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“OnePlus Nord is not all about specs, it experiences the smooth, the Camera is powerful & the quality is exceptional, OnePlus brings new focus & refinement to the essentials features of the modern days’ smartphone, when everything works just the way you expect then does the specs really matter?” Let’s find out in this Review
– Hassan Zama
OnePlus Nord – What is good in
Nord provides the answer with its 700 Series Snapdragon processor – OnePlus claims it has all kinds of software optimization to make it feel incredibly smooth to go along with the 90Hz AMOLED display with the best flagship quality shock absorbing camera of 48 MP with OIS (Optical Image stabilization) software powered with Oxygen OS, Snapdragon 756G Processor with 5G network connectivity.
In India Nord is available in 3 variants – 6GB Ram/64GB Storage, 8GB Ram/128GB Storage, 12GB Ram/256GB Storage. The 6GB variant is not available to buy for the time being. OnePlus Nord offers 3 Color combinations: Blue Marble, Gray Onyx & Gray Ash.
OnePlus Nord Price:
OnePlus Nord launched to date: 21 July 2020.
8GB of RAM and 128GB storage model is available for ₹27,999
12GB of RAM and 256GB storage model is available for ₹29,999
When OnePlus came with its first smartphone in 2014. Its main intention was to design a high-quality smartphone with an economical price in its class determined to make the best Android Flagship with its tagline #NeverSettle.
But Nord is the first affordable smartphone from OnePlus in the midrange segment which has improved the market capital of OnePlus even in the time of pandemic corona in 2020, Its sales had increased as reported by counterpoint in India
In India, OnePlus smartphones are manufactured by OPPO Mobiles India Private Limited. (Source: https://www.oneplus.in/nord-specs)
OnePlus Nord is an almost 1-year-old tech, so we decided to review it in the following criteria. Is there any exciting software feature in the camera app or it has the same old camera as it was in its previous Gen smartphones like the OnePlus 7 & new OnePlus 8, Our review is based on the following:
1) What does OnePlus Nord offers?
2) Why it is better than other mid-range devices?
3) Investment on the Nord in this Mid-tier segment is it worth buying in 2021?
PhoneSang’s review on OnePlus Nord
What does OnePlus Nord offer?
Four rare camera setup with Sony’s Flagship 48 Megapixel Camera: Same camera which is used in OnePlus Flagship OnePlus 8.
Nightscape mode:
enables to capture 9 different pictures by varying exposures and combine all to gather to produce a picture with lots of detail in low light conditions.
Dual Selfie Cameras:
Nord offers Sony’s 32 Megapixel high-resolution front camera paired with a OnePlus ultra-wide selfie lens that helps you take groupies without a selfie stick.
Oxygen OS:
paired with 90 Hz Fluid AMOLED display: Swiping & Scrolling had never been so smooth. Thanks to Oxygen OS is a polished android operating system with hundreds of optimizations, on the top of a 90Hz display which makes it an even smoother & faster experience that meets your expectation display has 2048 levels of brightness transitions that automatically adjusts to comfort your eyes.
Snapdragon 765G
with 5G Connectivity: Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G is a 5G chipset with improved clock speed & 30% faster graphics than its last 730G processor.
Warp Charging 30T
is a wired Warping tech that never lets you wait for your phone to charge. As it can juice your Nord form 0-70% in just 30 min by keeping your Nord cool during heavy usage.
OnePlus Nord Design & Display:
The OnePlus Nord has a solid build and feels premium midrange smartphone, Nord has just downgraded its processor compared to its sibling OnePlus 8 that lacks few features but comes with a lower price range which puts competition with iPhone SE & Pixel 4a in the premium mid-range segment.
It sports a 6.44-inch (164 mm) Fluid AMOLED touchscreen with dual punch-hole selfie camera design in the front made of Gorilla Glass 5, The smartphone weighs around 184g, Nord features a Polycarbonate body with a silver coat applied to relinquish the looks of real metal and buttons are made of aluminium, The beautiful glass back makes the phone look astatically good & simple but sometimes it can be slippery. The design of the OnePlus Nord looks similar to Realme X50 Pro.
In addition to the 6.44-inch flat touchscreen, Nord has a metallic power button on the right side of the phone, The alert slider for quick toggle is above it and volume rockers on the left side it is also made of metal. It offers a USB type C port in the bottom along with a mono speaker and plastic SIM card slot, sadly this smartphone doesn’t offer a headphone jack we have to use Bluetooth headsets.
The OnePlus Nord features a 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a 90 Hz refresh rate, the display has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels (Full HD+) and an aspect ratio of 20:9 with 408 PPI, Nord’s display is protected with Gorilla Glass 5 and this display has touch response rate 180 Hz with sRGB. The display features an in-display fingerprint sensor and it has a dual hole-punch design at the top left side of the screen for the dual selfie camera system. This screen has a maximum brightness of 1000 nits with HDR and 700 nits in normal conditions.
Performance
The OnePlus Nord is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G octa-core processor with Adreno 620 GPU, which features an inbuilt 5G modem, making it the most reliable & cost-effective 5G smartphone. But it’s slower than the OnePlus 8’s processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. In this way, OnePlus manages to reduce the cost of this Nord.
The OnePlus Nord uses a 4200 mAh lithium polymer battery. Support by blazing fast Warp Charge 30T with USB type C cable, which charges the phone from empty to 60% in half an hour. Nord doesn’t support wireless charging. Charging from empty to 50% takes 25 minutes, and charging from empty to 100% takes around 1 hour 6 mins. For heavy use, the Nord manages to last 1 day, and under normal conditions could last 1 & half days. The screen-time ranges from around 5–10 hours (6 hours for heavy use).
Camera System
The primary camera sports a flagship 48 MP ƒ1.8, 0.8 µm Sony IMX586 main camera with OIS, which is that the same as in OnePlus 7 and the OnePlus 8. The ultra-wide-angle camera of Nord is an 8MP ƒ2.3 with 119° of field view, Nord has a depth sensor of 5 MP ƒ2.4 and a macro camera of 2MP ƒ2.4. This smartphone is capable of shoot video up to 4K in 30fps and slow-motion video up to Full HD resolution with 240fps.
OnePlus Nord features a dual front camera system. With the main camera of 32 MP Sony IMX616 sensor with ƒ2.5 0.8 µm camera, Paired with an ultra-wide-angle selfie camera of 8 MP with ƒ2.5 105° wide angle of field view.
The main camera is capable of shooting 4K video with 60fps and the Ultra-wide camera can shoot 4K video in 30fps. The front camera of Nord is also capable of shooting 4K videos still it has some limitations on features compared to the Rare camera like it doesn’t support Nightscape mode. In daylight conditions, the performance of the main camera is amazing & the image quality is sweet and almost similar to the OnePlus 8 as both share the same main sensor. Low-light performance ranges from acceptable to good, though it is not flagship-like quality. The macro camera’s quality is average. The portrait mode quality is better in daylight conditions and the image quality is pretty good, sometimes the depth sensor fails to detect few edges.
The video quality is amazing, the videos taken with OnePlus Nord is sharp and stable because of the stabilization. The main camera has OSI (optical Image stabilization) which uses hardware to stabiles the video resulting in pro-level videography is possible with this phone.
The image quality is crazy in the front cameras in good lighting condition yet In low-light situations & image quality gets distorted.
Overall, the front camera system on the OnePlus Nord is sweet, expect the main flagship sensor, all other sensors are on the average side.
Nord Connectivity
Similar to its siblings OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus Nord has 5G connectivity with five 5G bands, Which has a download speed of up to 3.38* Gbps, 5G is not available yet despite that this Nord is future-ready whenever the 5G arrives, but in 4G network the device works will. This smartphone allows using dual 4G SIM cards or a single 5G SIM (5G+4G). It also supports dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11.
NFC
Nord has NFC support which means it allows you to make secure transactions & exchange digital content with NFC-enabled devices.
Bluetooth
Nord has Bluetooth 5.1 and supports aptX HD which allows Bluetooth to transmit data without damaging the quality. & LDAC allows high-quality wireless audio via Bluetooth with 3x data transmission speed.
GPS
Nord supports GPS Dual-band (L1+L5) which receives satellite signals from both L1 and L5 frequency bands. GLONASS a global navigation satellite system help this device to locate the real-time location and velocity determination, It also uses Galileo, Assisted GPS & NavIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) to improve GPS navigation on the smartphone.
The OnePlus Nord features an in-display fingerprint scanner that is fast and efficient and it will not disappoint at any point in time, It has other multiple sensors like a Hall effect sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a proximity sensor.
Oxygen OS
User interface
Oxygen OS based on Android operating system
The OnePlus Nord ships with Oxygen OS 10.5, which is based on Android 10. It comes with preinstalled software of Google communications apps, like Google apps and including Android system and pre-installed apps, while many other Android skins (Android-based OS) tend to have a more bloated and poor design in comparison with Oxygen OS, sometimes Android-based OS work better than stock Android like ONE UI from Samsung, likewise, Oxygen OS has simple yet beautiful design offers lots of customizable features which is absent in stock Android, and keeping the UI is vivid with dynamic, simple, clean and user-friendly. The software experience is smooth & speed and intuitive to use.
OTA updates: OnePlus claims that users will get Oxygen OS Software updates for two years with this Nord and It will receive Android security patch updates for three years.
Special features of Oxygen OS
OnePlus Nord navigate and functionality make it efficient by optimizing the stock Android for single-hand usage on big display by introducing touch controls near the thumb for quicker one-hand usage,
Oxygen OS offers an always-on display feature as seen on Samsung’s OneUI, which displays the app notification icon and time while your screen is off. It supports dynamic displays but it drains your battery quickly.
Dark mode on Oxygen OS: it is a theme feature that changes contrast dynamically and readjusts colours according to an ambient light level which enhances the viewing experience in dark.
Zen Mode: allows users to block all activity on smartphones except calls & camera app.
Oxygen OS has an inbuilt app locker, which secures your application with a PIN or with a fingerprint to avoid unauthorized use of App,
Gaming mode: Block notification popup except inbound calls & alarms, this mode is placed to utilize all resources into a game by stopping the non-essential app running in the background
Oxygen OS also has some interesting features like Hidden Space to hide the apps from the App drawer and Parallel apps to make a clone app to use with the different profiles, it presents widgets & Oxygen OS make it easy to organize widgets on the home screen.
Nord Accessories
The retail box, along with the OnePlus Nord device, includes a warp USB type C cable along with a 30T Warp charger & the good thing is this box includes a clear silicone back cover to protect the device from accidental drops.
What’s included in the Box
The Nord comes with many accessories in the box.
- Device
2. Warp Charge 30 power adaptor
3. Warp Type-C cable (Support USB 2.0)
4. Sim Ejector Tool
5. Documentation
6. Brand sticker
7. Phone case
Why it is better than other mid-range devices?
When we compare this OnePlus with iPhone, Nord was released in direct competition with iPhone SE2, Nord has better design & bigger display whereas iPhone SE carries its classic old design of iPhone 5 which is almost 9 years old (Similar design of iPhone 8), Nord has a better display of 6.44” not only in terms of display size but it has a higher refresh rate of 90Hz whereas in iPhone SE has small 4.7” Retina HD display with normal 60Hz refresh rate. Nord’s In-display fingerprint looks beautiful than the old physical front-mounted fingerprint on iPhone. Both smartphones have solid build quality, Nord has a plastic body frame whereas in iPhone SE build with glass and aluminium design and iPhone has IP67 which means iPhone SE can prevent accidental damages due to water or dust, In OnePlus Nord this feature is missing. Both smartphones lack headphone Jack.
The iPhone SE takes over the OnePlus Nord with its performance as it has an A13 Bionic processor as used in the iPhone 11 according to AnTuTu benchmark test IPhone is around 50% faster than OnePlus Nord’s Snapdragon 765G processor but Nord has 5G network connectivity which makes it future proof.
There is a tough competition in terms of the camera as of both devices carries flagship-level sensors with different resolution. OnePlus Nord has its best in class Sony’s 48MP with OIS & where iPhone SE uses a 12MP sensor as used in iPhone 11, Both devices are capable of shooting beautiful stable 4K videos, and image quality are really great, but the downside with iPhone SE is it carries only single sensor where Nord has an ultra-wide sensor, depth sensors, macro camera which is missing on iPhone, Nord has a better front camera (32MP dual Selfie cameras) compared to iPhone SE’s mediocre 7MP camera, that makes OnePlus Nord superior then iPhone SE.
The battery life of the iPhone SE is average it manages to last a day, It does support wireless charging with 18W wired charging, while OnePlus Nord is much better in terms of battery life as it lasts one day & a half-day without any problem & it is better than iPhone SE, Nord doesn’t support wireless charging but it offers Dashing speed 30W WARP charging.
Both build on different platforms, where iPhone SE has IOS & OnePlus Nord breaths OxygenOS based on Android, we are comparing IOS with Android but Nord’s Oxygen OS offers lots of customizable features & still it is cheaper than iPhone SE.
OnePlus Nord though it is not complete flagship killer it is a totally satisfying device, if you considering buying this device then we fell this is still better choice then other cheaper smartphone which offers higher Megapixel camera’s.
Investing in Nord in this Mid-tier segment, OnePlus Nord worth buying in 2021?
Oneplus Nord the most affordable Oneplus smartphone from Oneplus with a flagship camera of 48MP with 90Hz Fluid Amoled display & powered with future proof 5G connectivity with snapdragon processor with 30w warp charging and a smooth experience from Oxygen OS. Feels pretty much everything from a mid-ranger
The OnePlus Nord is powerful enough to handle day-to-day tasks easily.
The USP of this smartphone is it 48mp Sony IMX 586 sensor with OIS which enables shooting stable 4k videos & amazing nightscape picture which offer loot more details & crisp image quality.
Paired with 8MP ultra-wide camera with 119° of field view, 5MP depth sensor for beautiful portrait pictures & 2MP macro camera for closeup shots. – Other than the main camera all other sensors have average performance.
Oneplus Nord offers a dual selfie camera with punch hole design, 32MP Sony IMX616 primary sensor is capable of shooting stunning pictures & 4k videos with 60FPS, while to make group selfie easy it has 8mp ultra-wide camera with 105° wide view.
Talking about the software experience Oxygen OS offers lots of customizable features which is absent in stock Android, and keeping the UI simple, clean, and user-friendly, the software experience is smooth thanks to powerful snapdragon 765G & 90Hz display fluid Amoled display feels snappy and fast. The display is also bright enough for outdoor usage.
Software optimization is great and doesn’t heat up while using the device for a long time, battery life is good enough, blazing-fast dashing warp charging makes it an amazing choice.
This is the all-in-one smartphone package with a beautiful body, glass back and tough Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
There are other options available in the Midrange segment in 2021 like Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max & Realme 8 Pro which both are having 108 Megapixel cameras. Samsung Galaxy F62 & Samsung Galaxy M51 offer a 64MP camera with a bigger 7000mAh battery but though these smartphones offer higher resolution cameras these don’t offer OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) which still makes OnePlus Node top picks in the midrange segment even in 2021. The good news is OnePlus is soon going to launch its new affordable OnePlus 9R expected to launch this year soon.
Pretty Much Every Thing You Could Get From This #Nord
Never Settle Down
Well explained.
Nice info of Oneplus Nord