According to the CEO, Nothing Phone 2 should have a premium chip on board and be released this year
With the first generation of smartphones, Nothing caused quite a stir because, among other things, it stood out from the crowd with its micro-LED back in terms of design. All in all, the Phone 1 (test) presented in summer 2022 could be classified as a chic and solidly equipped mid-range smartphone. For the next generation, the manufacturer plans to up the ante, as co-founder Carl Pei confirmed again during the course of the MWC 2023 in Barcelona.
In an interview with US magazine Inverse Nothing co-founder Carl Pei declared at the end of January that the next smartphone should be “more premium” than the first generation and that there would be a stronger focus on the software.
He did not want to reveal any specific details about the equipment or the design, and he also avoided the question of whether it would receive a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This is currently the most powerful smartphone SoC (system-on-a-chip) from Qualcomm.
Carl Pei at the Qualcomm booth with CEO Cristiano Amon. (Photo: t3n)
During the Mobile Word Congress 2023, Pei took the opportunity at the Qualcomm booth to give an update on the plans for the Phone 2. In front of the press, he explained that the next generation of smartphones will be equipped with a chip from the Snapdragon 8 series. However, he did not explain whether it will be the current processor or the predecessor Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from 2022.
The Phone 1 was launched with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778 Plus, which can be categorized as a high-performance SoC, but is not quite in the upper class. Even a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 would be an upgrade in terms of performance, but not as pricey as the current Gen 2 model. We will only find out in the coming months which chip Nothing will ultimately be installed.
As far as the other hardware is concerned, there should be no question that Nothing uses its rear Glyph interface on the Phone 2 again. Inverse speculates that Nothing could open the relevant interfaces to third-party developers in the next model (and certainly also for the Phone 1) as well as in the next software version.
Nothing Phone 1: The back with the glyph interface is an eye-catcher. (Photo: t3n)
When it comes to software, Nothing has bigger plans. With a rapidly growing development team – the company had five developers when the Phone 1 was launched, now there are 100 according to Pei – Nothing wants to deliver a “really fast and smooth experience based on Android”.
Oneplus also used a very similar choice of words for its Android version OxygenOS. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Pei is known to be one of the co-founders of the smartphone manufacturer that now belongs to Oppo.
At the start of the first Nothing smartphone, the software was still a small construction site, which the manufacturer continued to reduce with numerous updates. Meanwhile, the final update to Android 13 is still a long way off. Nothing currently offers a beta version; the final update is scheduled to appear early this year.
It will still be a few months before the launch of the Phone 2 later this year. The Nothing boss has not yet revealed a specific time window, but it is quite possible that it could appear as early as the summer, like the first generation.
