A close call between the two almost similar mid-range smartphones!!
The mid-range smartphone segment also has many offerings from brands like Realme, Xiaomi, Samsung, OnePlus and off late came iQOO. Now currently the newest offering is the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite (Review) which has been a good offering that brings all the basics correct if you see its specifications and on the other hand, there is the Realme 10 Pro which seems an exact clone of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite with some differences.
Since both smartphones share a lot of similarities and have some excellent specifications in the mid-range segment but there are some differences so it is difficult to distinguish between them. So here we compare the Realme 10 Pro against the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and see which is the better option to choose and why?
Let's find out the full comparison.
Also find: Realme 10 Pro Plus Review
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Design:
In terms of design, both smartphones follow almost a similar design philosophy as both have polycarbonate back with some differences. The Realme 10 Pro has a flat back which houses a dual camera setup with a LED flashlight and on the other side, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is slightly curved around the edges which makes it easier to hold in hands but it houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight.
Both the smartphones have larger camera rings but the back has different textures on both where the Realme 10 Pro has a shiny pattern as the back shines and creates a prism effect thus the back is glossy and catches a lot of fingerprints if you consider the HyperSpace Gold colour but if you consider the Black Matter then there is a matte finish at the back.
On the other hand, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has a plain looking back and the Pastel Lime colour looks very good. Both smartphones do not have any kind of IP rating but are splashproof up to some extent. Around the sides, both smartphones have a polycarbonate frame that houses the power button with the volume buttons where the power button doubles up as a fingerprint scanner on both.
Both also have dual SIM card slots which is a hybrid one that accepts either two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card for storage expansion and it is located on the left side of both smartphones. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone and a 3.5mm headphone jack which is really good. On the top, both smartphones have a secondary noise-cancelling microphone only.
On the front, both smartphones have a single punch hole located on the top to the centre and have minimum bezels around the sides where the Realme 10 Pro outshines the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite as it has very slim bezels which makes it look attractive compared to the slightly thicker bezels found on the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite. So build and design is equally good on both but still, a glass back would have been better.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Display:
Both the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and the Realme 10 Pro house a 6.72-inch Full HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) IPS LCD display with a screen-to-body ratio of 19.5:9. Both these displays have support for 120Hz refresh rate which means scrolling through the webpages, playing games, watching higher fps videos, etc. feel smoother and combined with it, there is 240Hz touch sampling rate also.
Talking about the refresh rate, the Realme 10 Pro provides three different options to set the refresh rate - Auto Select, High and Standard where if you select Auto Select, the display either switches to 60Hz or 120Hz and sometimes even 90Hz depending on the content on the display whereas the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has two options to choose - High and Standard.
In terms of display brightness, both displays can reach a peak brightness of 680nits which is very good considering both have an LCD panel and visibility under direct sunlight is very good. However in some cases, the display of the Realme 10 Pro does feel slightly brighter compared to that of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite but still it is negligible.
Both these displays have multiple modes to choose from and set the colour tone of the display and also there is a temperature slider to set it to either a warmer or cooler tone. Both these displays have support for Widevine L1 but you cannot stream HD content on OTT platforms but there is no support for HDR since it is the limitation of the chipset. Both these displays are good for multi-media consumption.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Performance:
Both smartphones are powered by a similar chipset i.e. Snapdragon 695 chipset which is a good chipset that has been found on many mid-range smartphones in the past in terms of daily tasks, both smartphones handle all tasks easily without any problem but there is some jitteriness noticed on both displays when doing multitasking heavily.
In terms of gaming, both smartphones handle almost all games easily but in some heavy titles like Call Of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends, etc. there is some lag or stutter noticed when played at the highest graphics settings. After long hours of gaming for 4-5 hours continuously, the smartphones do not feel warmer since both have a dedicated liquid cooling system that dissipates heat faster.
In terms of network connectivity, both have support for good carrier aggregation and in terms of 5G bands, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has support for 11 bands of 5G compared to 8 bands of 5G on the Realme 10 Pro. The Realme 10 Pro has 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB storage variants whereas the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is available in two different variants - 8/12GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB storage.
In the CPU throttling test, both smartphones can attain a sustained performance of around 90-95 per cent which is excellent with very minimal throttling detected. In terms of benchmarks, the scores come out good but not the best. Overall, the performance is good on both but in terms of gaming, both smartphones are decent enough.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Software:
Both the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and Realme 10 Pro have almost the same user interface with a couple of differences as both of them are inspired by ColorOS found on Oppo smartphones. The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite runs on the latest OxygenOS 13 whereas the Realme 10 Pro runs on the RealmeUI 4.0 and both have Android 13 running out of the box.
These user interfaces are almost similar when it comes to look and feel and also provide a lot of customizations where you can set the icon shape and size, apply different colour schemes throughout the user interface, and different styles for the Always-On display and fingerprint scanner animation, etc. Other than that there are the Edge Panels, Privacy Dashboard and three levels of Dark Mode on both.
But one area where OxygenOS holds the clear edge is that there is no bloatware present except for Hot Free Games which is an extra provided by OnePlus but recently with a software update, that has been removed thus providing a cleaner software experience compared to RealmeUI which has a lot of bloatware which can be uninstalled but the presence of ads throughout the user interface is disappointing.
In terms of software update support, both smartphones are assured to get another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates. Overall, there is very little to differentiate between user interfaces but still the OxygenOS holds a clear edge over the RealmeUI.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Cameras:
Both the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and the Realme 10 Pro sport almost a similar camera setup which includes a 108MP f/1.8 Samsung HM6 sensor for the main camera and a 2MP depth sensor but the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite offers an extra 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, both smartphones have a 16MP f/2.5 camera. Both of them do not have an ultrawide camera which is disappointing.
The images taken during the daylight come out with sharper details and have good dynamic range. The contrast is equally good on both but there are certain differences especially when it comes to colour saturation where the Realme produces slightly saturated colours, the OnePlus tries to maintain a natural look with slightly better exposure.
The noise is also slightly lower on the OnePlus compared to Realme but the difference is marginal. Using the 108MP mode on both defaults to 12MP images which have sharper details but a fair bit of noise is present. At night, the images look good on both smartphones as both come out with sharper details and good dynamic range but here also the colour looks natural on the OnePlus compared to Realme.
However, in some scenarios like low-light exposure and contrast is slightly better on the OnePlus compared to Realme which on the other hand has slightly more noise in the background. In terms of portraits, the skin tones look better on the Realme whereas the OnePlus tries to desaturate the skin tones a bit but when it comes to edge detection, the OnePlus has a clear edge whereas background blur is good on both.
The OnePlus has a macro camera which is just good for taking those macro images and these images have a decent level of detail with an average dynamic range and a lot of noise. However, still it is good to have the macro camera which is not present on the Realme. In terms of selfies, the OnePlus has a better dynamic range and noise is also slightly less compared to the Realme.
However, in selfies, the skin tones look good on both and have accurate colours. In terms of selfie portraits, the OnePlus provides better edge detection and background blur compared to the Realme. In terms of videos, both smartphones can only record 1080p videos at 30fps on the rear and front camera where the videos from the OnePlus have slightly less noise and colours look natural compared to the Realme.
So definitely, the camera experience is slightly better on the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite compared to the Realme 10 Pro.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Battery Life:
Both smartphones come with a 5000mAh battery which can easily last for one single day with heavy usage that includes playing games, attending phone calls for longer hours, rendering videos, etc. with the display set to 120Hz and with normal usage which includes playing scrolling through webpages, using social media casually, etc. both smartphones easily last for two days.
The standard screen-on time on both smartphones comes out around 6-7 hours with normal usage and with heavy usage, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite provides slightly better 4 hours of screen-on time compared to 3-3.5 hours of screen-on time on the Realme 10 Pro as OxygenOS is slightly better optimized in terms of battery life compared to RealmeUI.
In terms of charging, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite holds a clear edge as it gets a 67W fast charger bundled inside the box that takes the smartphone from 0 to 100 per cent in around 40-45 minutes whereas the Realme 10 Pro ships with a 33W fast charger bundled inside the box that takes around 1 hour 10 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite vs Realme 10 Pro Audio Quality:
Both the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and the Realme 10 Pro come with a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear on both but the one on the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has a slightly better bass level and sound is clear compared to the Realme 10 Pro. Both also get a 3.5mm headphone jack and sound output through it is good on both smartphones.
Verdict:
Overall, both smartphones come with good specifications as there are a lot of similarities between them like the build and design are polycarbonate instead of glass, both of them have 120Hz IPS displays, the Snapdragon 695 chipset is common that supports 5G, there also a 4500mAh battery and similar 108MP main camera. But there are slight differences between both of them.
In terms of cameras, whether it is images and videos, charging speeds, slightly better audio quality and software experience, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is better compared to the Realme 10 Pro which on the other hand holds the edge in terms of display with fewer bezels and also better brightness levels. However, considering any of them will not leave you disappointed.
But if you are someone who wants a cleaner software experience, better camera experience and faster charging speeds, then the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is a better choice but if you are someone who is not considered by the bloatware and wants an attractive display with good specifications, then the Realme 10 Pro is a good buy but still, on an overall basis, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is the better pick of the two.
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