OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G First Impressions: Raises hopes

OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G was launched recently. This is a good mid range phone from OnePlus, which is priced below Rs 25 thousand. The phone has good software, better battery life and amazing performance. Overall, it will be liked by those who want a good all-rounder phone. We have also listed this phone among 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 maintained the same balance with features or has the company lost its way while trying to launch the phone at a lower price? I spent some time with OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G and my first impressions about this smartphone are as follows-

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

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G Blue variant obviously looks like the Nord smartphone. This time the phone does not have a solid shade of blue, rather, when the phone is placed under the light and rotated, it appears to go from sky blue to a slightly yellow shade. Textured finish has been given near the camera module.

In the short time I spent with the phone, I found that fingerprints were not easily visible on it. A clear case is also available with the phone in the box, which is useful. Apart from this, Nord sticker, SIM ejector pin, red cable club membership card, 33 watt SuperVOOC charger and a signature red USB Type C cable are available in the box.

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

The sides of the phone are flat which makes it comfortable to hold. The fingerprint scanner is provided on the right side with a slight slope, whose position is quite comfortable and due to the slope it is easily detected. Volume button and SIM tray are provided on the left side of the phone. You will get only secondary microphone at the top. Whereas USB Type-C port, primary microphone, speaker and 3.5mm headphone jack are provided at the bottom.

The weight of the phone is 195 grams. Due to its curved sides, much of its thickness cannot be known. The phone has a triple camera in the rear. The camera module feels protruding from the body and the phone looks raised when placed on a flat surface. The phone has a 64-megapixel primary camera with EIS support. Apart from this, there is a 2 megapixel depth camera and 2 megapixel macro camera. Like Nord CE 2 5G, it does not have an ultrawide camera.

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

OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G phone is based on Android 12 and runs on Oxygen OS 12.1. Many new features can be seen in the UI. I will talk about this in more details in the full review. The March 2022 Android security patch was installed on my unit. OnePlus has promised to provide two main Android updates and three years of security updates for this phone, which may give it some advantage in the competition.

After using the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G for some time, I can say that it seems quite reliable. However, competition is strong in this price segment. I’ll be testing its 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.