The OnePlus Nord series have turned out to be the mid-range gem of their flagship products. In recent years, almost everyone I know has preferred going in for a OnePlus Nord, thanks to its price and positioning. Recently, the OnePlus Nord 4 was at the office for review and here is my take on it.
Design
The form factor fits just right in my hand, and is a pleasure to use on a day-to-day basis. The phone was pretty sleek with a thickness of just 8 mm, and weighing just under 200 grams. The all-metal finish looked graceful with a brushed metal finish that kept smudges to a minimum. We still get the alert slider on the left, and IR blaster which can be used to control TVs, ACs and more. I reviewed the Mercurial Silver colour, which to some might look blingy, but honestly I quite liked it. You also get variants in Obsidian Midnight and Oasis Green.
Display
The OnePlus Nord 4 features a 6.74 inches AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 2150 nits. This was effective outdoors under the harsh summer sun. The 120 Hz AMOLED screen was really bright and great to consume OTT content on. With minimal bezels and a 93.5 per cent screen-to-body ratio, the smartphone delivers some truly enjoyable viewing experience. I enjoyed watching the endless desert backdrops and the overall cinematography in Aadujeevitham on Netflix and also the gritty drama Mirzapur (Season 3) on Amazon Prime.
The sound from the dual stereo speakers on the Nord 4 were clear and relatively loud without much distortion at the higher volumes in songs such as Blockbuster from Coke Studio Pakistan.
Performance
The OnePlus Nord 4 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 mobile platform with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB UFS 4.0 storage. In synthetic benchmarks, the smartphone scored 10,25,510 on AnTuTu placing it just slightly below the Samsung S22 Ultra which is a nod to its flagship-level performance, despite a mid-range price tag.
Games like Battlegrounds Mobile India and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile ran silky smooth at high to ultra resolution at 42-60 fps without any frame drops. The body did get a bit warm while gaming, but I’m not surprised considering the finish.
The Nord 4 comes with OxygenOS 14.1 out of the box, and offers 4 years Android OS updates and 2 years of security updates. Day-to-day operations were pretty smooth without any stutters or lags.
The phone is touted for its AI features, One being an AI eraser which was an 86 MB plugin and was able to do an average job of object removal in terms of blurring or removing number plates, and removing people and objects in the OnePlus Photos app. Another was the summarise feature in the recorder app which did a decent job of summarising 10-15 minute recordings with reasonable accuracy.
The phone comes preloaded with apps like Bubble Pop, Agoda, Tile Match, App Picks and Word Connect, which thankfully can be quickly uninstalled.
Camera
The OnePlus Nord 4 features a 50 MP Sony LYTIA lens and an 8 MP ultra-wide camera. The cameras snapped detailed images with accurate colour rendition in daylight and the night shots were also good enough for social media.
The 16 MP front camera captures detailed images, but tends to have a very neutral colour tone sometimes resulting in skin tones paler than the original.
The ProXDR display tech seems a little gimmicky still. It’s on by default and adjusts the brightness and contrast of all images in the gallery.
Battery
The OnePlus Nord 4 features a 5,500 mAh battery, which stayed on for almost 2 days. My typical usage involved a couple of hours of gaming, a few hours of browsing, watching YouTube or Netflix and making calls.
The device supports 100W SUPERVOOC fast charging, and with the supplied charger was able to charge from 0-100 in under 50 minutes.The battery runs well, and was able to support my extended gaming sessions on the phone.
Verdict
Priced between ₹28,999 and ₹35,000, the OnePlus Nord 4 is well positioned in the mid-range market while packing in flagship specs. The smartphone ticks all the right boxes with a great display, sound, stellar battery life and effective performance at this price point. With the likes of the Poco F6 Pro and Realme GT 6T in this category, the OnePlus Nord 4 positions itself well as a heavyweight contender in this segment.
Price -
₹29,999 (8 GB + 128 GB)
₹32,999 (8 GB+ 256 GB)
₹35,999 (12 GB + 256 GB)
Pros - Great display, slim form factor, great camera, good sound, amazing battery life
Cons - Pre-installed bloatware, metal body tends to heat up over time