Where’s Nord from here?

Oneplus tones down its Stuff five-star-rated Nord smartphone to tempt those of us in the cheap seats, and it works… mostly

from £299 / stuff.tv/nordce

■ The 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.

■ ‘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.

■ It 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.

■ You 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.

■ This 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.

Tech specs

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, 170g

Big new prints Don’t go thinking the CE doesn’t have classy touches – few rivals can match its excellent in-screen fingerprint scanner.

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.

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.