Review of OnePlus Nord 5: Midranger focused on selfie

OnePlus Nord 5 does exactly what the company’s northern phones have always done: to provide strong specifications at a relatively low price. It is one of the more powerful phones at this price point and should easily overcome Samsung and the alternative Google.

It is a phone-form phone where the key points of sale are a powerful processor and a long battery life, which are boring actions that tend to matter most in medium models, such as this. The problem for the North 5 is that other medium phones on the markets where they are available, including Europe and India, but not American collection, even faster chipsets and larger batteries, so the new OnePlus leaves a little stuck and connecting to ABOVERAGE Selfie.

The performance sits in the heart of North 5. Combined with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage at 399 GBP / 449 EUR (around $ 530) and 12 GB RAM and 512 GB storage for 100 GBP / 100 EUR (approximately $ 125) more offers strong specifications for the price.

This is good for playing, which explains why OnePlus has decided to display, which is large, clear and fast: 6.81 -inch OLED panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. I am still skeptical about such high refresh rates on phones – few games sometimes break around 120fps. OnePlus says that the antenna is moved to make it work better when the phone is held in the landscape mode for playing, even though the manufacturers have praised it for years.

The battery is the second half of the power equation and the capacity of 5,200 mAh is also good. I spent the first week with the phone traveling (so I discovered one inconvenience: there is no ESIM support) that is always strength -intensive, and has never felt a lot of anxiety of the battery. It lasts daily and about halfway in a second, but I think you would try to do two days without replenishment. Cable charging vans 80W in 45 minutes, including a bypass charging that powered the phone directly without overcharging the battery if you wanted to keep it connected during a long gaming session. The main concession at the price is that there is no wireless charging.

The problem is that for all this power it is not the most capable phone at this price point. The POCO F7 is slightly cheaper than the North 5 and comes with a better chipset, larger battery and faster charging. The OnePlus phone wins at the refresh rate, but it is hard to compare that it is complicated less powerful elsewhere, which means that the F7 is likely to intervene higher frame frequencies during the detection of games. Anyone looking for game performance in the first row is likely to be attracted to F7, so what can North 5 offer elsewhere to decide this difference?

The most unique element of hardware is the most key, a new button that replaces the traditional O -Warning slider. This is a customizable key that, by default, fees that the slider has done – allows the cycle between the ring, vibrations and quiet modes. However, it can also be set to open the camera, turn on the flashlight, take a screenshot and more. It is not fully However, you can set up so that you can open any application or start your own features.

The PLUS key can also be used to take a screenshot and add to the mind space, AI tool that analyzes images to summarize them, create a reminder, or generate calendar events. It is a note similar to the necessary space that almost does SCH – it also uses a reserved hardware key – but unlike the version, you cannot add voice notes to provide AI more information, get a summary of laid audio recordings or even open space space, so OnePlus’ to attract software is more basic.

There is little else on the software side. Northern 5 ships operate Oxygenos 15, based on Android 15, and gain decent (but certain that they are not the head of the category) four years of the main OS updates and six years of security support. One other bonus is easy wireless file sharing between Windows PC, Mac, iPad or iPhone, even if you have to install software about PLUS Connect on the second device-unfortunately, there is no support for MAC complete control found on OnePlus Pad 3.

OnePlus has made an unusual choice by favorable selfie camra phone, which contains in a 50 megapixel sensor that has the width of the average selfie cam. I’m not a natural selfie-taker, but the results are good and full of details. They are not significantly better than rivals in normal lighting, but because most phone cameras can now handle daylight. The portrait mode is the only small weak point that most of the time is trying to separate the strands of my hair. But this camera comes to its own at night: a large sensor and a fast f/2.0 aperture that helps North 5 to capture impressive details in the dark when most of the other selfie cameras break down. If you need a phone that captures you and your crew out at night and on a weakly lit dinner, it can be the one.

The main rear camera of 50 megapixels is good, but not great. Fight with fast moving objects such as pets and children, and you need a stable hand to get great shots at night, but that’s typical for phones at this price. Colors are a little supersaturated and artificial from this lens; Ultrawide 8 megapixel is more subdued, but loses much more details in dark places.

North 5 faces hard competition on both sides. With the POCO F7, you could spend less on more energy or spend 100 GBP / 100 euros (surrounding $ 125) more on Pixel 9A Google on better cameras, harder water resistance and more years of software support.

North 5 is not a bad phone. However, it is not clear what its unique selling point is. OnePlus leaned to power and performance, but Poco was played. Pixel 9A, although more expensive, beats the camera and design. Even its reserved AI button is therefore better elsewhere, for less, on the phone 3A. The best for finding an audience is its selfie camera, which is better than any other pimp. But as the sales points go, it feels smaller.

Photos of Dominic Preston / The Verge