OnePlus Nord 2 5G
The first non-Qualcomm OnePlus is a fantastic allrounder that comes at a very reasonable price
SCORE★★★★★ PRICE 8GB/128GB, £333 (£399 inc VAT) from oneplus.com/uk
T he OnePlus Nord 2 isn’t actually the second Nord phone in the OnePlus range, nor is it even the third or fourth. Following the success of the original, OnePlus went to town, releasing the cheaper N100 and N10 models and then the CE “Core Edition” variant ( see overleaf), making this the fifth Nord phone to be released since the beginning of 2020.
However, to dismiss it as just another mid-range OnePlus would be doing the Nord 2 a disservice, since it’s a superb phone in its own right. The price is attractive, the specs solid and it’s a far more interesting phone than you might expect.
Striking design
The most noticeable thing about the design of the Nord 2 is its similarity to the £829 OnePlus 9 Pro ( see issue 321, p68). Admittedly, from the front it looks like any other phone with its all-flat, frame-filling display and hole-punch selfie camera in the topleft corner, but flip it over and everything changes. The glossy
Gorilla Glass rear is curved in all the right places and, surprisingly, doesn’t pick up fingerprints readily – although this might be a consequence of the bright blue colour distracting the eye in my “Blue Haze” sample.
A cursory glance around the edges of the Nord 2 reveals a few talking points. First, this phone brings back the three-position alert slider switch, where the Nord CE abandons it. This allows you to quickly swap between “silent”, “vibrate” and “ring” modes without having to touch the screen or even unlock the phone. Perfect for those moments when you need to quickly silence your phone.
The second is less positive; there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. There’s also no microSD card expansion, no dust and water resistance rating and no wireless charging. Fortunately, fast charging is available via OnePlus’ Warp Charge 65T, which delivers a full charge in 29 minutes, and even comes with a charger in the box. You also benefit from fingerprint login via an in-screen reader on the front of the phone, plus face unlock and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
The Nord 2 is also able to boast a feature many of its rivals cannot: dual 5G SIM card slots. How many people have two 5G SIMs they could put in it is a different matter.
Punchy display
I can’t fault the Nord 2’s display. It’s large at 6.43in across the diagonal, utilises AMOLED for superior contrast and colour vibrancy, and it has a 90Hz refresh rate, so scrolling and swiping around the OxygenOS 11.3 UI feels super smooth.
It can’t match the very best in the business technically – sit it next to an iPhone 12 Pro and you’ll see the difference when watching Netflix or Amazon Prime Video content – but it’s a superb screen for the price.
Peak brightness in auto mode reaches a readable level of 556cd/m² in daylight conditions and, while playing back HDR content, I recorded highs of around 510cd/m². That beats last year’s Nord ( see issue 313, p62) hands down.
OnePlus has finally calmed down when it comes to colour modes. So, instead of giving you four or even five modes to select from, on this phone you only get two: Gentle (sRGB) and Vivid (Display P3). Colour accuracy in each mode is respectable, with the average Delta E colour variance coming in at 1.79 for Gentle and 2.19 for Vivid.
Versatile cameras
The main camera is a 50MP (f/1.88) effort, using the same sensor found on the OnePlus 9 Pro’s ultrawide camera but with a regular nonultrawide lens slapped on the front.
This is accompanied by an 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide unit with a 120° field of view and a 2MP (f/2.5) mono camera that’s used solely for enhancing black and white shots. Both the main cameras deliver pixel-binned 12MP images, as does the 32MP (f/2.45) selfie camera.
Disappointingly, the Nord 2 misses out on the macro camera included with the original model, and I’m not at all convinced how much the mono camera adds in its place.
However, the two other cameras (and in particular the main camera) deliver detailpacked and well-judged shots. Most impressively, I found that the Nord
2’s camera was just as good as that of the Google Pixel 4a ( see issue 313, p60) across many of my tests and, in some circumstances, better. For instance, in both close-up and wide-angle shots of flowers, the Nord 2 produced a more accurately focused picture that was packed with details – two areas where the Pixel 4a’s image misses out.
I’m not as keen on the “AI scene optimiser”, as it tends to oversaturate and give colours a pastel hue. But, if you turn off AI and disable HDR, the results look much more natural, and images are still packed full of details and burst with colour.
Using Nightscape mode, the Nord 2 even manages to pull off decent low-light night shots, successfully enhancing the stars even in tricky street scenes. Sometimes you’ll find ghosting if you haven’t held the camera still for long enough, but this is the first time on any OnePlus phone that I’ve been able to say anything positive about Nightscape, so we’re on the right track.
Where the Nord 2’s camera falls short is its portrait mode. Although it successfully identifies and isolates subjects, the amount of bokeh applied to the background is far too weak, and I couldn’t find a way to adjust it.
Video is disappointing as well. There’s no high frame rate recording here and, bafflingly, no 4K capability, either. All you get is 1080p at 30fps and, although stabilisation is effective, the results are understandably soft when compared with the Pixel 4a.
Surprising speed
If the cameras are a mixed bag, the performance and battery life are anything but. Indeed, the MediaTek
“The MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI is so good that the Nord 2 has a huge advantage over every other phone in its price bracket”
Dimensity 1200-AI is so good that the Nord 2 has a huge advantage over every other phone in its price bracket.
The Dimensity, like so many other smartphone processors, is an eightcore chip that has its CPU cores split into groups, each aimed at performing tasks at differing levels of performance. There’s one “Ultra Core” clocked at up to 3GHz, three “Super Cores” clocked at up to 2.6GHz, and four “Efficiency Cores” clocked at up to 2GHz, with graphics rendering delivered by a Mali-G77 MC9 GPU.
Anecdotally, performance feels snappy and smooth. Firing up PUBG
Mobile for a quick blast of battle royale action saw an unwrinkled and responsive frame rate all the way up to the game’s maximum settings. Even when the action got manic, the Nord 2 was able to keep up with zero frame drops.
In benchmarks, too, the Nord 2 impresses. Only the iPhone SE and the £340 Xiaomi Poco F3 ( see issue
322, p68) are faster in this price range. Its graphics performance is particularly eye-opening, as shown in the GFXBench Manhattan offscreen test result to the right.
Overall, the Nord 2 delivers a level of performance that isn’t far off this year’s flagship phones. That not only means scorching levels of performance today – for an embarrassingly reasonable price, I might add – but it also should ensure the phone stays responsive for many years to come.
Even our battery life test, which in the past we’ve seen MediaTekdriven phones fail miserably at, was dispatched with nonchalant ease. The Nord 2’s 4,500mAh battery helped it last 22hrs 26mins. That’s not as long as the Nord CE 5G, which reached 24hrs 43mins, but it outlasted the Pixel 4a by nearly four hours and almost doubled the iPhone SE’s woeful 11hrs 35mins result.
Clear verdict
All of which contributes to what is a highly positive overall picture for the OnePlus Nord 2. It isn’t perfect, of course: there’s no wireless charging, microSD card slot or IP rating, and video capture is restricted to a disappointing 1080p at 30fps, but the Nord 2 easily hits back in other ways.
Crucially, it’s quicker than most other Android phones at this price, battery life is also very good and its stills photography capabilities are excellent. The AMOLED screen also delivers sumptuous imagery, whether you’re browsing the web or bingewatching Loki on Disney+.
On balance, that makes the OnePlus Nord 2 5G a fantastic all-rounder for its price - whether you buy the £399 version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or opt for the 16GB/256GB version for £469. If you’re not too bothered about 4K video or bokeh portraits, then you can’t go wrong with this phone. JONATHAN BRAY
SPECIFICATIONS
8-core 3GHz/2.6GHz/2GHz MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI 5G chipset 8GB/12GB RAM Mali-G77 MC9 graphics 6.43in AMOLED screen, 1,080 x 2,400 resolution 128GB/256GB storage triple 50MP/8MP/ 2MP rear cameras 32MP front camera Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 NFC USB-C 4,500mAh battery Android 11/OxygenOS 11.3 73 x 8.3 x 159mm (WDH) 189g 2yr RTB warranty via oneplus.com