Nothing says the Phone 2a is more powerful, lasts longer than Phone 1

Nothing revealed chipset details regarding the upcoming Nothing Phone 2a yesterday, confirming a Dimensity 7200 Pro SoC. The company also claimed that the new handset will be more powerful and efficient than the Nothing Phone 1.

Now, company co-founder Carl Pei has elaborated on these claims in an interview with Digital Trends.

“The Phone 2a is a clear upgrade from Phone 1, particularly in terms of performance. Phone 2a is 18% more powerful than Phone 1 and 16% more efficient in terms of battery consumption compared to Phone 1,” the executive asserted.

The comparisons suggest that Nothing wants Phone 1 owners to upgrade to the Phone 2a. But Pei didn’t clarify whether the Phone 2a would replace the Phone 1 in its portfolio.

What makes the Nothing Phone 2a better?

This disparity isn’t a surprise as the Nothing Phone 1’s Snapdragon 778G Plus chipset was a mid-range chipset back then. It’s been almost two years since the Phone 1 was launched, so that processor will have undoubtedly been surpassed by other mid-range chips.

The Snapdragon 778G Plus has a 6nm design compared to the Dimensity 7200 Pro’s smaller, more efficient 4nm process. So that partly accounts for the battery life claims.

The MediaTek chip also brings a more modern CPU, featuring two heavy Cortex-A715 cores and six little Cortex-A510 cores. In saying so, the older Snapdragon chip has four heavy CPU cores and four little cores. So we’re curious to see how the Nothing Phone 2a fares against the Phone 1 when it comes to multi-core workloads. It does, however, stand to reason that more little cores will result in a more power-efficient processor.

Nothing will launch the Phone 2a on March 5. So we’ll be sure to put the phone through its paces to see if it indeed eclipses the original handset as far as performance and battery life are concerned.