Nothing Phone (4b) reviews: the battery holds up, the 2,000-nit claim does not

Nothing says the Phone (4b) display reaches 2,000 nits. Notebookcheck measured 1,160. That gap is the clearest example of a pattern in the reviews: the (4b) does several important things well, while some of its headline claims do not hold up in testing.

The (4b) goes on open sale in Malaysia on 20 September at RM1,599 for the only configuration offered there, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, according to Pokde. It is already on sale in Europe, where Notebookcheck lists it at €329, and in India. It is not sold in the US. Now that full lab reviews are available alongside the launch-week videos, here is what reviewers agree on and where they disagree.

The 6.77-inch AMOLED panel runs at up to 120Hz, and reviewers generally like it. The brightness figure is the problem. Notebookcheck's highest reading was 1,160 cd/m². In a follow-up article, the site said that "in direct sunlight, the Phone (4b) definitely reaches its limits." Manufacturer peak ratings often apply to a small bright area of the screen, not the whole panel. Notebookcheck concluded that the 2,000-nit figure is "less of an everyday value and more of a technical peak value under specific conditions."

Reviewers who tested the phone by eye noticed the same thing. Nick Ackerman said he had to turn the brightness higher than on Nothing's Phone (4a) Pro to see the screen clearly. Marques Brownlee found the screen readable in most places but said its anti-glare coating is worse than on more expensive phones. Notebookcheck measured PWM dimming at 480Hz. Most people will not notice it, but people who are sensitive to flicker should be aware of it.

Battery life gets the most consistent praise. Notebookcheck called the runtime from the 5,200mAh cell "incredibly long." It also noted that the battery is rated for 1,400 charge cycles, which it called comparatively durable. Indian buyers get a 6,000mAh battery, which both Notebookcheck and Ackerman mentioned. Notebookcheck called it "a shame" that the larger battery is limited to India. Pokde lists 33W wired charging and 7.5W reverse wired charging.

Nothing is using the same 5,200mAh figure in its marketing. According to Pokde, the company calls it its longest-lasting smartphone battery to date.

The (4b) uses a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4. Brownlee said its benchmark scores are close to those of the OnePlus 7 Pro, a flagship from seven years ago. Brownlee still found everyday use smooth. He said Nothing OS 4.1, its new CPU scheduler and the phone's 1000Hz touch sampling make it feel faster than the chip suggests, although it does stutter sometimes. Ackerman reached a similar conclusion, noting that apps sometimes close when too many are open.

Pokde says Nothing promises three major Android updates and six years of security updates. That is a long support period for a phone at this price.

The cameras draw the least enthusiasm. The 50MP main camera has optical image stabilization. Brownlee described it as a physically small Samsung sensor, smaller than the telephoto sensors in many flagships. He said it produces acceptable photos in good light but struggles as the light fades. He also said the 8MP ultrawide has never been sharp in the corners. Notebookcheck agreed that the main camera performs about as expected for its class. Bright areas can look almost blown out, and because there is no telephoto camera, zoom is entirely digital.

Notebookcheck also found several omissions:

• no eSIM support
• only 128GB of storage in Germany, with no microSD slot
• IP64 splash resistance rather than full water resistance
• Wi-Fi transmit speeds of about 509Mbps in its test, compared with 726Mbps for Samsung's Galaxy A37

The optical fingerprint reader sits low on the screen and is slower than ultrasonic sensors, Brownlee said.

Brownlee's review suggested that the "b" stands for "budget." He also theorized that the (4b) was first planned as a CMF Phone 3 Pro and was moved to the Nothing brand after memory costs pushed its price up. Carl Pei responded in a video on Nothing's channel. "The word budget never came across our minds," Pei said. He described the phone as the successor to the (3a) Lite with a simpler name. Pei also gave a sales figure that no reviewer can check: "The 4B is currently selling like double our target."

The (4b)'s biggest competition comes from Nothing's own lineup. Notebookcheck found that the Phone (4a), with the same storage, was cheaper than the (4b) at some retailers during its testing. Its reviewer concluded: "The biggest trade-off with the Nothing Phone (4b) right now is its price; if it drops a bit, it will certainly become an attractive alternative." Notebookcheck gave the phone 77%.

The (4b) makes sense if you care most about battery life, clean software and long support, and you do not spend much time using your phone in bright sunlight. If you do, or if you need eSIM or more than 128GB of storage, compare it with a discounted Phone (4a) before buying.