OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G review: big battery, balanced performance

• By Ashish Kumar
Published On: 8 July 2025 | 17:43 IST

Following the launch of its latest number series, OnePlus has introduced two new Nord series smartphones aimed at mid-range buyers, the OnePlus Nord 5 and the more affordable OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G. This review focuses on the latter. To meet the sub-Rs 25,000 price point, OnePlus has made a few compromises compared to the regular Nord 5, such as the omission of the Alert Slider, a less powerful chipset, and a lower-resolution front camera. That said, the Nord CE 5 5G still manages to stand out with a massive battery paired with 80W fast charging, a capable MediaTek Dimensity 8350 chipset variant, and a wide range of AI-powered features.

Find out if the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G has what it takes to lead the segment.

Verdict

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G is a strong contender in the mid-range segment. The handset delivers a balanced combination of performance, battery life, and feature-rich software, all while maintaining a competitive price point. However, the lack of stereo speakers, an underwhelming front camera, and a less durable design could be deal-breakers for some.

Standard design

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G design language remains pretty standard with flat edges and a back panel that makes the device easy to hold. However, the edges don’t extend seamlessly to the display. Instead, there’s a raised black border around the screen. While it doesn’t look particularly premium, it’s been thoughtfully moulded to avoid feeling awkward against the fingers. Thankfully, the included case, a coloured one rather than a generic transparent one that tends to yellow over time, makes the border almost unnoticeable.

We received the Nexus Blue colour variant for review, which looks very refreshing. I think other OEMs should take note of this and launch their smartphones in a similar colour. The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G has also done well to include a matte-finished plastic glass at the back, which keeps the fingerprints and smudges at bay. Beneath that glass, there seems to be a glittery surface that shimmers when light hits it at an angle.

The OnePlus logo sits centrally on the back panel, while the top-left corner houses a pill-shaped camera module that protrudes slightly from the frame. The module is accented with a matching colour scheme around its edge and the camera borders, helping it blend more seamlessly into the overall design. Adjacent to the camera module is an LED flash.

While the Nord CE 5 5G may not be ideal for single-hand usage, measuring north of 160mm in height, it remains relatively lightweight at 199 grams, making it comfortable to use over extended periods. Moreover, despite its beefy 7,100mAh battery, the handset maintains a slim profile: the Nexus Blue and Black Infinity variants are just 8.17mm thick, while the Marble Mist option measures slightly more at 8.27mm.

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G may have a polycarbonate build, but it is durable enough to survive minor pressure and falls. The handset is IP65 rated and can withstand minor splashes and exposure to water.

Vibrant display

Talking about the viewing experience, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G sports a 6.77-inch display. It is a Super Fluid AMOLED display that delivers vibrant visuals with FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080p) resolution, 10-bit colour depth, and HDR10+ support. These specifications are standard for an affordable smartphone, and the HDR playback is there, at least for YouTube, out of the box. This ensures sharp picture quality, with deep blacks and punchy colours. The display defaults to vibrant colours by default, but users have the option to tweak and make them look more natural from the phone’s settings app.

Moving on, the display supports 1,430 nits of peak brightness, which is the lowest among smartphones in the price range. The high brightness mode (HBM) at 1,300 nits is pretty standard, though, ensuring decent visibility of the text outdoors. Indoors, you will have no complaints with the brightness of the panel, which even boasts eye comfort for prolonged usage. Moreover, the smartphone comes with a 120Hz adaptive screen refresh rate, which scales down to 60Hz when needed to optimise battery usage. The high refresh rate makes scrolling and animation silky smooth, and it works well across UI and supported apps.

The display also houses an optical fingerprint scanner positioned towards the bottom. Despite not being conveniently placed (falling just below where the thumb naturally rests), the scanner remains fast and accurate when unlocking the device. That said, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G appears to cut corners in the audio department, offering only a single bottom-firing speaker that can get loud but fails to provide a crisp and immersive listening experience.

Capable cameras

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G’s camera setup is fairly standard for its price segment. It features dual rear cameras, including a 50MP primary sensor with OIS and an 8MP ultra-wide sensor. The primary camera uses the Sony LYT600 sensor, which performs well in daylight, delivering sharp and reasonably detailed images. However, colour accuracy and contrast can be inconsistent. The handset tends to boost greens and whites for a more vibrant aesthetic, which, while visually appealing, can cause the final image to stray from how the scene actually looked. Be that as it may, the handset does a decent job of highlighting the details without crushing the shadows altogether.

The ultra-wide lens follows the same colour science as the primary camera, delivering similarly vibrant tones. However, its performance is more in line with what you’d expect at this price point. The lower-resolution sensor results in noticeable softening of details and visible graininess when images are zoomed in, even in well-lit conditions.

As for selfies, the 16MP front-facing camera does an average job with facial details, skin tones, and dynamic range. The front camera is capable of capturing FHD videos at 60fps, but the details and dynamic range remain underwhelming. For video recording, the handset performs best with its primary rear camera at 1080p 60fps, even though it technically supports 4K at 60fps, the overall quality is more consistent at a lower resolution.

Daylight

Compared to the Nothing Phone (3a), the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G captures superior detail and maintains more consistent focus across the frame. While both smartphones offer a similar dynamic range, the Nothing Phone (3a) produces more accurate colours, giving it a slight edge in colour fidelity.

OnePlus Nord CE5 5G

Nothing Phone (3a)

Ultrawide

When switched to their respective ultra-wide lenses, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G shows better colour consistency than its counterpart. In fact, its ultra-wide camera delivers more accurate colours than its own primary sensor. On the other hand, the Nothing Phone (3a) performs well in exposing details in shadowy areas, but its ultra-wide images appear more distorted and grainier compared to the OnePlus offering.

OnePlus Nord CE5 5G

Nothing Phone (3a)

Portrait

Both smartphones default to 2x zoom for portrait shots, but the Nothing Phone (3a) holds a clear advantage with its dedicated 50MP telephoto lens, capturing facial details and skin tones more accurately. The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G, by contrast, tends to smooth facial textures and brighten skin tones unnaturally. That said, it redeems itself with superior edge detection, accurately preserving fine details like individual hair strands, something the Nothing Phone (3a) struggles with, often introducing noticeable blur.

OnePlus Nord CE5 5G

Nothing Phone (3a)

Selfie

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G offers good exposure in both the background and facial details when using the front camera. However, it tends to oversharpen images, especially when compared to the Nothing Phone (3a). While the Nothing smartphone may fall short in terms of fine detail, it delivers more natural-looking selfies with better tonal balance.

OnePlus Nord CE5 5G

Nothing Phone (3a)

Low light

In low-light conditions without Night mode enabled, the Nothing Phone (3a) tends to overexpose images, making it difficult to control light flares and retain finer details. In comparison, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G delivers better overall performance. While there is some visible noise, its images are noticeably more vibrant and detailed than those of its counterpart.

OnePlus Nord CE5 5G

Nothing Phone (3a)

Low light (night mode)

With the night mode enabled, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G outshines the Nothing Phone (3a) with reduced light flare and better exposure. The handset excels in capturing intrinsic details like the text in signboards and bricks near the entrance gate, much more cleanly than the Nothing Phone (3a). That said, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G can be seen boosting the colours, which makes it less ideal for the accurate representation of the scene.

OnePlus Nord CE5 5G

Nothing Phone (3a)

Snappy performance

At the core of the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G lies the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset, which seems to be better than its Ultimate variant that powers the Infinix GT 30 Pro, at least on AnTuTu. During our lab tests, the handset outperforms its counterpart by a lakh on the synthetic benchmark app. The OnePlus smartphone also outshines the Infinix offering on Geekbench’s single-core test by a slight margin, but its multi-core performance remains almost on par. Both smartphones also perform identically on the Burnout CPU throttle test, with their peak performance dropping by almost 42 percent.

Against the Nothing Phone (3a), the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G is superior in all aspects. The handset also delivered better thermal management than the Nothing smartphone in our gaming test. The OnePlus smartphone temperature increased by 10.8 degrees Celsius after playing BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes each, whereas the Nothing Phone (3a) heated up by 23.5 degrees Celsius. This could be attributed to the OnePlus’ CyroVelocity Vapour Chamber cooling system, which covers a total area of 7,041mm square – touted as the largest in its class.

The advanced cooling system in the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G puts it on par with the gaming-focused Infinix GT 30 Pro. While all three smartphones deliver similar gameplay performance during 30-minute sessions, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G and Infinix GT 30 Pro are better equipped to handle extended gaming without significant thermal throttling, thanks to their superior thermal management systems.

For regular usage, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G is snappy while browsing, scrolling through social media apps, multitasking, and more. I didn’t come across app crashing or freezing, or jitters in animation on the smartphone during my usage.

Feature-rich software

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G runs OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15 right out of the box. Despite its affordable price tag, it packs most, if not all, of the AI features found on higher-end OnePlus models. This includes Google Gemini, your personalised AI assistant, which not only answers queries and helps with writing via cloud-based intelligence, but also supports on-device voice commands to locate files, adjust system or app settings, and retrieve reminders. The handset also features Circle to Search, enabling visual, music, and photo searches directly from your screen.

While there is no AI Mind Space on the smartphone that is your one-stop destination for important articles, chats, screenshots, and more, it can summarise articles/ web pages with AI Summary, translate texts with AI Translation, compose text with AI Writer, and transcribe audio with AI VoiceScribe, among other things. AI VoiceScribe works seamlessly with a variety of VoIP apps like WhatsApp and Google Meet, enabling Live Captions during calls, complete with real-time translations. These captions are automatically saved to the Recorder or Notes apps for later reference. Although the feature supports over 20 languages, the accuracy of the captions and translations often falls short.

Aside from these productivity-based AI tools, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G also includes AI creative tools such as object eraser, recompose, unblur, reflection remover, and more. These features work more or less the same as the other smartphones within the segment. They effectively enhance the image quality, provided the photo is taken in good lighting and retains sufficient detail.

In terms of user experience, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G can feel a bit overwhelming out of the box, with 54 pre-installed apps. However, there’s little room for cleanup, as only four of them are third-party apps. On the bright side, the handset will get up to 4 major software upgrades and six years of security updates, setting a new benchmark in the segment.

All-day power, quick top ups

The Nord CE 5 5G features a 7,100mAh battery, the largest ever in a OnePlus smartphone. This goes on to deliver impressive performance for the smartphone in the PCMark battery test, which simulates real-world activities. The handset scores 16 hours and 30 minutes, which is just 11 minutes short of the segment-leading iQOO Z10 that packs a slightly larger 7,300mAh battery. The Nord CE 5 5G also performs well in our additional battery tests, dropping only 2 percent during 30 minutes of YouTube streaming and losing 15 percent after 90 minutes of gaming.

When it comes to overall usage, I can confidently say the smartphone lasts a full day even with heavy use. For regular users who don’t game extensively or rely on navigation for hours, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G can comfortably get you through half of the second day, if not the entire day, on a single charge. Speaking of charging, the handset can be juiced up from 20 to 100 percent in 47 minutes with the 80W SuperVOOC charger provided in the box. The handset supports bypass charging that powers the internals directly instead of the battery while the smartphone is in use to keep the thermals in check.

Final Verdict

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G isn’t exactly a jack of all trades, as it falls short in a few areas. If long-lasting battery life is your priority, the Vivo T4 offers a more compelling choice. For gaming enthusiasts, the Infinix GT 30 Pro (review) stands out with its impressive performance capabilities. Meanwhile, the Nothing Phone (3a) (review) shines with its versatile camera setup and distinctive design featuring the unique Glyph interface. Another strong contender in this segment is the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion, which turns heads with its well-rounded performance and sleek aesthetics.

Be that as it may, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G can still give its competitors a run for their money. The handset stands out as a dependable, long-lasting daily driver with meaningful features that go beyond the spec sheet. If you prioritise battery life, reliable performance, and a smart software experience, this is one of the best mid-range smartphones you can buy right now. The handset is even NFC-enabled for seamless payments on POS machines and more.

The OnePlus Nord CE 5 5G has been priced in India starting at Rs 24,999.

Editor’s rating: 7.9 / 10

Reasons to buy:

• The Super Fluid AMOLED display delivers vibrant visuals.
• The handset offers snappy performance for browsing, scrolling through social media apps, multitasking, & more.
• The primary camera performs well in daylight, delivering sharp & reasonably detailed images.
• Thanks to its beefy battery, the smartphone can last a full day even with heavy use.

Reasons not to buy:

• The mono bottom-firing speaker fails to provide an immersive listening experience.
• The front camera does an average job with facial details, skin tones, & dynamic range.
• Multiple pre-installed apps result in a somewhat cluttered interface.