Nothing Phone 3 Might Let You Down on a Key Feature: Find Out Which!

Expectations for the Nothing Phone 3 to feature a Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC have been dashed.

The unveiling of the Nothing Phone 3 is scheduled for July 1st, and the company has already begun releasing details about their upcoming smartphone. Unfortunately, one of these details might be a letdown. Despite prior hints at a high-end model, the device will not incorporate the best chip currently on the market (excluding Apple).

Carl Pei has confirmed that the Nothing Phone 3 will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 SoC. While this is a high-quality component, it does not match the performance levels of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. For instance, it lacks support for 8K video recording, 4K slow motion at 120 frames per second, and 5G mmWave connectivity. Thus, these features will be absent, unlike in some competing premium smartphones equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite or even the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Exclusion of Snapdragon 8 Elite from Nothing Phone 3

This decision is not particularly surprising. The Nothing Phone 2 featured a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, even though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was available at its launch. To keep costs down, the manufacturer does not always choose the most expensive chip. However, the disappointment stems from Carl Pei’s previous insinuations that there might be a shift in this policy with the new generation. Whether this was a miscommunication on his part or a misunderstanding by the audience, the outcome is the same: some are feeling let down by this choice, particularly as the Nothing Phone 3 might also lose its distinctive Glyph interface.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 includes an eight-core CPU, featuring one Cortex-X4 at 3.2 GHz, three Cortex-A720 at 3 GHz, two Cortex-A720 at 2.8 GHz, and two Cortex-A720 at 2 GHz. It lacks the new Oryon cores developed by Qualcomm, which are present in the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Although the Adreno GPU uses the same architecture as that in the Snapdragon 8 Elite, its performance is somewhat inferior. For AI, it boasts an NPU that is 44% faster than the one in the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.