Nothing Phone (2) will run a Snapdragon 8-series chipset

The Nothing Phone (2) will run a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series chipset, Nothing CEO Carl Pei confirmed today during an event at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

That means the company’s second phone won’t put anything in competitive high-end Android territory. 8-series chipsets are Qualcomm’s most powerful mobile chips.

Pei took the stage with Qualcomm Chairman Cristiano Amon at the Qualcomm booth at the industry show floor to break the news, with Pei confirming to Inverse earlier in the year that the phone (2) would be “more premium” than Telephone (1).

2022’s Nothing Phone (1) was a mid-range steal at £399 / €469, but used the mid-range Snapdragon 778+ 5G chip to help hit that price point. Qualcomm also provided a customized version with more high-end features supported, such as wireless charging.

We still don’t know the design or other specs of the phone (2), or even what chipset the phone will run specifically. It could be the 8 Gen 2 we saw in the Galaxy S23 Ultra or OnePlus 11, or Nothing could choose to use a slightly older chip such as the 8+ Gen 1.

Realme announced its GT3 phone at MWC with the 8+ Gen 1, bringing the cost down to $649. Nothing could employ a similar tactic.

There’s even an outside chance of it running the rumored next-gen 8+ Gen 2.

While today’s announcement was something, Nothing is clearly using the same incremental release of information to build phone (2) hype as its first phone. As good as the phone is (1), the hype cycle around the device has undoubtedly been long and prolonged. q

Pei was the co-founder of OnePlus but left in 2020 to create Nothing with Akis Evangelidis, also a former OnePlus executive.

Before Nothing released the phone (1), it debuted on the tech scene with the impressive Nothing Ear (1) noise canceling wireless earbuds – but that product recently suffered a price hike from excellent introductory price of $99/£99 at OK-but-not-as-good $149/£99.

After the release of the phone, the brand launched the $99/£99 Open Ear (Stick) design headphones.

The price wobble suggests nothing has any problems getting started as a young company, but Tech Advisor has awarded each of its three products rave reviews, so we have high hopes for the phone (2).

We’ll have a full review of the phone later in the year.