The OnePlus Nord 2 is up to a lot. The OnePlus Nord 2 is a great mid-range phone. A near-flawless combination of design and performance made it hard to justify spending more – even on OnePlus flagships.
The first OnePlus Nord influenced the design of the OnePlus 9. However, the Nord 2 is more closely based on the OnePlus 9’s.
This is most evident in the phone’s camera module which moves the flash and drops the Hasselblad logo but otherwise looks identical to the premium phone’s camera setup.
Although the Nord 2 may seem like a cheap knockoff of its bigger brother, it has the edge.
It’s also slimmer. It measures 8.3mm, which isn’t relatively thin, but it feels lighter. The Blue Haze finish would be my choice over the majority of the 9’s colour options. However, the Gray Sierra alternative is a little more boring.
The build quality is identical, with Gorilla Glass 5 on the display and rear of the phone, as well as a plastic frame that holds it all together. The Nord 2 doesn’t have a water-resistance IP rating, which is fitting considering the price. You’ll need to be more careful when you go in the bathtub.
OnePlus managed to squeeze stereo speakers in the Nord, which is a rare feat at this price. I feel that smartphone sound quality is only essential to a small percentage of people. How often do you listen to music on your phone’s speakers?
Display was one of the most important elements of the original Nord. It’s therefore understandable that OnePlus decided to leave it nearly unchanged the second time around.
This is a fast-moving sector of the phone industry right at the moment, which has the knock-on consequence that the screen here may not feel as competitive 12 months later.
You get a flat AMOLED panel measuring 6.43in across the diagonal. It is a good size, large enough to feel spacious but small enough to keep it compact. The phone is bright and has decent colour reproduction.
The phone feels smooth and responsive thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate. It also has frame rate advantages that make it more appealing for gamers. It’s unfortunate that 120Hz displays are not available at this price or lower. However, the jump to 120Hz will be much less noticeable, so it’s an acceptable compromise.
The punch-hole selfie camera is located in the top-left corner, but it does not interfere with the dual cameras on the first-gen smartphone. Although you may not notice the additional lens, it provides more screen real estate and makes the notch-less annoying.
Performance & specifications
The Nord 2 is the first company phone not to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. This is a striking feature for phone geeks like myself.
Instead, the company teamed up with Qualcomm rival MediaTek to create a customised Dimensity 1200 chip that includes some enhanced AI features. These features are mainly innocuous – there is no scene recognition, but video resolution and colour enhancements can be added. But the actual draw is that the Density 1200 chip is technically a flagship, despite its mid-range price.
This benchmark performance is still well below the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in the OnePlus 9 Pro and 9 Pro. Compared to last year’s mid-range Snapdragon 765G, we saw a 37% performance increase in Geekbench 5 and doubled frame rates for some of the more challenging GFXBench test.
The phone’s experience is similar when used on the phone. Over a week using the Nord 2, I have not experienced any significant slowdown, stuttering or freezes. This is purely a performance issue.
There are two options for the Nord 2: 8GB RAM with 128GB storage or 12GB RAM with 256GB storage (the one I have been testing). India gets a starting model with 128GB storage but only 6GB RAM. This will make it less efficient for multitasking and gaming.
Density 1200-AI comes with a 5G modem. The Nord 2 supports Bluetooth 5.2 and WiFi 6.
While the single selfie camera can unlock your face, the in-display fingerprint scanner offers more security and reliability.
Charger & battery
OnePlus has always been known for its speedy charging. However, it is great to see them use their fastest wired charging technology in this mid-range model.
Nord 2 supports 65W wireless charging. It charged 59% of my battery in 15 minutes. I checked back at half-hour and it was still at 100%. Wireless charging is not available, but it’s still reasonable considering the price.
Actual battery capacity is 4500mAh, an upgrade to last year’s. This is enough for one day of use. The phone has been charged every other day for me, although I use it very little while working from home. It would be surprising if the Nord 2 didn’t last the day, though.
Camera
50Mp main camera
Mono and ultrawide
Single selfie camera
You might think that OnePlus has slightly reduced the camera setup for Nord 2. The dual selfie setup is now a single-shot camera, while the rear quad camera can be used as a triple. All this for a 2Mp increase on the main lens.
It’s not difficult to see the truth.
Let’s move on to the main lens. This 50Mp IMX766 sensor is the same as the one used in the flagship 9 series models. It is also used in the ultrawide camera of the Oppo Find X3 Pro, which is one of the most popular camera phones.
This camera has a large sensor that allows it to capture more light. It also features optical image stabilisation (OIS), which should allow it to take great lowlight photos.
This camera does a fantastic job overall.
Sometimes, especially in brightly lit colours, it can pop a bit too much and lead to over-saturation. I would like to see more substantial HDR effects – both the highlights and dark areas can be extreme. The majority of photos taken with the main camera are bright and detailed.
Lowlight performance is still somewhat disappointing. I admit that I had hoped for better from the OIS and large sensor included in this article. Hopefully, the company can continue to improve it with OTA updates. Even with OIS, I noticed a drop in detail in night mode photos and uneven colour re-production. Although the shots aren’t bad, they won’t blow you away.
The same is true for the ultrawide lens at 8Mp, f/2.3 and a significant drop from the primary camera. Although it can capture impressive landscapes or large groups of people, it is not as good as the main camera in terms of detail and colour.
The last rear camera has a mono 2Mp lens that adds extra colour information to black and white photos. This is a feature we’ve seen before on OnePlus phones. It’s a small, unimportant extra that appears to be added to the numbers.
The front of the camera has a 32Mp, F/2.5 selfie lens. Although the high resolution allows for stunningly detailed selfies, the aperture is a bit too small. I found that the result was photos that were slightly dulled and washed out, which is the opposite of the tendency of the main rear lens to over-saturate.
Software
OxygenOS has been merged with Oppo Color OS
The OnePlus Nord 2 is a remarkable phone in terms of software because it’s the first smartphone to run Oppo’s Color OS.
In recent years, the companies have been slowly merging to share resources. In July, the company announced that the next step was to merge the codebases of the two operating systems. Officially, the Nord 2 runs “OxygenOS based upon Android 11/Color OS 111.3”
OnePlus lovers who are concerned about the changes to their device need not be worried. You’d find it difficult to tell the difference between the current and previous OxygenOS versions, as almost all changes are hidden behind the scenes.
The software looks the same as Oxygen, with the same solid range of customisation options across the OS. All your favourite OnePlus apps and software tweaks are here too, from the always-on display to the notification-silencing Zen Mode.
If nothing has changed, then why did OnePlus merge its software with Oppo? OnePlus should join its software at least partly because it will be easier to produce security patches and other updates with the help of Oppo’s development team.
The Nord 2 is also covered by the company’s updated guarantee, which includes two Android version updates this year (Android 12 and Android 13 next), and three years worth of security patches. It’s not the most complete update promise (OnePlus flagships get an additional year of support), but it’s one of the best.
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