Nothing has confirmed that it’s creating a brand-new budget phone line, and I’m liking the company’s thinking so far.
The London-based brand’s recent social media posts have enabled us to start building a picture of its vision for cheap phones. It’s mixed news, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s on the right track.
First, the bad news. The CMF Phone 3 Pro isn’t just delayed, as reported – it isn’t coming in 2026 at all. Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis took to X last week to announce that “we’ve decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year.”
That’s a shame, as the CMF Phone 2 Pro is our current pick for the best budget phone on the market.
4b or not 4b, that is the question
The phone that will seemingly take the place of the CMF Phone 2 Pro will be the Nothing Phone (4b), which will seemingly slot in below the Phone (4a) as the company’s new most affordable handset.
As Evangelidis points out, this is an attempt to provide clarity with a new naming scheme. “Numbers represent generations, while letters indicate different product segments,” he explains, adding that the aim is to maintain “a clear product hierarchy” that “avoids overusing suffixes and provides a clearer naming structure as the portfolio expands”.
Nothing
I think this makes a certain amount of sense. I always found it slightly odd that Nothing – an upstart tech brand that’s only been around for five years – would seek to set up a sub-brand for even cheaper products before it had established its own name.
Especially so when you consider the impressive quality of many of those early CMF products. Bringing everything under one, more recognisable roof, is a good plan – so long as Nothing can continue with CMF’s unique hardware.
Singular focus
But there’s another aspect of these initial Nothing Phone (4b) glimpses that has me quietly nodding my head in appreciation.
In a post over on Nothing’s India account, we get a peek at a designer sketching out the basic look of the Phone (4b). I have no notes on the design – it’s a relatively basic drawing, and all signs point to a retention of the classic Nothing semi-transparent aesthetic.
What really stands out is the fact that there’s just a single camera sensor. Many will decry this as a negative step, particularly compared to the CMF Phone 2 Pro with its triple camera set-up.
Bringing everything under one, more recognisable roof, is a good plan – so long as Nothing can continue with CMF’s unique hardware
However, I’ve always believed that cheaper phones should just focus on a single decent camera rather than spreading themselves too thin. Over the years, I’ve lost count of the number of sub-£300/$300 phones that have thrown in junky ultra-wide and pointless macro cameras just to tick an arbitrary box.
If a camera isn’t good enough that you actually want to use it, don’t bother including it.
Simple as
True, in opting for a single sensor for the Phone (4b), Nothing is clearly looking to cut costs and compensate for those spiking memory prices that threaten to undermine its affordability.
But so long as that single sensor is of sufficient quality – ideally with enough sharpness and sufficient image processing chops to make cropping into 2x a viable option – I’ll be happy.
I’ve lost count of the number of phones that have thrown in junky ultra-wide and pointless macro cameras just to tick an arbitrary box
The iPhone Air received a lot of criticism, especially for its deployment of a single camera. I can understand those reservations, given its flagship pricing.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
But I think that Apple also highlighted a simple, unacknowledged fact with its super-skinny experiment: most people simply don’t use the secondary cameras on their phones. And when they do zoom in, they don’t really care – or are even aware – that it’s often cropping in on the main sensor, so long as the result is good enough to share with friends/family or on social media.
I think that this applies doubly to people who buy cheaper phones. Good enough is good enough at this end of the market.
I’m disappointed that we’re not going to get a CMF Phone 3 Pro any time soon, but I can’t argue with Nothing’s thinking behind a more streamlined replacement. As always, it’ll all come down to the execution and the pricing, but consider me a cautious convert.
