OnePlus Nord CE 5G review: Finding sense in simplicity

Last month, OnePlus launched its second Nord smartphone in India. The OnePlus Nord CE 5G debuted as the most affordable phone in the OnePlus’ smartphone lineup in the country. The Nord CE 5G picks up where the original Nord (Review) left off, delivering some hard-hitting mid-range specs at a very reasonable price.

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G features a starting price of Rs 22,999 in India, putting it up against other mid-range 5G phones from Xiaomi, Samsung, Realme, iQOO, and Oppo. However, our model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage did cost Rs 27,999, while you can also get the phone in an 8GB/128GB configuration for Rs 24,999. So, without any more delays, let’s take an in-depth look at the OnePlus Nord CE 5G.

OnePlus Nord CE Design & Build

In terms of the design, OnePlus is keeping things simple with the Nord CE, the matte teal finish looks good and doesn’t attract fingerprints, definitely a step up from the original Nord. While the Nord CE has glass protection on the front, the back and frame are made of plastic. The construction is fairly light, while the minimalist design and build lend the phone a neat and clean look.

The triple-camera setup on the back sits on the top left of the device, while you get a hole-punch camera cut out on the front. On the bottom, the Nord CE 5G also opts for a USB Type-C port and a headphone jack. There’s a single bottom-firing speaker on the Nord CE, but it is quite unimpressive. Overall, the Nord CE 5G finds sense in simplicity, the design and build are quite solid for a mid-ranger, although the teal finish pop a bit too much for my liking.

OnePlus Nord CE Display 

On the front, the Nord CE 5G sports a 6.43-inch FHD+ Fluid AMOLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. The panel features a nice 20:9 aspect ratio and surpasses 400 nits of typical brightness. There’s full DCI-P3 and sRGB coverage, but the one thing lacking is the HDR10 support. So long as smartphone displays go, the OnePlus Nord CE definitely gets the better of most of the competition.

OnePlus Nord CE Performance

On the inside, the phone is powered by a Snapdragon 750G paired with up to 12GB of RAM. The Nord CE 5G is a solid performer that can deliver both in terms of gaming and multitasking. The chip is also accompanied by 128GB or 256GB of storage.  Call of Duty: Mobile ran without a hitch on high settings, but I had to choose between maxing out graphics and frame rates. I also ran Asphalt 9: Legends and Battlegrounds Mobile India for 30 minutes each with no hiccups or noticeable drops in frame rates.

In Geekbench, the Nord CE 5G scored 638 points in the single-core test and 1,817 points in the multi-core test. We were using the 12GB/256GB variant, but 12GB does seem like overkill, although the 256GB storage comes in handy because of the lack of the microSD card slot. The Nord CE 5G does a pretty good job with the performance.

OnePlus Nord CE Cameras

For optics, the OnePlus Nord CE 5G is equipped with a triple-camera setup. The 64 MP Omnivision primary sensor features an f/1.79 aperture and EIS, while the other two sensors include an 8 MP ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP monochrome sensor. The Nord CE also gets a 16 MP selfie camera with an f/2.45 aperture.

The main 64 MP camera on the new Nord CE managed to capture photos with plenty of detail in daylight. Objects in the foreground had visibly more detail than those in the background. The images also had a wide dynamic range with no noise. You will find the odd bit of overprocessing, but image quality is maintained with accurate colours for the most part.

Full 64 MP photos did tend to help with capturing finer details of objects, but it came at the cost of sharpness and increased noise levels. The ultrawide camera offers a wider field of view, but it comes at the cost of image quality. But beyond the dip in image quality, colours also appeared to be inconsistent, while there was significant distortion around the edges.

In low light, the Nord CE‘s main camera tends to brighten images at the cost of clarity. Turning on night mode can help you in certain scenarios, provided you have a light source. Both contrast and sharpness levels are improved when using night mode but moving objects can cause photos to fall apart. I wouldn’t recommend switching to the ultrawide camera in lowlight but turning on night mode can help you get useable shots.

The 16 MP selfie camera on the front takes good photos in daylight with crisp skin tones and wide dynamic range. The phone does a good job with edge detection for selfie portraits. The OnePlus Nord CE can also capture 4K video at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps. Additionally, the ultrawide and front cameras can take 1080p video at 30fps. The 4K videos look particularly sharp with plenty of detail and wide dynamic range. Videos also pump out vivid colours with barely any noise. There is no OIS here; instead, the phone relies on EIS, which does offer decent levels of stability, especially while capturing 1080p footage at 60fps. In low light, video quality falls apart.

Overall, camera performance on the Nord CE 5G is pretty solid in daylight as well as low light. Phones like the Mi 10i (Review) and Oppo F19 Pro+ (Review) do tend to do a better job on balance but camera quality is good across the board and doesn’t tend to fall too far behind. I will say this though, image and video quality look much better on the Nord CE’s AMOLED panel than they would on a bigger screen.

OnePlus Nord CE Battery Life

In terms of battery capacity, the Nord CE 5G packs a 4,500 mAh that can easily get you through an entire day. The phone gave me a full day of battery life, allowing me to take some percent of the battery into the next day. My usage also included 2 hours of music playback and one hour of gaming. The phone also supports 30W fast-charging support with a Warp Charge 30T adapter in the box, which can power the phone in a little over an hour.

OnePlus Nord CE Software

The new Nord CE 5G runs on Android 11 with the OxygenOS skin on top. OxygenOS has a good amount of customisations with a generally neat and clean aesthetic. There are a few pre-installed apps that can be uninstalled, although getting spammed with notifications wasn’t an issue during my brief time with the device. OnePlus has also promised two years of software updates and three years of security updates for the Nord CE 5G.

Verdict

With a starting price of Rs 22,999, the OnePlus Nord certainly won’t break the bank, which is arguably the best part of this device. The phone really doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Performance is solid, camera quality is good across the board, the display is class-leading, the software is top-notch, and the battery is up to the mark. All of these combine to offer a very well balanced handset that in turn delivers an excellent smartphone experience.

There are certainly areas where the OnePlus Nord CE is worthy of critique – camera software definitely needs some fine-tuning, the speakers are a mess, and the lack of a MicroSD card slot almost seems criminal. The OnePlus Nord CE struggles to find a niche, but when stacked up against its competitors, not only does the device hold its own, but also offer the best overall package of any 5G phone under Rs 25,000 in India.