OnePlus Nord full detailed review

The OnePlus Nord is an important moment for OnePlus.


OnePlus Nord


48MP+8MP+5MP+2MP quad rear camera with 1080P Video at 30/60 fps, 4k 30fps | 32MP+8MP front dual camera with 4K video capture at 30/60 fps and 1080 video capture at 30/60 fps.


6.44-inch 90Hz fluid Amoled display with 2400 x 1080 pixels resolution | 408ppi.


Memory, Storage & SIM: 12GB RAM | 256GB internal memory | OnePlus Nord currently support dual 4G SIM Cards or a Single 5G SIM. 5G+4G support will be available via OTA update at a future date.


OxygenOS based on Android 10 operating system with 2.4GHz Kryo 475 Prime + 2.2GHz Kryo 475 Gold + 6x1.8GHz Kryo 475 Silver Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G 5G mobile platform octa core processor, Adreno 620 GPU.


4115mAH lithium-ion battery | In-Display fingerprint sensor


1 year manufacturer warranty for device and 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories including batteries from the date of purchase.


Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | 12GB GB LPDDR4X, 256GB UFS 2.1.


For years OnePlus has basically stuck to flagships. Now a days it likes to do them two at a time but they're both designed to sit more or less at the top of the market. Now it's expanding with the Nord, its first serious attempt at a mid-range phone in years. Launching a mid-range phone means making some tough decisions about what the OnePlus name means to people.

 It still must have those features that folks buy OnePlus phones for within the first place but it also must make some compromises. Not simply because it must make it cheap but also in order that once it's cheaper it doesn't find yourself so good that folks choose it over your flagship phones. It must draw a line between OnePlus features and flagship OnePlus features.

It's a balancing act where if you get the balance slightly wrong you couldend up with an equivalent quite flagship killer that OnePlus liked to call its phones back in the day. Only now OnePlus has flagship phones of its own that risk getting caught within the crossfire. So what does a mid-range OnePlus phone look like? Which flagship features does one get to stay and which does one lose? So this is it, the OnePlus Nord.

 The model I've been using has 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage and costs 469 pounds or 499 euros. But there's also a step down model with eight gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage which costs 379 pounds or 399 euros. So it's a mid-range phone sitting in a similarish sort of price category to this year's entry level, 419 pound iPhone SE or the 429 pound Galaxy A51 5G. Both models are releasing in India but OnePlus is only planning a limited beta launch in the US for now. 

At either price you're getting what is on paper quite a well specced device. There's a 6.4, four inch OLED display with a 1080p resolution and a 90 Hertz refresh rate, a quad rear camera array based round the same 48 megapixel sensor that OnePlus used for the 8, dual selfie cameras, including one with an ultrawide lens, and you're getting support for sub six giga hertz 5G. Now the trade-off, on paperat least, is that the Nord is powered by a Snapdragon 765Gprocessor which isn't quite as fast as the flagship processors OnePlus used in the 8 and the 8 Pro.

But specs can't tell you ways premium a tool feels to carry . And the OnePlus Nord's design is one among the more obvious indicators of it's lower cost point. That said, I still really like it. I like the simplicity,there's no messing around with screens that curve round the edges of the device. Instead you're gonna get a flat screen with a smallish hole-punched notch for the Nord's dual selfie cameras and what I'd call reasonably small set of bevels around the edge of the screen.

Generally the whole design does feel less premium than the 8 but not in a way that feels cheap, it's just more utilitarian. Battery life is also good. Now I'll admit that it's still quite hard to gauge this given the amount of time I'm spending at home right now and I'll also caveat this by saying that I was connected to 4G rather than 5G networks. But I was getting between 8 and 10 hours of screen time between charges from the Nord's 4,115 million power battery.

 And that includes everything,from watching copious amounts of YouTube to keeping in contact with friends and colleagues over Slack and WhatsApp, taking photos and of course browsing plenty of Twitter. There's no wireless charging but there is support for OnePlus' Warp Charge 30Tstandard which the company says should get you about 70% of your charge back in half an hour. So good battery life doesn't seem to be exclusive to OnePlus flagships, it's more of a universal OnePlus feature. Now we already know you are not getting precisely the same display on this as you probably did on the 8, it doesn't have that very same curve for instance . 

It's also a little bit smaller at 6.44 inches compared to 6.55 inches with the 8. But honestly if you hold them next to every other you barely notice the difference. So it is a very similar screen which suggests it's pretty great. It's OLED so blacks are lovely and deep, colors are vibrant, it's still 1080p and hey, it's also got that 90 Hertz refresh rate display. Now I've said it before and I'll say it again but high refresh rate displays need to become the new standard. But there is a caveat and that's that the slightly less powerful processor on the Nord means that it doesn't feel exactly as smooth as the 8.

 I mean it's fine if you'rescrolling through something simple like the app drawer but scroll through Twitter with its numerous videos and images and it does start tostutter, if only a little. It's a little bit hard to show like this but trust me when I say it is there. It's still better than a 60 Hertz display but it just doesn't feel as smooth as what we have seen from flagship phones with 90 Hertz displays. It's a suitable trade off for the worth but it is also something that's worth bearing in mind. Oh, and by the by, Ifound it hard to fault the in-display fingerprint sensor.

It works basically everytime and i have barely had to believe it. So a high-end display seems to be a OnePlus staple and not something that's exclusive to its flagships, albeit you are not getting precisely the same performance. Audio isn't a robust suit of the Nord. there is a single downward firing speaker here which suggests that there is no stereo and while it gets plenty loud enough there's just not that much base there. So i assume good speakersare a flagship exclusive.

 Thus far we've been trying to figure out what features OnePlus thinks all of its phones got to have and which it wants to stay for its flagships. But cameras are a touch trickier to categorize here because they've never been one among OnePlus' core strengths. they have been good, but never best in school . Now the great news is that the Nord's cameras are during a very similar ballpark to the OnePlus 8 and therefore the better news is there's a minimum of one feature here that's exclusive to the Nord. 

Now the Nord features a lot of cameras. I mean on the rear there's four. there is a 48 megapixel main camera, an eight megapixel ultra wide angle camera, a two megapixel macro camera and a five megapixel depth sensor. And on the front, there's two. there is a main 32 megapixel camera and an eight megapixel ultra wide with a 105 degree field of view, a neat little exclusive for the Nord.

 Now that's tons of hardware. So here's what OnePlus actually does with it. In daylight i feel you get very similar quality photos to the 8 with the Nord. Sometimes the OnePlus Nord decides to feature a touch bit more saturation to photos than the 8 does but most of the time you'll barely tell the difference. it is the same when it involves faces. There's more of a difference when it involves wide angle shots though where you actually miss the additional resolution on the 8's ultra wide camera.

The Nord seems to overcompensate with a touch an excessive amount of image processing sometimes. But, it's probably acceptable at this price and I'd rather it wast here than not in the least . it is the same affect the wide angle selfie camera. Sure, it's images are a touch softer than the most 32 megapixelsensor and therefore the selfie camera generally seems to form my face a touch weird and bright looking but it's super useful for group selfies or i assume couple selfies if you're socially distancing. Whatever, I like it. While we're talking extra cameras let's run down the opposite two that are on the rear of this device. there is a macro camera and therefore the camera for sensing depth. Both are quite a assortment .

 I mean take the macro camera,it's certainly managed to specialise in this amoeba that yes, I know, I always use to check macro cameras but tryas i'd my shots ended up looking muddy and blurry. Same with these flowers. it isn't something I'd ever prefer to use. It quite nice shot overall but once you notice the hair you cannot un-see it. And speaking of low lightshots, well, if you watched my review of the 8pro then you almost certainly have an honest idea of what to expect here. 

It's acceptable, but nothing amazing. So, just like the 90 Hertzdisplay, the Nord features a lot of hardware but i do not necessarily think it gets the foremost out of it that it could. It's during a very similar league to the 8 and that i just don't think that either are the phone to urge if you would like absolutely the best camera available. That said i feel those trade offs are much more worthwhile at this price point than they were on the 8. i feel the Nord is areally solid mid-range phone but it isn't perfect.

 It's well specced, yes. I mean, it's got many cameras, it's got that nice big high refresh rate display and in fact it's got that big battery. But the truth of what it gets from that hardware sometimes leaves a touch bit to be desired. I mean it's got many camera lenses but overall performance finishes up only being okay. And it's got that prime refresh rate display but sometimes its processor seems to let it down. They're compromises but i do not think they're unreasonable at this price point. 

Picking a mid-range phone is generally a matter of selecting the battles. you've got to select which features are most vital to you because no mid-range phone is gonna be ready to completely deliver on all of them. But you kind of can't do this with the Nord, it's too well-rounded, which suggests there are not any serious pit falls. There's also nobody area that it completely delivers on. That's not a nasty thing in the least ,it just kinda makes it hard to unreservedly recommend this phone to anybody group of individuals . On the flip side though it does mean that I can kind of recommend this phone to almost anyone. OnePlus made an honest mid-range phone. But look, it's no flagship killer. Hey, so many thanks somuch guys. If you are looking for an additional blog then obviously I just recommend read this one again 'cause it's quite great. So thankyou somuch guys.

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