Qualcomm Exec accidentally confirms Nothing Phone 2 will feature Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip

This revelation directly contradicts the latest rumors that the Nothing Phone (2) may have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and thus fueling the speculation that the phone will be a true flagship, rather than the mid-range phone that the Nothing Phone (1) is. It also didn't help that Carl Pei himself was purposely vague in his announcement of the Phone (2), not quite saying the word "flagship" outright, but hinting that it will have superior specs to the first iteration.

To add fuel to the fire, during the now concluded MWC 2023 event, Nothing confirmed that the Phone (2) will indeed have a Snapdragon 8 series chip inside, but didn't specify which generation. However, it didn't take long for someone to spill the beans.

Qualcomm's SVP and GM of Mobile, Compute, and XR business unit, Alex Katouzian, took to LinkedIn to congratulate Carl Pei and his team on the upcoming release of the Phone (2) and their partnership. The post has since then been edited to remove the key info it divulged, that the processor will be the Gen 1 and not the Gen 2. Before it was edited, a screenshot of the post was promptly taken and shared by 91Mobiles as seen below:

The news has caused both glee and disappointment as the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is a very powerful chip when compared to the 778G+ processor that currently powers the Nothing Phone (1), but will also not be the latest and greatest the company has to offer. The fact remains that if the Nothing Phone is to remain a cost-effective option for smartphone users that are not looking to spend upwards of one thousand dollars on a phone, it has to cut corners somehow. If having this more powerful, yet not "the" most powerful chipset, on the device gets the price down to mid-range levels, then that is a compromise we may need to live with.