The OnePlus Nord 3 recently launched as the official successor to the two-year-old Nord 2, updating it with near-flagship specs and a design that’s nearly identical to its more budget-friendly counterpart, the Nord CE 3 Lite. At RM2,199, it’s twice the price of the Lite variant but as always with the brand, it attempts to offer the best bang for the buck.
Specifications
The Nord 3 runs on the last-gen flagship Dimensity 9000 chipset from MediaTek with a whopping 16GB of RAM and a 256GB internal storage capacity. It sports a 6.74-inch 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display with Dragontrail glass for protection. Speaking of protection, it is also equipped with Gorilla Glass 5 on the back and is rated at IP54 for dust and water resistance.
Comparing it to the Nord 2, it has a bigger battery with reasonably faster 88W charging and carries a similar triple-camera setup made up of a 50MP primary and an 8MP ultra-wide, although the mono lens was swapped out for a macro lens. For connectivity, it supports up to Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, 5G, and even has an IR blaster for it to act as a remote controller.
Looks & Functionality
The Nord 3 looks nearly identical to the CE 3 Lite, save for the two flash rings instead of one, as well as a different colourway. It has a smooth glass back and as per usual with this design choice, it is littered with fingerprint smudges the moment any person touches it.
Moving on, it has a very bright 120Hz AMOLED display that is reasonably well-lit for outdoor use. The phone is quite tall and top-heavy, so small-handed individuals will have a hard time with one-hand usage.
OnePlus replaced the side-mounted fingerprint scanner from the CE 3 Lite with an under-display sensor for the Nord 3. While this is usually the case for most mid-range phones to give it a premium feel, I found it to not be as fast or as consistent as the side-mounted one. It’s also positioned a bit too low for my liking.
The volume rocker is placed on the left-hand side while the right houses the power button and a physical alert slider, which is a small feature but a personal favourite quirk of mine that I’m glad the brand included. The IR blaster is positioned up top while the SIM tray can be found at the bottom.
Performance & Battery
While the SoC isn’t the latest and greatest, it’s still a powerful chip, even if it is from 2021. It manages to max out the Sling Shot extreme test in 3DMark and is able to get a respectably high score on the stress test with a decent stability of 76%.
As you might expect with the amount of RAM that it has, the phone has no problem opening up multiple apps and switching between them quickly. I found no overheating issues in my usage but then again, I don’t really game on my phones.
Just like many phones these days with a 5,000mAh battery, it can easily last a day and a half or even up to two days of regular usage. As long as the battery was charged above 40%, I never had to worry about the phone dying on me while going out the entire day.
Putting it through our YouTube streaming endurance test set at 25% brightness and volume, the Nord 3 just barely passed the 15-hour mark, which is a superb score. Of course, if I ever need more battery life, the 80W charging is pretty useful for a very quick top-up that can last me until the end of the day. On a side note, OnePlus doesn’t list reverse charging as one of its features, but I was able to charge other phones by connecting them to the Nord 3 with no issues.
Camera
As mentioned before, it has three cameras on the back with the main camera using a 50MP sensor with OIS. The camera system in the Nord 3 is, to put it bluntly, painfully average. It’s not notably good or bad for something at this price point, with the phone being able to take decent shots in good lighting.
Of course, you can easily get sharp and vibrant photos even indoors but its low-light performance is somewhat lacking, sometimes taking me a few tries to get a good shot. As with the OnePlus 11, since they’re both using the same Sony sensor, it still has light-blooming issues with bright light sources in night photography.
The macro lens on this phone is mostly just a token third lens as the photos taken by this camera are barely usable and full of noise. Even if that weren’t the case, it doesn’t allow you to get that close to the subject.
Camera Samples
Competition
POCO F5 Pro
The POCO F5 Pro uses the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and sports a 6.67-inch 2K 120Hz AMOLED display. It has a slightly bigger 5,160mAh battery with slower 67W wired charging, although it also offers 33W wireless charging.
It is equipped with a 64MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide, and a 2MP macro lens. I’ve used both phones and surprisingly, the Nord 3 has a much more reliable camera system than the POCO.
The base model, which is the same price as the Nord 3, only has 8GB of RAM. For the variant with 12GB of RAM, it’s an extra RM100 but it does get you a higher-end SoC with worse photography capabilities as a trade-off.
Conclusion
The OnePlus Nord 3 is a fine mid-ranger with a relatively solid, but not amazing, camera and a battery that you can rely on. It’s not one of the more exciting releases of the year, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It’s a safe option for users who are looking for something in the lower RM2K range and, depending on what’s the most important aspect for you, it might even be a better choice than some of the competition that cost a bit above the Nord’s price tag.
