AUGUST 2020 T3 61OnePlus Nord
of Nokia and Motorola have been
trading here for years, while Chinese
phone makers such as Xiaomi, Oppo
and Huawei are constantly trying to
undercut the top-tier models as well.
If you’re looking for a competent
smartphone in the £300-£500 price
bracket, then you’ve got more options
to pick from than ever before.
Firm foundations
The question is where to cut corners
to save on price, and in the case of
the OnePlus Nord, it’s definitely not
the screen. The 6.44-inch, 1080 x
2400 pixel AMOLED display is superb
to use – bright, clear and, thanks to
its 90Hz refresh rate, very fluid in
use. OnePlus says it has worked on a
host of tweaks and optimisations in
the background to ensure it delivers
a quality visual experience, and
that’s exactly what you get whether
you’re flicking through photos,
websites or Netflix episodes. Even
better, you can customise the display
in a host of ways, with night and
reading modes available, plus a
colour temperature setting.
Inside, the Snapdragon 765G
processor from Qualcomm is running
the show; it’s not quite the best
chipset inside an Android phone this
year – that’ll be the Snapdragon 865,
available in phones such as the
OnePlus 8 – but close enough for most
people. We found performance
speedy and responsive all round, from
jumping between apps to hopping
between browser tabs, and the only
difference you might find compared
to the Snapdragon 865 is an extra
second or two on loading screens.
In general use we had no issues at
all: streaming video, playing games,
editing photos... the phone handles it
all with aplomb. With the entry-level
£379 model you get 8GB of RAM and
128GB of storage, which again should
be more than enough for the majority
of users. And if your budget can
stretch to £469 then you can get hold
of the model with 12GB of RAM and
256GB of storage. You’re getting some
decent specs here for your money, and
there’s 5G on board too, which is just
about becoming standard as we move
through 2020.As far as design goes, we’re
impressed with what OnePlus has
done here as well. Besides the screen
it’s a premium-feeling phone,
lightweight and thin, with a plain but
stylish aesthetic. There’s a bright Blue
Marble colour, which is the one we
tested, as well as a more muted Grey
Onyx option, but they both score
highly in terms of look and feel. Only
if you held this up next to a £1,000
smartphone and looked closely would
you be able to spot any differences in
the style or build quality.The whole picture
A good-quality camera is essential for
any phone, and again this is an area
where mid-range phones have really
caught up. The quad-lens
48MP+8MP+2MP+5MP on the back of
the OnePlus Nord does a fine job in
most conditions, and can usually get
decent shots in the dark too – though
the night mode that OnePlus calls
Nightscape tends to make for some
rather weird brightening effects, even
if it ensures that certain parts of the
image become more visible.INNER STRENGTH
For the money, there’s some
serious hardware beneath
the surface: it comes with a
Snapdragon 765G chipset,
8GB of RAM and 128GB
of storage – which can
be upgraded to 12GB and
256GB respectively.Yo u h ave to l o o k
very closely to spot
any difference
between the Nord
and a premium
smartphoneA SEXTET OF SNAPPERS
No longer does mid-range
mean having to put up with
one cam: the Nord has main,
ultra-wide angle, depth and
macro lenses on its rear and
two selfie shooters up front.