OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review: Enhanced display, familiar performance

OnePlus Nord 4 CE Lite

The Nord CE series from OnePlus always aims to provide its users with balanced features at affordable pricing. The CE Lite smartphones have become an appealing option for users who have a budget of around Rs 20,000. OnePlus’s Nord CE4 Lite is the latest arrival in the highly competitive budget segment in India, where most smartphones are now equipped with fast-refresh screens and sturdy build or design.

It is also the first CE Lite device to come with an AMOLED display and has an updated main rear camera sensor. It also has a bigger battery and faster charger in the box. However, the phone like the last two CE Lite smartphones, still comes with a Snapdragon 695 chipset, with most OEMs offering newer processors with more capabilities.

Will this be a big bummer or the other upgrades make it worth buying under Rs 20,0000? We find an answer to that question in our OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review, after using this smartphone for more than a week.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review: Design and display

While most smartphones in this segment come with flashy colours and protruding camera modules to stand out, the Nord CE4 Lite features a simple glossy design with two separate cameras at the back. The phone is entirely made out of plastic, but the back has a smooth glass-like finish It also easily attracts fingerprints and smudges and it’s recommended to use this phone with the supplied transparent cover.

We received the Super Silver colour variant, which offers a minimalistic look. It also reflects all types of light present in the environment and the OnePlus logo is imprinted right in the middle. The vertically aligned rear camera layout has a new pill-shaped section that surrounds the camera lenses. Below the cameras, we have a dual LED flash setup, which is bright in the dark.

The handset feels relatively light considering the big 5500mAh battery fitted inside it. The phone's sides and bottom house the standard array of buttons and ports, SIM card slot, microphones, and speakers. We also get a standard power button at the side, as the phone now has an in-display fingerprint scanner, which is easily accessible at the bottom of the screen. However, the Nord CE4 Lite doesn’t come with the traditional alert slider, usually found on other OnePlus smartphones.

The biggest upgrade in the Nord CE4 Lite is the presence of an AMOLED display with fast refresh rate support. The phone has a 6.67-inch screen and it is adequately bright outdoors. The display also has great viewing angles from all sides and with punchy colours and deep blacks.

We used it for multiple hours to watch YouTube videos or movies and the output from the screen was great, with adequate brightness and contrast. Due to the chipset’s limitations, the phone maxes out at Full HD resolution. However, it has a very loud stereo speaker setup, which only crackles a little bit at full volume.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review: Performance, software

The Nord CE4 Lite comes with a Snapdragon 695 chipset, which we feel is a bit disappointing in 2024. It is the same chipset that was used by the company in the previous two CE Lite smartphones. On the performance front, the smartphone handles most daily apps, including social media scrolling, and web browsing. It also has a decent app opening speed.

However, the processor’s limitations show up while doing heavier tasks. While playing the popular battle royale game, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), we noticed several frame drops and the phone also heated up after extended use. Even while switching between multiple apps, we found some minor jitters and lags.

The phone currently runs on Oxygen OS 14.0 based on Android 14. After the first boot, we saw plenty of unnecessary apps being preinstalled and the global search notification pull-down had plenty of unnecessary app recommendations. Thankfully we can uninstall most of these applications, and after a bit of fine tuning in the home settings section, we get a relatively clean experience.

The operating system comes with the usual OxygenOS goodies like the Zen Space to curb your smartphone usage, a dedicated Theme store, a Smart sidebar to access custom functions, and many more. However, unlike the other 2024 OnePlus phones, there are no major AI functions present in the Nord CE4 Lite.

If we talk about its battery backup, the phone can easily last for two days, even if you are a heavy user. We got more than eight hours of screen time every time we used this device until the phone was about to be shut down. The best part is that the supplied 80W charger charges the phone fully in under an hour.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review: Camera

The OnePlus features a dual rear camera setup that includes a 50MP shooter with a Sony LYT-600 sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. However, the phone lacks an ultra-wide shooter. Under daylight, the Nord CE4 Lite applies a warm post-processing layer over its photos and as a result, you will notice images with high saturation, especially when shooting images with a lot of trees or plantations.

The camera app also offers an in-sensor zoom mode which lets you capture 2X zoomed photos and videos. However, unlike like the default 1x mode, you'll notice a lack of detail when you zoom in on pictures, as there is no optical zoom support. For clicking better photos in low light, OnePlus has included a dedicated Night Mode in the camera app. Sadly, users need to manually enable it to use this feature.

The camera shutter button takes a little over a second to capture each image, which means that it’s hard to take images of moving objects with this device. You can capture videos at up to Full HD 30fps on the primary rear and front cameras, and we get OIS and EIS support while shooting videos from the rear main sensor.

The 16MP selfie camera can capture good selfies while outdoors during the day but struggles under low light. It also requires a lot of patience and hand stability to click shake-free videos from the front camera.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review: Verdict

The OnePlus Nord 4 comes at a starting price of Rs 19,999, with further bank offers. It has an impressive battery life, a respectable display, and a decent processor. All these things make it ideal for most budget smartphone users, especially if you only want a OnePlus device. However, the camera has a few limitations, especially under low light, and the phone is not recommended for playing graphic-intensive games or for other heavy tasks.

If camera and performance are your top priority, you should look at some other smartphone in this price range. But for most other tasks, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite is a good all-rounder smartphone with great battery backup and a bright display.