Carl Pei’s Nothing managed to create quite a bit of hype for the Nothing Phone 1 before its release. The buzz died soon after launch, but the phone’s unique rear design meant it found plenty of takers worldwide. That was last year, though. The young company is now focusing on the launch of the Nothing Phone 2 and creating hype for it despite its launch being a few months away. At MWC 2023, Nothing announced a flagship Qualcomm chipset would power the Phone 2, leading to speculations that it could be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. But that’s seemingly not going to be the case.
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In a LinkedIn post, Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm’s SVP and GM of Mobile, Compute, and XR business unit, accidentally revealed that Nothing Phone 2 would use the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC (via 91Mobiles). He has since edited the post to remove any mentions of the chipset.
While not the latest and greatest, this Qualcomm chip still powers many of our favorite Android phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4. Like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it is based on TSMC’s 4nm node, which is a key reason behind its stellar efficiency.
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Despite not being the most powerful chipset in the market, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 should bring a big leap in performance over the Phone 1’s Snapdragon 778G+ SoC. The faster chip should also bode well for the Phone 2’s imaging capabilities and allow the company to offer a lot more features.
The use of a more powerful Snapdragon 8 series chip reconfirms what Nothing’s CEO Carl Pei had previously revealed: the Phone 2 will be more premium than the company’s first smartphone. And that premium-ness will likely translate into a higher price tag. But since Nothing has not gone all out by using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it is likely targeting a sub-flagship level price tag for its next phone.
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There’s no confirmed timeline for the Nothing Phone 2’s launch yet, but it should debut in Q3 this year. Before that, though, the Carl Pei-owned company is gearing up to announce the Nothing Ear 2 later this month.
