It’s rare to see a smartphone get the world hooked to its arrival unless its an iPhone. But the Oneplus Nord seems to be an exception. The Nord was the most hyped smartphone of the year. It packs a lot of tech for just less than €400 (INR 24,999 in India and £379 in the UK). The Oneplus Nord offers a whopping six cameras, 5G connectivity, and pretty stellar specs overall for the money.
But no smartphone in this world is perfect. Oneplus Nord too has some flaws. So here are the main reasons to buy and skip the Oneplus Nord.
Reasons to Buy Oneplus Nord
Here are the top reasons to get the OnePlus Nord when it goes on sale.
Big and smooth 90Hz display
Oneplus always offers the best displays in their smartphones, so is the case with the Oneplus Nord. The Nord features a 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a pretty swift 90Hz display. The Nord offers a smooth scrolling as well as gaming experience thanks to its 90Hz panel. The Nord also offers a peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits which means you will no have any issues while reading the screen outdoors on a sunny day.
Cheapest 5G Smartphone with Really Good Specs
The Oneplus Nord is powered by an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC, paired with Adreno 620 GPU. Oneplus Nord comes with up to 12GB of RAM and 256Gb of onboard storage. The Nord also features a Quad-camera setup at the rear and a Dual-camera setup at the front. The Nord also packs a 4,115mAh battery with Warp charge 30T support.
The Snapdragon 765G is a 5G enabled chipset, which makes the Oneplus Nord cheapest 5G smartphone. With the 5G support onboard, the Nord can easily get very fast downloading speeds over a 5G network.
An Aggressive Price
The Oneplus Nord starts at €399 in Europe (INR 24,999 in India and £379 in the UK) and the company says that the Nord costs under $500 when you convert pricing. By comparison, the iPhone SE sells for £419, which is not only more expensive but includes just 64GB of storage. The Nord starts with 128GB.
Reasons to Skip Oneplus Nord
As good as the OnePlus Nord is, there are a few reasons to think twice about buying this handset.
Durability
Though the Oneplus Nord comes with an aggressive price tag, there are some compromises made with the materials and components. The Nord comes with a less-powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset, has a slightly smaller display, no telephoto camera and a plastic frame.
The major flaw in the durability of the Oneplus Nord is its Plastic frame. The plastic frame cracked during JerryRigEverything’s routine bend test. Just like the other plastic smartphones, Oneplus Nord’s least structurally-sound spot also appears to be right underneath the volume rocker.
During the bend test of the Oneplus Nord, the exterior glass is not cracked at all, on both the front and the rear surfaces, but the interior display underneath the glass cracked and stops working.
Though it would be hard to replicate a similar kind of durability fails in the real world, it is still advisable for the OnePlus Nord users to keep their phones in a safe place when entering an extreme situation, and probably avoid the back pocket.
Lacks Wireless Charging
This is another understandable omission from the Oneplus Nord considering the aggressive pricing of the device. The Oneplus Nord lacks wireless charging support, so you’ll have to go the USB-C route if you want to juice up the phone. Though it’s hard to complain considering the price, we’d still expected the Nord to come with the Wireless Charging Support.
No 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Another drawback of the Oneplus Nord is that it lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack. Many users still prefer to use the wired headphones instead of the Bluetooth headphones, and thus they have to rely on a USB Type-C to 3.5mm headphone jack converter to use the wired headphone. This may be a deal-breaker for many users.
Bottom Line
Oneplus Nord raises the bar for what to expect from a mid-range phone. This isn’t the Flagship killer like the Oneplus One since OnePlus itself has its own line of premium flagships, but the Nord unmistakenly delivers the type of experience you’d expect from a more premium handset. Currently, the Oneplus Nord is only available in Europe, India and the UK. According to Oneplus, the company will first observe the response of the Nord in these markets and then plan the launch of the smartphone in the other markets.
