OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G First Impressions: Anticipation Rises

OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G was recently launched. This is a good mid-range phone from OnePlus, costing less than Rs 25,000. Good software, better battery life and amazing performance are available on the phone. In general, people who want a good all-rounder phone will like it very much. We have also listed this phone in the best smartphones available under Rs 25,000. Now, the company has launched OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G which is the lite version of OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G. Has OnePlus kept the same balance with features, or has the company lost its way by trying to launch the phone at a lower price? I spent some time with the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G and here are my first impressions of the smartphone:

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G price in India is Rs 19,999 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. Its second variant comes with 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage, which costs Rs 21,999. The base variant was released in Black Dusk color only, while the top variant was released in Blue Tide finish only.

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G Blue variant apparently resembles the Nord smartphone. This time, the solid shade of blue is not on the phone, but as the phone is rotated in the light, it appears to turn from sky blue to a shade of yellow. The texture finish is given near the camera module.

In the short time I’ve spent with the phone, I’ve found that fingerprints don’t sit easily on it. A transparent case is also available with the phone in the box, which is useful. Other than this, the box includes the Nord sticker, SIM ejector pin, Red Cable Club membership card, SuperWook 33W charger, and a signature red USB Type-C cable.

OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G has a large 6.59-inch display. It has a camera hole in the upper left corner that houses a 16-megapixel selfie camera. It is an LCD panel with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz. There are thin bezels on the sides of the screen, but there are thick bezels on the top and bottom.

The sides of the phone are flat, making it comfortable to hold. The fingerprint scanner has been given a slight inclination on the right side, the position of which is quite comfortable and due to the inclination it can be easily detected. The volume button, the SIM tray is located on the left side of the phone. You will get only a secondary microphone at the top. While the USB Type-C port, the main microphone, speaker, and 3.5mm headphone jack sit at the bottom.

The weight of the phone is 195 grams. Due to the curved side, its thickness is not well known. The phone has a triple camera at the rear. The camera module protrudes from the body and the phone appears elevated when placed on a flat surface. The phone has a 64-megapixel main camera with EIS support. Other than this, there is a 2-megapixel depth camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. Unlike the Nord CE 2 5G, it doesn’t have an ultra-wide camera.

OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip. We have already seen this processor in devices like Vivo T1, Moto G71 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G and Realme 9 Pro 5G. This phone supports Bluetooth 5.2, dual-band Wi-Fi, and 5G five-band. It has a hybrid dual SIM tray, so you can use the second SIM and the microSD card.

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G phone is based on Android 12 and runs on Oxygen OS 12.1. Many new features are seen in the user interface. I will talk about it in more detail in the full review. The March 2022 Android security patch was placed on my drive. OnePlus has promised two major Android updates and three years of security updates for the phone, which could give it some edge over the competition.

After using the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G for some time, I can say that it feels quite reliable. However, competition in this price segment is fierce. I’ll be testing the camera, performance, battery life, and software soon, so stay tuned to Gadgets 360 for a full review of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G.