Premium feel for under $500 – OnePlus Nord 5 smartphone review

[Redaktion]

The OnePlus Nord 5 offers a lot for comparatively little money including a sturdy chassis, fast display, powerful SoC, and decent update promises. Its design also puts it firmly in the upper class. However, there are a few downgrades compared to its predecessor...

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Premium-feel-for-under-500-OnePlus-Nord-5-smartphone-review.1112935.0.html

[opckieran]

To me, the Nord 4 was a true return to form for OnePlus. Great performance, tons of RAM, and a killer price. As someone who owned a OP3, I have been consistently disappointed by this company's change in ethos to one that tries (but comes up short) to compete with Apple and Samsung. Even more infuriating is that we are stuck with the now more than 2 year old N30 5G in the US as their only mainstream offering (not high-end or flagship). If I had been able to purchase a Nord 4 with 16GB RAM in the US, I would have done so in a heartbeat.

[16GB]

Yeh, same. It's not just the Nord 4. Feels like their entire line up from previous year's.

For example, 12R had 16GB but 13R only comes with 12GB, unfortunately.

When I first got 16GB 12R I thought it was an overkill as it's the same amount as my laptop.

But now I appreciate it a lot more. Considering just how bloated and I unoptimized apps are these days, I feel like my device is a lot more stable and crashes less because of the additional headroom.

[OnePlus, more RAM option?]

6-year update promise

Is this official? If so, this is nice, tho I think this SOC could be used for a few years longer easily. The only question is how much capacity would the battery have lost at that point.

comparatively heavy

Yeah, I had a 160g phone and it felt so much lighter compared to a 200g one, let alone this 211g one (and it's still a plastic chassis, but I wouldn't care, if it was at least lighter).

@16GB, Don't know what apps, or how many, u use, but consider closing them [if not actively using]. Never had an issue with my 8GB RAM phone. That being said, a higher RAM option would be nice for locally running AI/LLMs (LLMs on phones are a thing now and OnePlus reduces RAM..).

[16GB]

@16GB, Never had an issue with my 8GB RAM phone.

That's the best outcome. IMO, if you have no issues with current phone then the best thing to do is to keep it until it dies. Of course, I'm not going to shill for any of these companies :P and it's less waste better for the environment this way too this way.

It was more aimed at people possibly having issues, or their phone recently died and now they have the choice between 16GB or 8GB new one with not much price difference - as was the case for me. Then yeh, definitely go for it.

[kirk781]

Seems like a downgrade in multiple areas. From storage speeds to RAM [which I assume will be the major pain point though I can personally make do with 8 GB ].

A full charging cycle takes about 40 minutes, slightly longer than its predecessor, despite the smaller battery.

Does this phone have a Si/C battery as well; some OEMs are inducting them, this leads to larger battery sizes in slim forms but one can't do blazing fast charging with them. I think few other Chinese manufactures have picked up Silicon/Carbon batteries as well and downgraded the charging speeds slightly.

[kirk781]

Yeah, I had a 160g phone and it felt so much lighter compared to a 200g one, let alone this 211g one (and it's still a plastic chassis, but I wouldn't care, if it was at least lighter).

My previous phone was from a little known brand called Techno. I think it only got one Android update,if at all. But the phone was ~215g due to the monstrous 7000 mAh battery it carried. My current phone is ~190g and feels slightly lighter. I even have a more entry level phone from Nokia/HMD stuck at Android 11 and while it is useless at multitasking [or most things], it definitely is a delight to hold in hands or snuck into pockets due to the exceptionally light weight.