Best Budget Smartphone: OnePlus Nord
The original ethos of OnePlus was to create smartphones that have the flagship specs but a budget-friendly price. The first generation OnePlus smartphone did just that but over the years we have seen the price increase slightly every year. Now their flagship smartphones are competing at flagship prices. The OnePlus Nord brings the company back down to their original ethos providing a budget-friendly phone with great specs that would compete against the flagship. The OnePlus Nord starts at £379.
Design
The OnePlus Nord has a metal frame with Gorilla Glass on the front and rear of the phone. The phone comes with a 6.44-inch AMOLED full HD 90Hz refresh rate display. The phone features an in-screen fingerprint scanner as well as face unlock. The display features a hole punch in the top-left corner that features dual front-facing cameras. The OnePlus Nord comes in two colours, Blue Marble and Gray Onyx.
Performance
Under the body features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 365G chipset which can be accompanied either by an 8GB RAM/128GB internal storage or 12GB RAM/256GB internal storage. The Nord will be 5G enabled which will take advantage of next-generation speeds when they become available. The Nord runs Android overlaid with OnePlus Oxygen OS 10.5 which allows many customisation options. The phone comes with a 4,115mAH battery with support for Warp Charge 30 which will get you from 0% to 70% in 30 minutes.
Camera
OnePlus Nord features 6 cameras in total, four on the rear and two on the front. The rear features a main 48MP camera (with EIS and OIS image stabilisation). The main camera is paired with a 5MP depth sensor, 2MP macro camera and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens. The rears cameras enable nightscape, super macro, slow-motion capture at 240fps and 4K recording at 30fps. On the front, the main camera is a 32MP camera and accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide camera.
Summary
The OnePlus Nord gives its competitors a run for their money by providing top quality all-round specs for cheaper. You don’t see many phones with these kinds of specs at the same price. You see many flagship phones with the same setup but for double the price. The price of the Nord means it prices itself with the new iPhone SE, Samsung Galaxy A51 and Google Pixel 3a XL. The Nord will be a great option for anyone who is looking for a good budget phone with great specs.