OnePlus Nord 4 Review: My Time to Shine

The Nord series was initially intended to fill the gap OnePlus left behind when its flagship killers started climbing up the price ladder. While the first phone was pretty compelling, the second and third interations failed to leave a mark. Now that the Nord 4 is here, with a fresh new design and attractive specifications, can this be the ideal midrange device to go for this year? I’ve been using the phone for about a week, and after thorough testing, I’ll share my honest impressions in this OnePlus Nord 4 review.

OnePlus Nord 4: Specs at Glance

Box Contents

In 2024, when brands don’t even bother shipping charging adapters on a budget phone; OnePlus manages to bundle every essentials you’d need with your new phone. Here are the box contents.

• The Onelus Nord 4
• USB A to C cable
• 100 Watts SuperVOOC charging adapter
• SIM ejector tool
• Transparent silicon cover
• OnePlus Nord stickers
• Red Cable Club card
• User manual and other paperwork

OnePlus Nord 4: Build and Design

The recently released CMF Phone 1 brought back a nostalgic trend in smartphones with a new twist with its back covers. And I wasn’t expecting that I would get to see the resurrection of an old style this soon. Yes, the OnePlus Nord 4, brings back the metal body from what I consider the Golden Era of smartphones.

It even takes design cues from one of the best Android smartphones of that era, the Google Pixel 2. With its half-glass, half-metal design, and horizontally oriented camera setup. Which by the way prevents the phone from wobbling when laid flat. The silver variant of the Nord 4 even has an orange accent for the alert slider. Probably, a nod to the orange power button of the same phone.

The best part about metal phones is the antenna lines which add a premium aesthetic. As if the tech itself has to bend down to the design. Also, kudos to the design team for making the frame curve on the sides. It makes the phone handy without the flat sides digging into your hands. While holding the phone, you’ll find the power and the volume buttons on the right, and the alert slider on the left.

On the top of the phone, you’ll get the IR blaster, and the bottom is home to the SIM tray, USB-C port for charging, and the secondary speaker grill. At this point, it must be obvious that I adore this design and wish that Google would adapt it for their next Pixel. But if you are not nostalgic about the days of the past, you may find it a little odd like a few of my friends did.

Display And Speakers

The display on the Nord 4 is a 120 Hz flat panel that stretches out to 6.74 inches diagonally. Now for some reason, I kept thinking that there was no way the screen size figures could be correct, as the phone felt compact in my hands. Probably cause I might be used to phones with larger displays. It might also be a result of its thin bezels which allowed it to squeeze more screen in a smaller size.

Now when you talk about content consumption on this device then it checks all the boxes. You get a 10-bit panel, HDR 10+ support, and a high-resolution 1.5K display. This display produces vibrant color tones, that do look a bit oversaturated at times. But that makes it appealing to watch content, especially ones with tones of colors like animated videos.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching web series and anime shows on the Nord 4 for this reason. However, the one issue I kept running into was its brightness. It only goes to 1100 nits normally which is why I had to keep checking the brightness slider whether it is maxed out or not. The screen is protected by Panda glass, but as I said, no matter which protection is used, it is best to get a tempered glass.

Speakers and Haptics

But the display is just one aspect, the other being the sound. For that purpose, the Nord 4 comes with a stereo speaker setup. They are pretty well balanced, but I’d say the bottom one does more heavy lifting so you get a 60:40 ratio between the bottom and the top speakers. The sound quality is clear and loud for the most part till you crank it up to the max. Then it gets kind of shrilled.

As for haptics, we have an x-axis motor on board which gives you tight tactile feedback. Combined with how the UI itself takes advantage of the vibrations when you interact with it. And you have a recipe for a rich haptic experience which is great to have at this price range.

OnePlus Nord 4: Software Experience

Now OnePlus Nord 4 comes with OxygenOS 14.1 but I don’t think that calling it OxygenOS feels right. I have a sour taste for the brand since it switched the enthusiast favorite interface, and painted it over with ColorOS. Still, the brand offered a bloatware-free alternative to other Oppo and Realme devices running the same UI.

But this has gradually changed to what we have now. The Nord 4 comes with a total of 11 bloatware apps, 4 of which you can choose to avoid during setup. You’ll also notice their own app store, despite having Google Play Store installed. Oh! and did I mention it performs security checks when you install an app even from the Play Store. Also, how could I forget the Lock Screen Magazine?

With these things, it is tough for me to call it OxygenOS anymore. Yes, you can ignore these things, and they’re not as much in your face as MIUI was in its heyday. Aside from that, there are a bunch of new AI additions like AI Writer, AI Note Summary, AI Audio Summary, AI Linkboost, and a new BeaconLink feature to place calls to nearby people without a network.

These AI features will probably remain exclusive to this phone and upcoming OnePlus devices. The animations have seen improvements and the OS is snappy for the most part. One thing you should look forward to is 4 years of major updates which means this phone will go up to Android 18. Plus you’ll get 6 years of security patches that will arrive quarterly.

Performance and Gaming

For a phone that promises around half a decade’s worth of software updates, you would need a processor that can last that long. That’s why the Nord 4 features the latest Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3. This is a 4nm octa-core chipset we first saw in the Realme GT 6T. It’s the best you can get for a midrange smartphone.

This is coupled with 8 or 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128 GB or 256 GB storage. But enough numbers, let’s get into the nitty-gritty. We’ve run all the benchmarks on this phone and shared the results below. Read this story for an in-depth analysis of Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and its performance.

Day to Day Use

In everyday use, the Nord 4 served me well. Whether you talk about juggling multiple apps, scrolling past hundreds of Reels and Shorts, making calls, taking messages, or watching videos. The experience wasn’t hampered by any hiccups, delays, or bugs. It started smooth and snappy and remained the same throughout my usage. So, no complaints in this area.

Gaming Experience

Although this is not a gaming phone per se, the internals can still push plenty of FPS without dropping a sweat. I played the popular titles we use for every test; and mentioned the maximum graphics and FPS settings you can expect in those games.

Throughout the review period, the OnePlus Nord 4 handled mainstream titles like COD Mobile and BGMI with ease. The framerate remains locked no matter how heated a situation gets. In higher graphic settings, you will notice some frame drops but only by a few digits.

Warzone and Genshin Impact did push the 7+ Gen 3 to its limits. The processor struggled to keep up. I was averaging 55 FPS on Warzone and Genshin Impact stayed in the ballpark of 45-55 FPS. Turning on High Performance mode didn’t help much but maybe it’ll be fixed with a later update.

Talking about heated situations, the phone did start to feel warm at the back after prolonged gameplay. And a mere 10 to 15 minutes with Warzone and Genshin Impact. But the metal back helped spread out the heat well through the frame so it didn’t get too hot in one part.

OnePlus Nord 4: Camera

On the camera front, you’ll find a 50 MP Sony LYT 600 sensor with OIS as the main optic, and an 8 MP ultrawide lens. For selfies, there’s a 16 MP front-facing shooter. With the specs out of the way, let us talk about the camera results you can get from this phone.

Daytime Images

In sunny daylight situations, the main camera takes pretty good photos. As you can see in the attached images, the photos look clean and sharp though the shadows feel boosted. There’s a decent amount of details. But the sharpness in details gets lost when you zoom in.

You’ll notice an inconsistency in the photos. Sometimes the camera captures close to natural images while other times it boosts the colors. Note that I had AI scene enhancement disabled during the photoshoot.

The ultrawide lens does its job. Images that come out of it are serviceable but given it’s just an 8 MP lens, it fails to capture much detail. However, I applaud OnePlus for tuning the cameras to maintain color consistency. This doesn’t make it jarring when you switch between lenses.

Night Time Photos

I liked the photos clicked in the night. They have sort of a moody look to them which some people may like and may not. The OIS does help out in this situation helping to click clean images with little to no noise.

The lights and shadows don’t get blown out much though the details appear softer. There’s also no artificial oversharpening going on here, which we often see phones try to do in post-processing.

Selfies and Portraits

Selfies turn out good but not to the extent I hoped for. The skin tones are mostly accurate. But the faces look soft and not because of any beautification mode. It could be happening in the background processing. The camera also struggles with exposure in some situations. Hopefully, it gets ironed out with an update.

On the other hand, portrait photos are something that OnePlus has figured out well. Their algorithm is pretty accurate and captures those, almost natural feeling portrait photos. The edge detection is done pretty accurately. So if you enjoy taking portrait photos, this should be easy pick.

Videos

As for videos, the OnePlus device can shoot 4K ultra HD videos at 60 FPS. I used OnePlus Nord 4, as part of my review, to record the bustling narrow streets of Hauz Khas and they came out pretty attractive. There were some jitters here and there, but nothing too distracting. The videos weren’t shaky as OIS helped as much as it could but EIS or the phone’s stabilization mode didn’t work with 4K video quality.

In terms of the camera, I’ll have to say that you have to manage your expectations. It won’t blow your mind, but will be more than enough if you like taking photos to share on social media.

Battery and Charging

During the review period, the OnePlus Nord 4 has impressed me in terms of battery life. It features a big 5,500 mAh battery capacity. As I said in my comparison of the OnePlus Nord 4 and the IQOO Neo 9 Pro, this phone powered me through a hectic day. I used it to stream music, make calls, take tons of photos and videos, and use it as a WiFi hotspot. By the time I arrived home, there was still some gas to spare.

With moderate usage, the phone should last around 7 hours. For all you mobile gamers, it can last 5-6 hours. You can switch to 1080p and automatic refresh rate to extend the longevity of the device. However, I wouldn’t suggest doing it. Since the device boasts a 100 watts charger out of the box, you can top up the phone from 0% to 100% in around 20 minutes.

Should You Buy the OnePlus Nord 4?

The OnePlus Nord 4 is a refreshing change in the Nord series. Its design shows that the team did their homework and returned to the drawing board. Sure, it has its ups and downs, and some might be a deal breaker for you. Like the lower brightness, bloatware rick OxygenOS, or the inconsistent camera performance. But there is a lot to like here as well.

Most importantly, it is one of the ideal midrange devices I have seen in a while that doesn’t try to break any barriers or your wallet. It delivers on the essentials that most users would care for. So if you want a handy OnePlus phone, or a device that serves you well for years to come, the OnePlus Nord 4 is the one to consider.