OnePlus Nord was launched in India last week and is up for pre-orders currently and the first sale is scheduled for August 4th. The new mid-range smartphone comes with some powerful specifications for its price, such as the 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765G SoC, 90Hz AMOLED screen, 48MP quad rear cameras, and 32MP dual selfie cameras. In our OnePlus Nord review, we had a lot of good things to say about the phone. However, it is not a perfect mid-range device as it comes with a fair share of issues as well. We try to break down the good and bad aspects of the OnePlus Nord to help you decide whether you should buy it over rivals like the Realme X3 series, Vivo V19, and others.
OnePlus Nord price in India:
- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage: Rs 24,999 (sale in September)
- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage: Rs 27,999 (sale on August 4th)
- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage: Rs 29,999 (sale on August 6th)
Table of Contents
Why you should buy the OnePlus Nord
1. Premium design
Although the OnePlus Nord has a plastic frame, which did not survive JerryRigEverything’s bend test, the phone still looks and feels premium with Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back. The handset has a punch-hole display design, with a quad-camera setup (vertically-aligned) at the back. The OnePlus Nord comes in two colours: Blue Marble and Space Onyx.
2. Flagship-grade display
OnePlus Nord features a 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED display, which has the same FHD+ (1,080 x 2,400p) resolution and 90Hz refresh rate as the more expensive OnePlus 8 (review) flagship. Our in-house expert Kshitij Pujari was pleased with the display quality while reviewing the device. In his own words, “the Nord’s screen has excellent colour reproduction and contrast ratios… great viewing angles and deep blacks.” It is worth noting that the Realme X3 for the same price offers a higher 120Hz display, but on an LCD panel.
3. Clean and simple UI
Software has been OnePlus’ strength as the company prides itself on delivering a clean, fast, and optimised OxygenOS skin. This software experience comes to the affordable OnePlus Nord as well. The handset runs Android 10-based OxygenOS out of the box, which offers delightful and easy UI navigation, a ton of customisation options, assurance of fast Android updates, almost no bloatware or ads.
4. Future-proof
5G phones in India look unnecessary at this point, but that doesn’t mean people should not start adopting them right now. We can expect 5G services to roll out in 2021, so investing in a 5G phone right now would make sense if you’re planning to stick with it for a few years. OnePlus Nord seems to be a worthy investment and an affordable 5G phone option at that. The handset is the cheapest 5G phone in India yet and comes with the same sub-6GHz 5G support as the flagship OnePlus 8 series that is theoretically expected to deliver speeds as high as 5Gbps or faster.
Why you shouldn’t buy the OnePlus Nord
1. Not made for intensive games
The OnePlus Nord is powered by Snapdragon 765G SoC, which will get you through day-to-day tasks such as opening a bunch of apps in the background and switching between them with ease. However, the phone will struggle in heavier tasks, such as playing graphic-intensive games like PUBG Mobile. The performance is not as smooth as what you would get from flagship processors like the Snapdragon 855+ SoC, which is available on Realme X3 series, in a similar price segment.
2. Night mode needs work
The OnePlus Nord features the same rear camera setup that you would see on its elder sibling OnePlus 8 with the addition of a depth sensor; however, the quality is not as good as the flagship. “The night mode is still work in progress and the images clicked by macro sensor doesn’t fare too good,” we said in our review. For those unaware, the phone’s quad-rear camera setup packs 48MP Sony IMX 586 primary sensor, 8MP ultra-wide sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 5MP depth sensor. Up front, the handset sports 32MP + 8MP dual selfie cameras.
3. Average battery life
The OnePlus Nord packs an average 4,115mAh battery, which combined with a 90Hz display, tends to drain the battery faster than usual. We found ourselves reaching for the charger once in a day by evening after intensive usage. There are phones in this price segment that offer better battery backup. The Nord does support for Warp Charge 30T fast charging, which is quick to fully charge the device.
