OnePlus Nord 256GB Dual Sim 5G - Marble Blue

OnePlus Nord 

Pretty much everything you could ask for.

With 5G, a solid lineup of specs and a beautiful, vibrant design, the OnePlus Nord offers a hell of a lot for a reasonable price.

Nord is powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon 765G 5G Mobile Platform with improved CPU speeds and 30% faster graphics rendering than its predecessor. They have also thrown in up to 12GB of RAM so Nord can run all your favorite apps at once stutter-free.

This phone packs a potent octacore processor, a vibrant 6.44-inch display, an in-display fingerprint scanner and 5G connectivity for ultrafast data speeds. All of that's wrapped up in a great-looking body that feels anything but cheap. Add to that three rear cameras that take decent shots and two selfie cameras, and the Nord is as well-stacked as any of today's elite handsets.

Those of you who can buy it should know that this is a superb phone that offers a great experience for a much more affordable price than any of today's flagship phones. If you've been eyeing up the iPhone SE but don't want to switch away from Android, the OnePlus Nord is the phone for you.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the name "Nord" -- sadly it has nothing to do with a race of people in the Elder Scrolls games, but instead is because Nord means North in some European languages. OnePlus says that North on a compass "points towards growth and success," which it doesn't, it's just a direction, but who am I to argue? 

A beautiful design

It's vibrant and fun and stands out from any other phone on the market. The metallic edging looks great too it feels good to hold. That's helped by the rear panel, which is Gorilla Glass 5 and adds a premium feel to the phone.

The 6.44-inch screen stretches all the way to the edges, which helps the phone not feel too bulky. It can quite comfortably be held in one hand, while the larger OnePlus 8 Pro could be more of a struggle.

There's a fingerprint scanner built into the display, which means there's been no need to squeeze one into a button elsewhere.

The screen's 2,400x1,080-pixel resolution is lower than the 8 Pro's, but it still looks perfectly crisp and clear. Text and icons are pin-sharp and high-definition videos on YouTube look great.

Under the hood

Is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G processor, which brings 5G connectivity to the Nord and actually makes it among the more affordable 5G phones around. Of course you'll need to be on a service plan that supports 5G and you'll need to be in an area where 5G is available. 5G is still somewhat in its infancy, but it's definitely smart to be buying a 5G phone now so that you're ready to take advantage of those speeds when they're more easily accessible.

The processor itself has eight cores and it's backed by 12GB of RAM and performance is excellent. Navigation around the phone is swift and free of any lag, while demanding games like Asphalt 9: Legends played without any noticeable drop in frame rates. 

OnePlus's Oxygen OS is based on the latest Android 10 and provides a clean interface. It's simple to use, swift to navigate and it doesn't come preloaded with annoying bloatware. OnePlus promises the phone will get software updates for at least two years, with critical security updates for another year beyond that.

The Cameras

There are three main lenses on the back -- there's the standard zoom camera, which is a 48-megapixel Sony sensor -- the same one found on the OnePlus 8. That's joined by a 12-megapixel super wide-angle lens and there's also a 2-megapixel macro camera that lets you focus close up on tiny details. 

Four rear cameras.

Two front cameras.

If you dont like cameras, OnePlus have really messed up.

Nord comes with the same 48 MP primary sensor as the OnePlus 8, complete with optical image stabilization (OIS) to eliminate blur and shakiness from every photo.

Shots look well-exposed and sharp, with vibrant, accurate colors. 

The wide-angle lens helps you capture a lot more of the scene in front of you. It also produces well-exposed images with decent colors. They don't have the pin-sharp detail of the main sensor, but they're more than good enough for Instagram or Facebook. 

There's also a portrait mode that uses the 5-megapixel depth sensor to give some attractive out-of-focus backgrounds to your portrait shots, as well as other features like 4K video, slow motion and a night mode for capturing brighter shots in low light. 

On the front is the first dual-lens selfie camera seen from OnePlus. The main front lens offers a huge 32-megapixel resolution, to let you see every excruciating detail on your face. Images from the main lens are sharp and well-exposed, and while the lower 8-megapixel resolution of the second lens provides less detail, the wider-view lets you capture more of your environment in your selfies. 

Oh, and Nords also smart enough to remove unwanted noise and sharpen things up in tricky shooting scenarios, like harsh sunlight.

OnePlus Nord battery life 

There's a 4,115-mAh battery inside the Nord that should be able to provide enough juice to keep you going for a whole day. As always, that'll depend on how you use it -- if you spend all morning streaming videos then you can probably expect to need to give the Nord a boost in the afternoon. 

it would comfortably get through at least a full day with what would be described as mild use, which included a bit of web browsing, some light gaming and taking a few photos. 

There's a night mode, too to help take shots in very low-light situations. It does a good job of capturing the available light while maintaining a good level of overall sharpness to the scene. 

While it doesn't have the wireless charging found on the OnePlus 8 Pro (another sacrifice for the lower price), it does have 30-watt fast charging, which promises to take your phone from empty to 70% full in one hour. Fast charging is super handy for those occasions when you're about to leave the home and realized your phone is almost dead. 

Warp Charge 30T isnt all about speed, but it can refill Nord from 0 to 70% in just half an hour. Our charging technology is also smart enough to keep your phone cool during heavy use.