OnePlus Nord CE 5G Hands-on

OnePlus just recently announced the availability of this OnePlus Nord CE 5G here in the Philippines. It is a toned-down version of the original Nord, and that “CE” at the end of its name stands for “Core Edition.” It sports a 6.43-inch AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 5G chipset, a triple-camera configuration, and a 4,500mAh battery. Check our initial thoughts about it.

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G comes in three colors, Charcoal Ink, Pearlescent Silver Ray, and a matte finished Blue Void color, which is the one we have. It’s made out of polycarbonate material and taking a closer look, the blue becomes even deeper and goes as far as purple towards the edges. It looks pretty nice and refreshing!

At just 170g and measures 7.9mm in thickness, it is the skinniest phone from OnePlus since the OnePlus 6T. Holding the phone feels solid and it’s comfortable to hold thanks to its slim body.

Up front, we have a 6.43-inch AMOLED display with a 2400 x 1080px resolution, 410ppi, and 90Hz refresh rate. Found on the upper left corner is a hole punch for the 16MP selfie camera, then right above the center at the bezel is the earpiece that also doubles as a secondary loudspeaker. OnePlus didn’t mention any glass protection, however, we do get a pre-installed screen protector pre-installed.

For buttons and ports, on the left, we have the volume rockers and the dual SIM card tray.

Meanwhile, on the right is the power button. Yup, no alert slider this time.

Up top, we have a secondary microphone, while down at the bottom is the USB-C port, main microphone, main loudspeaker and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Now at the back, we have the protruding camera module for the triple cameras consisting of a 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, and 2MP monochrome. We’ll get into this a little deeper in our full review.

Powering the OnePlus Nord CE 5G is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 with Adreno 619 GPU, 8GB or 12GB RAM, 128GB or 256GB storage, Oxygen OS 11 based on Android 11, and a 4,500mAh battery with 30W fast charging. For mobile data, it has 5G connectivity. We’ll know more about this device once we’re done with our review, so stay tuned for that.

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G is priced at PHP 16,990USD 290INR 24,544EUR 276CNY 2,108 for the 8GB + 128GB, and PHP 19,990USD 341INR 28,878EUR 324CNY 2,481 for the 12GB + 256GB. It is now available for purchase online through the Digital Walker website, as well as on Shopee.

OnePlus Nord CE 5G specs:
6.43-inch (2400 x 1080) Fluid AMOLED display,410ppi
90Hz refresh rate
Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 5G
Adreno 619 GPU
8GB, 12GB LPDDR4X RAM
128GB, 256GB UFS 2.1 storage
Triple rear cameras:
• 64MP F1.79 (main)
• 8MP F2.25 (ultrawide)
• 2MP F2.4 (mono)
16MP F2.45 front camera
5G, 4G LTE
Dual-SIM (nano)
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.1
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, NaVIC
NFC
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
3.5mm audio jack
USB Type-C
OxygenOS (Android 11)
4,500mAh battery w/ 30W fast charge
159.2 x 73.5 x 7.9mm
170g
Blue Void, Charcoal Ink