It is time to pull my thoughts together for the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G without I have been using it for a few weeks.
I have once taken the time to put this through it unboxing process and provided a few very unenduring initial first thoughts for the device, however, that was surpassing I lived with it for any sort of time. I wanted to dig lanugo to the very cadre of the Cadre Edition phone to find out what made it tick and now this has been done, I have a largest grasp of the subject matter.
So let’s get started and see if this phone that is currently on sale for £269 at OnePlus is worth spending some of your hard-earned mazuma on.
Design
I have gone over this in increasingly detail in the unboxing article I wrote when I first receive the device older last month. I was pretty pleased with the diamond of the phone as it has some very nice details. A couple of areas that stand out now having used the phone are wrenched lanugo in some detail below.
It’s A Bit Square… But In A Good Way
I have got to day this was one of the things that struck me the most well-nigh the diamond of this phone when I first unboxed it and plane surpassing that when I saw the early pictures. I will go as far as say this was one of the things that made me want to review the phone, to uncork with. If you have been a reader of Coolsmartphone for some time you may remember I was a big fan of the Xperia lineup of old and one of the things that I liked most well-nigh their design, which is unfurled into today’s phones that they are pushing out was the “blockiness” of the design. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I like this.
The Nord CE 3 is very much from the same school of thought in this regard. it has a large unappetizing glass exhibit a unappetizing plastic when and unappetizing plastic side and marrow rails making up the frame. These all request to me. The rails withal the side and marrow are nicely textured to add a bit of grip to the exterior making it easier to hold and they are very slightly rounded off on the four corners which contribute to the repletion when it is hand. It is very similar in terms of the diamond that is currently stuff offered of the iPhone 14 lie up and this has been unchanged for what feels like forever. I do like this diamond nomination and it fits the market segment correctly I feel.
The Buttons Are Split Between Both Sides Of The Phone
I have found that this is a diamond nomination that OnePlus started to follow a while ago and I like it for the most part as it ways that you aren’t tumbled as to which sawed-off does which. So on the right-hand side, you have got the power sawed-off which moreover pulls double duty as a fingerprint reader. It is nicely raised unbearable (just well-nigh 1mm)so that it can be found with ease and has good action. The fingerprint reader is moreover pretty responsive too which is a nice touch. the volume buttons are then located on the left-hand side scrutinizingly exactly opposite the power button. This ways that unlike on my Pixel 7 Pro, I am not often pressing the volume key instead of the power key. There is however a downside which I need to mention and that is that it is very easy to unwittingly take a screenshot with these buttons the way they are located which I have washed-up several times by mistake!! it is an easy fix as you can turn the full-length off in the settings which I am yet to do, whenever I remember to do it I then get sidetracked by something else.
The When Is Plastic
Now for a lot of people, this is a negative but for me and given the financing of this phone I am not too bummed out by this. I get that having a glass rear panel is nicer as the finger is largest and it affords a largest finger in the hand. it does however midpoint that the phone is inherently increasingly fragile and if you were to waif it then the glass will unravel meaning an expensive repair and potential for other damage. having a plastic when ways that the phone is increasingly resistant to forfeiture if the phone does get dropped and it is cheaper to make in the first place. So for me, this is a good visualization on the material used but they did in my opinion, expressly on the when colour way make a fundamental mistake. They have given the when of the phone a “Piano black” style finish which we see on a lot of car interiors these days. This is one of the most worrying finishes that they could have had as this ways that the phone is constantly covered in smudges and fingerprints. if you requite this to a teenager without the specimen this phone will squint mining in a matter of seconds. It is, for this reason, I was very glad to see that OnePlus has unfurled to provide a self-ruling well-spoken TPU specimen for the phone in the box as this was unromantic as soon as the initial picture had been taken and only removed if I need to photograph the when panel. If you’re choosing this phone and hate fingerprints get the Lime Green one as plane if this is the same slick finish you won’t see the fingerprints as much on that colour version.
Camera Modules Are Exaggerated
This is a bit of an odd one to me. I can see what has been washed-up as this is the designed direction stuff taken for the Nord series in its 3rd generation. the camera modules on the when of the phone are pretty massive for the overall size of the phone. I can get it for the top variety as that features the worthier camera but the marrow variety is a bit nasty looking as it has 2 camera lenses in the same circle. This ways that if you glance a the phone then you would think this has 2 rear cameras but in reality, you really only have the one which is mounted into the top circle.
I was on a video undeniability the other day for work and happened to be doing something on my phone for password hallmark and out of the undecorous I got a scuttlebutt from one of my colleagues saying that the cameras were ridiculously big! I then felt compelled to teach him that it was only the top one that was the very camera and the marrow one contained a depth of field sensor and the 2 MP macro lens The person who commented uses a Samsung phone that incidentally has the same 107Mp sensor on his phone and was shocked at how big they had made the housing for the camera when compared to his phone. It is not a problem in any way but just something that came up in my time with the device.
Sim And Micro Sd Vellum Support
It has been such a long time since I have had the pleasure to use a phone that supports micro SD vellum expansion that I forgot all well-nigh this full-length and how useful it is. I love that if I needed to I can throw in a memory vellum to the phone and store uneaten content on it. This would be unconfined for me to take this yonder on a trip as it ways I can throw a load of music and MP4 files onto a large SD vellum and then I will have a way of keeping my 10-year-old entertained on long journeys. It moreover ways that if he was using it and it and the screen were to get wrenched as long as I set the camera to store photos on the external storage then he will have all those photos misogynist to him on that memory card. Given that the phone moreover only comes with one storage size of 128GB having the expandable memory is a unconfined selling point as it will indulge the phone to be used for longer without the need to buy uneaten deject solutions once that internal memory has been used up. I have been using the phone for a few weeks with my regular app loadout and music on the phone and I have once used 90GB of the stage so having the worthiness to add uneaten will be very useful.
of undertow that is only one of the use cases for the uneaten slot as the phone moreover supports a secondary sim which is a proceeds very useful if you are using this a travel phone as it ways that you can have both your primary and secondary sim inside it at the same time. The phone has various future that will indulge you to determine which SIM is used or what which can be set up hands for you to make the weightier use of this feature.
3.5mm Headphone Jack On Board
So I defiantly did not expect to see this on such a budget-oriented device as this full-length was something that was for the large part now defunct on all phones bar the Sony lineup Xperia 1 Series devices which are all £1k plus phones. I am pleased to see this is when as it was a full-length I used to get largest audio when I was recording videos at trade shows but it moreover ways that if I was going to be giving this to a child I can requite them headphones that they can use that won’t forfeit me a small fortune but will still indulge a good sound experience. it moreover ways one less thing for them to lose and let run out of power.
Supervooc 67w Charging
Fast charging is a must for phones these days and the Nord CE 3 has this covered with the seated SuperVooc fast charging sufficiency meaning that plane the most taxing of users will find that they can when up to speed in no time at all. With a recharging speed of 0% to 80% in just 30 minutes you can have unbearable power for your day’s venture in the time it takes you to get yourself ready whiteout having to worry well-nigh the phone not stuff charged. I have been using SuperVooc charging on a Realme phone that my wife uses for nearly a year now and it is a godsend as she never remembers to tuition her phone so it unchangingly needs that quick boost, which SuperVooc affords.
However, it is often a cited snooping that using fast charging will harm the shower or the phone which is where the SuperVooc Endurance Edition speciality of the charging protocols comes into its own. The phone and charger will use the phone’s seated Shower Health Engine software to ensure that the phone’s shower will be kept in optimum condition so that you tuition it whenever you need it and depending on your charging habits the charging speed will be adjusted. So if for example you are plugging in overnight all the time then the phone will pick up on this behaviour and it will then slow lanugo the charging rate accordingly. If however, you are increasingly of tuition and soupcon style person then it will indulge the phone to tuition quickly and fast for the short period the phone is plugged in. This is normally a full-length that is only found on flagship-grade phones so it is nice to see this on a lower specced device.
So those are some of the diamond features that jump out to me well-nigh the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. The key overwhelming feeling I get from the phone is that this is a phone that does what it says on the tin but the diamond is only part of what allows this to happen a lot of that does what it says on the tin comes from the hardware and what is inside the phone so let’s spend a few moments going through that
Hardware
First up and pursuit on nicely from the shower tech I have just been looking at is that this phone has a suitably large 5000mah hour shower meaning that you should in most use cases not have to worry too much well-nigh stuff left with a depleted shower on most days. In most of my usage, I have normally had anywhere from 30% to 40% left in my daily use cases. Now admittedly I am not a young man and I don’t spend a lot of time using social media or taking pictures as I am at work for 8 hours of the day and my phone will just be ticking over quietly in the corner. However, I do use the phone for at least 2 hrs of media playback over Bluetooth on most days while I momentum to and from the office for work. I will normally have well-nigh a 1hrs use of email and then flipside hour of web browsing and social scrolling in the evenings throw in a few Youtube videos and that is where we are at. All of this time I have had the phone unfluctuating to a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro over Bluetooth as well for tracking steps and notification duties as well. I have not overly been worried well-nigh the phone running low on juice so far and most days I can stretch the usage out to last me up to days which is nice to have.
It is good to see this price point getting a decent size shower and coupled with the same charging speed and tech this is throne and shoulders whilom some higher-end devices that I have tested and owned over the years.
Next up is the screen that is I would say stereotype to good. Whilst I had no problems with its speed and fluidity of displaying content and navigating on the large 6.72″ 120Hz FHD Exhibit I did have an issue with the splendor of the screen as I found that it was very nonflexible to see in uncontrived sunlight. This is partly lanugo to the panel stuff an LCD and the colours stuff not as vibrant due to the capabilities of LCD panels by their very nature. The panel was moreover not a very unexceptionable panel maxing out at 680nits which when combined with my preference for visionless mode does make it tricky to see when the sun comes out.
I moreover dont think it was stuff helped by the screen protector that comes pre-applied to the phone as this seems to be a pebbles magnet and I found myself constantly cleaning the screen lanugo expressly when I had just taken it out of my pocket to use it. I am not sure what material was used by OnePlus for the screen protector but the combination of the screen protector and TPU specimen meant that the phone was constantly stuff covered in lint and dust. I did ultimately remove the screen protector as it started to peel at the edges and the pebbles pick up did reduce a bit so that is some supplies for thought.
Under the hood the brains of the phone are in the form of the efficient energy-sipping Snapdragon 695 5G chipset that was plenty powerful for most daily tasks which I carried out on the phone it was very rare for me to see any sort of slowdowns on the phone. Again as mentioned whilom I don’t tend to push these phones to their max but I was worldly-wise to do all I wanted to do on it with very little speed difference when compared to either my Z Fold 4 5G or my Pixel 7 Pro. The only chick was that I did occasionally notice that when I was using some apps that required large data set to be loaded this was a bit slower than on my flagship devices. I didn’t see the same when playing F1 Mobile at least not without I went through the initial loadout of the game that was as this did take a bit longer than I would have liked, but it is a big game so I will let the Nord CE 3 off for that one. I use the inbuilt gaming mode to monitor the performance of the game and I was unceasingly getting frames rates in the upper 20s’ through the session untied from one very strange moment when the phone slowed lanugo to single figures and everything turned into a bit of an villainous laggy mess. A quick gravity tropical of the app seemed to resolve the issue and it didn’t come when plane without playing for well-nigh flipside hour of gameplay time.
Another zone where I was keen to test the phone’s performance was when I was using it with Android Auto in my car. This has been the downfall of phones that are much largest specced than the Nord CE 3 in the past. I am happy to report that the phone didn’t have any problems when using Android Auto in a wired mode, Unfortunately, I was unable to test the wired functionality as my car does not support that full-length but it worked fine when using it for music playback and handling voice and texts while I was on the road.
In terms of undeniability quality, the phone delivered here calls were well-done and well-spoken and they synced up with Bluetooth fine both on my watch and my car. In terms of the signal I was experiencing the same sort of signal that I typically get on most phones I have tested as of late in some specific areas I was worldly-wise to get a largest signal on the Nord CE 3 that I sometimes would get on my Pixel 7 Pro. I would say that this is flipside respect of having the plastic specimen diamond as it allows increasingly of the signal to get into the phone’s antennas which unlike the Nord CE 3’s counterparts have to use signal channels creating potential weakness in the frame. This has been a problem on the OnePlus devices since the adoption of the larger camera modules on the OnePlus 10 series phones and sadly it is still evident on their 11 series. The good news is this should be the specimen with the Nord CE 3 and the other phones within the Nord series of devices.
So in terms of hardware and performance, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is unconfined zinger for its whippersnapper as long as your expectations are realistic.
A lot of the phone’s request comes lanugo to the software wits that is provided by the phone and that brings me nicely to the software side
Software
The concept of the OnePlus phones, when they were originally envisioned, was to bring true flagship value to the masses at a low and affordable price point. While there have been some shifts in this ethos over the years I do finger that a lot of hose aspects still ring true in the way that the Oxygen OS 13.1 UI that sits on top of Android 13 still works. Yes, there has been a lot of merging with the parent companies Colour Os that can be found on Oppo and Realme phones but this is not necessarily a bad thing as Oxygen OS is a really good UI. It doesn’t add too much duplication and where the duplications of apps or functions do happen they are either well thought out and useful or hands sidestepped. I have been running this phone as my daily suburbanite for quite some time during this elongated review and I have found that I was never left lacking in terms of the way the software works.
The UI allows me to set the phone up the way I want it to I have options if I want them and if I don’t then I am not forced to prefer them. An example of this is the App Drawer. I can set the phone to either have on or off as I want. I can have a swipe-down gesture brings up my notifications screen or it can bring lanugo the OnePlus Shelf option, which is a place to alimony useful widgets for quick access. Stuff that I am a bit of an old-school user I prefer the notifications dropdown but I have the option for either which is good to see. I do fathom the search function in the app drawer and I have found myself using it increasingly than once.
With all that stuff said, there are some minor annoyances that you do learn to live with but are not found on a device from the pixel lineup. So if I get a notification I need to tap on the small thunderstroke icon to view it on Oxygen OS which is a bit worrying when I am trying to quickly well-spoken my notifications. on other phones I can just pull lanugo and as I do so all my notifications expand fully permitting me to see what I need and quickly dismiss irrelevant apps.
A lot of the OnePlus seated apps require you to legitimatize the Status Of Usage surpassing you use them which is worrying but is only an issue on the first use so this is forgivable.
I did moreover find that the shower management was sometimes a little too persistent for my liking as I would be reminded well-nigh an app that is unshut in the preliminaries that I want to be unshut too frequently. If I want the app unshut then I know what it is going to do to my battery. Again this is probably something that is just me as I know what I am doing but for an inexperienced user, this would potentially prove to be useful as it will stop the phone from running unneeded programs in the background. I do finger that this is not as big of a problem as the Oxygen OS management software makes it out to be though as I normally get the same sort of shower life out of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G as I get on my Pixel 7 Pro despite them using variegated chipsets screen types etc.
If you can live with these very minor issues in the software there is a lot to like well-nigh Oxygen OS 13.1 and don’t let the OG Oneplus Oxygen OS hater put you off. I have been increasingly than happy living with the phone daily and would be increasingly than happy to recommend this phone based on the software implementation to either my wife or my parent. I moreover know that my son would be increasingly than happy with this phone as it would indulge him to do everything he wants to do and more.
Just surpassing I wrap up on the software there is one increasingly section that I want to mention. that is of undertow virtual RAM. This is something that increasingly and increasingly phones are starting to full-length and I am pleased to see that it is on workbench here as it does indulge the phone to stretch its legs if you need that uneaten bit of memory for gaming or multi-app use. It is particularly useful when gaming as it allows for an option tabbed Championship Mode
This will substantially turn your phone into a defended handheld when you are in a game and draws the maximum power from the phone for gaming only everything else becomes secondary. By default, the virtual RAM topics is set as 4GB but this can be doubled if required (In my testing I have not needed to do this but it could be useful for some)
Last but not least let’s squint at the camera.
Camera
This is perhaps one of the weaker aspects of the phone but going into this I was enlightened that the camera was not going to be wondrous as we do only have one sensor to work with in reality here. The camera adopts pixel binning using a 9 in 1 ratio meaning that your 108 MP sensor will produce images of 12 MP in size which is plenty for an entry-level camera. the difference here though is as the image is stuff captured by a upper MP sensor it can pull in increasingly data well-nigh the subject matter and substantially capture increasingly light. this in turn results in brighter, clearer and increasingly natural-looking images. In addition, you do of undertow have you wide variety of capture modes included and some of these modes will full-length an speciality of AI Assitance to tweak your settings to suit the lighting levels the subject the depth of focus etc.
You moreover have got 3x Lossless Zoom which is of undertow a digital manipulation afforded by the large sensor size but it works reasonably well as can be seen in the zoomed images below. But that is unbearable of me stating the facts here are some image si have captured for you to assess yourself and make your judgements.
As you can see from the images the camera is not too bad in optimum light conditions. The macro shots come out pretty well and it does a good job of keeping the subject in focus when using portrait mode (even when the subject is not a person!). This is all pretty much par for the undertow with any camera these days. It is when the light drops that normally things start to wrong.
I have included a few low-light shots here to show what I meanThe first of the whilom shots was without night mode and the second was with night mode on. As you can see there is a little bit of resurgence but it is not unconfined as we have a lot of whet blurring on the shot. To be pearly to the Nord CE most phones would have struggled with this type of shot. This however is not something that would urgently disuade me from this phone as these are firmly in the minority of the photos I would be intending to take with this phone. Also, the LED wink is increasingly than unexceptionable unbearable to make up for the low light issue.
As for video the phone can record at up to 1080p at up to 30FPS in normal video and it will moreover do 720p at up to 120fps samples of which can be seen below.
Last but not least is the selfie mode which is increasingly than good enough. it moreover allows for preliminaries blurring and it does a pretty good job at alimony the focus on the subject whilst blurring out the background.
I am happy with the camera performance for a phone of this price point and would be increasingly than happy to recommend this to someone who doesn’t need anything increasingly wide which to be pearly is the vast majority of us.
Conclusion
This phone is a very good upkeep offering and I have enjoyed using it. If I had not wilt so yawner to the high-end flagships that I can use due to this website I would be happy with this phone as one for myself. it is of undertow not perfect but given what you are paying it does a unconfined job. I found it slightly irritating when I was using it in very unexceptionable sunlight due to the relatively low nit levels that the screen was worldly-wise to produce. There were some things in the software that did tire me slightly but none of these things were a deal breaker for me overall.
OnePlus has unchangingly been very good at hitting the cash-to-spec wastefulness well with the Nord range and this is why I am normally such a big fan of it. I have recommended that some of my colleagues squint to this phone as a possible replacement for their ageing phones that they are currently using as they have said that forfeit is a worthier factor for them than high-end specs. I finger that this is the market where the OnePlus Nord cE 3 Lite 5g shines brightest. If you are on the lookout for a phone for a souvenir to a family member who doesn’t need the specs to be top-end but wants to know that they have something reliable and easy to use this is defiantly one I would recommend.
In terms of its competition there are a lot of unseemly but good ones in this segment b the uncontrived competitors for me though are the Pixel 6A and the Realme 10 Pro. The Pixel 6A I currently a tad increasingly expensive but it does bring all of the Pixel’s unique features to the party and as such this would be a bit of a step up expressly if the camera was one of the main drivers for the user. The Realme 10 Pro on the other hand is substantially the same phone albeit in a variegated shell and with slightly variegated branding. The main reason why I don’t think Realme would be one I would recommend is that it is a largely unknown trademark in the UK.
So there you have the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G, This is a very competent phone with a unconfined price tag and some unconfined specs on board. if you know someone who just needs a smartphone but doesn’t demand the weightier interest of specs, then this is a strong recommendation. it is moreover a unconfined volitional for your normal phone if you are looking for a secondary device for work, or travel to the sketchier areas of the world. (on my recent trip to Marroco this would have been a unconfined option over my Fold 4 as it wouldn’t have been the end of the world had I needed to replace it if it got lost /stolen etc). lastly, if you have kids who have not quite learned the value of high-end electronics and don’t take the weightier superintendency of things this would be a unconfined option for them as well.
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