Nothing scrapped its CMF Phone 3 Pro this year because rising memory chip costs made the price untenable. The Phone (4b), launching July 7 at 11:00 BST, is the direct result, a budget device wearing the main Nothing badge, built around a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip that typically lives in phones half its likely price.
Co-founder Akis Evangelidis said keeping the CMF Phone 3's specs would have pushed its price "well above what the brand considers reasonable for that segment." So Nothing folded its budget ambitions back into the main lineup with the new "b-series," abandoning the "Lite" naming it used before. The rule, per Evangelidis: numbers define generations, letters define segments. "a" is premium mid-range. "b" is budget.
A Geekbench listing for the model A009P reveals the core specs. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 (SM6650) is built on a 4nm process with a 2.30GHz prime core, Adreno 810 graphics, and 8GB of RAM.
It scored 1,088 single-core and 3,155 multi-core, roughly 15% behind the Phone (4a)'s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4. In a 15-minute stress test, the chip maintains about 85% of peak performance without throttling. The device ships with Android 16 out of the box.
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 already powers Oppo and Realme devices in the sub-$238 (₹20,000) segment. That tells you where Nothing is aiming.
Tipster Yogesh Brar reported the Phone (4b) could launch at $36-$60 (₹3,000-₹5,000) less than the Phone (4a)'s $381 (₹31,999) price, pointing to a range of $298-$357 (₹25,000-₹30,000). Smartprix and Gizbot independently corroborated that range.
Nothing's design signature is intact but slimmed down. The reveal video shows a soft light-blue finish with a dual-camera module in the top corner and a vertical five-panel Glyph strip, fewer LED panels than the Phone (4a)'s setup, but still providing notification lighting.
Early teasers had suggested a single rear camera, but the official design sketches show two sensors. Nothing has not confirmed the camera configuration.
The Phone (4b) enters a segment where Xiaomi, Realme, and Motorola compete on specs-per-dollar. Nothing's differentiator is aesthetic and software, the transparent back, Glyph interface, and clean Android build.
Whether that wins buyers at $298 (₹25,000) who could get dual cameras and larger batteries from competitors will depend heavily on camera performance, often the deciding factor in India's market. A Flipkart microsite is already live in India, confirming the July 7 launch there. "Select global markets" are expected to follow, consistent with Nothing's pattern of India-first rollouts before European and other regional expansions.
Nothing has not announced the full color range or official pricing. Those details arrive July 7 at 11:00 BST.
