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

OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G was recently launched. This is a good mid range phone from OnePlus, which costs below Rs 25,000. Good software, better battery life and amazing performance are available in the phone. Overall, those 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 maintained the same balance with the features or has the company lost its way in trying to launch the phone at a lower price? I spent some time with OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G and here are my first impressions of the smartphone-

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

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G Blue variant apparently looks similar to the Nord smartphone. This time the solid shade of blue is not given in the phone, rather, when rotating the phone under the light, it appears to go from sky blue to some yellow shade. Texture finish is given near the camera module.

In the short time I spent with the phone, I found that fingerprints were not easily accommodated 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, 33W SuperWook 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 120Hz maximum refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. There are thin bezels on the sides of the display but thick bezels are given in the top and bottom.

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

The weight of the phone is 195 grams. Due to the curved side, its thickness is not much known. The phone has a triple camera in the rear. The camera module protrudes from the body and the phone appears 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 a 2 megapixel macro camera. Unlike the Nord CE 2 5G, it does not have an ultrawide camera.

OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip. We already know this processor Vivo T1, Moto G71 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5GAnd Realme 9 Pro 5G As 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 can use either the second SIM and the microSD card.

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 UI. I will talk about it in more details in the full review. Android security patch of March 2022 was given in my unit. OnePlus has promised two major Android updates and three years of security updates for the phone, which might 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 pretty reliable. However, the competition in this price segment is fierce. 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.