New leaks suggest Nothing’s next big phone might not be as premium as some hoped. According to tipster Yogesh Brar, the upcoming Nothing Phone 3 will ship with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, a capable processor, but a step down from the top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Elite.
Nothing Phone 3 powered by Snapdragon 8s Gen 4..
— Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) June 17, 2025
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While the 8s Gen 4 brings modern performance with a unique all-big-core CPU layout (one Cortex-X4 at 3.2GHz and multiple Cortex-A720s), it lacks Qualcomm’s powerful Oryon cores and some of the extra firepower you’d expect from a full flagship chip. The GPU also uses a “sliced” architecture with two slices instead of the Elite’s three, which will likely limit graphical performance in demanding games and applications.
There’s still plenty to like though. The chipset supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and XPAN — a new standard that lets supported headphones stream over Wi-Fi for better range and quality. The Nothing Headphone 1, launching alongside the Phone 3 on July 1, is expected to support this.
However, the compromises are clear. No 8K video recording, no 4K/120fps slow-motion, and no mmWave 5G support. These features may not matter to everyone, but their absence makes it clear that the Phone 3 won’t go head-to-head with the best of Samsung, OnePlus, or Google Pixel in pure specs.
In short — it looks like Nothing is aiming for the “near-flagship” sweet spot: high-end where it matters for most users, while trimming the unnecessary extremes to keep pricing competitive. Given Nothing’s track record of solid design and clean software, it could still be one of 2024’s most interesting Android phones, even if it’s not the absolute fastest.
