At the start of its journey, OnePlus launched the affordable flagship killer OnePlus One series in 2014. Over the years, the company has managed to establish itself tier-1 brand giving a stiff challenge to Apple and Samsung in the premium segment. It also tried its luck with the budget X series phone but did not find much success.
But, with the Nord series in 2020, the company finally cracked the code and was able to find traction among consumers in the Rs 30,000 price range. It is reported that 5G phones will drive the market, which has witnessed subdued demand in the last few quarters. With the Nord CE 2 Lite series, OnePlus aims to make further inroads in the budget segment (under Rs 20,000) in India. Here are our thoughts on the OnePlus' most affordable handset.
Design, build quality and display
OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite has a familiar Candybar design with curved corners. And, on the back, there is a striped texture at the top with a rectangular triple-camera module with an LED flash. The rest of the body has a matte finish. It does a decent job of repelling the fingerprint smudges, but not fully. Over time, we can see dust resting around the camera and if look at the device at certain angles, you can see the smudges on the back panel too.
So, the company offers a transparent silicone cover. It is soft and sturdy too. It can sustain accidental falls within four feet of distance. Also, the case extends a bit around the display, so it can protect the latter can cracking when the phone drops on the floor with the screen facing down or side facing for that matter.
And, the screen also comes pre-applied with a plastic screen guard, which does a fine job protecting from scratches.
Also, I did drop a couple of times during my time with the phone and as you can see in the cover photos, there are no physical damages there. But, still, I recommend users treat the phone with care and don't try unusual drop tests or scratch tests you see on YouTube.
One thing I like about this OnePlus phone is that, unlike the premium brethren, Nord CE 2 Lite comes with a 3.5mm audio jack. This is an underrated feature. Compared to TWS earbuds, wired earphones excel better in terms of delivering pure audio with no loss of quality.
Even the speakers on the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite are good and manage to offer crisp audio with less distortion even with the volume at maximum.
The rails around the phone are very sturdy and offer a really good grip for the fingers to hold on to. Also, even if you put on the cover, you won't feel the phone is not too bulky to hold.
It also comes with two slots ( nano SIM-1 + nano SIM-2/microSD card), and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The latter does a decent job, much much job than in-display biometric sensors in other phones. Also, there is fewer false rejection to unlock the screen.
On the front, it features a 6.59-inch full HD+ (2412×1080p) LCD display with support for a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen has a pixel density of 401 ppi (pixels per inch) and with full brightness, you can view content outdoors under the shade without having squint eyes. But, with direct sunlight, you have to take the phone closer to your face.
However, indoors, it is really good for long reads without any issues of strain to the eyes. With a higher refresh rate, browsing the web and scrolling through the social media newsfeed is very smooth too. It makes a good option for students too for online learning.
Performance
Under the hood, it houses a 6nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 octa-core chipset, Adreno 619L GPU, Android 12-based OxygenOS 12, 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB/256GB (UFS 2.2) storage.
The phone works smoothly without any issues. And, with a 5,000mAh battery, it was able to consistently offer one and half days under normal usage. I usually don't stream content while on cellular data. I download content night before using Wi-Fi to watch movies or TV series during my long commute between the house and the office. The rest of the time, I browse the internet for news and spend quite a lot of time on social media platforms too. But, for extreme testing, I used to play Asphalt 9: Legend for around 20 minutes on average a day and binge-watch on OTT apps for around 60-90 minutes a day. With that, the phone used to give full days and still had around 15-20 per cent on average battery left before I could retire to the bed.
Also, the phone used to get warm while playing games or browsing the internet via a cellular data connection, but it never overheated.
I am thankful for OnePlus sticking with OxygenOS and not bringing Oppo's ColorOS to their phones.
The Android 12-based OxygenOS is very clean and there is less bloatware and no duplicate apps such as third-party search applications, app stores and other unwanted stuff like we see on Xiaomi and Samsung phones. I Hope, OnePlus shows the same concern to Nord, as it shows to premium phones and brings Android 13 as soon as possible.
With a 33W SuperVOOC charger, you can charge the phone from zero to 50 per cent in around 30 minutes and for a full charge, it will take around 65-70 minutes. This is a value-added feature for forgetful people, who realise to charge their phone in the morning before getting ready for the office.
OnePlus Nord CE Lite supports five bands (SA/NSA)--1, 28, 41, 77, 78. So, the phone whenever the 5G cellular service goes live in India, will be able to support a peak download of 2.5Gbps. It will be great for streaming multimedia content without a buffer and even for cloud-connected gaming, as there will be low latency.
Photography
OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite boasts triple-camera module-- main 64MP (f/1.79) + 2MP (f/2.4) depth + 2MP macro camera (f/2.4) with LED flash, support up to 4K 30fps video recording.
It takes really good photos in the sunlight. However, it does overboard with processing some colours particularly RGB. The flowers tend to come a bit warmer than they usually look to our eyes.
But, most will love the rich and vibrant colours of the subject, but some purists like me tend to like things in colours, the nature intended them to appear to our eyes.
Though there is no wide-angle mode, photos in the landscape mode cover a large area in the frame. They are good and are on par with their peers in the market.
With the macro mode, the phone does a decent job of getting close-up shots.
And, with Night mode, the photos tend to lighten up the sky and make the photo look like artwork. They do look great on the screen of the phone, but we can see the noise when viewed on the big PC monitor.
The Portrait mode too is decent at best; manages to get the edges around the object with less distortion and manages to have a clear distinction between foreground and background.
On the front, it houses 16MP (with Sony IMX471 sensor, f/2.4). It takes fine selfies in the natural light condition. It also comes with superficial filters and editing tools to adjust cheeks, nose, skin texture, eyes size, jaw bone size and even the head size too. It does a good job with that and users make good use to make themselves photogenic on social media platforms.
Final thoughts (3.5/5)
OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite is a decent lower mid-range phone. It offers a long-lasting battery and average camera hardware. The performance in terms of day-to-day functioning is good and also the user interface is clean compared to the other phones in its class.
This is a good option for students for online classes and even for senior citizens to stream content on OTT apps or YouTube.
As said before Nord CE 2 Lite 5G is the most affordable OnePlus phone in India. And, with Amazon Big Billion Sale coming later this month, the prices are expected to further down and also, and there will definitely be lucrative exchange deals and bank card offers, which will further lower the final cost of the device.
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