Big new prints
Don’t go thinking
the CE doesn’t have
classy touches – few
rivals can match its
excellent in-screen
fingerprint
scanner.67TESTED ONEPLUS NORD CE 5GOnePlus tones down its Stuff five-star-rated
Nord smartphone to tempt those of us in
the cheap seats, and it works... mostly
QThe OnePlus Nord CE 5G is a
cheaper version of the original
Nord. Is it better? Hell no. The back
is plastic, the main camera is worse,
the processor doesn’t have as
much gaming power and you’ll
only save £30... but we’re not sure
how much longer the proper Nord
will be available.Q‘CE’ stands for ‘core edition’.
Really it’s all about creating a
friendly face to mask something
that’s not quite as good. Still, it
looks more sophisticated than
your average sub-£300 5G phone.QIt has a 64MP primary camera,
an 8MP ultra-wide and a 2MP
monochrome. We assume a
OnePlus employee found a few
million of these black-and-white
cams discarded in a skip, because
it’s totally pointless, but the CE can
shoot lovely images.QYou will find phones with more
power for less cash, and a blast
through Fortnite shows the CE
isn’t as strong as the original Nord:
the visuals are capped at ‘medium’
rather than ‘epic’. The two have
similar CPU power, but the older
model’s chip has more 3D grunt.QThis doesn’t mean performance
has been overlooked – the CE
feels slick, never missing a beat
as you jump between apps. The
battery makes it through the day
just fine and you get 30W fast
charging to take you from flat to
61 % in half an hour.Don’t buy the Nord CE 5G expecting the sort of red-hot bargain that made OnePlus
famous. The company has taken the original Nord and made it cheaper to produce
(and, yes, a bit worse) but hasn’t drastically cut the asking price. It’s smaller, lighter
and thinner than most affordable 5G phones, and looks more elegant than just about
all of them, but that may not be enough to satisfy the old-school OnePlus crowd.It’s a good deal,
but if you want
more you’ll have
to pay your rates
Andrew WilliamsWhere’s Nord from here?
STUFF SAYS A solid 5G phone that breezes past Samsung in the value stakes ++++,
Screen 6.43in 2400x1080 90Hz
AMOLED Processor Snapdragon
750G RAM 6/8/12GB Storage
128/256GB OS Android 11
Cameras 64+8+2MP rear, 16MP
front Battery 4500mAh (USB-C)
Dimensions 159x74x7.9mm, 170gQ Telephone zing
The mid-size 6.43in display is a
OnePlus staple: sharpness, colour
and contrast are all great, but
some cheaper rivals like the Oppo
A54 do look marginally peppier on
sunny days – despite OnePlus’s
claims of 1000-nit brightness.Q Totally mired
The main camera flattens textures
into blocks of colour and mushes
up fine detail in darker areas. It’s a
step down from the Nord, if not a
catastrophic one. The ultra-wide
is basic, but OnePlus gets away
with it by jacking up the colour.from £299 / stuff.tv/NordCETech specs