Introduction
The OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is the sequel to the Nord CE from last year. The CE, which stands for core edition, is OnePlus' entry-level line in the Nord branding. OnePlus positions these phones as a step above the average Android smartphone, with all of the core functions plus a few extras.
The OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G, on the other hand, is not a novel or unique phone. It's simply a rebranded Oppo Reno7 5G, and although that's been the case with most OnePlus phones for quite some time, the Nord CE 2 5G is nearly similar to the Oppo phone.
Is it a terrible thing? Not always, especially if the two devices are aimed for distinct markets. However, the Reno7 5G and the Nord CE 2 5G will be available in various areas at the same time, raising the issue of why Oppo would double-dip in this fashion.
But that's a topic for another day, and for now, we'll stick to the gadget at hand. We have some prior experience with its predecessor, which was a good smartphone for the money. Let us wait and see how the new Nord CE 2 5G performs.
Unboxing
The Nord CE 2 5G is packaged in the same black Nord packaging as the other versions in the series. The smartphone is inside, together with a 65W SUPERVOOC charger and the red OnePlus charging cord.
Yes, the charger came directly from the package of an Oppo smartphone. While it's debatable if the OnePlus Dash/Warp charging was ever anything more than rebranded Oppo VOOC charging, it appears OnePlus has chosen to quit pretending entirely.
The cable has a USB-A connection on one end to match the charger's USB-A port. The charger is only capable of providing 65W to Oppo/OnePlus phones. When linked to another device, the output is just 10W. Furthermore, the offered cable, like the phone itself, is only USB 2.0 approved.
Display
Yes, the charger was included in the packaging with an Oppo smartphone. While it's arguable if the OnePlus Dash/Warp charging was ever more than rebranded Oppo VOOC charging, it looks OnePlus has decided to stop pretending.
The cable contains a USB-A connector on one end that corresponds to the charger's USB-A port. The charger can only provide 65W to Oppo/OnePlus phones. The output is just 10W when connected to another device. Furthermore, the provided cable, like the phone, is only USB 2.0 compatible.
The white balance may be manually altered regardless of the colour profile used. This has been the situation with all current OnePlus phones and is very illogical. A bespoke white balance dial makes sense for a fully customised colour profile, however colour spaces such as sRGB and Display P3 have their own particular white points that should not be dialled in by the user. Furthermore, the phone makes no attempt to have an appropriate default white point for any of the colour profiles, with both P3 and sRGB modes having an incorrect cold blue tint.
For the Nord CE 2 5G display, OnePlus promises HDR10 and, more particularly, HDR10+ capability. In our tests, we were unable to confirm this. Simply put, our evaluation device lacked an HDR-capable display. Sure, the phone could tonemap HDR10 content and play it on the SDR display without the colours being washed out. This, however, is not a real HDR experience.
We were also unable to confirm the HDR10+ claim precisely. DRM Info, for example, could only detect software support for HDR10 and HLG. Amazon Prime Video is the sole app that supports HDR10+ material, yet that app displays no indication that it is playing in HDR, let alone HDR10+. Furthermore, Netflix flatly refused to detect any HDR.
The visual quality on the monitor is largely satisfactory. The benefits of an OLED panel, such as pristine blacks and strong contrast, are there. The display also has useful brightness levels and can get even brighter in direct sunlight, even if the brightness has been manually set to the maximum. The viewing angles are a little poor, and when you tilt the display back and forth, you get a rainbow pattern, but it's only really evident on a full white or light coloured screen.
The touch responsiveness was satisfactory. During our testing, the display responded well to touch inputs, with no delays or unintended inputs.
An optical fingerprint sensor is also included in the display. Because this sensor is sluggish, you must leave your finger on the screen for a longer period of time than you would be used to with capacitive sensors or some of the quicker optical sensors available. However, if you mentally prepare yourself for it, the sensor works consistently.
Software
The OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is powered by OxygenOS 11.3 on top of Android 11. It's frustrating that OnePlus is still releasing new phones with Android 11 four months after the public release and ten months after the original beta release of Android 12.
As much as we appreciate facts over conspiracy theories here, it's simple to see why the corporation would debut phones in this manner. Over the course of its life, the Nord CE 2 5G will receive two significant Android upgrades. This implies that it will receive Android 12 and, ultimately, Android 13. It's easy to understand how releasing with Android 11 means the corporation will have to deal with one fewer Android version in the future. If OnePlus had launched with Android 12, it would have been required to pledge to provide Android 13 and subsequently Android 14 as part of its two-update guarantee.
Of course, OnePlus is not the only business that does this, and it is a widespread issue in the Android ecosystem.
Moving on, the OxygenOS version on the Nord CE 2 5G is the same as the one found on the Nord 2 and the OnePlus 9RT. It serves as a bridge between the OnePlus-developed OxygenOS 11 and the Oppo-fied OxygenOS 12. OxygenOS 11.3 is based on the ColorOS codebase, however it still looks like OxygenOS 11.
The majority of this pertains to things such as the launcher, which remains unchanged from previous versions of OxygenOS 11. It should be recognisable to anybody who has used OnePlus phones before, and it is simply built with a fair amount of features, including the ability to install custom icon packs.
Notifications, shortcut toggles, multitasking UI, always-on display modes, and some of the custom apps are also from previous versions of OxygenOS. They all appear to be relatively clean and straightforward, although they are becoming a little long in the tooth.
The ColorOS influence can be seen in areas like the Settings app, which is a mash-up of previous OxygenOS UI and ColorOS parts. The Camera app, for example, is then taken directly from Oppo phones. The mix is not startling for the most part, and it still feels primarily like using a OnePlus phone, as opposed to OxygenOS 12, which seems fully like ColorOS.
Our testing device came with a smorgasbord of pre-installed applications, the most of which were from Google, but there were also several from OnePlus and a few third-party apps like as Netflix and Spotify. The good news is that practically all of them can be uninstalled by OnePlus. We simply wish there was a way to uninstall numerous applications at once, like there is in MIUI, rather than just one at a time.
However, not everything can be removed. The OnePlus Red Cable Club has a prominent position within the settings app and bombards you with offers every time you open it. OnePlus also believes you require three file managers for some reason and will not let you to uninstall any of them.
OnePlus' gesture navigation remains abysmal. Unlike other Android phones, which require a purposeful swipe gesture from the right edge to return, any movement near the right edge on OnePlus phones is interpreted as a signal to return. It's really annoying when all you're doing with your right thumb is scrolling through a webpage or your Instagram feed, and the phone immediately takes you back to the previous page or the homescreen because it can't discern the difference between a side swipe gesture and vertical scrolling. Every other manufacturer seemed to have figured this out, yet OnePlus continues to complicate our lives.
Performance
The MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor powers the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G. It has an octa-core CPU architecture with two 2.4GHz Cortex-A78 cores and six 2.0GHz Cortex-A55 cores, as well as a Mali-G68 GPU. OnePlus has chosen the slower LPDDR4X RAM with a choice of 6GB or 8GB and UFS 2.2 storage with only 128GB as standard. MicroSD cards may be used to enhance the capacity even more.
In everyday use, the Dimensity 900 delivers decent results. Opening and navigating through applications was mainly quick and easy. Multitasking was also not an issue, as even the basic model had adequate system memory.
Camera
On the rear of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is a triple camera system comprising of a 64MP f1.7 primary camera, an 8MP f2.
Two ultra-wide cameras and a 2MP f2.4 macro camera are included. On the front, there is a single 16MP f2.4 camera. The only significant physical difference between the Nord CE 2 5G and the Oppo Reno7 5G is the front camera, which has a 32MP resolution.
The camera app is brought over from Oppo phones that run ColorOS. This software is less simple to use than the former OnePlus camera app; the latter offered a handy slide up drawer for camera modes, but the Oppo app burys extra modes under the More option at the end of the sliding list, which is more difficult and uncomfortable to access.
Aside from that, the app is mostly full-featured, with features like a night mode, portrait mode for photos and videos, AI image enhancement mode for photos and videos, beautification mode for portraits, a dual-view video mode that can capture both the front and rear camera feeds at the same time, a text scanner mode, and so on.
Let's start with the primary camera for image quality. The 64MP camera shoots surprisingly decent quality photographs in daytime. The photographs are well-exposed and have excellent colour fidelity. Detail and resolution are particularly remarkable for a 16MP image, despite some oversharpening.
The image's main flaws are related to contrast and dynamic range. OnePlus has a propensity to crush shadow detail in order to generate more contrasty photographs, however this is not the greatest practise if you want your images to have the most dynamic range possible. Unfortunately, no RAW capture is available, so we can't even see what the sensor is capable of.
Because the phone lacks telephoto lenses, all zooming is done digitally. The 2x option in the camera app offers decent results that hold up to inspection. However, zooming in further degrades image quality dramatically.
These low-quality macro cameras have become a OnePlus mid-range smartphone mainstay, and we see little need to keep them around other than to inflate the spec sheet. If you need to capture something from a close distance, such as small print on packaging that would otherwise be unreadable, we would regretfully recommend using the camera if the primary camera isn't producing the desired results. Otherwise, you're better off pretending your phone doesn't have a macro camera.
Before we go into the movie, we'd like to briefly explain the AI mode for stills capture. The AI feature in this camera app isn't very useful because it's typically slow to detect the environment and frequently quits up attempting. Most of the time, it simply applies a general saturation bump, which may or may not enhance or even be perceptible. It will also apply skin smoothening if it identifies faces in the picture, even if the beauty mode is turned off. We advise you to leave it off.
The Nord CE 2 5G can record 4K video at 30 frames per second. You may also capture 1080p and 720p video at 30 and 60 frames per second. There is an AI video option, however it can only record at 1080p 30fps. The video portrait mode can only capture in 720p at 30fps. There is also an ultra-steady mode that exclusively records in 1080p at 30 frames per second. All of this pertains to the standard 64MP wide camera; if you use the ultra-wide camera, you just have one option: 1080p 30fps.
The primary camera's 4K footage is virtually useless. The image quality is good, but there is no stabilisation. Even if you do your best impersonation, the final film is terribly unsteady.
Battery
A 4500mAh dual-cell battery powers the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G. We didn't have time to complete our comprehensive battery life testing - we'll save it for our entire review - but our first full charge lasted us for a day and a half, which wasn't too shabby considering how much we used the device, especially for camera testing.
The phone comes with a 65W SUPERVOOC charger from OnePlus. A 15-minute charge with the included charger yields 48 percent battery from 1%, while a 45-minute charge yields a full charge. Even if you attach one of the older OnePlus chargers, the screen displays SUPERVOOC rather than Warp charge.
Conclusion
For the price, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is a pretty well-featured and well-performing phone. It features an appealing appearance, a nice display, a reasonably clean and simple UI with reasonable performance, a competent primary camera, a great battery life with quick charging, and even a few bells and whistles that are becoming increasingly rare, like as a headphone port and expandable storage.
On the flipside, the phone comes with Android 11 out of the box, the single loudspeaker seems archaic, the macro camera is meaningless, 4K video is terribly unsteady, and most games don't support high refresh rates. Despite the company's claims, there is no genuine HDR capability for the display.
The phone is also essentially the Oppo Reno7 5G with new software. While it may have been a viable tactic in the past, with the two firms' software combining, even that one distinction will be irrelevant in the future. At that point, why are the two phones even in the same market? Furthermore, why should the buyer choose one over the other?
These are the kind of questions that OnePlus will have to address at some time. But, for the time being, the phone is perfectly adequate and a decent alternative if you're looking in that price bracket.
