The series North of OnePlus, except for a few stumbles, it is becoming the one that has most over the years maintained the original characteristics of the brand: offering valid products at the right value for money. It is no coincidence that OnePlus Nord first, and OnePlus Nord 2 later, were best buys in their respective years of release. The forgettable N10 and N100 that we have defined as missed opportunities are well archived, the Chinese house renews the CE (Core Edition) model bringing the new OnePlus Nord 2 CE to the market in 2022.
Compared to last year, the price increases, by € 50, but the technical characteristics and the overall user experience that it manages to offer also grow, it is time to get to know it more in depth.
OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G packaging
Inside the OnePlus Nord CE 5G package there are the 65W Warp Charge charger, the cable for charging and Type-C file transfer and the pin to extract the SIM and MicroSD drawer, as well as a rubber cover with a good design .
OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G video review
Design & Ergonomics
Body from OPPOsoul from OnePlus. It looks like this OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G, aesthetically very beautiful and cared for with this partly transparent rear body that shows the typical color of the Chinese house, an always pleasant blue. The material with which it is made remains the plastic even if worked properly to achieve a good feeling to the touch.
With a thickness of 7.8 mm, the smartphone is the thinnest produced by the Chinese house after OnePlus 6T. The weight is 173 grams.
Frontally we have Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the panel AMOLED from 6.43 in at Full-HD + resolution, with refresh rate up to 90 Hz, HDR10 + certification and integrated fingerprint sensor: from this point of view, therefore, there do not seem to be major changes compared to the predecessor. Like many other mid-range smartphones, he also suffers from a slight blue shift problem so when you tilt the smartphone slightly, white tends to turn blue or red. Nothing overly problematic anyway. Certainly more conspicuous and ugly to see the large lower chin.
On the other hand, the vibration feedback is not great, a bit noisy.
In the multimedia field, if the screen is approved, less can be said of the audio where the speaker uses only the lower one and not in combination with the ear capsule for which the audio is simply mono, really a shame. However, the 3.5 mm audio port remains.
Functionality
OnePlus Nord CE 5G arrives on the market with Android 11 and OxygenOS 11.3, the minimum wage in short. Android 12 and OxygenOS 12 will arrive in the second half of 2022. OnePlus’ promise is two years of Android version updates and three years of security patches. Given the use of the word “years”, it is not 100% clear whether the device will stop at Android 13, the version currently in its first Developer Preview.
In terms of functionality, however, there is almost everything we usually find. Present for example thealways on display with the Canvas feature that allows you to adapt your own photograph and stylize it to then apply it as a background for this mode. In the menu there is then the whole section dedicated to customization to change the main color, icon style and so on, the possibility of activating the gestures or the navigation bar or, in the Settings Utilities item, the parallel App function to have multiple accounts of the same applications, App Locker to lock access to certain apps with a code and Shelf, the dashboard in OnePlus that can be activated by pressing and holding on the HomeScreen.
Performance
Just like its predecessor, the smartphone is placed in a price range slightly below that occupied by the “main” Nord series, which sees OnePlus Nord 2 5G as its latest exponent (waiting for the summer 2022).
Upgrade and change of “strategy” for the heart of the device, which this time consists of the MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC at 6 nm, with octa core CPU, Mali-G68 GPU and 5G and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. Alongside it, it starts with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory (expandable up to 1 TB via microSD).
Compared to the Snapdragon 750G of the previous model we have a small increase in terms of performance, of 10-15%, and this is noticeable in some less hesitation during heavier operations. As usual, however, the main difference is the software that always offers an excellent user experience in terms of fluidity and response to the touch.
Nothing to complain about on the connectivity front where it is doing well and there are no problems to report; there is 5G connectivity, there is no shortage of WiFi 6, NFC for payments via Google Pay, Bluetooth 5.2 and geo-location sensors.
Camera
The photographic compartment of OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is exactly the same as the previous year:
- 64 megapixels with f / 1.79 aperture and 0.7 μm large pixels (not optically stabilized but digitally);
- 8 megapixel ultra wide angle f / 2.25 with 119 ° field width;
- 2 megapixel monochrome f / 2.4.
The selfie front camera, on the other hand, is 16 megapixel.
The quality generally does not surprise either positively or negatively, it is an average photographic sector for the price range of 300 euros that suffers from strong contrasts and shows its side as soon as the ambient brightness drops. The OnePlus camera application still fails to enhance the sensors it is equipped with and here too it lacks the same defects as its brothers such as a different white balance between the ultra wide-angle camera and the main one. OnePlus says it has improved portrait and night modes but I would say that very little has changed overall.
In the video field it manages to record at the maximum quality of 4K at 30 fps or 108p at 60 fps, unfortunately the absence of any lens stabilization is excessively noted, luckily there is digital stabilization that improves the situation but on the micro-moved fails to do a great job. Under no circumstances can you switch between one sensor and another during recording. Also, I guess due to a software bug, in some resolutions like 1080p at 30fps it doesn’t zoom while at 60fps it does.
Battery & Autonomy
There battery of OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is 4,500 mAh: the capacity is the same as the 2021 model, but the speed of fast charging takes a major leap forward and goes up to 65W (wired, of course). This SUPERVOOC recharge is able to bring the battery from 1 to 100% in 32 minutes and to provide a day of autonomy in just 15 minutes: it is a low voltage charging solution, with 8 temperature sensors and a circuit built-in independent charging designed to ensure real-time monitoring of temperatures inside the phone. To complete the picture we have a USB Type-C port and a port for the 3.5 mm audio jack (now almost a rarity).
In terms of duration, it allows you to get between 6 and 7 hours of display on throughout the day, consequently arriving in the evening is a certainty with this smartphone.
As mentioned in the package there is a wall power supply.
In conclusion
OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is available from March 3, 2022 at a price of 359 euros. A product promoted overall but which would have been more attractive at last year’s price, or 299 Euros. In fact, it represents a natural evolution of the latter with: faster charging, more refined design and more convincing performances. As widely said also for Redmi Note 11 Pro and Realme 9 Pro +, the mid-range of last year is today on these figures representing in fact the best choices.
A price, however, all in all appreciable if you think that Oppo Find X5 Lite is apparently the same smartphone but offered at 499 Euros. If you look at it from this perspective, in short, it seems that OnePlus is back to making OnePlus, or working to offer smartphones with an excellent quality / price ratio, we will see if it will believe it enough or not even with the next European launch of the OnePlus 10.
On this product there are many typical features of the company: a good display with a high refresh rate, the fast charging, the responsive software experience. Really a shame that you just miss it slider quick to manage the do not disturb that would have put the icing on the cake but even more a pity is that OnePlus is not sufficiently aggressive on the price front.
