Nothing is teasing its next budget phone just days after confirming the CMF Phone 2 Pro successor was scrapped. The company shared a design sketch of the upcoming device today, and while the transparent aesthetic is immediately recognizable, the camera setup signals a more aggressive round of cost-cutting than we had hoped for.
The teaser, shared on X, shows the lines and transparent back panel that Nothing has built its identity around. But what stands out isn’t the design; it’s what’s missing from it.
Nothing Phone (4b) tipped with a single rear camera
The sketch confirms a single rear camera, something no Nothing phone has shipped with before. The name appears to be settled, too.
Nothing confirmed the “4b” suffix in the video itself, hinting that the Nothing Phone (4b) could be the official name. However, it raises an obvious question: why launch an entry-level device under the Nothing name rather than CMF, the sub-brand the company created specifically for affordable phones?
Nothing hasn’t addressed this directly, but every leak so far points to Nothing Phone (4b), so that’s the name we’re using until the company says otherwise.
Pricing will be an interesting story to watch. Nothing’s cheapest current phone, the Phone (3a) Lite, launched at Rs 20,999 before quietly climbing to Rs 25,000 after the memory crisis.
CMF products have seen similar increases. Co-founder Carl Pei said recently that “memory is now the most expensive component in a smartphone,” and with costs having doubled twice over since the Phone 4A was greenlit, “affordable” increasingly means affordable relative to Nothing’s own lineup, not the broader budget market.
Beyond the camera, expect further hardware compromises. Nothing hasn’t confirmed what else gets trimmed, but a single-sensor setup rarely travels alone.
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