Nothing Phone (1): Carl Pei announces invite-only order system as Geekbench listing confirms use of last-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset

The launch of the Nothing Phone (1) is around the corner, with the company's first smartphone set to land on July 12. In the meantime, Carl Pei has confirmed that Nothing will borrow from OnePlus' playbook for the Phone (1). Already available via auction on StockX, Pei has since stated that the Phone (1) will only be available through an invite system, mirroring a move that OnePlus elected for with its first smartphone. According to the founder, it did not want the release of the Phone (1) to go the way of the Ear (1), which the company struggled to make enough of initially.

Supposedly, Nothing's small market position left it with the choices of stock piling millions of devices or selling Phone (1) handsets as they are produced. Setting aside the hyperbole, it seems that Geekbench has outlined some of the device's specifications, which Nothing continues to withhold from its fans. As the screenshot below shows, the 'Nothing A063' features 8 GB of RAM, plus an ARMv8-based SoC codenamed 'lahaina'. Also, the listing shows that the SoC has a prime core clocked at 2.52 GHz, with three cores pegged to 2.4 GHz and a further four running at 1.8 GHz. Hence, the Nothing Phone (1) relies on the Snapdragon 778G+, not the newer Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 as had been rumoured previously.

For reference, the Snapdragon 778G+ contains four ARM Cortex-A78 CPU cores, four Cortex-A55 CPU cores and an Adreno 642L GPU based on a 6 nm manufacturing process. Incidentally, the inclusion of the Snapdragon 778G+ will put the Nothing Phone (1) on par with the Motorola Edge 30 and only marginally ahead of Snapdragon 778G-powered devices like the Honor 60 and Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE. Allegedly, Nothing has equipped the Phone (1) with a 120 Hz AMOLED display as well, matching the Honor 60 and falling 24 Hz short of the 144 Hz panel that the Edge 30 features. Although Nothing continues to tease the Phone (1) on social media, it has allowed MKBHD to reveal the device's full design, covered earlier this week.

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