OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G review: A competent mid-range option with some compromises

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G marks the arrival of the company's latest and most affordable Nord-branded smartphone. As the successor to the Nord CE 2 Lite 5G, the new device comes with some noteworthy upgrades, while retaining certain aspects of its predecessor. Here are my thoughts on the phone.

Design and Build

At first glance, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G looks like a premium device, with its sleek, minimalist design and high-quality build materials. The phone feels solid in the hand and has good weight and balance to it.

I really liked the bright Pastel Lime colour variant of the phone which made it stand out from the usual sea of blue and black hues of other mid-range smartphones. It is definitely a fingerprint magnet.

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is also available in a more subtle Chromatic Grey colour option.

The buttons are clicky but there’s no alert slider, a much-appreciated trademark of many OnePlus devices.

Display

The display on the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is a 6.72-inch 120Hz LCD display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and has an image sharpener, screen colour mode, auto-brightness, and manual brightness.

Being an LCD display, it lacks the vibrant pop of an AMOLED panel and struggles sometimes in bright outdoor environments.

Performance

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G chipset, which is an okay mid-range processor. However, it is the same processor that was used in the last year’s OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G. The phone is capable of handling most daily tasks with ease. 

I played Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact on the phone with only the latter struggling a bit with some dropped frames, which is to be expected. I also had no complaints playing Call Of Duty: Mobile too.

Camera

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G come with a triple-camera configuration. The main camera is a new 108-megapixel Samsung HM6 with an f/1.75 aperture, accompanied by a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. 

During daylight conditions, the primary camera provides impressive results with good colours and ample detail. The phone's images maintain realistic colour tones without oversaturation. The dynamic range performance could have been improved a little for HDR shots.

In addition, the phone has an adequate 16-megapixel front camera for selfies.

Battery

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has a 5,000mAh battery, which is more than enough to last a full day of heavy use. The phone also supports 67W SuperVOOC charging, which can charge the phone from 0 to 100 per cent in just 30 minutes.

If you spend about an hour playing games or binge-watching shows on Wi-Fi and some light usage, the screen-on time (SoT) of the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is typically around 7 hours. However, with lighter usage, the average SoT can extend to a little over 9 hours.

Connectivity

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G supports 5G SA and NSA, as well as LTE/LTE-A, and has dual stereo speakers and noise cancellation support.

The 5G connectivity - calling and internet speeds were both decent with my Jio sim card.

The phone also has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, accelerometer, electronic compass, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, and sensor core. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 2.0 Type-C port, and a hybrid slot (SIM and SIM/microSD).

Conclusion

Overall, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is a good mid-range smartphone that packs a punch without the premium price tag. Even though some of the features aren’t as premium the phone is still a worthy daily driver. If you're in the market for a mid-range phone, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G can be considered.

In India, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has been released with two storage options, both featuring 8GB of RAM as the standard configuration. The phone's starting model, which offers 128GB of storage, comes with a price tag of Rs 19,999. On the other hand, the 256GB variant is available for Rs 21,999.

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