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OnePlus Nord N10 5G Review

The OnePlus Nord N10 5G is by far the most affordable 5G-ready from OnePlus with a big screen, a high refresh rate, and a tall aspect ratio that make it easier for people with smaller hands to use. So without further ado, let’s take a more in-depth look at this device.

Table of Contents

Design and Construction

The OnePlus Nord N10 looks very simple. It got a glossy back finish made out of plastic that is very prone to fingerprint smudges. There’s no free jelly case and screen protector here, and the N10 5G comes only in one color scheme (Midnight Ice), which is quite unusual for a mid-range smartphone.

In the front, it offers a very generous screen size, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and an LCD. The side bezels are quite small, while the top and bottom could have been smaller. Placed on the upper left side is a punch hole cut-out that houses its front camera.

On the left side, you’ll find its volume rockers and a hybrid slot that can either carry two nano-SIM cards or a nano-SIM card and a microSD card.

While on the right is its power button. If you’re a fan of OnePlus, you will notice that it didn’t include its signature three-way alert slider.

Up top is a noise-canceling microphone, while at the bottom are its downward-firing speaker, USB Type-C port, noise cancellation microphone for calls, and a 3.5mm audio port.

At the back, you’ll find its quad-rear cameras stacked in a rectangular frame and a fingerprint sensor housed just above the OnePlus logo. The camera bump does protrude a bit, and it’s prone to some light rocking when placed on a table.

Overall, it was pretty comfortable to hold and use. Build quality is sturdy, but not as premium as we’d like. Also, take note that the N10 5G is not IP-certified.

Display and Multimedia

The display is one of the main areas where OnePlus had to compromise to keep costs down. The OnePlus Nord N10 sports a 6.49-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080, a 90Hz refresh rate, and it is protected by 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The N10 5G’s LCD screen is by no means top-notch. The screen itself is sharp but lacks a little brightness, which is evident when using outdoors. For display customization, there’s a color-temperature slider if you want to adjust the white tones.

Audio-wise, at this price point, the stereo speakers are a nice-to-have feature. The bottom-firing speaker tends to distort a little bit at a maximum volume, but if you keep the volume at reasonable levels, it sounds pretty good.

Camera

The Nord N10 has four rear lenses, including a 64MP main, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP depth, and 2MP mono. For selfies, we have a 16MP shooter.

As for photo quality, photos taken from its rear cameras look quite good. It provides the right colors, especially under good lighting conditions and details are present. The ultra-wide shot is also impressive, but its colors are not as vibrant as they are with the main camera.

When it comes to low-light, photos get a little noisy and smudgy. Using the Nightscape mode makes things better.

Selfies with the Nord N10 is kind of a hit or miss. It struggles with skin tones and makes you look pale. Turning on the HDR makes it a little bit better.

One of the things that the Nord N10 impressed me with is its rear camera video quality. You can shoot up to 4K at 30fps. The stabilization is quite good but not perfect. If you want for more smooth video output, use a tripod or gimbal.

OS, UI, and Apps

Straight out of the box, the Nord N10 5G is OxygenOS 10.5 based on Android 10. The UI is highly customizable. You can switch between light and dark themes in the Settings, the ambient display clock style, accent color, system icon shape, icon packs, and the font. You can also choose between full gesture control or a navigation bar with fixed controls for home, back, and recent.

However, as much as how we love OxygenOS for its track record, the update situation is very different here as we’re only guaranteed one update, and that’s going to Android 11. The design changes in Oxygen OS 11 may not be everyone’s liking.

Out of the 128GB storage, you’d get a usable 105GB storage, which you can expand via a microSD card.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the OnePlus Nord N10 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 chipset, 6GB RAM, Adreno 619 GPU, and 128GB UFS 2.1. It is one of the first chipsets from Qualcomm’s 600 series to feature 5G connectivity.

When it comes to gaming, you will notice some lags, so better to lower your graphics if you want a smooth performance. For day-to-day use, like browsing the web, it is pretty snappy and responsive.

Check out the benchmarks scores below:
• AnTuTu V8.4.1 – 284,411
• Geekbench 5 – 606 (Single-core), 1,827 (Multi-core), 961 (OpenCL)
• PCMark – 8,284 (Work 2.0)
• 3DMark – 2,175 (OpenGL), 2,014 (Vulkan)
• AndroBench – 805.96 MB/s (Seq Read), 179.99 MB/s (Seq. Write)

For biometrics, the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor feels a little sluggish and does not work all of the time reliably. The face recognition works better, at least in good lighting conditions.

Connectivity and Battery Life

The OnePlus Nord N10 offers 5G compatibility, and it is packed with all the modern connectivity features, including dual-SIM support, dual-band GPS, Bluetooth 5.1, Type-C, and NFC.

OnePlus may have dialed back the processor on the OnePlus Nord N10 5G, but it hasn’t sacrificed battery life for the phone. It packs a 4,300mAh with w/ 30W Warp Charging, which can only charge the device for more or less an hour.

In our standard video loop test (1080p movie on loop, 50% brightness, 0% volume, airplane mode on), the device yielded 20 hours. In the PCMark Work 2.0 Battery Test, it got a score of 15 hours and 39 minutes.

Conclusion

The OnePlus Nord N10 is a really interesting addition to OnePlus’s mid-range line-up and currently one of the affordable 5G phones with a big screen, good enough camera, decent battery life, and acceptable performance at the price of PHP 14,990USD 255INR 21,655EUR 243CNY 1,860. The 90Hz refresh rate is also a nice feature, which does improve the daily user experience. However, there are smartphones around the same price that offers better screens, performance, cameras, and still 5G-enabled. But if you’re into OnePlus, this is the most affordable 5G phone you can get from the brand right now.

OnePlus Nord N10 5G specs:
6.49-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) 90Hz IPS LCD display, 405ppi
2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 octa-core CPU
Adreno 619 GPU
6GB LPDDR4x RAM
128GB UFS2.1 storage
MicroSD slot, expandable up to 512GB
Quad-rear cameras:
• 64MP F1.79 (main)
• 8MP F2.3 (ultrawide)
• 2MP F2.4 (mono)
• 2MP F2.4 (depth)
1080p slow-motion video recording at 120 fps
16MP F2.0 Front-facing camera
Dual-SIM
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.1
Dual-band GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, Beidou
NFC
USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner (rear-mounted)
Oxygen OS (Android 10)
4,300mAh battery w/ 30W Warp Charging
Dual speakers
163 X 74.7 X 8.95 mm
190g
Midnight Ice