Nothing's new Phone (4b) has a launch date — July 7 — and a suspicious origin story.
Nothing announced the Phone (4b) via its official X account, sharing concept sketches that reveal little about the actual hardware. Co-founder Akis Evangelidis confirmed the phone sits below the Phone (4a) in the lineup, saying the "B Series expands into a new segment" while the A Series "remains our most premium line below our flagship products." The reveal comes just days after Nothing announced it would release no new CMF phones in 2026, citing a RAM shortage that made it impossible to build a CMF-priced device that felt like a meaningful upgrade.
That timing matters. The canceled CMF Phone 3 Pro was itself a budget device positioned below the A Series — exactly where the Phone (4b) now lands. Nothing's own explanation for killing the CMF line was that component costs made the price point unworkable, not that demand was absent. Rebranding the same hardware under the Nothing label, where buyers expect to pay more, would solve that math problem neatly.
Nothing has not confirmed the Phone (4b) shares any DNA with the scrapped CMF model, and it's possible both phones were in development simultaneously. But a sub-brand that goes quiet the same week a cheaper Nothing phone appears out of nowhere is not a great look for a company that markets itself on transparency.