Oneplus Nord 5G - Is it worth buying in 2021?

OnePlus Nord 5G is one of the premium phones of the year 2020 at a very reasonable price. It was the first phone to provide 5G under Rs.30,000. Due to the current global economic slowdown due to the pandemic, consumers are warier about splurging on a new phone. Budget or mid-range phones that offer some flagship-level features are really the need of the hour. The OnePlus Nord is not the only 5G-ready smartphone but a premium 5G smartphone priced below Rs.30,000. I think these factors together put the OnePlus Nord in a very advantageous position.

Build Quality :

The Nord has a decent build quality. It is not the phone which is expected from Oneplus. In hand feel of the phone is quite good. Oneplus Nord comes with a Glass-Plastic sandwich design. It has a glass back design surrounded by a plastic frame. Both, the back and front are protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Some aspects of Nord's design have some similarities with phones from Oppo and Realme, and I'm not surprised, considering they are all part of the same family. There's no option to expand the internal storage on the OnePlus Nord, as the SIM tray only supports two nano-SIM cards. This shouldn't be an issue on the 128GB and 256GB variants, but those buying the 64GB variant might fall short of storage after a year or so, depending on usage. The OnePlus Nord measures 8.2mm in thickness and weighs 184g.

Display - A lot to like :

OnePlus phones are better known for their great and ambient displays. The phone is packed with a 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED FHD+ display (1080x2400 pixels) with a 90 Hz fast refresh rate and has got a 408 PPI density. The phone has got a bezel-less display with an 86.7% screen to body ratio. The phone also has additional display support of HDR10+. A small selfie camera cutout is present on the top left part of the display. The selfie camera is embedded in a small hole so, it won't interfere with the viewing experience. Display under direct sunlight is quite good as the phone has a peak brightness of 500 nits.

Specifications: Not Flagship one but close :

The specifications of that phone are not top of the line but are decent. The phone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G which is based on 7nm fabrication process technology. The phone provides LPDDR4X ram type and UFS 2.1 storage type. Globally, the phone has 2 variants, 8GB ram with 128GB storage and 12GB ram with 256GB storage. But, In India, there is another variant of 6GB ram with 64GB storage. That 64GB is really a downgrade as the phone does not provide a micro SD-card slot. 

OnePlus Nord has got all the required sensors, including an In-display fingerprint sensor and face, unlock. It also packs an accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor and compass. The phone does not have a 3.5mm jack, which might be a concern for many. 

The connectivity section of this phone is quite good. The device offers 5G support, has Dual 4G, Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX HD for top quality music listening experience and NFC.

  
The phone is powered with a 4115 mAh battery which will not be sufficient for a day but it supports a 30W warp T charge which will charge the phone from 0-100% in an Hour.

Performance - Packs a punch :

The phone gives BALANCED Performance with the Snapdragon 765G SoC. OnePlus Nord feels very fluid and snappy as its flagship phones. It does a really great job. The interface of this phone is very snappy, apps load and close quickly, and jumping between apps is quite effortless. It also does not clear the apps unnecessarily.

OnePlus Nord also has a 180Hz touch sampling rate.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G is a great and solid performer and OnePlus Nord also posted strong numbers in the Benchmark test. The AnTuTu score of OnePlus Nord is 3,29,345. 

Camera :

The Camera section of this phone has got a big update. The primary camera is 48MP with Sony IMX 586 sensor and also comes with OIS. Additionally, it has an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens with 119-degree FOV, a 5MP Depth Sensor and a 2MP Macro camera.

The UI of the camera app feels very similar to the OnePlus 8-series phones.

In daylight, the primary rear camera on the OnePlus Nord captures really good photos. The details and the highlights are really good and the colour saturation is perfect. The HDR also works quite well.

The wide-angle camera clicks decent photos with natural colours. There's no optical zoom on the Nord. Instead, it has digital zoom up to 10X

The Portrait shots are quite decent from the primary camera but the level of blur intensity cannot be adjusted. The macro camera worked well but only useful when a good amount of light is present around the subject.

The Video quality even at low light in 4K is excellent. The details and highlights were excellent. Videos recorded with the wide-angle camera looked worst in low light.

OnePlus Nord packs a selfie camera with a 32MP primary lens and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens. The device can shoot 4K 60fps video from the selfie camera which is really great. In daylight, the primary camera captured very good shots. Skin tones and colours are vibrant and the HDR is well performed. Colour saturation was very good.

The wide-angle front camera is a thoughtful addition. The images were decent but the colour saturation is poor. In low light, the images looked worst and details were also poor.

The video quality from the selfie camera is very good. Details were excellent and the colours looked great. You don't get EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) at this frame rate, but you can enable it at 30fps. You can't switch between the two cameras while shooting at 4K or 1080p, which I found a bit limiting. In low light, video quality deteriorates a little and videos looked darker.

Final Impression - Is it worth buying in 2021?

The phone is quite good as of 2020 as it is a future proof 5G ready device.

The camera is of decent quality which is capable of taking good quality photos  at that price segment.

The UI/OS in Nord is nice and smooth which is Oxygen OS 10.5 which can be upgraded to Oxygen OS 11.1 based on Android 11. It has no Bloatware and no Ads as compared to MIUI, Colour OS and EMUI.

OnePlus Nord also has Google ecosystem apps such as Google Dialer, Google Messages and other native apps. Hence the interactions between the apps feel very good and secure.

Overall Dilemma :

OnePlus Nord 5G is not the best but it is a better phone in 2021. The variant that comes under 30,000 is 8GB ram and 128 GB of storage and the processor is also really good.

So, if you are looking for a phone under 30,000 then you can definitely give it a try.