We have been using the Oneplus Nord for quite a few weeks now actually maybe the longest i've ever used something pre-launch but Oneplus is one of those companies where they have a separate impressions embargo for unboxings and stuff and then a reviews embargo which is smart because then you've created two separate waves of press about your product.
So the spec the design the hardware and some of the important stuff like the availability and the price, this is everything you need to know.
Design
We saw the design of course revealed already in our exclusive but here's a better crispy high resolution look at Nord and the two colors available are Blue Marble and Gray Onyx and it's not bad but my take is pretty mixed on the design.
They ended up going back to a more recognizable Oneplus design which basically means the vertical camera module on the back which is fair you know that's been a Oneplus thing for a little while but i kind of think it takes away from the character.
The Oppo Reno 3 pro just looks like yet another version of kind of the same phone i'm just saying but the point of the Oneplus Nord is to move down in price
The whole thing gets pretty close to the bezels basically this does not feel like a cheap phone screen at all and it's also got the dual hole punch cutout at the front and just overall it's a pretty nice display the fingerprint reader from what i can tell is about the same as what i've seen in other Oneplus phones it's optical and it's pretty low on the phone so it's actually easy to reach
Specifications
So for that price you're getting a lot so in the spec department that's a Snapdragon 765 G, 8GB RAM and 128 GB of storage but there's also a 12GB 256 internal model and then up front is a flat 6.4 inch 1080p 90 hertz AMOLED display with the fingerprint reader underneath and 180 hertz touch sampling rate that's pretty nice for this price now you can tell it's not quite the tippy top flagship stuff we expect for higher prices of course a 900 or 1000 dollar phone will have a higher refresh rate and even higher resolution and just overall better quality panels but even at 1080p here you're looking at over 400 pixels per inch and most people spending 400 bucks on a phone can't tell the difference between 90 hertz and 120 hertz.
Battery
Behind that display powering everything is a 4115 mAh battery pretty good sized battery and it comes with warp charge 30t charger in the box so you're getting fast charging that we're used to with other Oneplus phones included at this price so that's like 0 to 70 percent charge in half an hour if you need it that is always nice to have now there is no wireless charging in this phone there's no official IP water or dust resistance rating and while we're at it there's a couple other places they save money uh they've used ufs 2.1 storage and they've used usb 2.0 data speeds even though you still have fast charging so there's some places where they've cut it back but if you've been paying attention you've probably noticed something by now which is unlike a lot of the other budget phones i've reviewed especially lately this doesn't go super all in on one spec and then kind of skimp on the rest this definitely feels like a much more balanced package the build quality is definitely here you have metal and glass you got that alert slider we're used to the 90 hertz oled display is a great place to start you have a pretty good sized battery with fast charging a pretty nice set of specs again this isn't the review but the 765g has some pretty good performance results so far and that's paired with plenty of RAM.
Camera
Maybe with a budget phone you're hearing all this you're like oh I know so the camera's trash right that's usually how it goes cheap phone cheap camera here's a scoop on the camera so it is a quad camera system so you start with a 48 megapixel main camera an 8 megapixel ultrawide camera and then a 2 megapixel macro camera and then a 5 megapixel depth sensor so it's like okay they can say it's a quad camera system but most people most people are just going to be using the first two cameras and then the main camera is actually the same camera same hardware as the Oneplus 8 not the Oneplus 8 pro the Oneplus 8, so again this isn't my review that review will have my photo samples and video samples from this camera system and the selfie cameras you got a 32 megapixel selfie camera and then a second 8 megapixel ultra wide selfie camera up front.
I got to be testing all those things but a couple things on the camera one Oneplus has called it like a flagship quality camera i wouldn't call it a flagship camera i'll say the Oneplus 8 pro has what I consider a flagship quality camera because it's their flagship and that stays up to par with the Samsungs and Apples and Huawei's of the world the Oneplus 8 camera if you go back and watch that review was a step below that but also Oneplus does have a pretty great track record at least from my experience of improving camera quality over time with software updates so while this isn't you know the highest and most amazing camera this is now a couple months or multiple months into the development in this camera system so it's going to be better than some of the garbage we've seen in other 400 Dollar Android phones and then I do like that they have dual selfie cameras up here the one standard one ultra wide instead of like some borderline useless depth sensor so if you're going to do the dual cutout which this is the first time Oneplus has actually ever done two cameras up front, you might as well make use of it so they got the pillbox cut out and two cameras so my full analysis of these cameras of this new chipset and the performance and of course all the other stuff the screen and everything that goes with it will be in the full review.
Whats New in the Oneplus Nord (Pros)
- Thin Bezels
- Hole Punch Dual Front Cameras
- Optical Image Stabilization
- Splash Proof due to extra seals
- 90Hz Screen Refresh Rate
- 5G Compatability
Whats Missing in the Oneplus Nord (Cons)
- Headphone Jack is Missing
- Average Audio due to Single Speaker
- No Official IP Water or Dust Resistance
- No Wireless Charging
- Not Available in US
Price
We've all heard the Oneplus story a thousand times but they've been creeping up and up and up slowly in price over the years as they approach flagship status and use more and more expensive parts and so people started to wonder are they just leaving the whole cheap phone thing are they abandoning what got them so many fans in the first place which was great phones for a low price and so with Nord they're back at that and to be honest it seems like this is about as good as an overall package as you're going to get for the price and that price is 399 Euros specifically because this phone isn't available in the US or North America at all but we'll get to that.
The Oneplus Nord price in India starts at Rs. 24,999 for the 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant that is exclusive to the country. The phone also comes in 8GB + 128GB storage option at Rs. 27,999 and the top-of-the-line, 12GB + 256GB storage model at Rs. 29,999.
Availability
This is a pretty promising package they've kept up because of that balance a lot of the fast and smooth stuff pretty well so the most important thing left then is availability so with this first Nord phone Oneplus is focusing on India, China and Europe so it's not coming to North America.
There will be definitely more phones later in the Nord lineup with other names that may come to the United States or to North America or to other regions that aren't listed in that right now so most people who aren't in those regions probably won't get their hands on this phone probably won't be importing it because that's not something most people do.
Conclusion
That's everything you need to know about Oneplus Nord right off the jump kind of like i've said is it's that overall steady package of nothing too crazy but not skimping on almost anything a lot of phones in this price range like if we take out Iphone SE because that's the other giant gorilla in the room at this exact price this seems like one of those better well-rounded things you can get you're going to get a big battery fast charging pretty nice screen high refresh rate 5g compatibility there's a lot going here turns out the reason people wanted Oneplus to come back to this lower price and make a device in this space it's because they're pretty good at it. So that was all about the All new Budget Flagship from Oneplus. Hope you liked our review, Stay tuned for more such indetail reviews and we will also bring a dedicated camera review of the Oneplus Nord. Thank You.
