Nothing has officially revealed the design of its upcoming budget phone, the Phone 4b, which is the first entry in a new series aimed at making the brand’s smartphone experience accessible to a wider audience. The company shared an official image showing the device in a blue colorway and confirmed it will launch on July 7.
A mashup of two existing designs
The Phone 4b combines the unibody design of the Phone 4a Pro with the Glyph Bar light strip from the standard Phone 4a. Nothing describes the result as a more focused, youthful take on its transparent design language.
However, unlike the Phone 4a, which has a transparent back panel with internal elements visible throughout, the Phone 4b more closely resembles the Pro model with internals visible only in the camera island, while the rest of the back stays solid. The company says the device’s frame blends smoothly into the rear housing, and it features a soft, skin-friendly finish that’s meant to feel comfortable during extended use.
Specs are still under wraps
Nothing has not shared processor, camera, or battery specs for the Phone 4b, but it’s likely to reveal more information in the days leading up to the July 7 launch. The reveal follows a teaser shared last week that hinted at the device’s name and offered a glimpse of its design.
The Phone 4b arrives shortly after Nothing scrapped plans for a CMF Phone 2 Pro successor over rising storage and RAM prices. With the Phone 4b now confirmed, it appears that the lower cost device is making its way to market under the main Nothing brand instead of CMF’s.
Nothing has yet to share pricing or availability details, so it remains unclear how the Phone 4b will be positioned against the rest of the company’s lineup. But the ‘b’ in its name suggests it may slot in below the Phone 4a duo as a more affordable option.
Running a manufacturing business is a constant balancing act between the workshop floor and the balance sheet. Right now, that balance is under real pressure.
The current surge in fuel prices is flowing straight through jobs — via fuel surcharges, higher freight, and rising costs for materials like concrete, plastics, copper, and piping. Costs aren’t rising in isolation; they’re compounding across every job.
It’s this kind of pressure that can expose hard truths about profitability for small businesses, similar to what one growing Australian fabrication business found when examining their balance sheet more closely. Despite strong demand and a consistently full workshop, profitability wasn’t keeping pace with revenue. Hidden margin leaks across labour and materials were quietly eroding results.
By connecting operational job costing with financial reporting using Gojee, Xero, and Syft, the business gained the real-time visibility it needed to stop the leaks and recover more than $165,000 in annual margin.
The challenge: Visibility beyond the spreadsheet
The business relied on Xero for its accounting, but like many manufacturers, its operational job costing was tracked separately in spreadsheets and workshop records.
This created a significant data disconnect. Leadership could see their overall financial results, but they couldn’t clearly identify which specific jobs were driving profit and which were costing the business money.
When CFO advisor Amanda Fisher stepped in to assist the finance team, she used Syft to analyse Xero data and uncovered a startling insight. The business had a target gross margin of 32%, but was actually achieving only 29.7%. That gap represented nearly $180,000 in lost profit every year.
“As a CFO, the key to decision-making is real-time data. Syft is perfect for visuals that help business owners understand the big picture. But in manufacturing, the devil is in the detail. That’s where Gojee helps uncover hidden margin leaks and bridge the gap between the factory floor and finance.”
– Amanda Fisher, Xero accountant & CFO advisor
The solution: A connected tech stack
To bridge the gap, Amanda introduced Gojee to manage job costing and workflows directly alongside Xero. This created a seamless flow of data:
Gojee captures real-time labour hours and material purchases on the factory floor.
Xero handles the financial transactions, bills, and invoicing.
Syft translates that data into visual dashboards for margin analysis and trend tracking.
What the data revealed
Once the business had real-time visibility, three common profit leaks emerged:
Labour rework: One project quoted for 720 hours actually took 845 hours, reducing the margin by over $10,000. Annually, labour overruns cost the business approximately $95,625.
Materials price variance: Quoting based on estimated costs rather than confirmed supplier invoices led to $66,000 in annual margin erosion.
Low-margin jobs: Analysis showed that smaller, complex custom projects often disrupted workshop productivity. One $75,000 project achieved only an 18% margin, far below the 30% expectation.
The results: From reactive to proactive
Armed with these insights, the company adjusted its quoting strategy and began prioritising higher-margin work. Within 12 months, the results were transformative:
Metric
Before
After
Gross margin
29.7%
31.8%
Annual profit
—
$165K+ recovered
Today, the business doesn’t just work harder; it works smarter. The machines and the team haven’t changed, but the visibility has. By moving from reactive reporting to proactive decision-making, they have turned a busy workshop into a highly profitable one.
Explore apps in the Xero App Store to see how Xero + connected apps help to uncover hidden profits in your business:
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