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<\/p>\nOne year after OnePlus loudly stepped into the midrange and entry-level phone market with the OnePlus Nord, it\u2019s back with the OnePlus Nord CE 5G. That \u201cCE\u201d at the end of its name stands for \u201cCore Edition.\u201d OnePlus claims the new phone strips back some of its predecessor\u2019s less necessary features to focus on offering its \u201ccore\u201d features at a more affordable price, similar to what Samsung offers with its \u201cFE\u201d (fan edition) devices.<\/p>\n
First and foremost that means the Nord CE comes with a more affordable \u00a3299 \/ \u20ac329 starting price, down from \u00a3379 \/ \u20ac399 for last year\u2019s phone. It keeps the 1080p 90Hz OLED display, and even adds a headphone jack, but it\u2019s got one fewer camera on both the front and the back, and a less premium design with a plastic rear panel instead of glass. Alongside the \u00a3299 model, which gets you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, there\u2019s also a \u00a3369 \/ \u20ac399 model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. I\u2019ve been using the 12GB version.<\/p>\n
Like the original Nord, the OnePlus Nord CE is only getting a release in Europe and India, while US buyers instead have the Nord N200 coming later this month. The question for all of them is whether OnePlus has stripped back one feature too many or has it found the right balance of price and performance?<\/p>\n
Verge Score<\/p>\n
7.5 out of 10<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Look at the Nord CE next to last year\u2019s phone and it\u2019s clear they\u2019re cut from the same design cloth. Both have an edge-to-edge OLED display on the front with minimal bezels, selfie cameras in a hole-punch to the top left of their screens, and a rear camera bump that arranges their sensors into a line. Like the original Nord, there\u2019s no official IP rating for dust and water resistance, and no wireless charging. <\/p>\n
Peer closer, however, and the differences become more obvious. For starters, there\u2019s now only one selfie camera on the phone: the original Nord\u2019s secondary ultrawide camera is gone, while the main selfie camera\u2019s resolution has been bumped down from 32 megapixels to 16. On the back the main camera\u2019s resolution has increased from 48 to 64 megapixels, and there\u2019s still an 8-megapixel ultrawide, but the 5-megapixel depth and 2-megapixel macro sensors are gone, replaced with a single 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. <\/p>\n
The Nord CE is a slender device to hold. OnePlus claims this is the thinnest phone it\u2019s made since the OnePlus 6T, and at 170g (6oz) it feels relatively light considering its 6.43-inch screen. It\u2019s tempting to claim that heavier devices feel somehow higher quality, but I think there\u2019s something to be said for a device that\u2019s thin and light enough that you can forget about it when it\u2019s sitting in your pocket. Despite its thinness, the Nord CE includes a headphone jack, which was absent on last year\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
The Nord CE\u2019s battery is also technically bigger than last year\u2019s Nord at 4,300mAh. But in my testing its battery life worked out a little worse in everyday usage. While the original Nord got upward of eight hours of screentime, the Nord CE was closer to six and a half in my experience. That was still enough to get me through a day\u2019s use of Twitter, Slack, and WhatsApp with some battery to spare, and after a weekend of lighter usage, the phone lasted me until the middle of Sunday.<\/p>\n
For charging, the OnePlus Nord CE 5G uses the Warp Charge 30T Plus fast-charging standard, so you won\u2019t see the kinds of ultra-fast charging speeds we saw with the 65W-compatible OnePlus 8T and 9. Warp Charge 30T Plus is still fast enough to charge the Nord CE from 0 to 99 percent in an hour. In my testing it hit 32 percent after 15 minutes, 64 percent after 30, and 88 after 45. That should be fast enough for all but the most demanding of users. <\/p>\n
Similar to battery life, which came out slightly worse despite ostensibly having better hardware, the overall performance of the Nord CE was a little more sluggish than last year\u2019s phone. The CE is powered by a Snapdragon 750G processor. As you might guess from its name, the new processor technically sits further down Qualcomm\u2019s range than the 765G in last year\u2019s phone. But because it\u2019s a more modern chip, OnePlus claims it\u2019s actually faster, with 20 percent better CPU performance and 10 percent better GPU performance.<\/p>\n
The switch has addressed one of my quibbles with the original Nord, which was that its display would hitch slightly when quickly scrolling through an app like Twitter, impacting the otherwise silky smoothness of its high refresh rate display. But the Nord CE\u2019s performance just didn\u2019t feel as snappy overall. Hopping between apps would occasionally cause the interface to hitch slightly or stutter as the system keyboard loaded in. That\u2019s not an unusual tradeoff at this price (we observed similar performance with last year\u2019s Pixel 4A, for example), but it\u2019s worth mentioning in light of OnePlus\u2019 claims about performance.<\/p>\n
For the most part I think OnePlus has made some smart decisions with how to approach cameras on the Nord CE, even though, unfortunately, OnePlus\u2019 much advertised partnership with Hasselblad with the recent OnePlus 9 hasn\u2019t brought any benefits here. Three rear cameras is a more reasonable amount of cameras compared to the overkill of four on the original Nord. OnePlus has still allowed itself one useless rear camera on the Nord CE \u2014 a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor \u2014 but it\u2019s easy to ignore. <\/p>\n
Personally, I would have loved to see the ultrawide selfie camera return from the first Nord. It might not have been the most useful feature on an everyday basis, but it\u2019s always great to have around when you need it.<\/p>\n