A leaked benchmark result suggests Nothing's first smartphone won't be an all-powerful flagship. Instead, the company appears to be going down the route of using a highly capable mid-range chipset instead. 

The result in question was found on Geekbench and indicates that the Nothing phone (1) will be powered by the Snapdragon 778+, not one of the higher-powered 8-series chipsets. 

It's been clear since the beginning that Nothing's primary focus has been on design, and making a phone that looks different to the rest of the phones on the market. With the transparent rear design, it certainly does that. 

From a functionality and spec point of view, it also looks like there's a focus on making a phone that's a solid, practical, effortless everyday device. One that works well with other products, like its own earphones. 

Nothing's not trying to make the fastest, most powerful smartphone with the best Geekbench results. In fact, you could argue that it would be foolish even to attempt it given the investment-to-return ratio. 

Building a very solid, unique phone priced competitively makes a lot more sense. And you generally can't do that if you have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 onboard, not unless you're willing to compromise on other features that are arguably more important to most people (like cameras). 

Time will tell if the approach will succeed. Nothing phone (1) will launch next month.