OnePlus
Smartphones

OnePlus Nord 2T review

Nailing the fundamentals… once again

₹ 33,999

(12GB RAM variant)

Sambit Satpathy 5 Jul 2022 01:41 PM

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That seems to be the underlying philosophy of the OnePlus Nord 2T. Launched as the spiritual successor to last year’s OnePlus Nord 2, this new device has us intrigued. 
From what we can gather, this new device is the exact same as the old device – barring a couple of minor changes. But is that really a bad thing? Keep scrolling down for our OnePlus Nord 2T review. 

Design

The similarities between the two smartphones start with the design itself. It’s nigh impossible to tell the phones apart when kept side-by-side with the screen facing upwards. 
The rear, thankfully sees a few tweaks. The first thing you notice (since it’s right in your face) is the massive camera housing located in the top-left corner. There are two large circles, which actually have three camera lenses inside – primary lens in the top circle, and ultra-wide angle and mono lenses in the bottom circle. Those who love symmetry will find the size of the camera housing and lenses at odds with the phone’s form factor.

What we do like is the sandstone-ish texture on our review unit which takes us back to the OnePlus One. Another feature making a comeback to this segment is the Alert Slider, and we couldn’t have been happier.

Display

From here on, things are largely going to remain the same as the Nord 2. OnePlus has stuck with the 6.43in AMOLED panel with FHD+ resolution and 90Hz refresh rate. For the segment, it is a display that does its job well by delivering good colours and adequate brightness levels. 
So whether you’re reading stuff on the internet, catching up on a web series while commuting to the office or playing games, you won’t find much to complain about in this department. In terms of customisation, you head over to settings for choosing between vivid and natural colour profile modes.

Performance

Under the hood is MediaTek’s Dimensity 1300 paired with up to 12GB of RAM. Without boring you with a lot of tech jargon, let’s just say that the Dimensity 1300 doesn’t bring massive performance upgrades over the Dimensity 1200 powering the Nord 2. This means, you get the same performance levels that we saw in last year’s phone. 
Day-to-day tasks are handled with relative ease, and even with multiple apps running in the background, the phone doesn’t look like it is struggling. Even when it comes to gaming, the chipset performance is right up there with the best in this price segment. You can play games like Asphalt 9: Legends and Call of Duty Mobile, even if the graphics settings need to be restricted a bit for better performance. Coming real close to these kinds of performance levels is the Snapdragon 870-powered Poco F4 5G.

Battery

The biggest upgrade (if we can call that) is the support for faster 80W charging on the Nord 2T. In comparison the Nord 2 supported up to 65W charging. Powering the phone is a dual-cell combo of 2,250mAh cells that simultaneously charge at 40W. 
In our usage, we were able to charge the battery fully from zero in just a shade over 35 minutes. As for the battery life, let’s just say that we didn’t have to hunt for the charger at the end of each day. With mixed use, the battery was able to easily last over a day.

Software

As always, a lot of the performance comes down to the software, and it’s the same here as well. The phone runs OxygenOS 12.1 based on Android 12, and we quite enjoyed the bloat-free experience. It’s such a relief to see a phone in this segment that doesn’t throw an ad in your face everytime you pick up your phone. 
All in all, if you’ve used a OnePlus (or Oppo) smartphone before, the overall UI will feel quite familiar. OnePlus is promising two major Android updates, and three years of security updates. This is on par with what rivals are offering, even if the likes of Samsung and Xiaomi have moved ahead a bit by promising longer software support.

Cameras

Sticking with the theme, there’s not a lot of difference in this department either. You continue to get a triple-camera setup consisting of a 50MP primary lens, 8MP ultra-wide lens, and a 2MP monochrome lens. This is by no means a pro-grade camera setup, and it shows in the photos.

The primary lens is able to capture some decent photos in ideal lighting conditions. During our recent trip, the camera was able to capture the old world charm of Udaipur in daylight conditions. However, it started to struggle as the sun went down. 
The ultra-wide angle lens was handy in fitting the sprawling palaces into a single frame but at the cost of clarity. At the slightest zoom you notice a big drop in quality and there was also visible distortion at the edges.

The mono lens is more useful to add artistic touches to your photos. For us, it was able to add a sense of eeriness to the historical monuments around us. 

Verdict

The OnePlus Nord 2 set a high benchmark for the mid-range segment when it launched last year. With the Nord 2T, OnePlus isn’t reinventing the wheel and instead has focused on giving it some spit and polish. You continue to get reliable performance along with a bloat-free software and a beautiful AMOLED display to cap it all. 
The OnePlus Nord 2T may not be the biggest of upgrades over its predecessor but it does get a lot right. That said, if you’re an existing owner of the OnePlus Nord 2, then you aren’t missing out on much. As far as other options are concerned, the Poco F4 5G comes real close with similar specs, performance, and price tag.

Stuff Says

Not the biggest upgrade but continues to offer reliable experience in the mid-range
Good stuff
Bad stuff

  1. AMOLED screen

  1. Reliable performance

  1. Alert Slider

  1. Bloat-free software

  1. Not the latest Android version

  1. No IP rating

  1. Not a massive upgrade over the Nord 2

Specifications
Display: 6.43in (2400 x 1080 pixels) 90Hz AMOLED
Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 1300
RAM: 8GB / 12GB
Storage: 128GB / 256GB
Battery: 4,500mAh 80W SUPERVOOC
Rear cameras: 50MP + 8MP ultra-wide + 2MP mono
Front camera: 32MP
Software: Android 12-based OxygenOS
Dimensions: 15.91 x 7.32 x 0.82 cm
Weight: 190 grams