The OnePlus Nord 2 is the first phone from OnePlus to go beyond the Qualcomm family’s guidelines when it comes down to choosing a mobile processor. The OnePlus Nord 2 uses a Mediatek Dimensity 1200-AI processor instead of the Snapdragon 765G and 750G, as you would expect.
However, this doesn’t mean that the Nord 2 is no longer in the top leagues. As you will soon see, the Density 1200-AI is a fantastic smartphone processor that far exceeds its mid-range Snapdragon counterparts.
In some cases, the Nord 2’s performance was even better than the flagships last year. Battery life, which was once the biggest problem for this League 2 chip manufacturer is now impressive.
The OnePlus Nord is everything you would expect from OnePlus. It offers top quality and a fair price. The display is 6.43in FHD+ 90Hz AMOLED, and there are three cameras at the rear: one standard, one ultrawide, and one monochrome. There’s also a 32MP selfie camera at its front. The Nord 2 also has 5G connectivity as standard, which is becoming a norm on mid-priced phones.
OnePlus Nord 2 Review: Price and Competition
The OnePlus Nord 2 is the most popular product in the Nord range, and the price reflects this. The UK has two versions of this phone. It’s also available in grey. You can get twice the RAM (16GB), double the storage (256GB), and the option to choose the blue finish. The phones are virtually identical.
There are a few quality alternatives at this price. The Google Pixel 4a is the first. Although it’s a bit old and doesn’t offer 5G, its single camera is unmatched, and it still feels just as good to use today as when it was released.
The Apple iPhone SE 2020 costs the same price as the Nord 2 but has a smaller screen and a less appealing design. It also lacks 5G, only one camera, and is slightly more expensive. Another option is the Nokia 8.3 5G (PS330), which offers a larger screen than the Nord 2 and a macro camera for close-up shots.
The Poco F3 is perhaps the Nord 2’s closest rival. This phone features decent cameras, a 120Hz screen, 5G connectivity, and faster performance than the OnePlus Nord 2 at OnePlus Nord 2.
OnePlus Nord 2 Review: Design and Key Features
The most striking thing about the OnePlus Nord 2’s design is its similarity with the premium OnePlus 9 Pro. It looks just like any other mid-priced smartphone from the front with its flat, frame-filling display, hole-punch selfie cam in the top left corner, and its standard OnePlus Nord 2 price.
It will change if you flip it over. The rectangular housing that houses the camera and dual-LED flash is at the top of the device looks well balanced. The glossy Gorilla Glass rear is also well curved. It doesn’t seem like it picks up fingerprints very quickly, though this could be due to the bright blue colour distracting the eye.
One glance at the Nord 2’s edges reveals some interesting points. The phone has the three-position slider switch for the alert, which was lost in the Nord CE. By simply touching the screen, you can quickly switch between “silent”, vibrate, and “ring” modes. This is ideal for when you need to quickly silence your phone.
The second negative is that there’s no 3.5mm jack for headphones. You also won’t find microSD card expansion or a rating for dust and water resistance. There is also no wireless charging. These features can be disappointing, but they are not guaranteed.
The majority of other features are correct and present, however. Fast charging via OnePlus’ Warp Char 65T is available. The phone can be charged in just 29 minutes and comes with a charger. The phone features fingerprint authentication via an in-screen reader, face unlock, and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
The OnePlus Nord can also boast a feature that many rivals cannot: dual 5G SIM cards slots. However, I don’t know how many people could have more than one 5G SIM.
OnePlus Nord 2 review: Display
At this price, the display of the OnePlus Nord 2 ticks all the boxes. It measures 6.43in diagonally and has AMOLED technology to provide superior contrast and colour vibrancy. The display also features a 90Hz refresh rate which makes scrolling and swiping through the OxygenOS 111.3 UI super easy.
Technically, it can’t compete with the best in the industry – compare it to an iPhone 12 Pro to see the difference. However, the quality is still very respectable.
Auto mode’s peak brightness reaches 556cd/m2 under daylight conditions. I also recorded highs of around510cd/m2 while playing back HDR content. Although it isn’t the best display I have ever seen on a phone, it is still very impressive and beats the OnePlus Nord by a long shot.
The Nord 2’s display has another thing I love. OnePlus finally seems to have gotten a little more relaxed about the colour modes. Instead of having four, five, or even more modes, this phone only offers two: Vivid (DisplayP3) and Gentle (sRGB). The colour accuracy of each mode is also respectable, even if it’s not exceptional, with the average Delta E colour variance at 1.79 for Gentle, and 2.19 for VIvid.
OnePlus Nord 2 review: Cameras
OnePlus is making a huge deal of AI enhancement using the Nord 2’s camera set-up, but I’ll get back to that in a moment. Let’s focus on the hardware specifications, which are respectable, but not groundbreaking.
The main camera is a 50MP, f/1.88 effort. It uses the same sensor as the OnePlus 9 Pro’s ultrawide cam but has a regular lens on the front. The main camera is accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide unit (f/2.2), with a 120-degree field view, and a mono 2MP (f/2.5), mono camera that is used only for black and white enhancement. The main cameras provide pixel-binned 12MP images as well as the selfie camera at 32MP (f/2.45).
The Nord 2 is missing the original model’s macro camera, which I find disappointing.
The main camera and the other cameras, however, deliver detailed and well-judged shots. Perhaps most impressive, the Nord 2’s camera performed just as well as the Google Pixel 4a in many of my tests, and sometimes even better.
The Nord 2 takes superior pictures of the lilies, with close-ups and wide-angles. It also captures details in areas that the Pixel 4a doesn’t.
The “AI scene optimizer” is not my favorite as it tends to oversaturate or pastelise colours. The shot below shows the Pixel 4a producing a natural shot with better contrast. Whereas the Nord 2 captures are flatter and more candy-coloured, the Pixel 4a is more natural.
If you disable HDR and turn off AI, your images will look more natural. Images still have lots of detail and are vibrant with colour.
Nightscape mode allows the OnePlus Nord 2 to capture a decent low-light shot. This is done by picking out and enhancing stars in the street scene.
Nightscape isn’t perfect. Ghosting can sometimes be caused by not being able to keep the camera still long enough. This is my first experience with Nightscape on a OnePlus phone, so I think we are on the right track.
OnePlus Nord 2 Review: Performance and Battery Life
The cameras can be a little inconsistent, but the battery life and performance are excellent. The Mediatek Dimensity 1200-AI is a great camera that gives the OnePlus Nord 2 a significant advantage over all other phones in its price range.
Like many smartphone processors, the Density is an octa-core chip. It has its CPU cores divided into groups that are geared towards performing different tasks at different levels of performance. One “Ultra Core”, three “Super Cores” and four “Efficiency Cores are clocked up to 2.5GHz. Graphics rendering is provided by an Arm Mali G77 MC9 GPU.
Performance is very responsive and smooth, according to my experience. PUBG Mobile was easy to use for a quick game of battle royale. The frame rate was responsive and unwrinkled even at the highest settings. The Nord 2 managed to maintain a steady frame rate, even when things got crazy.
The Nord 2 also excels in benchmarks. Only the iPhone SE (and the Poco F3) are faster.
It is especially eye-opening to see the graphics performance. For now, ignore the onscreen graphics benchmark. The GFXBench test is not yet compatible with the Nord 2’s display at 90Hz. However, you can still see the Nord 2’s true potential in the offscreen testing. You can expect the real-world performance to be very close.
The OnePlus Nord 2’s Mediatek Dimensity 1200-AI is able to deliver an all-round performance level that’s comparable to the flagship phones. This not only ensures a phone that delivers incredible performance today, but also for an outrageously affordable price. It should also ensure the phone remains responsive for many years.
Our battery life test was a difficult one, and Mediatek-driven phones have failed miserably in it. The OnePlus Nord 2 passed the test with ease. It lasted 22 hours 26 minutes thanks to its 4,500mAh battery. Although it was not as long-lasting as the OnePlus Nord CE 5G which lasted 24 hours 43mins, it still outlasted the Google Pixel 4a by almost four hours. It also nearly doubled the iPhone SE’s 11hrs 35mins result.
OnePlus Nord 2 review: Verdict
This all contributes to a very positive overall picture of the OnePlus Nord 2. Although it isn’t perfect: the Nord 2 doesn’t have wireless charging, microSD cards slot, or IP rating. Video capture is also limited to 1080p at 30fps.
It’s also faster than other Android phones at this price, only the Poco F3 is faster. Battery life is very good and still, photography is excellent. You can browse the internet or watch Loki on Disney Plus, thanks to the AMOLED screen.
Overall, the OnePlus Nord 2-5G is a great all-rounder for its price range.
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