Svelte, light and nice

OnePlus Nord CE 5G is here. But with a key feature missing, is it worth buying? Read to find out

When I saw images of the Nord CE, I was very sad because one of OnePlus’ key distinguishing features was missing. The Alert Slider was gone; this for me is a very useful feature and I couldn’t for the life of me imagine a OnePlus device without it. Yet the Nord CE came without one.

Now that I have used the phone for a few weeks, I can tell you that I still miss the slider. However, this phone is plenty impressive even without it. In the box, you get the phone with the screen guard pre-attached, a warp charger, the signature red cable, a plastic phone cover and some documentation. 

The Nord CE is a svelte and light device. Its finish feels premium even though the back is made completely of plastic. This phone is light at just 170 grams and is thin at just 7.9 mm. That shedding of weight and thickness have dramatically improved the hand feel of this phone over its predecessor. On the bottom of the phone, there is a USB Type-C charging port, a headphone jack and a speaker port. I was pleasantly surprised to see the headphone jack make an appearance. The single speaker port at the bottom makes a fairly decent amount of noise. The sound isn’t the best quality though, but it is passable. 

The phone also comes with a 30T fast charger, which means you can charge your phone to 70 per cent in just 30 minutes from zero. The 4500 mAh battery does a good job of keeping the Nord running through the day; you can squeeze out even more performance if you turn off the always-on display and reduce the refresh rate.

The screen on the phone is a 2400X1080 AMOLED and it is bright enough to be viewed under direct sunlight. The display also supports a 90Hz refresh rate, which means scrolling and gaming on this looks beautiful. It should be noted that there is no motion smoothing option for a video like on other OnePlus phones.

The Snapdragon 750G is a robust processor. It performs well in day-to-day tasks and I never felt it stutter or behave oddly at any point. The built-in Adreno 619 GPU performs well in most common games, even on high settings. Though, intensive games like Genshin Impact suffered some drop frames on Ultra settings. The processor throughout managed to keep its cool, with the phone only getting warmer with increased loads.

The camera on the Nord CE is also another point of difference, offering a 64MP rear main camera, supported by an 8MP Ultrawide and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera. Photos from the device were great overall. It captured colour well and the images were sharp. With low-light, the wide-angle pictures without night mode turned on were terrible, while the pictures with the mode on were just about okay. The main lens, however, shot great low-light images. Portrait mode created a decent bokeh effect while keeping the subject in focus, especially around curly hair which was impressive. Slo-mo video on the NORD CE was a little disappointing going up to 240 frames on 720p mode. Regular video output was great in both full HD and 4K. In low light videos, there was a fair amount of noise. At 4K, you can only capture 30 frames per second which 1080 has the option to capture at 60 frames. For this budget overall, the phone does have a decent camera.

I was disappointed to see the slider missing from the Nord CE, and for me, that was a little part of the OnePlus design that was lost. However, this phone in every other way is a success. The smooth AMOLED screen, the superb Snapdragon 750G processor and the feel of holding a light phone just make this device magic. While other brands at the price point of Rs 22,999 crowd their phone’s OS by pushing ads and apps, OnePlus has instead stuck to the beautiful Oxygen OS which comes devoid of such distractions. That alone is enough for me to recommend this phone.

If you are looking for a non- flashy, clean phone experience on a budget, you can’t go wrong with the new OnePlus Nord CE 5G.

Overall Score 9/10
User Experience 9/10
Features 9.5/10
Camera 8/10
Performance 9/10
Design 9.5/10

>> 90hz AMOLED screen
>> Headphone jack included
>> Oxygen OS offers a point of difference over competitors
>> Missing alert slider
>> Video in low light is grainy
>> Phone speaker is not impressive

Image samples: https://bit.ly/36jEHlB

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