Nothing Phone (4b) reviews have started arriving after its market debut, plus UK's Trusted Reviews handed this phone 4 stars after a week of hands-on use, alongside a "Recommended" badge. Their verdict in one line: a capable budget phone with clean software, eye-catching design plus superb battery life, though slightly behind rivals in power plus screen brightness. Let's see its details.

Let's grab context first. This year Nothing surprised everyone by announcing no successor was coming for its popular CMF Phone 2 Pro. In its place came this Phone (4b) under its main brand name, actually a trimmed-down affordable version of Phone (4a). Priced at £299 or $399, meaning nearly £100 above that older CMF phone, plus facing rivals like Motorola Moto G86 5G plus Poco X8 Pro.

On design territory this review's tone runs quite warm. Though its body is polycarbonate, it feels comfortable in hand, sturdy, no creaking when corners get pressed. Three colors: black, white plus blue. At back sits a downsized Glyph Bar borrowed from Phone (4a), which handles everything from lighting up for specific people's notifications to showing charging progress, counting camera timers, even pulsing red for severe weather alerts. Protection holds an IP64 rating, better than CMF Phone 2 Pro's IP54, though behind Moto G86's IP68/69. No charger sits in its box, though a cable plus a clear silicone case come along.

Its screen is a big gain at this price: a 6.77-inch Super AMOLED, 120Hz, deep blacks plus good contrast. But right here comes this review's first big complaint, brightness. A typical peak of 1,200 nits plus 2,000 nits in HDR, dimmer than many rivals at identical pricing. Fine under sun, though never dazzling.

Its camera holds a 50 megapixel main sensor with OIS plus an 8 megapixel ultrawide. This review stays satisfied with its main camera's photos: natural colors, good detail. But they called ultrawide images "serviceable" at best, plus with no telephoto, zooming past 2x makes image quality tumble fast. Its 16 megapixel selfie camera works fine, video caps at 4K/30fps.

Performance math runs mixed. With Snapdragon 6 Gen 4, 8GB of RAM plus 128GB of storage, daily use, social media, streaming all move smoothly. Geekbench 6 scores hit 1,090 (single) plus 3,177 (multi), far ahead of Redmi Note 15 4G. But here's a fun fact, last year's Phone (3a) ran faster than this too. Light games play well with lowered settings, though heavy 3D games bring painful results. Under sustained pressure this phone warms somewhat, though its vapor chamber manages it.

Nothing's real magic lives in software. Nothing OS 4.1 based on Android 16 stays completely bloatware-free, alongside a hidden Private Space vault plus freeform window resizing. Pressing its Essential Key opens Essential Space, where AI organizes screenshots, recordings plus notes into summaries, reminders plus to-do lists. AI's run ends right there though, no photo editing features exist. Update promises cover 3 years of Android plus 6 years of security.

What about battery? Right here this phone earned its review's biggest praise. Its 5,200 mAh battery delivered nearly 8 hours of screen-on time even through heavy days, plus PCMark testing at 50 percent brightness brought results near 17.5 hours, which this review called "fantastic". Its weakness lives in charging: a full charge at 33 watts takes 100 minutes, no wireless charging exists.

So who should buy it? By this review's math, anyone wanting Nothing's distinctive design plus clean software at an affordable price finds their cheapest door right here. Anyone placing bright screens or raw power first has Moto G86 5G at £20 less, though its software stays stuffed with bloatware. At day's end this equation comes down to taste: looks plus experience, or paper specs.