The Nothing Phone 4b has launched in India, making it the first phone from the London-based tech giant in the 'b' series. It comes with the brand's usual visual flourish, a clear back panel, an upgraded Glyph Bar and a design language that instantly sets it apart on a store shelf. But the Rs. 34,999 to Rs. 38,699 price band it occupies happens to be one of the most fiercely contested segments in the Indian smartphone market. The question worth asking is whether striking design alone is enough to win over buyers who have several strong, spec heavy alternatives at similar or even lower prices.
What does the Nothing Phone 4b bring to the table?
The Nothing Phone 4b runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset with up to 8GB of RAM, paired with a 6.77-inch AMOLED display at 120Hz. Its standout feature is a 6,000mAh battery, the largest Nothing has fitted into a phone, with 33W wired charging. The camera setup includes a 50-megapixel main sensor with optical image stabilisation and an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens. Nothing backs the device with three years of OS updates and six years of security patches, and wraps all of it inside a design built around the Glyph Bar and a bend resistant unibody with IP64 protection.
Nothing Phone 4b faces intense competition from OnePlus Nord 5 and Redmi Turbo 5
The OnePlus Nord 5 is currently priced at Rs. 33,999 in India, undercutting the Phone 4b while offering a noticeably more powerful chipset. It runs on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, the first Nord phone to get a Snapdragon 8 series processor, paired with a 144Hz 1.5K AMOLED display and peak brightness touching 1,800 nits. Battery capacity is also higher at 6,800mAh, and the phone uses a 50 megapixel Sony sensor with optical image stabilisation for its primary camera. On raw performance and display specifications, the Nord 5 has a clear edge over the Phone 4b at a lower price point.
The Redmi Turbo 5 is priced at Rs. 37,999 for the 8GB and 256GB variant, with a 12GB option at Rs. 40,999, placing it slightly above the Phone 4b. In exchange, buyers get the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra chipset, built on a 4 nanometre process, which Xiaomi claims crosses 2 million points on AnTuTu, positioning it as one of the strongest performers in this price bracket. The Turbo 5 also packs a larger 7,540mAh battery with 100W fast charging, a 6.59 inch 1.5K AMOLED display with up to 3,500 nits peak brightness, and IP69K rated dust and water resistance, a tougher rating than the Phone 4b's IP64. Its camera setup similarly uses a 50-megapixel Sony sensor with optical image stabilisation alongside an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens.
Is the Nothing Phone 4b worth it?
Set side by side on paper, the pattern is fairly clear. Both the OnePlus Nord 5 and the Redmi Turbo 5 offer stronger chipsets, bigger batteries or faster charging, and comparably capable cameras, in some cases at a lower price than the Nothing Phone 4b. What the Nothing Phone 4b offers instead is a design identity that neither rival attempts to replicate, along with Nothing's software ecosystem and Glyph based notification system. For buyers who prioritise benchmark performance, display sharpness or charging speed, the OnePlus Nord 5 and Redmi Turbo 5 currently make a stronger numbers based case.
For buyers who value standing out visually and want a phone that does not look like everything else in the segment, the Nothing Phone 4b remains the more distinctive option. Whether that trade-off works in Nothing's favour will likely come down to how much Indian buyers in this bracket are willing to pay for design over pure specification sheets.
