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OnePlus introduced the first generation of its Nord phone a year ago, and since then we have seen several more phones in this line, such as models N10 5G, N100 or more recently CE 5G. None of them were definitely bad, though the phones had little in common with the brand’s vision, except perhaps the original Nord. We can tell at the beginning that The OnePlus Nord 2 5G is its full successor and excels in several respects.

Content of the review OnePlus Nord CE 5G

Package contents OnePlus Nord 2 5G

The phone came to us in a relatively large box, in which, in addition to the package itself with the phone, there are also original cases (see photos). In stores and e-shops, however, you will find the smaller box. In addition to the phone itself, there is also a transparent case (which, by the way, fits perfectly in your hand), 65W adapter and charging cable.

Quality of workmanship and appearance of OnePlus Nord 2 5G

The look of the OnePlus Nord 2 5G is something that is sure to catch your eye at first glance. If he should original Nord descendant with OnePlus 9, OnePlus Nord 2 5G would climb out of it. The phone takes something from each phone. For example, the display (which we will get to later) is almost identical to that of the OnePlus Nord, while the back of the cameras seems to have OnePlus 9 out of sight. In the blue color variant we tested Blue Haze in addition, the phone looks really good and looks premium in the hand. The back is made of glass and protects it Gorilla Glass 5. The frames are then of plastic and they don’t shine as much as the OnePlus Nord CE 5G, for example.

The cameras are slightly raised above the rest of the back, so your phone (unless you use the case) will wobble on your desk. But this can hardly be considered a disadvantage, as is the case with most phones today. The phone does not fall into the category of compact, but it holds very well in the hand, also due to how light it is. The phone weighs 189 grams and its overall dimensions then make 158.9 x 73.2 x 8.3 mm. On the left side there are buttons for volume control, on the right there is a power button and audio profile switcher. And we are very happy with it, because it is about typical license plate of the company, which the Nord models (except for the original) lacked. You get used to it really fast and it is used a little differently than with iPhones. You have a choice of three modes – quiet, vibrating and loud.

At the bottom is located USB-C port for charging, SIM card slot and of course a loud speaker. This is helped by the headphone speaker, thanks to which we can look forward to stereo. The overall speech is not completely bad and the maximum volume is relatively high. But somewhere it was necessary to save. What does it mean? OnePlus Nord 2 5G has no IP certification, although some tests on YouTube show that the phone does not mind water. Of course we haven’t tried it and we don’t recommend it to you either.

OnePlus Nord 2 5G display

OnePlus Nord 2 5G has 6.43 ″ AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. According to the specifications, it may appear to be the same display as in the original Nord, which is partly true. Thanks to the architecture MediaTek Dimensity 5G Open Resource Architecture but there is a function like AI Color Boost (available in applications such as VLC, YouTube or MX Player) a AI Resolution Boost (available in Instagram, Snapchat or YouTube), which makes the display look better. Unfortunately, we do not have the original Nord with us, so we cannot compare them. The sampling frequency then makes 180 Hz, which is quite a sufficient value.

The display as such is quite sufficient maximum brightness 600 rivets, vivid color rendering, of course great black rendering and thanks to the 90 Hz frequency the whole phone looks really fast. Probably no one assumes that you will switch from a 120Hz phone, for example, but rather from an older one, which has a standard frequency of 60 Hz. Basically, we have nothing to complain about and we will also be pleased by the fact that it supports HDR or content in streaming services such as Netflix in HD resolution.

It is also located in it a fingerprint reader that works great. It’s fast and if you don’t have dirty fingers, it will almost always recognize you. It should be added that the display interferes with the bullet in which it is locatedí 32MPx selfie webcam. Like the main cameras, it produces very good images and the video is surprisingly good.

OnePlus Nord 2 5G hardware

This is the first time in the company’s history that OnePlus has decided to leave the chipsets from Qualcomm and some Snapdragon on the phone ticking the chipset MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI. This is a slightly modified version of the standard Dimensity 1200, with MediaTek deciding to open the 5G Open Resource Architecture platform for the company, as we have already mentioned. Thanks to the OnePlus Nord 2 5G, it has a nicer display and also gives better performance with cameras. But we will get to that later. In our case, the chipset helps 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage.

There is no point in walking around hot porridge. Personally, we were a little apprehensive about this change, and after fourteen days of use, we can issue a verdict. For the entire period of use jwe did not encounter any problems such as overheating, the phone treads like a watch and we did not encounter any major problem. In terms of gross performance, the chipset and the whole phone really excel here. In the Geekbench 5 benchmark, the phone scored 812 points per core and 2940 points in a multicore test.

In some ways, he defeats, for example Samsung Galaxy S20+, ie last year ‘s flagship, which was several times more expensive. The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G is only slightly behind (3176 points). So there is probably no need to mentionthat competitors in the price category of CZK 10,000 usually do not catch (except for Poco F3). Such a Galaxy A52 5G achieves a performance of 1,625 points in a multi-core test, just for comparison.

Needless to say, all the games you can think of should be it Call of Duty Mobile, Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact, Shadowgun: Legends or Black Desert Mobile run on the phone without any problems and without any jams even at higher graphic settings. We were also surprised by the fact that the phone does not become extremely hot even when playing these demanding games, which is sometimes a problem.

OxygenOS user interface

A few days before the OnePlus Nord 2 5G came to us for testing, OnePlus officially confirmed that the OxygenOS and ColorOS extensions found in Oppo phones will merge. At the same time, however, it was noted that the user does not know and the changes will take place in the background. One of the reasons why the company decided to do so is the fact that we will receive thanks to it updates much faster. And that was confirmed to us. We have received the third update during the time we are testing the phone. Of course, the superstructure and typical elements of OnePlus phones do not disappear anywhere. And this is exactly the phone the first model with the OxygenOS 11.3 system, which is based on ColorOS.