OnePlus Nord CE 5G Review Philippines: Down to the Core

OnePlus Nord CE 5G Review Philippines: Down to the Core

Review Verdict: The OnePlus Nord CE 5G is a jack of all trades for the Philippines. It covers all the basic needs one looks for in a mid-range smartphone that’s also ready for the rollout of 5G in the Philippines. Unfortunately, OnePlus made a lot of compromises with this device that — aside from Oxygen OS — doesn’t really make it stand out with the rest of the competition in the market.

Pros

  • OxygenOS is still a top-tier UI Overlay
  • The Snapdragon 750G packs quite a punch

Cons

  • No OIS on the main camera
  • AMOLED panel is a little off

OnePlus has made a name for itself for releasing flagship killers in the past with phones that have really good price to performance ratios. While we’ve seen an increase in prices for their flagships, the release of their Nord series was an exciting prospect for those looking for their DNA at a more affordable price tag.

The Nord CE or Core Edition looks to fill a gap in their product line with a sub-20K smartphone that offers the basics in terms of what someone would generally look for in a mid-range phone in 2021. But did they make too many compromises to close that gap?

Design

The design of OnePlus devices has always leaned more towards the utilitarian side of things — except, of course, for their recent OnePlus 9 series or special edition releases — but the Nord CE is definitely the most generic of the bunch. It’s not a bad-looking phone per se but its overall design is very basic, which really isn’t a surprise for something that is “Nord to the Core” as their website puts it.

Compared to the original, we also got a bit of a downgrade in terms of its build quality as well since the CE is now primarily made out of plastic. Thankfully though it does feel good in the hand and is lighter thanks to the choice of material but this is definitely something we wouldn’t suggest rocking without the included case.

While the overall look may lack a certain oomph, one thing that does help it stand out is the colorway our review unit came in — Blue Void. The nice soft touch that the matte finish brings to the table makes it a lot more enjoyable to hold, gives it a more elegant look, and will repel fingerprint smudges more than the Charcoal Ink option.

We’re also disappointed that OnePlus decided to leave out the Alert Slider for this version of the Nord since it’s been a staple for most of the devices and something we expected to see in a Core Edition smartphone.

Display

On paper, the CE sports a similar Fluid AMOLED panel we’ve seen in past releases. It measures in at 6.3-inches with a refresh rate of 90Hz but it looks like it doesn’t have Corning’s Gorilla Glass protection.

The team and I noticed that something was a little off with the display. Despite being an AMOLED panel, colors didn’t have that richness that we’re used to seeing and the blacks didn’t seem quite as inky as they normally would be.

It still gets the job done and having the option of having a slightly faster refresh rate than normal does give you a snappy experience as you navigate through the phone and, while it wasn’t mentioned on their website, you can play the HDR content on Netflix with the CE.

OnePlus also introduces an interesting take on the Always on Display with Canvas, which is still in its Beta testing. It produces hit or miss results depending on the photo that you use but definitely allows for a creative spin on the feature.

In terms of audio, the speaker does sound a little too tinny for my taste but the good news here is that you do have a headphone jack so you can use your trusty pair of headphones for a better experience with the device.

Camera

For its shooters, the OnePlus Nord CE has a total of 4 cameras — 3 on the back and a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. The triple camera setup consists of a 64-megapixel main shooter with an aperture of f/1.8, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 2-megapixel macro camera.

When the lighting conditions are right the photos from the main camera look pretty good. There is a bit of post-processing happening to sharpen the images, boost dynamic range, and give colors a lift but it’s just the right amount. Sadly, the lack of OIS is very apparent when the lights get low or when exposure is a bit more challenging, which might result in less than optimal results when you don’t have the time to take safeties to make sure you’ve got a good shot.

Understandably, there’s less detail with the ultra-wide camera because of the dip in the megapixel count but can still produce great snaps if you’re aware of its strengths and know how to get around its weaknesses.

The same can be said about the selfie camera as well. The lesson here is that, if you’re picking up this phone, make sure you have a couple of safety shots.\

Performance and Battery Life

The OnePlus Nord CE is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G. Our unit had this paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage but you can get a maxed-out version with 12GB and 256GB respectively.

To be honest, though, our pairing was more than enough for my use, which is more for messaging, social media, and a bit of light gaming here and there but I would suggest that you get the top-tier model if you want the extra headroom. Remember that storage is non-expandable as well so if you find yourself hoarding media and apps, the higher model is definitely the one to get.

Going by the numbers, you can definitely see that the 750G holds its own against the 765Gm that’s on the original Nord but it’s in the GPU performance where you’ll see it get edged out.

That doesn’t mean that the Nord CE won’t be able to game, we still got really great results with some of the more popular titles on the Play Store. It got nearly perfect marks on games such as League of Legends: Wild Rift, Call of Duty Mobile, and NBA 2K20.

For those of you who are big into playing Genshin Impact though, the game is best kept at the lowest settings and the frame rates capped at 30fps for the best experience.

One of the biggest draws for OnePlus devices is still definitely OxygenOS, which remains to be my top choice in terms of Android UI overlays. It’s still as clean as ever but we did notice that fewer updates have been pushed for it recently and It’s just sad to think that we might be bidding farewell to it in the near future.

As for its battery life, the device clocked in at 17 hours and 9 minutes in our battery benchmark test, which isn’t bad at all considering its capacity of 4500mAh. The CE lasted me a day to a day and a half with my usage but, it should go without saying that, your mileage may vary.

In terms of charging time, the CE went from 20-percent to 51-percent in 30 minutes with the included charger, and topping it up from 0 to 100 took less than 2 hours.

Wrap Up and Conclusions

Like I said at the start, the OnePlus Nord CE 5G is a jack of all trades but it’s also a master of none, at least with what I experienced during my for this review in the Philippines. You get a lot of things that one might be looking for in a mid-range device but it’s clear that they’ve made some compromises to this smartphone to get it to its sub-20K price tag here in the Philippines.

The mid-range segment has always been a place for brands to battle it out and I’m not entirely sure that OnePlus has done enough to make the CE a major contender in this arena.

OnePlus Nord CE 5G Review Price Philippines

The OnePlus Nord CE is available at Digital Walker’s online store and is priced at Php 16,990 for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The maxed-out version of this device with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

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