in the first six weeks of this year alone, driven by AI data centers swallowing supply. Nothing, like every other phone maker, has been forced to raise prices across its lineup. The Phone 4a now starts at Rs 40,000.
The answer, the company decided, was a phone made differently, and for a different customer. The Phone 4b swaps glass and aluminum for a single-piece polycarbonate unibody. The effect is unmistakably iPhone 5c, down to the vibrant blue review unit that looks punchier in person than in press photos.
Nothing's signature design language remains intact: a transparent camera island, the Glyph Bar with 45 mini-LEDs divided into five zones (40 percent brighter than previous Glyph Lights), and the familiar dot-matrix software touches. The plastic frame gets a matte finish that resists fingerprints. It also carries an IP64 dust and water resistance rating.
"The Phone 4b is not a 'budget' phone, and neither was the iPhone 5c," wrote The Indian Express, which spent time with the device in Leh-Ladakh. The comparison is more than cosmetic.
Apple never made the iPhone 5c feel cheap, and Nothing appears to have followed the same playbook, no creaks, no squeaks, no visible seams.
Under the hood, the compromises are deliberate. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor will not win benchmark trophies, but paired with 8GB of RAM and a 4,400mm squared vapor chamber for cooling, it handles Nothing OS 4.1 on Android 16 without hesitation. The 6.77-inch Super AMOLED display runs at 120Hz but lacks 10-bit color support.
The dual camera, a 50-megapixel main sensor with OIS and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, skips the telephoto lens found on the Phone 4a. The 6,000mAh battery is the largest Nothing has ever put in a phone, charging at 33W with a claimed 80-minute full charge. Early testing showed only 7 to 8 percent drain during a two-hour mixed photo and video session.
Nothing's co-founder Akis Evangelidis told media at a pre-launch briefing that more consumers are choosing a Nothing phone because of Nothing OS rather than just its design. The software includes Google Gemini, AI-powered search, Essential Space, and live notifications from Uber and Zomato on the lock screen.
Nothing promises three Android version updates and six years of security patches, shorter than some rivals, but workable at this price. For the first time, Nothing has preloaded bloatware, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon Music, though users can delete them.
The Phone 4b goes on sale July 11 at Nothing's Soho store in London. A limited RCB Edition, celebrating the Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team's back-to-back IPL titles, launches exclusively at Nothing's Bengaluru store.
