OnePlus Nord 2 Review
Released Aug 11, 2021
Remember when the OnePlus One came out? A cut price device, punching way above its weight, including the important things, and sacrificing features to bring you a great experience at its price.
The OnePlus Nord 2 is not the OnePlus One. It’s not packing a Snapdragon 888, but the Dimensity 1200 AI has not once made me wait or notice any stutters. Gaming, browsing, streaming, it does it all. Even coming from an iPhone 12, I’m seriously impressed.
The most impressive part of this phone is the battery. Use the phone, go to bed, wake up with 50-60% still in the tank. And when it’s empty, half an hour from 0 to 100% again. I haven’t been able to take it out and about and see what effect bad signal has, but I’ve been very happy.
The camera is another great surprise. It puts out pleasant pictures, and even better video. The video is a little flat colour wise, but bump the saturation and you’ll get nice results! The colour balance is actually fairly impressive, with nice exposure too, even with harsh lighting behind me! The front camera isn’t quite as impressive, with soft photos and poor auto exposure.
I like OxygenOS a lot. There’s loads of customisation available, and I haven’t even found myself switching to Nova Launcher as usual.
The build is another thing I found myself impressed by for something at this price point, but also houses probably my biggest disappointment. The alert slider is AMAZING. I would kill for the same 3 stage toggle on my iPhone. The downer is the plastic sides, which do a good cosplay of metal, but it doesn’t 100% hold up.
Finally, the price ties this whole device together really nicely. There are trade offs here, like the camera and resolution and the processor is a step down, and the plastic build. But for £400, that’s an insanely fair deal. This thing is trading blows with flagships, including my iPhone 12, and I’d even go as far as to recommend it over the SE and if you’re looking for a phone at this price range, the OnePlus Nord 2 is top of my list.
Hell, with this many positives, one may even call it a Flagship Killer. ;)