Fairphone has poked fun at the Nothing Phone (4b)'s visible screws
The company highlighted in an Instagram story that they're just 'for show' rather than being accessible
The Fairphone 6, on the other hand, has visible screws that users can access
The Nothing Phone (4b) was unveiled earlier today, and it sounds like a reasonable budget handset, with a 6.77-inch 120Hz screen, a 5,200mAh battery with 33W charging, a 50MP wide camera, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset paired with 8GB of RAM. But despite having visible screws on the back, it might not be very easy to repair or to replace its components.
We won’t know for sure until someone has done a teardown of the (4b), but Fairphone has shared an Instagram story pointing out that while quite a few screws are visible on the rear of the device, you can’t actually get to them without breaking into the glued-on cover.
The Instagram story — an image of which can be seen below — shows the Fairphone 6, complete with its own visible screws, overlaid with text reading “every screw is functional on Fairphones. Nothing is for show.” Then, at the bottom, directed at the Nothing Phone (4b), it says, “next time, maybe the screws can be… outside?”
A fair criticism
(Image credit: Fairphone)
And it’s a fair point. The Fairphone 6 is a reasonably stylish handset itself, with the visible screws helping it stand out, much like on the Nothing Phone (4b).
But the difference is that the Fairphone’s screws are accessible, making for a modular design where you can easily swap out components, rather than having to replace the whole phone.
So, if you want a handset that’s designed to last, you might want to consider a Fairphone instead of the Nothing Phone (4b) — though Fairphone’s CEO recently teased that two new products are on the way, so you might want to wait for those first, since one of them is likely to be the Fairphone 7.
And, of course, we'll be testing the Nothing Phone (4b) for ourselves in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for our real, experience-backed verdict on that device.
We’re now halfway through the calendar year (yes, really), so what better time to round up our favorite phones of 2026 so far?
I say ‘our favorite phones’, but I really mean ‘my favorite phones’ — I’ve collated five models that may not have perfect TechRadar review scores, but either surprised me in testing or offer something unique in today’s busy smartphone landscape.
The reviews for each model (which I’ve included in each entry) may have been written by someone else, but I’ve personally used all the phones listed below for specific feature deep-dives, video shoots, or general device comparisons. Don’t agree with my list? Let me know your favorite phone(s) of 2026 so far in the comments below.
5. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Release date: March 11
Review rating: 4.5 / 5
(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
Any phone-related ‘best of’ list has to include Samsung’s latest Ultra-branded Galaxy device. This year’s edition is the feature-packed Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and while it’s not the most surprising phone I’ve tested this year (hence its place at number 5), it is the most powerful and versatile of the bunch. It’s an everything phone — an all-you-can-eat buffet of top-end hardware and software.
Chief among the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new software features are Privacy Display and Super Steady Horizontal Lock. The former stops prying eyes from viewing content on your screen, while the latter stabilizes videos even when you turn the phone a full 360 degrees. I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t have either of these features, nor classic Samsung tools like DeX and the S Pen, so the Galaxy S26 Ultra feels like a cut above the current best iPhone when it comes to productivity.
Add in some customarily premium hardware specs, and you’ve got a formidable pocket companion — albeit one that will cost you an arm and a leg to own.
Like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Google Pixel 10a is the definition of ‘iterative upgrade’, but it’s still my go-to recommendation for buyers looking for an affordable Android phone with great cameras. Google’s excellent Android software is just as good on this cheaper device as it is on the premium Google Pixel 10 Pro, and I’d go as far as to say that the 10a is actually the better-looking of the two phones (look at that flush camera!).
Sure, Google’s Tensor G4 chipset is underpowered compared to the midrange competition, and you don’t get any PixelSnap compatibility here, but at $499 / £499 / AU$849, it’s hard to argue against the Pixel 10a’s value for money. Its 6.3-inch Actua display is gorgeous, its two cameras are as good as anything you’ll find for the same price, and its AI-powered software features — from Camera Coach to Call Screen — are genuinely useful. Bravo, Google.
I know what you’re thinking: the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion? Surely this little-known device — which isn’t even available in the US — is not my third-favorite phone of 2026 so far? Well, it is, if only because it surprised me (and our reviewer) so much in testing.
The Edge 70 Fusion costs just £379.99 / AU$499, but it looks like a flagship phone. It’s slim and lightweight for its large size, and boasts a nice textured finish on its rear panel. Its 6.78-inch display can reach 144Hz, and the 7,000mAh battery routinely got me through two days on a single charge. And don’t forget the IP68 and IP69 resistance ratings.
There are, of course, compromises. Motorola’s software continues to be… just OK, while the Edge 70 Fusion specifically is only due to receive three years of major software updates. But for such a low price, these shouldn’t be deal-breakers. The Edge 70 Fusion is my surprise package of 2026 so far, and it deserves more attention than it’s been given.
I recently played around with the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro for an upcoming ‘best midrange phones’ video, and it blew the competition out of the water in terms of value for money.
As much as I love the Google Pixel 10a (as you’ll have read above), for the same price, Nothing’s latest a-series phone adds a 50MP telephoto camera, faster charging, and a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset into the mix. And best of all, the (4a) Pro is a thoroughly unique-looking device.
Nothing swapped the transparent rear panel of its other phones for an industrial, aluminum backplate on the (4a) Pro, making the huge camera module the star of the show. This module also features the gimmicky-but-fun Glyph Matrix introduced on the Nothing Phone 3, which, for me, has drawn as much attention in public places as the iPhone Air this year.
If the Google Pixel 10a is my safe value-for-money Android pick of 2026, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is my exciting value-for-money Android pick.
And now we come to the Oppo Find X9 Ultra — my favorite phone of 2026 so far. This is the first Ultra-branded Oppo phone to ship outside of China (though it’s unfortunately still not available in the US), and it blows the competition out of the water in terms of camera performance.
Specifically, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a 200MP (f/1.5) main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide (f/2) lens, a 200MP 3x telephoto (f/2.2) lens, and a 50MP 10x telephoto (f/3.5) lens, which is the sort of combination we rarely see on even the best camera phones.
Away from camera performance, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, a 6.8-inch OLED display, and an enormous 7,050mAh battery, so it doesn’t leave you wanting for power or endurance.
It’s heavy, it’s thick, and it’s eye-wateringly expensive, but the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is still the most exciting phone of 2026 so far.
I’ve always favored clean, minimal phone homescreens — the fewer icons, the better, with the wallpaper fully visible. This usually means I have to delete a lot of icons and widgets after initial setup, especially with a Samsung Phone and an iPhone to achieve that look. Pixel phones are much less cluttered in comparison, though I still have to tweak some settings a bit to personalize the homescreen fully.
Then, a few months back, I got my hands on the Nothing Phone 4a Pro, and it was love at first sight. Not only does it look great and punch above its weight class with its hardware, but Nothing OS seemed tailor-made for me — it’s now my favourite Android skin.
The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is pretty, but it's got so much more going for it. (Image credit: Future | Nico Arboleda)
I found the monochrome color scheme and minimal interface very appealing, reminding me somewhat of Pixel UI’s stock Android experience but with more character. The home screen widgets follow the same design philosophy, and community-made ones add extra functionality and whimsy I didn’t know I needed.
Clean, distraction-free bliss
My usual homescreen setup features just a single row of my most-used apps at the bottom, with icons set to a monochrome color scheme and maybe one or two widgets.
These settings are readily available on iOS and Pixel UI, and easy to apply, while Samsung’s One UI has a wide range of icon packs to choose from. But where you have to manually opt to have this minimal look, it’s the default on Nothing OS. It’s in no way a groundbreaking innovation, but it’s my favorite part of using the Nothing Phone 4a Pro.
My usual homescreen setup on Nothing OS and Pixel UI. (Image credit: Future | Nico Arboleda)
Nothing OS widgets also set themselves apart from typical Android or iOS widgets — they come in small square tiles (just enough to fit 4 icons in a 2x2 arrangement) that match the icons’ look. Even when I load up the 4a Pro’s homescreen to the brim with widgets and icons, it still looks clean and slick.
Don’t care for the default widgets? No problem. There are plenty of community-made ones you can download from Nothing Playground, a portal for widgets (found under Essential Apps in Settings) and equalizer profiles for audio. These are unique and can show off your personality too. Some of my favorite community-made widgets include a tic-tac-toe game, a functioning piano, and a meter that tracks CPU usage and temperature.
The latest major Nothing OS update introduced simple breathing exercise widgets — one each for Focus, Calm and Relax — with on-screen prompts that tell you when to inhale and exhale while music plays. Again, it’s not revolutionary, but I like being able to tap a widget on the homescreen instead of digging through menus in a dedicated health app.
These little things add up to making a fabulous user experience in my books.
Innovations and experiments
In my opinion, an even more impressive addition in that update is Essential Voice, an AI-powered speech-to-text feature that has produced the most accurate results I’ve seen on a phone so far.
Powered by Gemini 3 Flash, Essential Voice automatically removes filler words and sounds like “um”, “ah” and “basically” — something I tend to do a lot myself — and also auto-formats bullet lists. I tested this feature by dictating my rather long, rambling notes into Google Docs and it produced a neat outline to build the article I was working on.
There’s support for more than 100 languages and regional variants, which I tested by reciting phrases in Spanish, Italian, French and Filipino — the results were clean and accurate. While a similar feature called Rambler is coming to more phones via Android 17, it’s nice to see it already in action on Nothing OS. While I’m not quite ready to forgo keyboards just yet and talk to my phone instead, I still think it’s a fantastic shortcut to typing.
Nothing OS also lets you try experimental features like using the Glyph Matrix (the secondary screen on the 4a Pro’s back) as a progress bar for third-party apps (it only supports Uber, Zomato and Google Calendar for now) and improving Apple AirPods support — well, for an Android phone at least. They’re not the most earth-shattering features, sure, but they’re a promising sign of Nothing’s willingness to try new ideas and let users play around with them.
Nothing OS' experimental features include limited Apple AirPods support. (Image credit: Future | Nico Arboleda)
Admittedly, Nothing OS’s quirky design won’t be for everyone, as some users will prefer more conventionally designed widgets or colorful icons that are easy to identify, but the short 3-year software support window is what’s most disappointing here, especially when Samsung and Google offer 7 years, while Apple is pushing that to 8 years in some cases.
Nevertheless, Nothing’s phones stand out as aesthetically pleasing handsets that punch above their price range, with the software experience as the unheralded star of the show — at least for me. It’s the perfect minimalist experience out of the box, without sacrificing functionality, and it includes some useful extras enhancing the experience.
With Nothing changing its flagship release schedule for 2027, I’m curious to see how Nothing OS will evolve alongside a potentially more powerful phone. Perhaps it will offer more ways to encourage community innovation? Either way, I’m certainly keeping my eyes peeled for what’s next.
Nothing has shown off the design of the Phone (4b)
This includes a dual-lens camera, an LED light bar, and big bezels
Fans aren't sold on it, but would buy the concept phone that Nothing also recently showed off
Following a recent tease, Nothing has now shown off the full design of the Phone (4b), even though the handset won’t be fully detailed until July 7.
From this, we know that the Nothing Phone (4b) has a dual-lens camera with vertically arranged lenses, in a large camera block with a textured finish. It also has an LED light bar similar to the Nothing Phone (4a)’s, while around the front there’s a punch-hole camera and a flat screen with large bezels.
It’s a design that seems fine if a little less unusual or inspired than many Nothing handsets, but it’s one that fans largely aren’t impressed by.
Responses to the teaser on X include “most average Nothing design,” and “very disappointing,” while over on Reddit, comments include “looks bad” and a simple “eww.”
So unless the specs or price make up for the design it seems this might not be a big hit for Nothing, and if — as we’ve previously speculated — this was originally intended as a CMF phone, it’s unlikely it will have too much going for it in the specs department, while the Nothing branding will likely mean a higher price than it would have had as a CMF device.
The phone fans want
But Nothing also recently showed off a handset that fans actually are excited about — sadly though this was just a concept device, which is unlikely to ever see the light of day.
The phone in question appeared in a YouTube video, where Nothing designed a handset with the dream features put forward by the brand’s community. These include a small (sub-6-inch) screen, a pop-up selfie camera, a dual-lens rear camera, a headphone port, and a microSD card slot.
The company did note that to make this a reality it would need to be quite thick, and even then probably couldn’t fit in more than a 3,800mAh silicon-carbon battery, so that’s perhaps part of why the team doesn’t seem interested in making this a real device.
But perhaps it should, as reactions to the video included “I would 100% buy this,” “beautiful,” and “forget Nothing Phone 4. Just make this.”
So it seems that — at least among Nothing’s most vocal fans — there’s real demand for this handset, and little interest in the Phone (4b).
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