OnePlus Nord 64GB

The OnePlus Nord, after the Vivo X50 Pro, happens to be the second smartphone in India powered by the Snapdragon 765G SoC. OnePlus usually makes use of top-end Qualcomm chipsets in its phones, but the brand believes that users would still be able to get a flagship-grade experience from the 765G SoC that powers the Nord, at least as far as day-to-day tasks are concerned. Benchmarking numbers are as expected from a relatively high powered mid-range chipset. On Geekbench, the OnePlus Nord has multi-core and single-core and multi-core scores of 600 and 1,835 while Antutu showed an overall score of 275,761. These are scores that are very similar to the Vivo X50 Pro, which costs nearly twice as much but has the same chipset. However, when compared to the Realme X3, the scores of Nord don't match up, thanks to a flagship-grade Snapdragon 855+ chipset on the former. The Realme X3 has scores of 476,587 on Antutu while on Geekbench's single-core and multi-core test the scores were 741 and 2,422.That being said, OnePlus was right about the fact that you will not be missing flagship-level performance during basic to intermediate usage. These include tasks such as opening a bunch of apps in the background and switching between them. Opening multiple Chrome tabs and simultaneously playing music on Spotify while a file is being uploaded on Google Drive, all happen with the kind of fluidity I've come to expect from OnePlus. This could have been partly because of the 12GB RAM variant I have received, but the 8GB version of the device should suffice as well. The 90Hz screen makes navigation experience even smoother. It is only during heavy tasks, such as playing PUBG Mobile, do you see a very slight dip on an otherwise snappy and performance-centric device. The frame rate settings max out at Ultra instead of Extreme even when you set the graphics on the lowest option. HDR graphics are not available and the frame option for highest supported graphics, which is HD, is maxed out at High. Long story short, the OnePlus Nord might not be the absolute best option for gaming.For authentication, the OnePlus Nord uses an in-display fingerprint sensor that is one of the fastest in the smartphone world and also less prone to failed attempts. Face authentication, while less secure than the fingerprint sensor, is also extremely fast and reliable even in dim lighting. In the interest of future-proofing, the OnePlus Nord also has 5G capabilities but it will be of little use until the proper infrastructure is present. The OnePlus Nord also lacks a stereo speaker setup and instead relies on a bottom-firing single speaker. It is not the best I've heard, but is quite crisp and loud even at max volume. Call and microphone quality on the device are as good as expected.As for the software, I have maintained that OnePlus' OxygenOS offers perhaps the best user experience in the Android world. That opinion has not changed with the OnePlus Nord and it is one of the biggest contributors to the flagship-level experience that the company is trying to provide. I will not go into too much detail about OxygenOS, as you can read it in our OnePlus 8 Pro review. The lowdown is basically this: delightful and easy UI navigation, lots of customisations options, assurance of fast Android updates, lack of bloatware and ease of access.