Looking at the newly arrived Nord 2T 5G took me back, for just a moment, back to the very first OnePlus One. Something about the back panel in its sandstone look and ‘Grey Shadow ’ colourway looked just like the phone that started all that flagship killer business.
But of course, on the slightest closer examination, the Nord 2T’s look and feel are all in keeping with today’s phones The design is not particularly inspiring or anything, but that glass back has a beautifully soft matte finish to it that makes it really nice to touch and even nicer to hold because, at 6.4 inches, it’s a lot smaller than other phones around.
And nor is it uncomfortably broad. The rounded edges flowing into a metallic frame look very classy and somewhat executive in this colour variant. The other is an interesting and unusual Jade that I missed out on seeing, though it’s a glossy one, unlike the Grey Shadow.
Cool under the collar
The Nord 2T is a refresh and upgrade to the Nord 2 which did very well as an affordable all-rounder under the OnePlus brand. Yes, it was plagued with one or two episodes of the phone exploding, but these were exceptions and not proven to be because of a problem with the device and beyond what happens with just about any phone brand.
To be on the safe side, heat management has been stepped up with the Nord 2T. I didn’t find it heating up beyond slight warmth with everyday tasks including recording videos.
An ergonomic form factor and standard but quite elegant design aren’t the only things that make the Nord 2T 5G worth recommending. On the right edge is the much-loved Alert Slider, which lets you quickly, without unlocking the phone, silence the phone. This is removed from the Nord CE phones, but on the Nord 2T, it ensures the user has one of the OnePlus signature features.
The 2T’s display is perfectly nice AMOLED with a very tiny dot for the front camera. But one big miss is the lack of a 120Hz refresh rate. What it does have is a 90Hz display that drops down to 60Hz when you set it to.
While a high refresh rate display does make a phone even faster, the 2T is in any case fast enough with the 12GB LPDDR4 RAM and 256GB it has on our review unit. There is an 8GB and 128GB variant as well for those who don’t necessarily even need that much power for what they use their devices for on an everyday basis.
The excellent display houses a fingerprint sensor which expectedly works pretty fast. There’s no water and dust resistance at this price point, so don’t douse the phone with any liquid. There are speakers both above and below and they’re about ok, not all that loud or deep thought. Haptic feedback is a little on the gentle side.
Upgraded chip
The chip that powers this phone is the MediaTek Dimensity 1300, a bit of an advance, at least technically, over the previous gen’s 1200. For those thinking of upgrading their Nord 2, this won’t be that much of a step up, though the refresh is welcome for new buyers of the series.
In almost all other respects, the Nord 2 and the 2T are the same. The Nord 2T runs on Android 12 with OxygenOS 12.1. Despite the fact that it’s getting closer to Oppo’s ColorOS, it still is cleaner and more intuitive than interfaces on other Chinese phones. It isn’t loaded with unwanted apps either. OnePlus is promising three upgrades for Android and four years of security and other support updates.
The battery is 4,500mAh with 80W SuperVOOC charging. It takes between 27 and 30 minutes to charge the phone with the charger included in the box. In my time with the device so far, the battery has tended to last quite nicely through the day and even beyond if used lightly.
The camera set is one of the design elements on the back of the phone, which incidentally is protected both from and back by Gorilla Glass 5. The camera housing is a rectangle with two large circles and smaller circles on the inside that aren’t symmetrical, causing some to be visually disturbed by the whole look.
Personally, it doesn’t bother me very much. The main camera is the only one that really matters and it’s a 50MP with a Sony IMX766 sensor that results in punchy pictures and adequate details. You will still get softness in images here and there though. The ultra-wide is just okay and the monochrome is along for an unnecessary ride. Portrait shots are adequate but don’t neatly detect the edges.
The Night mode fills an image with light, artificially, much as usual and is useful for indoor photos. The front 32MP selfie camera is a little soft though it doesn’t do badly with skin tones. Overall, it’s a workable set of mid-range cameras and fine for casual everyday shots.
The Nord 2T 5G is, in sum, a good all-rounder at a relatively affordable price (₹28,999 and ₹33,999) and it will quite possibly do pretty well treading the same path as the Nord 2 did — except that it does have a bit more competition.