OnePlus Nord 2 5G review: Flagship-like performance

The first OnePlus Nord has its distinctive place in the mid-premium category of smartphones, and the OnePlus Nord 2 5G wants to cement the company’s popularity in this segment. The new model features 5G connectivity, a high-end MediaTek system on a chip, excellent hardware specifications, and a promising camera system. If this has piqued your interest, read this review to see what OnePlus Nord 2 5G has to offer:

OnePlus Nord 2 5G: Who is it good for?

This smartphone is a solid choice for:

• People who want a great phone but can’t afford a flagship device
• Users who want an Android experience without bloatware
• People who desire high-speed charging
• Users who want a phone with high-end performance
• People who desire security updates for more than the standard two years

Pros and cons

There are many things we love about the OnePlus Nord 2 5G:

• It is a good looking smartphone
• The OxygenOS is a sleek and fast Android version
• Good camera system
• Very few bundled apps
• It charges fully in only 30 minutes
• Three years of security updates
• It has a headset jack
• Good quality protective case included

There are some minor downsides to consider:

• No dust/water resistance
• The cameras have only digital zoom
• No headset included in the box

Verdict

There are many things to love about the OnePlus Nord 2 5G: its pleasant design, good quality display, excellent performance, outstanding fast charging, and bloat-free operating system. While not perfect, the camera system packs quite a punch, and many users will love it. Couple these elements with a reasonable price, and you get a product that will surely attract many users. We believe that the OnePlus Nord 2 5G is a great smartphone that will become one of this year’s most popular devices. If you want a smartphone that delivers flagship-like performance, design, and features, but without paying a premium price, the OnePlus Nord 2 5G is one of the best choices you can make.

Unboxing the OnePlus Nord 2 5G

We received the OnePlus Nord 2 5G in a special black box designed for the bloggers and tech enthusiasts testing this smartphone before its global launch. Inside, we found the actual box in which the smartphone is sold to customers, alongside a welcome message for the press, and three bumper cases created for this smartphone. Unboxing the OnePlus Nord2 5G The bumper cases for the OnePlus Nord 2 5G are diverse in the way they look, targeted at different audiences. Personally, I preferred the classic look of the black bumper case. OnePlus Nord2 5G bumper cases When you open the box for the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, you immediately see the smartphone, nicely packaged in a protective cover. Opening the box Under the smartphone, you find the power adapter, a USB cable, and another box. OnePlus Nord2 5G - What is inside the box The smaller box hosts a good quality protective case for your smartphone, a welcome message to the OnePlus family, a pin for ejecting the SIM tray, the quick start guide, the safety information, and other leaflets. The only downside is that we didn’t find a headset included with this smartphone. OnePlus Nord2 5G comes with a protective case The OnePlus Nord 2 5G packaging looks just as great as the one for premium smartphones. We also appreciate the high-quality protective case included in the box.

Design and build quality

OnePlus Nord 2 5G has a large 6.43-inch display with rounded corners. The Blue Haze version we received for testing has a porcelain-like glossy finish which looks great. The phone’s size is 6.25 x 2.88 inches or 158.9 x 73.2 mm in length and width, with a thickness of 0.32 inches or 8.25 mm. The weight of the phone is 189 grams or 6.66 ounces. One nice detail is that OnePlus has already applied a screen protector, so you don’t need to buy one separately. On the top side of the screen, you notice the selfie camera and a speaker. A screen protector is applied on the display The OnePlus Nord 2 5G has a glass back and a plastic frame. The back features the camera system, the OnePlus logo, and a sticker with the IMEI and serial number. On the right margin, you find the Power button and the Alert slider, a classic for OnePlus smartphones. The back of the OnePlus Nord2 5G On the left edge, you find only the Volume buttons. The left side of the OnePlus Nord2 5G On the top bezel, you find only a microphone that’s probably used for noise cancellation purposes and stereo sound recording. The top bezel of the OnePlus Nord2 5G The SIM tray, a microphone for taking calls, a USB Type-C 2.0 port, and the speaker are found on the bottom bezel. The bottom bezel of the phone This smartphone is available in two color versions: Gray Sierra and Blue Haze, pictured below. Both of them look good and we’re curious to see which color will be popular with the OnePlus audience. OnePlus Nord2 5G is available in two colors OnePlus Nord 2 5G is a good-looking smartphone with pleasant design and colors, which feels thin and relatively light when you hold it in your hands.

Hardware specifications

OnePlus Nord 2 5G comes with an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI System on a Chip that offers support for 5G mobile networks and a Mali-G77 MC9 graphics chip that works very well for all tasks, including mobile gaming. The smartphone is available in versions with 6G, 8GB, 12 GB of RAM, and 128 GB or 256 GB of storage space. We received in testing the most powerful variant, with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Details about the OnePlus Nord2 5G There’s no microSD card support for extending the storage space, but the built-in storage should be enough for most people unless they record many videos in 4K resolutions. OnePlus Nord 2 5G has a dual nano-SIM slot for people who need to use two phone numbers on the same device. A dual nano-SIM slot is available The display uses an AMOLED panel, and it has a refresh rate of 90 Hz, a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels, and a pixel density of 410 ppi (pixels per inch). OnePlus Nord2 5G has an AMOLED display The camera system has three cameras on the back of the smartphone and one on the front. They have the following features:

• A 50-megapixel primary camera, with a Sony IMX766 sensor, a pixel size of 1.0 μm, f/1.88 aperture, 6P lens, and optical image stabilization.
• An ultra-wide camera of 8 Megapixels, f/2.25 aperture, a field of view of 119.7°, and electronic image stabilization.
• A depth camera on the back, with 2 Megapixels and f/2.5 aperture.
• There’s also a Dual-LED flash on the back, alongside the three cameras.
• A 32 Megapixel camera on the front, with a Sony IMX615 sensor, a pixel size of 0.8μm, f/2.45 aperture, and electronic image stabilization.

With the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, you can record videos at 4K resolutions and 30 frames per second, or 1080p resolution and 30 or 60 frames per second. The camera system One of the aspects in which the OnePlus Nord 2 5G shines is the fast charging technology: it bundles a 65W Warp Charger that is a lot faster than what you get from the competition. The battery is non-removable, and it boasts a capacity of 4500 mAh. The 65W Warp charger The smartphone also packs good connectivity options: Bluetooth 5.1 support, GPS, and NFC. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t have support for Wi-Fi 6, and you can use only the older Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4 standards. In terms of sensors, the OnePlus Nord 2 5G has an in-display fingerprint sensor, an accelerometer, electronic compass, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, SAR sensor, proximity sensor, and a sensor core that monitors the other sensors inside your smartphone. If you want more details about all the features and hardware specs, visit this page: OnePlus Nord 2 5G Specs. Read the second page of this review for details about the smartphone experience offered by the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, its cameras, operating system, and bundled apps, as well as its performance in benchmarks.

The smartphone experience on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G

OnePlus Nord 2 5G has a bright AMOLED display that’s pleasant to use both outdoors and indoors. Another thing we appreciate is that the display is tuned to comply with the DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces, with good color accuracy. The fast 90 Hz refresh rate of the screen makes everything feel responsive and smooth. Also, the Oxygen OS v11.3 custom Android build offers a great user experience without annoying bloatware and ads. All Android apps work very well, including mobile games. Oxygen OS v11.3 is a sleek Android version Watching movies and listening to music is an enjoyable experience, even without a headset. However, the speaker system on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G is not as good as those found on more expensive flagships. We don’t recommend setting its volume to the maximum, as the high-frequency sounds are too loud and high-pitched. Also, the bass is lacking compared to flagship smartphones. However, we must not forget that the OnePlus Nord 2 5G is cheaper than a flagship smartphone, and some trade-offs were required. Watching movies on the OnePlus Nord2 5G Phone calls made on this phone are clear for both parties, and we didn’t encounter signal reception issues. The suppression of ambient sounds works very well too. Both the fingerprint sensor (placed on the bottom part of the display) and the face unlock are accurate and fast. Decide which one you want to use depending on your personal preference. The battery is not a strength of the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, but it’s not a weakness either. The smartphone can easily last a day of regular use on a single charge. If you are a light user, you can have it last for up to two days. However, you will be impressed by the 65W fast charging on this phone. You can charge it from 0% to 100% in 30 to 32 minutes. OnePlus Nord 2 5G is a well-built smartphone that delivers what you need, including a good quality display, fast unlock options, solid performance, and excellent fast charging.

The camera experience on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G

Taking pictures on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G is a fast and mostly pleasant experience. The camera app has plenty of configuration options, and it is relatively easy to use. By default, the primary camera takes pictures using 12.5 Megapixels. However, you can turn on the option to use the maximum of 50 Megapixels, but we don’t recommend it, as you don’t see any major improvement in picture quality. The best results are obtained with the default resolution. Options offered by the Camera app When you take pictures with the primary camera, you get satisfying results with photos that have high contrast, accurate colors, and a wide dynamic range. However, when you turn on the HDR feature, the results feel a bit too over-processed, and we recommend that you don’t use it for picture-taking. The Night Mode delivers generally good results, with good color reproduction and without too much noise. Also, the optical image stabilization does a good job, both day and night. Unfortunately, the OnePlus Nord 2 5G doesn’t offer optical zoom. Instead, you get only digital zoom which crops and upscales your pictures. This is okay to look at on the phone’s display but not good on a computer monitor. Therefore, the quality of your photographs suffers quite a bit, even if you use only 2X zoom. When taking macro shots, you get good color reproduction, but you may not be satisfied with how the camera focuses on your subject. Selfies have good contrast and colors, but the subject separation may not always be great. For a better understanding of this smartphone’s camera performance, take a look at the picture samples below: This smartphone can record video with both its primary camera and the ultrawide one. However, the 4K resolution at 30 frames per second is available only on the primary camera. Videos look good both in 4K and 1080p, with low noise, and good color reproduction. One good example is the landscape below: While electronic stabilization is available on both cameras, optical image stabilization is available only on the primary camera, and it delivers better results. Again, the digital zoom may be problematic. When you zoom in and out as we did in the video below, you get a suboptimal experience. You can also record slow-motion videos on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, and they tend to look pretty good, as long as you don’t use the zoom feature. To see how well it works, take a look at the sample we filmed below: OnePlus Nord 2 5G offers a balanced picture-taking experience. For the best results, we don’t recommend enabling HDR or increasing the resolution to 50 MP. Sticking to the default camera configuration is a much better idea. Video recording is a cool experience, too, with satisfying results, as long as you use the primary camera and don’t zoom it. Overall, we are satisfied with the camera experience offered by the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, and we believe you will be too.

Android 11 and bundled apps

OnePlus Nord 2 5G comes with Oxygen OS v11.3 - a custom Android 11 operating system developed by OnePlus. It has some personalization options outside the basics offered by Android, and all of them are about improving the user experience. The company provides two years of software updates for OnePlus Nord 2 5G and three years of security updates. This support window is not as long as the one advertised by Samsung, but it is longer than many other manufacturers. There are few preinstalled apps Another upside is that the smartphone comes with very few built-in apps:

• Clone Phone - you can use it to migrate your data from another smartphone to your newly purchased OnePlus Nord 2 5G.
• Community - an app where OnePlus users can get help, exchange tips and ideas. You can also use it to access the OnePlus Store.
• File Manager - a helpful app for managing the files and folders found on your smartphone.
• Games - an app for optimizing the performance of your mobile games.
• Netflix - the popular movie streaming service that needs no introduction.
• Recorder - records audio and uses your smartphone as a microphone.
• Weather - we all need a weather forecast now and then.
• Zen Mode - an app to monitor your phone usage, which helps you take some time off from the digital world.

The Oxygen OS v11.3 on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G has a few built-in apps and useful customizations on top of the standard Android 11 experience. The phone will get three years of security updates and two years of software updates. We love the approach taken by OnePlus, and we hope it becomes popular in the world of Android smartphones.

Performance in benchmarks

To evaluate the performance of this smartphone as objectively as possible and compare it with other phones, we ran several benchmarking apps. The first was Geekbench. OnePlus Nord 2 5G scored 807 points in the Single-Core tests and 2714 points in the Multi-Core tests. These scores place it close to the European version of the Samsung Galaxy S20+. Geekbench scores We then used PCMark for Android to measure how well this smartphone works for productivity. It scored 8482 points, a bit higher than the OnePlus Nord CE 5G. The score in PCMark for Android In the 3DMark benchmark app, we ran the Sling Shot test. OnePlus Nord 2 5G rendered an average of 55.10 frames and 40.20 frames, respectively, and it had a score of 7112 points, similar to that of a Samsung Galaxy S20. An excellent result! The score in 3DMark For mobile gaming, we also ran the Car Chase and 1080p Care Chase Offscreen tests from GFXBench. OnePlus Nord 2 5G rendered an average of 40 frames per second and 46 frames, respectively. Another positive result for users who are into mobile gaming. While this smartphone won’t deliver performance near this year’s flagships, its graphics chip is powerful enough for pleasant mobile gaming. The score in GFXBench To evaluate the autonomy offered by OnePlus Nord 2 5G, we used PCMark’s Work 3.0 battery life test with the display brightness set to Auto. The battery lasted 14 hours and 2 minutes. The PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test Unfortunately, we don’t have 5G connectivity in our area, so we couldn’t test the mobile data speed you get with this smartphone. The benchmarks we ran confirmed that the OnePlus Nord 2 5G offers excellent performance for a phone at its price. The MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI SoC that powers this phone is surprisingly capable, and it works well for mobile gaming too, not just productivity and your casual mobile apps.

Do you like the OnePlus Nord 2 5G?

Now you know what we like and what we don’t like about the OnePlus Nord 2 5G. It is a solid smartphone that competes successfully with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy A72 5G. Furthermore, we believe it to be a balanced device that offers a lot of bang for the buck. Before closing this review, tell us your opinion about the OnePlus Nord 2 5G in a comment below.