Nothing Phone 2 processor revealed: A big step up from Phone 1

Nothing confirmed back at MWC 2023 that the upcoming Nothing Phone 1 would be powered by a Snapdragon 8 series processor. Now, company founder Carl Pei has dished out specific details.

Pei tweeted that the Nothing Phone 2 would be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC. This processor featured in plenty of flagship phones in the second half of 2022. So why did the company choose this particular SoC? Pei outlined several reasons.

Why the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 for Nothing Phone 2?

For one, the Nothing founder says the processor delivered a major (albeit unsurprising) power boost over the Nothing Phone 1’s Snapdragon 778G Plus chipset. More specifically, Pei says app opening speeds were twice as fast while overall performance saw an 80% improvement. We noticed this performance gap in our own testing, with a massive gap between the Nothing Phone 1 and Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 phones when it came to GPU tests.

Pei also cited camera capabilities as a reason to choose this processor, saying that this enabled Nothing Phone 2 features like RAW HDR and 4K/60fps support. He also pointed to the TSMC 4nm design, enabling improved power consumption and reduced heating.

Why didn’t we see the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor inside this phone, though? “Sometimes the latest technology comes at a cost which isn’t always justified from a user benefit standpoint,” Pei tweeted, suggesting that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was too expensive for what users would get. So opting for the latest flagship processor would presumably lead to a higher Phone 2 price tag or a reduced profit margin.

We’ve also seen the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 processor land in recent months, effectively being a downgraded version of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. But Pei claims that Nothing chose the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 over the Snapdragon 700 series in general due to “significant improvements” in areas such as battery life, connectivity, camera capabilities, and more.

This isn’t the first time we’ve received confirmation of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 inside the Nothing Phone 2, as a Qualcomm executive accidentally confirmed this info back in March. Nevertheless, the processor is still a powerful, feature-packed proposition in 2023. So you shouldn’t have any major performance issues when the Phone 2 launches later this year.