OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G Review

The OnePlus Nord CE ii 5G offers bright fast-charging, and a very adept screen. The performance and cameras are decent without being exceptional, so information technology’s nevertheless an all-round package that’s well worth your consideration.

Introduction

OnePlus kickoff made its name as an manufacture outsider, an unfancied brand that could still take on the large players in the smartphone market by packing its phones with top specifications and selling them for bargain prices.

Things have changed in the years since, with OnePlus launching its ain pricey flagship devices such every bit the OnePlus 9 Pro which rivals the very best phones. But does the OnePlus CE 2 Nord hark back to an earlier era of cheap and very cheerful devices?

Design and Screen

• Lightweight and thin
• Very plasticky feel
• Some highly practical pattern touches

The handset that nosotros reviewed is in the Bahama Blue colour, and information technology’s a lite, serene tone that is calming to expect at merely however distinctive from the many other, more drab colours that smartphones seem to be bandage in these days.

While it’s certainly pleasant to expect at, the rear panel is made of plastic and you can really tell from the very first time your fingers brush against the surface. The glossy cease feels cheap to the touch, and then there’southward no way y’all tin can append your conventionalities into thinking y’all’ve somehow got a top-range smartphone for less.

In that location’s simply one speaker on this phone (found at the lesser side by side to the USB-C port), so you won’t get a stereo effect when you play music out loud, and the sound quality from the speaker isn’t great either. In brighter news for audiophiles, yous will find a three.5mm headphone jack on the phone, and there are a few other useful utilities here as well: expandable storage is bachelor via Micro SD, and information technology supports two SIM cards as well.

You tin can unlock the device via facial recognition or through the in-display fingerprint scanner, both of which worked quickly and effectively during my time with the phone.

On the other mitt, as is typical for cheaper OnePlus phones, there’s no official IP rating. This would have given me some assurance over how it might cope if it got splashed with water.

The screen is arguably this device’due south most impressive asset. Measuring a healthy 6.43-inches, this AMOLED panel has a resolution of 2400x1080p and a 90Hz refresh rate, so information technology is both sharp and smooth, while the HDR10+ back up helps colours to really pop out of the screen when you’re watching TV shows.

Dissimilar the plastic back, the screen is made of Gorilla Glass 5, so information technology should be fairly robust to any piffling knocks or scratches that it receives.

Camera

• Triple lens camera system
• Good results in daytime
• Night Mode tin can cause heavy overprocessing

There’s a triple photographic camera system at play on the Nord CE ii 5G, including a 64-megapixel main sensor, an eight-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor; these specs are near-identical to its predecessor, the OnePlus Nord CE 5G.

I was adequately pleased with the results of the 64-megapixel camera, which can see collected below (and were taken on an overcast and cloudy twenty-four hour period):

While there’south no defended telephoto sensor for optical zoom, you lot tin can utilise the 2x digital zoom from the primary sensor to skillful effect, as seen below:

Results are good, though non exceptional even at this cost point. The but real thwarting that I has was when using Night Manner, which tended to greatly overprocess images.

The ultrawide sensor offers an alternative when y’all want to take a different kind of shot and fit more into the frame, though it’south a notable step down from the main camera every bit y’all can run across from the images higher up and below.

The front end-facing camera, which has a 16-megapixel resolution, delivered good selfies that weren’t also rich in particular merely did employ the bokeh effect very well, efficiently cutting around the face of the subject even when there were complex backgrounds to deal with.

Overall, I got decent results from the photographic camera despite the somewhat dreary conditions atmospheric condition on the day I was shooting. Information technology’s not got the best photographic results for its price class, merely I found the above images to exist perfectly serviceable.

Functioning

• Middling performance
• 5G connectivity
• Nice, minimalist software

OnePlus devices often manage to punch above their weight when it comes to performance, with flagship devices frequently topping the Android podium for sheer power and even the mid-range devices packing a considerable punch.

Therefore I was expecting excellent results from this device, which is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset; even so, it didn’t quite evangelize to the extent that I was hoping for, at to the lowest degree in benchmarking results:

However, when actually using the telephone I didn’t discover whatsoever speed hiccups or glitches when performing the gamut of undemanding daily tasks – information technology was only when playing intensive games that this device’s limitations became a scrap more than evident, not offering equally smooth an feel as you’ll find on more powerful handsets. If gaming is your top priority, I’d consider other handsets.

As you tin tell by the name, this handset offers 5G connectivity, giving you lot the highest bachelor mobile data speeds. Though coverage tin nonetheless exist somewhat patchy depending on where you lot are, it’southward however highly welcome to come across this time to come-proof spec on a mid-range device.

As for the software, you lot’ll detect the Oxygen Bone 11 user interface, which is overlaid on Android xi. OnePlus’ long-running house mode has been to add together just a few extra touches to standard Android software, without getting too much in the way. To me this comes every bit a breath of fresh air by comparing to many other devices which come loaded upwards with a boatload of pre-installed apps. Information technology is a thwarting non to see Android 12 onboard, though.

Battery Life

• Decent 4500mAh capacity
• Incredible fast-charging capability

The OnePlus Nord packs a 4500mAh battery, which is a skilful-sized cell; some similarly-priced phones might offer greater battery chapters, only I found that this device easily got me through a day’due south work and play.

After watching Netflix for one hour, merely five% had been knocked off the battery, which is very good going; an hour’s streaming through Spotify saw iv% drain, which is in line with many other comparable handsets.

Nonetheless, where the OnePlus Nord CE two 5G is head and shoulders to a higher place its rivals is in the field of fast-charging. I could hardly believe my eyes when I watched the battery percentage tick up after having plugged in the 67W fast-charger; simply 12 minutes saw the battery percentage rise past 50%, and it took half an hr for it to become from 15% to 100%.

Posting results such as these put the device firmly among the marketplace leaders when it comes to fast-charging, even eclipsing other meridian performers like the Oppo Detect X3 Pro, and it’s actually a weight off your mind to know that plugging the device in fifty-fifty for ten to fifteen minutes will see yous get a healthy boost if yous happen to have forgotten to have plugged in your phone overnight before the working day.

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