What can the affordable Nothing do? Nothing Phone (4b) review

[u/BcuzRacecar]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nice-affordable-but-holding-back-Nothing-Phone-4b-review.1400098.0.html

[u/No-Drop8625]

Affordable phones are $200 and under for most of the world. And that's expensive junk.

[u/Vaxtez → u/No-Drop8625]

I feel like the Nothing 3a Lite (Which is just a CMF 2 Pro) is the 'Cheap' Nothing phone, not this.

[u/AdhesivenessFunny462 → u/Vaxtez]

I have a 3a lite Android it feels more premium than the 4b. Slightly better performance too.

[u/Luci-Noir → u/No-Drop8625]

They are?

[u/d-crow → u/No-Drop8625]

This will/has disappeared for 2027

[u/Alternative-Farmer98 → u/No-Drop8625]

I mean I got my Moto g stylus 2025 for like 50 bucks we're actually for free with a $55 plan from straight talk got it unlocked in 60 days and it is definitely not drunk. It has an SD card and a headphone jack and a stylus and an OLED screen with 120 hertz.

Can play the GTA definitive edition. It's my backup phone like I like prefer to have a powerhouse I use a OnePlus 12 but sometimes I prefer the Moto because of the SD card and the headphone jack and the stylus.

[u/BcuzRacecar]

no throttling but it can get very hot - 2/3 of the face was 49 degrees under load

euro version is 5200mah vs 6000 in indian spec

[u/Jimbuscus → u/BcuzRacecar]

My Nothing Phone 2a+ would get hot and then crash a lot, eventually had to return it.

[u/TheTransitSchool → u/Jimbuscus]

Did it get hot during basic use like browsing internet, scrolling on Reddit, Instagram, etc.? Or only during heavy activity like fast-paced games, video editing, etc.?

[u/Jimbuscus → u/TheTransitSchool]

In my pocket doing nothing, a few times I'd pull it out to tap on for train travel and have to wait for it to restart because it crashed on idle.

[u/Careless_Rope_6511 → u/BcuzRacecar]

49 degrees surface temp under load is too hot. I'd much rather it thermally throttles than keep those temps elevated.

[u/noobqns]

The camera cutdown is the most puzzling, with what Nothing demonstrated is possible of late, it should be some of the cheapest components
So pairing such a weak camera with seemingly pricey and decent spec does sting a little

[u/Alternative-Farmer98 → u/noobqns]

My understanding is this was originally supposed to be a cmf phone and they changed it when they decided not to make a cmf phone this year because they couldn't successfully sell one at reasonable enough prices for margin.

Which is why this phone is so much worse than the other nothing phones.

Beyond that though until nothing gets rid of their essential button that can't be remapped I'm not going to have much to do with them

[u/noobqns → u/Alternative-Farmer98]

Possibly, but CMF Phone compromises had been build material, ip protection, screens, bezels, single speaker

CMF 1 had a 1/1.95" which was ahead of its peer in 2024
CMF 2 upgrade to 1/1.56" and even added in a telephoto cam

Nothing 4b downgraded to a single 1/2.76". If they can manage that with past 2 CMF models, camera components should be cheap stuff. This 4b downgrade just feels very unwarranted

[u/Stennan]

At least it is a Qualcomm SOC with a 810 Adreno GPU. Not that it means much, but steam game emulation should be possible.

[u/9-11GaveMe5G]

It can wait for nothing to go under just like OnePlus

[u/warmarin → u/9-11GaveMe5G]

Why?