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Introduction
Six years after revolutionizing it, OnePlus is returning to the mid-range segment with the OnePlus Nord. With the company's flagships increasingly out of the reach of its core audience, Nord is intended to bring some of the OnePlus flagship experience and core values to the more price-conscious segment of the market - the one that made OnePlus what it is today.
This isn't the brand's first rodeo in the mid-range market. OnePlus first took a swipe at this segment with the OnePlus X, which despite being a great phone, met with a tepid response from the customers and got the series shelved after a year.
But things are different now; the OnePlus X was only slightly cheaper than the OnePlus 2, which was the flagship OnePlus phone at the time, so for some people, it didn't feel necessary. This time around, the OnePlus 8 is significantly more expensive, with the 8 Pro even further up the price ladder, making the Nord that much more relevant.
So Nord is no longer a fun little experiment for OnePlus like the OnePlus X was. It's a serious weapon that it intends to wield in this increasingly competitive segment. A segment now dominated by brands like Xiaomi and Realme in certain markets, who took OnePlus' absence as an opportunity to build their repertoire. And a segment that was recently shaken by the launch of the iPhone SE and caused some to question their loyalties as they made the switch to Apple's perfectly manicured walled-garden.
OnePlus Nord specs
- Body: Aluminum frame, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, 158.3 x 73.3 x 8.2mm, 184g
- Display: 6.44-inch, 2400x1080 20:9 AMOLED, 90Hz, HDR10/HDR10+/HLG, DCI-P3
- Rear cameras: Main: 48MP f1.75 PDAF 6P OIS Ultra-wide: 8MP f2.25 fixed-focus Macro: 2MP f2.4 fixed-focus Depth: 5MP f2.4, dual-LED flash; 4K30, 1080p240 video
- Front cameras: Main: 32MP f2.45 fixed focus Ultra-wide: 8MP f2.45 fixed focus; 4K60 video
- Software: Android 10, OxygenOS 10.5
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G: octa-core CPU (1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime & 1x2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver), Adreno 620 GPU
- Memory: 8/12GB LPDDR4X
- Storage: 128/256GB UFS 2.1
- Battery: 4115mAh, 30W Warp Charge 30T
- Connectivity: Dual SIM, 5G, LTE-A, USB-C 2.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou/SBAS/NavIC
- Misc: Under-display fingerprint sensor, single loudspeaker, linear vibration motor, face unlock, alert slider
Nord has its work cut out for it then. On one hand is the OnePlus fanbase, who has gotten increasingly displeased at the company's rising prices. On the other hand, is competition from rivals who have now gone on to become market leaders in this segment. And in between is people like us, who have gotten mighty used to reviewing great budget phones and are getting harder to please.
Today, we are only allowed to show you a little bit of this new phone and the full review will have to wait for a later date. Until then, enjoy this little hands-on.
Retail box
The Nord packaging is a departure from what we are used to seeing from OnePlus. While the company had white boxes for years before moving on to red boxes in 2019, the Nord comes in an all-black box with the series signature light blue accents.
Aside from the color scheme, the rest of the packaging is quite similar to other OnePlus phones. You get a semi-clear soft case, a charger, and the cable. We feel OnePlus missed a trick here by not including matching blue and black accessories - similar to the custom packaging of the McLaren Editions - but the additional cost of that would have reflected in the phone's pricing. The McLaren Editions got away with it because of their high price.
OnePlus Nord packaging
The silicone case provided in the box is, as always, a welcome addition. It fits the phone perfectly and provides sufficient protection. We are glad that OnePlus did not plaster its name in big bold letters this time around as it did for the OnePlus 8 series cases.
At the same time, the case still has a large portion of it covered up by a translucent pattern that, at the risk of sounding ignorant, we don't recognize nor particularly like. We are also not a fan of the USB flap, that constantly gets in the way when you are trying to plug in a charger.
If you want to step up your official case game, OnePlus also has several additional options. Among the standard ones are the two Sandstone cases. The first is in a striking shade of Nord Blue that compliments the phone well and makes you feel less bad about covering up such a good-looking phone. It is, however, quite slippery as the texture on the back offers very little grip.
The black-colored Sandstone case looks identical apart from the color and is the less exciting option. Strangely, though, it had a much better grip even though the texture felt similar to touch.
The last one is the clear bumper case. This one is a bit odd as it's quite similar to the case that comes with the phone. It's stiffer but not inflexible. Apart from that, it's just a plain old clear case. If you think the bundled silicone case is not clear enough then this could be ideal. No annoying USB flap, either.
Design
The OnePlus Nord is an attractive phone. The most striking thing about our particular unit is the color, which OnePlus calls Blue Marble. It's the perfect shade of cyan that we have longed to see on phones again since the days of OG Nokia.
The only thing that this particular reviewer isn't fond of is the iridescent sheen to the glass. The back of the phone reflects light in a colored pattern that distracts from the beautiful shade of blue that we have here and doesn't work very well together. Just the blue without any fancy color patterns underneath would have been ideal.
The camera cluster on the back is now arranged on the left side, much as has become tradition lately. It's also a sizable bump, so the phone never quite rests flat on a hard surface.
The sides of the phone have been painted in a shiny chrome finish with a matching shade of blue. It looks quite nice and seemed reasonably durable in the few days that we've had the phone.
Chrome-finished frame
The front of the phone will likely be controversial for some people. OnePlus has adopted not just the hole-punch design but a pill-shaped cutout for the dual front cameras making their debut on a OnePlus phone. OnePlus hides this cleverly with all the new stock wallpaper that the phone comes with but there's no hiding it outside the homescreen. We don't mind it personally from an aesthetic perspective but the two cameras do take up valuable space on the status bar, which now looks cramped and busy.
Some of you may have already noticed the similarities to the Realme X50 Pro design. Indeed, even the dimensions of the two phones and the display specs are quite similar. Is the Nord just a reskinned X50 Pro? OnePlus would probably deny that but there's no doubt the similarities are there.
Realme X50 Pro 5G
Speaking of dimensions, the Nord isn't particularly small nor light. It's slightly thicker, wider, and heavier than the OnePlus 8. The difference on paper isn't much but the OnePlus 8 feels much thinner and lighter in hand, in part due to the curved display. The difference would be intentional to make the significantly more expensive OnePlus 8 feel more premium but by no means does the Nord feel bad.
The Nord is quite nicely built in its own right. The curvature of the sides and the finish of the glass and metal sides make for delightful user experience and the weight feels more reassuring than burdensome. A premium look and feel is something we have come to expect from OnePlus now and it's good to see the Nord delivers it in spades.
Unfortunately, the Nord is not dust and water-resistant. That's not shocking since most phones in this segment aren't. OnePlus isn't known to push the boat out on that one and shipped phones for years without a proper IP rating, including this year's OnePlus 8, so the fact that it's missing on the cheaper Nord shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
That aside, the Nord is a well-built, well-designed smartphone with a premium look and feel that stays true to the company's generally high standards.
Cameras
The Nord comes with a total of six cameras, the most for any OnePlus phone. Four of them are on the back while two are upfront.
The rear camera array consists of a 48MP f1.75 Sony IMX586 main camera with a 6P lens and OIS, an 8MP f2.25 fixed-focus ultra-wide, 2MP f2.4 fixed-focus macro, and finally a depth sensor. If you wanted to be realistic, you could say the phone only really has three cameras on the back, as the depth sensor doesn't take any pictures. And you'd be correct, but that doesn't look as good on the spec sheet.
In case you are curious about the order of the cameras, on the back, the top-most lens is the ultra-wide, followed by the main wide camera, the depth sensor, and finally the macro camera at the bottom. Oddly enough, the portrait mode effect worked even with the depth sensor covered.
You can record video at up to 4K at 30fps from the main as well as the ultra-wide camera. There's also an option to record cropped 21:9 videos for a more cinematic look but there's no 24fps mode to complete the effect. There's also no 60fps option in 4K and you can only record 60fps at 1080p on the rear cameras.
On the front is the dual-camera setup, consisting of a 32MP f2.45 fixed-focus Sony IMX616 camera on the right along with an 8MP f2.45 fixed-focus ultra-wide camera on the left. The ultra-wide camera is only available for standard shots. You cannot record videos or take portrait images from the ultra-wide camera. Neither of the two cameras can use Nightsight, which is still limited to the rear cameras.
Interestingly, the front camera can record video in 60fps in both 1080p as well as 4K. We wonder then what prevented OnePlus from enabling 4K60 for the rear cameras.
We can't show any sample images today but it should be relatively easy to find out how the Nord camera performs. OnePlus has reused the main and macro camera from the OnePlus 8. However, the ultra-wide on the back and both the front cameras are new for a OnePlus phone, and we will have to wait for the review before showing you how they perform.
A flat 90Hz screen
The OnePlus Nord has a 6.44-inch, 2400x1080 resolution AMOLED display. Like the OnePlus 8, this panel too refreshes at 90Hz. However, unlike the two flagship models, the Nord has a flat panel, which doesn't look as fancy but is better for image quality and usability.
We can also confirm that the Nord has a hardware proximity sensor, similar to the OnePlus 8 series, so you won't have the screen wake issue during calls found on the OnePlus 7 series that utilized a software solution for sensing proximity.
A single speaker and a linear vibration motor
The Nord has a single loudspeaker at the bottom. Not ideal for videos or games but it gets reasonably loud and sounds decent. There's no headphone jack nor is there any adapter or headset (except France) provided in the box. OnePlus will, however, happily sell you those separately, alongside the new OnePlus Buds.
The USB-C port on the Nord is only USB 2.0 compatible, which means data transfers aren't as fast as with USB 3.1 devices.
The OnePlus Nord also has the linear vibration motor found on the OnePlus 8 phones. This allows it to reproduce more precise clicks and taps with the vibration motor without the vague buzzing you find on most other phones.
OxygenOS 10.5
Our OnePlus Nord was running OxygenOS 10.5 at the time of writing. The software seemed identical at first to the OnePlus 8 but it has some minor differences. The one that piqued our curiosity the most was the inclusion of Google's Phone and Messages app instead of the OxygenOS versions of those apps. We are not sure why OnePlus chose to include these apps on the Nord and we couldn't get an explanation from OnePlus at the time of publishing.
The Nord also lacks the Dolby Atmos feature found on the OnePlus 8 series. Instead, it has Dirac Audio, which is implemented similarly to Atmos on the OnePlus 8 series. The EQ is more elaborate on the Nord and we are not sure if this is coming to the OnePlus 8 devices as well.
Nord comes with a whole new set of clock styles for its ambient display mode. This includes our favorite Text clock, which displays the time as text. There are seven additional clock faces. Again, none of these are present on the OnePlus 8 series and we are not sure when they will be coming, if at all.
Lastly, the Nord has a 4115mAh battery. The phone supports the same 30W Warp Charge 30T charger as the OnePlus 8 series. There's no wireless charging support.
Conclusion
Lack of time and embargoes prevent us from going too in-depth here today but our first impressions of the OnePlus Nord are positive. It looks like a OnePlus phone, it swims like a OnePlus phone, and it quacks like a OnePlus phone.
What that means is that the Nord is up to the standards that we have come to expect from OnePlus. Things like a premium design and build, quality display, good performance, and a clean, user-friendly software are a given. Nord will give users little to complain about in those aspects.
Things like camera quality and battery life are the missing variables here that we intend to figure out in our full review. Neither blew our mind in initial usage but we would like to revisit those with more objective testing.
All in all, OnePlus' return to the mid-range segment is a promising one, even if we aren't getting a flagship killer anymore.
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