The OnePlus Nord is what happens when the
company applies the “Never Settle” mantra to a mid-range product. It
transplanted the main 48MP camera from the flagship OnePlus 8, also the 90Hz
Fluid AMOLED and Warp Charge 30T technologies all the while trying to address
the ever-rising costs of flagships.
The phone is powered by the Snapdragon
765G chipset, perhaps the only clear indication that this isn’t a flagship
product. That said, the 7nm chip is efficient and has enough performance in its
ISP and AI cores to run the Nightscape algorithms. In short, it gets the job
done.
OnePlus realizes that you may currently
live outside 5G coverage, but it promises to support the Nord for a while – it
will release OS updates for two years and security patches for a year longer.
This means there’s a chance that 5G networks will reach you before the Nord
reaches the end of its life.
When you take the phone out of its box,
you will be looking at Android 10 through Gorilla Glass 5-covered Fluid AMOLED
display – a 6.44” panel (1,080 x 2,400 px, 20:9) with 90Hz refresh rate. There
are sRGB and P3 display modes, but no HDR support. Security is handled by the
in-display fingerprint reader, face unlock is also an option. In the top left
corner is OnePlus’ first dual selfie. It combines a 32MP sensor (IMX616) with
0.8 µm pixels. For comparison, the 8-series phones have 16MP sensors with 1.0µm
pixels. This one has enough resolution for binning, however, so it should have
an edge. Even better, it’s joined by an 8 MP ultrawide angle camera with a 105°
lens. The company boasts that this will let you snap selfies with a group of
friends without resorting to a selfie stick.
Around the back is a 48MP sensor with all
the trimmings – f/1.75 aperture, OIS and EIS. This is essentially the same
module as found on the OnePlus 8 (IMX586 sensor, 0.8 µm pixels). There’s no
dedicated zoom camera, but the sensor lets you zoom 2x using cropping. The one
major difference from the OnePlus 8 is that 4K video recording is capped at 30
fps (strangely enough, the front camera is capable of 4K/60 fps recording). A
cine mode is available for 21:9 videos in 4K. Also, the slow motion mode can do
240 fps at 1080p resolution. Moving on to the ultrawide angle camera, it has an
119° lens and an 8MP sensor (compared to 16MP on the OP8). This one can’t focus
at close distances so instead a 2 MP macro camera is used. The final module is
a 5 MP depth sensor.
Inside the phone is a 4,115 mAh battery
and inside the box is a Warp Charge 30T charger. It can push a flat battery to
70% in half an hour through the USB-C port (note: USB 2.0). There’s no 3.5 mm
jack, you can use the USB-C port for wired headphones if you wish. OnePlus also
announced a TWS headset today, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The phone isn’t
officially water resistant or rugged, but the company mentions that a team of
300 engineers subjected it to rigorous tests that included drops and artificial
sweat.
There are two finishes available for the
glass back – polished Blue Marble and matte Gray Onyx. You can also choose one
of six cases - some are artsy, some are simple and one makes it look like the
phone has a transparent back (you can thank JerryRigEverything for this one).
The OnePlus Nord will launch in two
regions first – Asia and Europe (notably the North American market is
excluded). The phone will cost € 400 in
mainland Europe and £ 380 in the UK and it will be notably cheaper in India -
INR 28,000 (that's € 330 or so). In both cases you will be able to snag one
starting on August 4 through the official OnePlus site as well as partner
stores and carriers. In India, Amazon will also carry the Nord. These prices
are for the base version with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB storage. There's an
upgrade available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage - this one costs € 500/£ 470
on the Old Continent and INR 30,000 in India. Note that Amazon India lists an
exclusive cheaper version - INR 25,000 - with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage.
This one won't be available until September, however.
