OnePlus owned by BBK Electronics is known for designing smartphones with flagship-level specifications at affordable prices. It is a brand which targets the premium segment customers. However, the launch of OnePlus Nord last year was as an attempt by the company to venture into the mid-range level smartphone market and expand the customer base. OnePlus Nord CE 5G launched last month is the company’s latest offering in its line-up of mid-range devices. But does this model possess enough oomph factor to woo the customers looking for a mid-range 5G enabled smartphone, let us find it out in the sections below.
About The Phone
OnePlus Nord CE 5G is not a true upgrade of the OnePlus Nord. Rather it carries some core features of the previous model. In fact, the term CE in the new Nord model stands for “Core Edition”. Apart from the core features, the OnePlus Nord CE 5G also has some additional features to suit the needs of the customers.
The device is much lighter than its predecessor, thanks to its polycarbonate body. But the downside is the material makes it fragile and susceptible to damage from falls. The phone comes with Asahi’s Dragontrail Glass instead of Corning’s Gorilla Glass for scratch and damage protection. The Oxygen OS powers the phone that is free of any bloatware making the UI experience extremely good. In terms of security, the phone comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Variants
The phone comes in three color variants – Blue Void, Charcoal Ink, and Silver Ray. As far as the RAM and Storage options are concerned, customers can choose from a combination of 6GB RAM + 128 GB ROM, 8GB RAM + 128 GB ROM or 12GB RAM + 256 GB ROM. The phone doesn’t come with an expandable memory card slot.
Observation: In the price range of Nord CE 5G, there are phones from other brands that offer dual SIM and expandable memory. In such a scenario, the absence of an expandable memory card slot in Nord CE 5G might be a deal-breaker. If high storage is required, customers can consider the Nord CE 5G variant with 256 GB ROM.
Display
The OnePlus Nord CE 5G sports a 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display that supports 1080×2400 pixels resolution. The phone comes with a 90Hz refresh rate and an aspect ratio of 20:9.
Observation: The display is ideal for most of the tasks and offers decent visibility under direct sunlight.
Chipset
The OnePlus Nord CE 5G uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G SoC platform that is power efficient and supports dual SIM. The integrated X52 modem in the chipset is 5G enabled and it boasts of delivering up to 3.7GBps download speeds on 5G. The chipset is optimized for gaming and effortlessly handles multi-tasking.
Observation: A benchmark test on Geekbench 5 application gave the above results which are quite decent. In fact, the results are better than the scores of some of the popular models like the Xiaomi Note 9 Pro, Xiaomi Poco F1, and Samsung A71 phones.
Battery
The new Nord comes with a powerful 4500 mAH battery which is an upgrade in comparison to the previous Nord model. The Warp Charge 30T plus fast charging features is a big strength of the Nord CE. The company claims the phone’s capability of charging from 0 to 70 in just 30 minutes.
Observation: The phone indeed supports fast charging. However, the company’s claim of charging the phone from 0 to 70 percent in a span of 30 minutes couldn’t be achieved in our test. The test results pertaining to charging capability are as follows
- About 55% in 0 to 30 minutes
- About 100% in 0 to 63 minutes
Camera
The Nord CE sports a triple camera setup at the rear, unlike the previous Nord model which has a quad camera. The rear camera setup of the new Nord comprises a primary camera which has a 64 MP sensor, a wide-angle camera with an 8 MP sensor, and a mono lens camera with a 2 MP sensor. At the front, the phone features a 16 MP camera for video calls and selfie photos. The phone supports 4K video recording at 30 fps and 1080p video at 60 fps. It also has a provision to record slow-motion videos.
Observation: The phone takes some really good pictures in the daylight. However, in low light conditions, the camera tends to lose some detail. It also has a Nightscape mode, which does a decent job as compared to the previous Nord model. Like the rear camera, the selfie camera is best for daylight shots. Despite a 3.5 mm headphone jack being present, the phone does not support external microphones while taking videos.
Connectivity
The Nord CE 5G supports Dual Nano-SIM. The connectivity features available in the phone are NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, and Bluetooth 5.1. The phone is 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G enabled.
Observation: Though the new Nord is 5G enabled, yet the variant available in India supports only one 5G band i.e n78.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Good Processor
- NFC Support
- Headphone Jack
- Fast Charging option
- Decent camera
- Good OS that is free of bloatware
- Support for only one 5G band in the Indian variant of the phone. However, the Europe variant supports up to 12 bands of the 5G spectrum.
- Average Audio quality
- No Alert Slider
- No OIS feature
- No IP rating implying it is not water-resistant
- No memory card slot
On A Final Note
The Nord CE 5G is a decent phone. Customers looking for a budget OnePlus device can definitely consider this model. However in the price range it is currently offered, there are 5G enabled phones from other brands that comes with much better specifications.
For checking the price of the new Nord CE 5G model, you may visit the official site OnePlus Nord CE 5G
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