OnePlus Nord has finally been launched months after being teased online and surfacing on the rumour mill as the OnePlus Z and OnePlus 8 Lite. The new smartphone, which is the first in the company’s “affordable smartphone product line”, comes in three distinct configurations. It is also touted to deliver a flagship camera experience. The OnePlus Nord comes with a hole-punch display design and flaunts quad cameras at the back. The phone also offers 5G connectivity. Moreover, the company claims that it has provided almost 300 optimisations to the OnePlus Nord to provide a “Fast and Smooth” experience.
OnePlus Nord price in India, sale details
The OnePlus Nord price in India starts at Rs. 24,999 for the 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant that is exclusive to the country. The phone also comes in 8GB + 128GB storage option at Rs. 27,999 and the top-of-the-line, 12GB + 256GB storage model at Rs. 29,999. There are two colour options to choose from, namely Blue Marble and Gray Onyx; however only the 8GB and 12GB RAM model will get both options, the base variant will only be sold in Gray Onyx colour.
On the availability part, the OnePlus Nord will be available for purchase in India through Amazon and OnePlus.in starting August 4; however, only the 8GB and 12GB RAM variants will be offered initially. The 6GB + 64GB version will arrive in September. Unlike Xiaomi and other companies, OnePlus will be offering the Nord as open sale from day one.
The pre-booking open July 22 via OnePlus Experience Stores and on July 28 via Amazon India. There will also be an early access sale for OnePlus Red Cable Club members on August 3 via OnePlus.in and the company’s offline stores.
In terms of the offers, the phone buyers will get Rs. 2,000 discount with purchases made using American Express cards. Additionally, the buyers will get Rs. 6,000-worth of benefits from Reliance Jio. OnePlus Red Cable Club members will exclusively get extended warranty and assured buyback rates, 50 GB worth of free OnePlus Cloud storage and other third party benefits.
Alongside the OnePlus Nord, OnePlus has brought the OnePlus Buds as its first truly wireless (TWS) earbuds with a price tag of Rs. 4,990.
OnePlus Nord First Impressions
OnePlus Nord specifications, features
The dual-SIM (Nano) OnePlus Nord runs on Android 10-based OxygenOS 10.5 and features a 6.44-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,400 pixels) Fluid AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and 20:9 aspect ratio. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and supports features including Night Mode, Reading Mode, and Video Enhancer. The phone is powered by octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC, paired with Adreno 620 GPU and up to 12GB LPDDR4x RAM.
For capturing photos and recording videos, the OnePlus Nord packs a quad rear camera setup that includes a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 primary sensor with an f/1.75 lens. The primary sensor is notably the same that’s available on the OnePlus 8, and it comes along with optical image stabilisation (OIS). Further, the camera setup includes an 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an f/2.25 ultra-wide-angle lens that has a field of view (FoV) of 119 degrees. You’ll also get a 2-megapixel macro shooter and a 5-megapixel depth shooter – both with an f/2.4 aperture.
OnePlus Nord comes with a quad rear camera setup
In terms of selfies and video chat, the OnePlus Nord has a dual selfie camera setup at the front. This setup comprises a 32-megapixel Sony IMX616 primary sensor with an f/2.45 lens and an 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an f/2.45 ultra-wide-angle lens that has an FoV of 105 degrees.
The OnePlus Nord comes preloaded with camera features such as UltraShot HDR, Nightscape, Super Macro, Portrait, Pro Mode, Panorama, AI scene detection, RAW Image, and Ultra-Wide Selfie. It also supports 4K video recording at 30fps or 1080p at 30 or 60fps. Additionally, you can capture super slow motion videos at 240fps along with 1080p resolution or time-lapse shots in both 4K and 1080p resolutions at 30fps frame rate.
On the storage front, the OnePlus Nord has up to 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage that doesn’t support expansion via a microSD card. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.1, GPS/ A-GPS/ NavIC, NFC, and a USB Type-C port. Sensors on board include an accelerometer, ambient light, gyroscope, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor. The phone also comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Unlike the OnePlus 8 series that has stereo speakers, the OnePlus Nord comes with a single, super linear speaker. The phone also has noise cancellation support. Further, there is OnePlus’ iconic Alert Slider to let you change the way you receive notifications.
The OnePlus Nord packs 4,115mAh battery that supports Warp Charge 30T fast charging technology. Besides, the phone measures 158.3×73.3×8.2mm and weighs 184 grams.
Is OnePlus 8 Pro the perfect premium phone for India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.