OnePlus Nord 5 Review: Practical Daily Driver with Good Battery Life

OnePlus Nord 5 Review: The OnePlus Nord Series is a popular choice among buyers in the mid-range smartphone segment, and the company recently launched its Nord 5 for the Indian market. It got some decent improvements over the Nord 4 series in terms of performance, chipset, and camera quality. The Nord 5 offers a good battery life, better photography, and is available around the ₹35,000 mark. However, the Nord 5 is positioned in an extremely competitive segment, having competitors like iQOO Neo 10 and POCO F7. Does it make the cut?

What is the price of the OnePlus Nord 5?

The price of the OnePlus Nord 5 is as follows:

• 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage - ₹30,499
• 12GB RAM and 256GB Storage - ₹33,499
• 12GB RAM and 512GB Storage - ₹36,499

What’s Good

Battery

The OnePlus Nord 5 is equipped with a 6800mAh battery pack, and it is an upgrade over the Nord 4, which used to offer a 5,500mAh battery. During our daily usage, the battery lasted for more than a day easily, and with Android Auto connected, it lasted quite well. While scrolling through Reels and Shorts on Instagram and YouTube continuously, and playing games all day long, you’ll end your day with some battery to spare.

Additionally, it comes with an 80W SUPERVOOC charger, which charges the phone in about 55-60 minutes. It really helped us in getting quick juice during metro travel, and a few minutes of charge helped in continuing watching TV Shows and listening to music during our travel.

Display

The OnePlus Nord 5 has a 6.83-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen and has a 144Hz refresh rate. The display of the Nord 5 is smooth and crisp, and it has a peak brightness of 1,800 nits. The bezels are minimal, which helped in enhancing our gaming experience and watching movies. While using it at night or in the dark, the brightness gets quite dim, and it does not cause any strain to the eyes. Further, the animations are smooth, and the in-display fingerprint was quick enough to be recognised and unlock the home screen.

Photography

One of the things that we liked in the OnePlus Nord 5 is the camera update over the previous generation. It comes with a 50MP Sony LYT-700 as its main sensor on the rear, and it is paired with an 8MP ultra-wide lens.

Our experience with the Nord 5’s cameras was good. During the daytime, the shots were clear and the colours were accurate. 

We did not feel any lag while clicking the shutter button continuously. It comes with 1x and 2x zoom, and it works well for random shots, and the Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) keeps the final shots of the subject steady, even with little hand jerks. 

The ultra-wide camera in the Nord 5 also helped us get a wider shot of the subject. While low-light photography helps get the shot at night, we wish the quality of the photos could have been better.

Talking about the front camera, the Nord 5 has a 50MP unit. It captured sharp and crisp images and performed decently at night as well. Both the front and the rear cameras have 4K 60FPS recordings for your daily content shoot.

Performance

The OnePlus Nord 5 comes with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor. If you are upgrading from an older Nord series, it is a noticeable elevation, as this is the first time OnePlus has equipped the Nord series with the Snapdragon 8s processor. During our test, scrolling through reels all day, watching podcasts to web series, making online payments, or playing games extensively, it was smooth and switching between multiple apps did not have any lag.

Talking about the gaming front, we played multiple racing games like Asphalt and others at the highest graphics setting. The games opened within seconds, and there was no lag, and no serious heating was observed. Though there was a slight rise in the temperature, after an hour's play, it was still smooth in the highest setting, and the app switching was lag-free.

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What’s Bad

Videography

Videos shot at up to 4K resolution in low-light conditions retain noise, making them less appealing for social media platforms. Minor editing helps, but it is an additional step when you want to post an Instagram Reel on the go.

The lack of ultrawide-angle videos is a big miss. While we were shooting content, we felt the need for the wide-angle lens to capture wider frames. Since it can be a deal breaker for someone, you can check out other options in its segment.

Design

The next thing that we feel could have been better is the design. It has a plastic frame, and it did not feel as premium as its competitors in its segment. The OnePlus Nord 5 feels sturdy to hold, but since it weighs approximately 210g, it feels heavy and has fairly large dimensions. 

Though the rear and the camera module are redesigned in the Nord 5 series as compared to the Nord 4 series, the camera module is slightly raised, and the phone was wobbling on the table.

Software

OnePlus’ OxygenOS is among the most polished operating systems, but its implementation on mid- and low-end phones includes bloatware, i.e., preloaded apps, some of which cannot be uninstalled. It is not a dealbreaker, but you must know the operating system you are getting into with the Nord 5.

Should You Buy it?

Rating: 3.5/5

The OnePlus Nord 5 is a solid phone for its price. Its battery is meant to last days, if not hours, while performance is something that both gamers and casual users will appreciate. Sure, there are misses, such as no support for ultrawide-angle videography and slightly bloated software (which is a deliberate choice by the company for its low-end phones), but they will matter to people who have specific requirements from their next phone. For instance, iQOO Neo 10 and POCO F7 are better options for those who need faster performance, but the gains are not big. Those who want a well-rounded phone at around ₹30,000, the OnePlus Nord 5 is a safe bet.

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