OnePlus brings out the best from the past with the Nord.
They have always delivered the best quality software and top-notch hardware and this year it was no different from the OnePlus 8 (Review) and the 8 Pro. Now the company is all set to bring back the roots from where it started by the launch of the Nord.
This smartphone is an interesting once as it has a 90Hz display, newer Snapdragon 765G, and a good set of cameras and also carries the gene of the OxygenOS thus providing a cleaner user interface.
With the heat from other competitors from Xiaomi, Realme, and Samsung, can the Nord make itself a good buy considering its specifications, and does it bring back the glory of OnePlus where it all started?
Let's find in the full review.
OnePlus Nord Design:
The OnePlus Nord sports a glass sandwich design at the front as well as the back with Gorilla Glass 5. It has a flatter display instead of the curved waterfall displays as seen on the OnePlus 8 series this year.
This has been done to keep the costs of the smartphone low but OnePlus does not seem to compromise on quality.
The front has a 6.44 inches display with minimum bezels to the sides. There is a dual hole punch cutout for the cameras on the display with the earpiece lying just above the display. On the back, there is a glossy finish and this particular back catches a lot of fingerprints.
The back has a vertical set of quad cameras which protrude out a little with the dual-LED flash and the OnePlus logo in the center of the back.
To the sides, OnePlus has cut a few corners by providing a plastic frame going all around which seems to be different from the metallic frame of the OnePlus 8 series.
On the right, there is a power button with the OnePlus's alert slider which makes it convenient to switch between silent, loud, and for important notifications. On the left, there are the usual volume controls.
Below the display, sits a USB Type-C port, with a loudspeaker vent and dual SIM card slot. Sadly there is no 3.5mm headphone jack which feels a bit of a let down as almost all its rivals provide. There is no microSD card slot for storage expansion.
The back does not have any IP rating since it a mid-range smartphone but has the P2i coating which makes it splash resistant.
At 184 grams, the OnePlus Nord weighs less than most of its competitors which weigh in at 200 grams as OnePlus has done the weight distribution on the Nord very well.
The OnePlus Nord is available in two colors namely Gray Onyx and Blue Marble out of which the Blue Marble is an exciting color and lifts the appeal of the smartphone.
Overall, the Nord does not excite that much in terms of design but does speak a premium quality and can be easily considered.
See here: OnePlus 8 Pro Review
OnePlus Nord Display:
The OnePlus Nord has a 6.44 inches full HD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels) display which is an AMOLED panel that OnePlus likes to call the Fluid AMOLED display. It has a screen to body ratio of 20:9 and has a 90Hz refresh rate making things smoother on the display.
Compared to many of its competitors which have an LCD panel, the AMOLED panel on the OnePlus Nord makes it appealing as we all know AMOLED has great viewing angles and the colors pop out better when compared to an IPS LCD panel.
The blacks and blues look inky and the sunlight legibility of the display is also good, so watching videos and playing games is a pleasant experience. There is support for DCI-P3, sRGB, and AMOLED wide gamut screen calibration modes.
The auto-brightness sensor works well and under direct sunlight or in dark, the screen has good visibility. Reading mode and Night Mode comes in handy in low-lighting situations. There is support for HDR10 and Widevine L1 through which you can consume HD content from Netflix, Prime with ease.
Coming to higher refresh rates which have been common in all mid-range smartphones, the OnePlus Nord does not feel behind as the 90Hz display makes everything work smoothly whether it is multitasking or playing games supporting the 90Hz refresh rate feels smoother to use.
There is an in-display fingerprint scanner on the display which lights up with cool animation and can be customized which is faster and accurate to use. There is also the face unlock which very fast when compared to its competitors.
With the 90Hz display and an AMOLED panel, the OnePlus Nord is a great smartphone for media consumption and one of the best combinations in the mid-range segment.
Check here: OnePlus 8 Review
OnePlus Nord Performance:
The OnePlus Nord is powered by the newer Snapdragon 765G chipset which is not a Snapdragon 8 series chipset but is capable when it comes to performance and playing high-end games. This chipset provides a smoother experience and multitasking.
The Snapdragon 765G is seen on many smartphones like the Realme X50, LG Velvet, and has a slightly different configuration compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 730G.
It has 1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime Core (higher clocked one) + 1x2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold cores (both based on the Cortex A76) and another 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver cores (based on the Cortex A55) which are meant for power efficiency.
It has a powerful Adreno 620 GPU which is slightly powerful than the Adreno 618 GPU of the Snapdragon 730/730G. This chipset is very power efficient since it is built on a 7nm process. So multitasking and gaming combined with the 90Hz display feel smooth to use.
This chipset brings 5G into the mid-range segment and is the cheapest 5G smartphone in the market. The smartphone is paired with 8/12GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB storage with support for UFS 2.1 speeds which is slower compared to the UFS 3.0 on the OnePlus 8 series.
There will be also a 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant making its head towards India and will make the bulk of the sales. Running multiple applications was not an issue as the Snapdragon 765G breezed even through the heaviest of all applications.
When it comes to heavy games like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty, the Adreno 620 GPU easily ran all these ones smoothly without any stutter which is probably due to some CPU and GPU enhancements in the Adreno 620 GPU.
All the games ran at their highest graphics settings but PUBG Mobile was restricted only to HD graphics but still playing at 60fps was a smoother experience. The back of the OnePlus Nord did feel a bit warm since there is no dedicated liquid cooling system.
There is a Fnatic Mode which improves the CPU and GPU thus enhancing the gaming performance and also restricts unnecessary calls and increases signal performance thus reducing latency in networks.
The 180Hz touch sampling rate improves the touch and the gameplay.
In benchmarks like Geekbench 5.1, the OnePlus Nord scored 607 in single-core and 1920 in multi-core which is impressive for a Snapdragon 765G chipset.
The OnePlus Nord combined with a powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset and 90Hz display provides one of the best performances and has good gaming capabilities.
OnePlus Nord Software:
The OnePlus Nord ships with OxygenOS 10.5.2 which makes it a very sweet deal and has the latest Android 10. As we all know, OxygenOS is the beauty of all OnePlus smartphones as it provides a smoother and experience almost close to Stock Android.
OxygenOS provides a much cleaner interface and provides a tone of customizations. These include changes to the system-wide dark mode, newer icon pack colors, and change in different styles of fonts.
There is a dedicated Zen Mode which restricts the notifications and leads to a balance in performance.
As discussed before, Fnatic Mode makes the way for a smooth and easy gaming experience. OnePlus Nord like the OnePlus 8 series has a Google Discover instead of the Shelf thus you can switch back and forth between the two.
There is also a Google dialler, messaging application with Duo and there are some applications like Instagram, Netflix, and Amazon pre-installed which is comparatively less compared to other user interfaces in the market which have a lot of bloatware.
The OxygenOS also improves with each of its software updates and continues to impress thus making it convenient to use.
OnePlus Nord Cameras:
The OnePlus Nord has a decent set of cameras as it has six cameras in total which include four at the rear and two on the front. This the most on any OnePlus smartphone to date. The rear cameras include:
- 48MP Sony IMX586 with f/1.75 aperture and supports OIS and EIS
- 8MP ultrawide f/2.2 camera with 119-degree field of view
- 5MP f/2.4 macro camera
- 2MP f/2.4 depth camera for portraits.
There is a bit of over-sharpening in the images and when zoomed in, the details are not so good as that of an image taken from a 64MP camera. Here OnePlus could have gone for the 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor which would have resulted in slightly better images.
With the HDR mode turned on, the images pop out with good color and it prevents over-exposure in the surroundings thus improving the contrast.
At night, the images have good detail but there is overexposure in images. Using the NightScape Mode, the images results in better details in shadows and also improves the dynamic range. It also reduces noise and the OIS further helps in better images.
There is also a dedicated 48MP mode which takes well-detailed images and when zoomed in, does not result in loss of details.
Coming to the ultrawide camera which is an 8MP sensor, the images have an average amount of detail with not so good dynamic range. The color reproduction is good but considering the price of the smartphone, it does feel a letdown.
Similarly, at night, the images have a lot of noise and the overexposure is clearly noticed. The NightScape is barely of any use but still, it results in a slightly better dynamic range and minimizes noise in the images.
Coming to the macro camera, the images struggle to capture more details and the dynamic range is not so good. The 2MP macro camera pales when compared to its competitors and the focus was a bit jittery at times. The color reproduction was good but still average.
Rather using the main camera with 2x zoom, results in better close-up images and these have good color reproduction and the edge detection is done very well.
The 5MP depth camera results in some very good portraits as both the 5MP camera with the 48MP main camera which results in better background blur. The edge detection works well and the details look good. The depth camera distinguishes the subject from the surroundings well and the autofocus works well.
On the front, the OnePlus Nord gets dual cameras, one being the 32MP Sony IMX616 sensor and another one is an 8MP ultrawide camera which helps to add depth and results in wider images.
The front camera captures very nice selfies and has a good amount of detail. Like other smartphone manufacturers that tend to enable the beauty mode, it is not with the OnePlus Nord. The skin tones look natural and the dynamic range works well too.
Another addition is the 8MP ultrawide camera which has a 105-degree field of view which results in wider selfies and comes in handy when taking images in a group. The images slightly lose some contrast compared to the main front 32MP camera but still, it is nice to have.
There is also a portrait mode with both the 32MP and the 8MP camera where the images have good subject separation and you can also adjust the background blur.
On the video's side, the OnePlus Nord can shoot the videos at 4k at 30fps which is the highest resolution. The video footage comes out good and the contrast works well. The dynamic range is good and since there is OIS it results in many stable videos.
Coming to the ultrawide camera, the videos come out good but not as good as that from the front camera. However, at 1080p resolution, the 30fps and 60fsps videos come out with better detail and the Super Stable Mode comes in handy at 1080p in both the cameras thus resulting in much less noise and stabilized videos.
Similarly, at night, the videos come out good with less amount of noise and turning on the NightScape, the dynamic range improves and the presence of OIS helps to result in better videos with good stabilization.
The front camera on the OnePlus Nord can shoot up to 4k videos at 60fps which is really good with good details and here the lack of EIS does not matter much. OnePlus seems to have worked on the front cameras.
The videos taken from the 8MP ultrawide camera come out good with less noise and the dynamic range works well. However, it is not so good as the video from the main 32MP camera. The Super Stable video works well too.
Overall, the OnePlus Nord seems to deliver a great camera setup with support for 4k at 60fps from the front camera which is the first in the segment. Then the presence of OIS does help in better images and videos and when compared to its competitors, it has its own charming appeal.
OnePlus Nord Battery Life:
The OnePlus Nord has a 4115mAh battery which can be easily last for one single day with usage. With normal to moderate usage, the smartphone can easily last for one single day with the display set to 90Hz but switching the display to 60Hz, the smartphone can easily last for one more day.
With heavy games like PUBG Mobile or Asphalt 9 which when played continuously for 3-4 hours, streaming social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc., and also doing heavy multitasking, the OnePlus Nord can easily last one full day, but needs a quick charge for the next day.
With the full day's charge, we were able to get 12-15 percent left in the tank and OxygenOS also provides some battery customizations to the battery. To power up the smartphone, there is a 30W Warp Charger 30T that can charge the smartphone quickly.
The smartphone goes from 0 to 70 percent in just half an hour which is almost similar to the 30W VOOC charging on the Realme X3 Superzoom.
The full charge takes around 55minutes which is good and to keep costs low, OnePlus has not provided any wireless charging support which is also not present on the OnePlus 8 even.
OnePlus Nord Audio Quality:
The OnePlus Nord has a single firing bottom loudspeaker vent at the bottom. The sound output is good and with higher levels of loudness, the sound gets slightly distorted but for media consumption its good on its own.
Sure it may not have a stereo effect like most of its rivals, but still, while gaming or consuming media, the sound out[put is still good and there is a Dirac audio tuner with an equalizer which can be easily customized when using wireless or a wired earphone.
The sound through the USB Type-C port is good and there are many wireless earphones in the market that can be connected through Bluetooth and some USB Type-C earphones that can be connected to the port for the sound output.
Overall, the sound feels good but the presence of stereo speakers with an AMOLED display would have hit the sweet spot.
Verdict:
Overall, the OnePlus brings a sweet flavor in the mid-range segment with the launch of the Nord. The OnePlus Nord is also the cheapest 5G smartphone until now. It has a good set of cameras, a faster chipset, and a great display which makes it a solid offering under Rs.30000.
Combining all of this, OnePlus has always built trust with its users in the form of the OxygenOS which provides a cleaner and a smoother interface to use which provides a cleaner almost Stock Android experience and a lot of customizations.
The AMOLED display with the 90Hz refresh rate provides the best combination for playing games or consuming media.
The build feels premium but what lets this build down is the lack of water resistance which is done in order to keep costs low which will not be a problem as its elder sibling the OnePlus 8 also lacks. The ultrawide camera is not so good and the images taken from it lets it down.
The macro camera is also a sort of let down that needs improvement. However, the camera has its own set of positive points. There is support for OIS in the main camera, the dual cameras in the front come in handy for those normal and ultrawide selfies.
The sound output is good but the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack is sort of disappointing. The price of the OnePlus Nord is attractive as the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage which will be on sale from the month of September and starts at a price of Rs.24999 but now currently there are two models available.
There is also an 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant which is priced at Rs.27999 and another 12GB RAM and 256GB storage at Rs.29999 which undercuts many of its rivals thus providing a value for money option to consider.
The OnePlus Nord seems to tick all the right boxes with a good display, powerful chipset, refined software with guaranteed 2 years of software updates, and a good set of cameras. OnePlus Nord makes almost everything that the OnePlus 8 offers and at a much cheaper rate.
The only difference being the curved display and the more powerful Snapdragon 865 chipset. So other than these, the OnePlus Nord is an ideal mid-range smartphone to consider, and once again it has filled the gap where the original OnePlus One had left.
1 Comments
Great 4k@60fps video support from front camera and the Warp Charging is amazing.
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