OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G review

Greatest Costs As we speak: OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G

The OnePlus line-up has grown more and more convoluted in 2022. You may assume that the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G shares a great deal of DNA with the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G earlier than it, however you’d be mistaken.

This new entrant to the inexpensive mid-range market is a very totally different kettle of fish with a special spec record, but the value tag falls simply £20 in need of its almost-identically-named brother. OnePlus is successfully competing with itself, which is considerably complicated.

Whereas it’s an undoubtedly strong cellphone, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G lacks the aptitude, poise, and sense of worth of different OnePlus telephones. It’s a bit drab and a bit overpriced.

Design & Construct

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G is an even bigger and heavier cellphone than the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G. You wouldn’t name it unwieldy, however at 8.5mm thick and with a weight of 195g, it actually defies any light-weight expectations you may need primarily based on its all-plastic development.

The rear of the cellphone has a fairly generic structure and form, with the same old curved again panel and rectangular digicam module.

Two particulars present some curiosity. One is the Blue Tide color of my check mannequin, which seems to shift from a deep blue to an nearly turquoise shade, with shiny yellowy highlights. There’s additionally a Black Nightfall mannequin should you insist on a stealthier look.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The opposite element of be aware is a patch of faint skinny vertical traces that extends throughout the width of the cellphone and the size of the digicam module. There’s no texture or perform to it, but it surely makes the cellphone look rather less run-of-the-mill than it in any other case would.

There’s a side-mounted fingerprint sensor beneath the facility button, which is good and dependable. The underside fringe of the cellphone is filled with a USB-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a barely puny mono speaker.

Show

The Nord CE 2 Lite steps away from the reliable show used within the Nord CE 2 and different Nord handsets, and that’s a little bit of a downer.

Moderately than its brother’s 6.43in AMOLED, what you get is a 6.59in IPS LCD. Sure, which means it’s greater. It’s additionally smoother, with a 120Hz refresh price somewhat than the Nord CE 2’s 90Hz.

Each shows have FHD+ resolutions, however the IPS LCD used right here doesn’t output something like the identical vibrant colors or deep blacks because the CE 2. It merely doesn’t look as premium.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

It doesn’t really feel as premium both. The display screen has a greasy, smudgy really feel to it that had me making an attempt to wipe it clear on my T-shirt inside minutes of dealing with it for the primary time. OnePlus doesn’t point out whether or not it’s Gorilla Glass 5, just like the Nord CE 2 has, which leads me to suspect it isn’t.

Within the display screen’s default Vivid display screen color mode, I recorded a gamut protection of 99.6% sRGB, 80.8% Adobe RGB, and 97% DCI P3, which isn’t dangerous. Nonetheless, you’ll wish to change to the Regular color mode if you wish to optimise the steadiness and accuracy of that output.

When you think about that the Poco X4 Professional 5G provides you a 6.67in 120Hz AMOLED show for even much less cash, the Nord CE 2 Lite’s display screen actually isn’t something to write down dwelling about.

Specs & Efficiency

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 5G, which is identical low-end chip that powers the equally priced Poco X4 Professional 5G. That is backed by 6GB of RAM, although that may be expanded on the fly by as much as 5GB of non permanent digital RAM.

It’s a set-up that helps the CE 2 Lite really feel moderately quick and fluid basically navigation. It could possibly even deal with extra superior duties moderately properly. Genshin Affect stays playable, if removed from silky easy, on Excessive/60fps settings.

In benchmark assessments the cellphone falls just a little behind the OnePlus Nord CE 2, each in CPU and GPU phrases. It’s kind of equal to the Poco X4 Professional, as you’d count on given the equivalent parts.

On the storage entrance you get 128GB as customary, plus the added bonus of a microSD slot.

Digital camera

OnePlus has packed this low-cost cellphone with a kind of triple digicam programs that’s actually a single-camera system. You get a 64Mp most important broad angle sensor, which is all properly and good, however then a 2Mp macro and a 2Mp depth sensor that don’t actually do very a lot.

In different phrases, it’s an identical set-up to the Nord CE 2, minus the ultrawide. As with that cellphone, the Nord CE 2 Lite largely delivers the products in respectable lighting.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

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Colors are deep and vibrant with out trying completely false, element is nice, and dynamic vary is on level. It’s just about all you may need at this value.

It struggles just a little as soon as the sunshine drops, the place the smaller sensor and lack of optical picture stabilisation (OIS) begin to chunk, however I nonetheless obtained usable outcomes with the supplied Evening mode.

There’s no devoted telephoto digicam however that most important sensor is sufficiently pixel-dense to make digitally cropped 2x pictures look satisfactory. It’s that ultrawide omission that basically bites right here.

Round entrance is a 16MP selfie digicam, which struggles just a little with publicity and with a sure softness, however is in any other case satisfactory.

Video recording solely extends to 1080p and 30fps. That falls properly in need of the Nord CE 2 and its 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 120fps.

Battery Life & Charging

OnePlus has outfitted its inexpensive cellphone with a 5000mAh battery, which matches the Poco X4 Professional 5G and exceeds the non-Lite mannequin.

It’s adequate to drive the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G by means of a full day of average utilization (3 hours half-hour of display screen on time) with greater than 50% to spare. That’s a powerful consequence, although the Poco X4 Professional 5G achieved one thing related.

For some cause, the PCMark Work 3.0 battery check repeatedly failed to finish throughout my time with the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G, so I can’t supply up any of the same old benchmark comparisons.

On the recharging entrance, OnePlus packs its cellphone with a 33W charger. It will get you from 0 to 51% in half-hour, and can get you to 100% inside 1 hour quarter-hour.

It needs to be famous that the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G provides you a 65W charger for just a bit more cash, whereas the Poco X4 Professional 5G provides you a 67W charger for rather less.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Software program

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G ships with Android 12 and the corporate’s customized OxygenOS 12.1 slapped on prime.

The latter isn’t fairly the boldly impartial Android UI it was, with Oppo’s takeover primarily rendering it a special model of its personal ColorOS. But it surely retains its enticing fonts and icons, not less than, and it’s good and easy to make use of.

I’m not an enormous fan of the OnePlus Shelf, a widget-filled menu that’s accessed by dragging down from the highest proper of the display screen. It appears just a little clumsy, and it feels weirdly divorced from the remainder of the UI. Nonetheless, not less than it’s doable to deactivate throughout the Settings menu.

OnePlus is promising two main Android updates and three years of safety updates. That’s about pretty much as good because it will get at this finish of the market, and may see the cellphone by means of to Android 14.

Value & Availability

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G is accessible from the OnePlus website and Amazon within the UK. The only real mannequin out there within the UK retails for £279, which will get you 6GB RAM and 128GB storage as customary.

In Europe it’s on sale from OnePlus in France for €319 and in Spain for €309.

It’s additionally on sale in India for ₹19,999 direct from OnePlus.

Whereas this locations the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G properly and actually into the inexpensive cellphone class, it someway nonetheless feels a tad overpriced. The likes of the Poxo X4 Professional 5G and the Realme 9 5G are equally specced, however value £20 to £30 much less.

Maybe extra problematic is the problem from inside. The OnePlus Nord 2 CE 5G is a flat-out higher cellphone in a lot of the ways in which depend, but it solely prices £20 extra.

Take a look at our greatest funds telephones and greatest mid-range telephones articles for extra challengers.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Verdict

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G is one other extremely competent inexpensive cellphone from a now established model.

It’s solidly constructed, has a fluid 120Hz show, and runs moderately easily. The 64Mp most important digicam, in the meantime, is able to capturing photos with actual pop.

Nonetheless, there’s no getting away from the truth that this is likely one of the least thrilling OnePlus telephones we’ve seen for a while. In sure methods, it feels downright pointless.

For simply £20 lower than the OnePlus Nord CE 2 you’re getting a cellphone with an inferior LCD show, inferior efficiency, slower charging, and a much less versatile digicam system. In the meantime, rival efforts from Xiaomi and Realme present related and even barely higher specs for much less cash.

Specs

• Android 12, OxygenOS 12.1
• 6.59in, FHD+, IPS LCD, 120Hz, flat show
• Facet-mounted fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G
• 6GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 128GB storage
• 64MP, f/1.7 most important digicam
• 2MP, f/2.4 macro digicam
• 2MP, f/2.4 depth sensor
• As much as 1080p @ 30fps rear video
• 16Mp front-facing digicam
• Mono speaker
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 5000mAh battery
• 33W charging
• 164.3 x 75.6 x 8.5mm
• 195g