The OnePlus Nord CE Lite 5G, which has a starting price of ₹19,999, is the company’s most affordable smartphone in India. The phone would compete with the likes of the Poco X9 Neo, iQOO Z9x, Vivo T3, and Realme P1 at this price.
Is this under ₹20,000 smartphone the most well-balanced one, though? After utilizing the Nord CE 4 Lite for a few days, these are my impressions of OnePlus’ most affordable smartphone during this brief usage time.
Unboxing and design:
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite comes with a box that includes the device, some documents, a transparent PU case, a red Type A to Type C cable, an 80W converter, and a neatly packaged black cardboard box.
Three color options are available for the phone: Mega Blue, Ultra Orange, and Super Silver. The mega blue version that I was given is a tad too showy for my taste.
The two rear cameras and the flash are housed in a pill-shaped camera cutout located on the back of the phone. The shiny plastic on the CE 4 Lite’s back is quite prone to smudges and fingerprints. Prior to actually handling the device, I would highly recommend utilizing the included case.
The phone seems a touch boxy, and the sharp edges could be a problem when taking long talks. OnePlus decided to replace the curved textured surface that it had on the Nord CE 4 with its younger sibling with a flat panel. To learn more about the long-term performance of the CE 4 Lite, stay tuned for the full review.
Display and software:
The 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED display on the Nord CE 4 Lite has a peak brightness of 2100 nits (1200 nits in high brightness mode) and a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels.
Additionally, the phone has the Aqua Touch function, which is meant to make it easier to use when the screen gets wet from rain or when using it with wet hands. However, based on my use of the OnePlus 12 and subsequent models, the feature hasn’t always worked as intended. To discover if OnePlus has made any progress in bettering the implementation, we’ll need to conduct a more in-depth examination of the Nord CE 4 Lite.
Software-wise, the Android 14 operating system powered by Oxygen OS 14 powers the CE 4 Lite. The next security patch release is scheduled for May 2024. There are nine bloatware apps included with the phone, including Candy Crush, Bubble Pop, Tile Match, Myntra, and LinkedIn. However, you can install these apps and the user interface is completely free of advertisements.
When compared to other Chinese smartphones on the market, Oxygen OS offers a comparatively cleaner user experience, but it is not the most feature-rich Android skin available.
Camera:
With its dual-camera design, the Nord CE 4 Lite features a 50MP Sony LYT primary sensor with OIS and a stunning 2MP Mono sensor that is supposed to enhance portrait shots. A 16MP selfie camera is also located on the front for taking pictures and making video calls.
Performance:
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G chipset, which is built on the TSMC 6nm process, powers the Nord CE 4 Lite. For performing graphics-intensive activities, it is partnered with an Adreno 619 GPU.
To put it mildly, OnePlus’s processor selection is underwhelming considering that the Snapdragon 695 is nearly three years old and was also the chipset behind the Nord CE 2 Lite and the Nord CE 3 Lite. By deciding against a more recent 4nm-based Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 or MediaTek 7200 processor, which would have made it one of the most well-balanced devices under ₹20,000, OnePlus, in my opinion, lost a trick.
Apart from processor choices, the phone operated without any problems throughout daily use. The gameplay was really fluid when I tried playing a few deathmatches on Call of Duty Mobile and BGMI. In a more comprehensive assessment, the device’s performance will be examined in greater detail, including with benchmark ratings and comparisons.
Battery:
The 5,500mAh battery pack of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is a significant improvement over the 5,000mAh battery of its predecessor and puts the phone on pace with other OnePlus devices released this year, such as the 12R and the Nord CE 4.
Support for 80W rapid charging is included, which is supposed to enable the phone to go from 0% to 100% in 52 minutes. Using the included charger, the CE 4 Lite required little more than an hour to fully charge during my brief testing period.
Price:
The 8GB RAM/128GB storage edition of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite costs ₹19,999, while the top-tier 256GB storage variant costs ₹22,999. As of June 27, the phone is available for purchase on Amazon, the OnePlus website, and company-approved retail locations.
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