OnePlus Nord 4 review

There was a time when metal-backed phones were in fashion before the multitude of antennas and the need for wireless charging in flagships forced brands to opt for glass panels at the rear. Now OnePlus has overcome this challenge and the Nord 4 sports an aluminium unibody. Even with the design limitations of metal, the phone is available in three design variations—Mercurial Silver, Obsidian Midnight and Oasis Green. We received the silver variant, which is finished with diagonal bands with a pleasing play of light. The dual camera housing has a distinct glossy glass cover and this is the main element that connects the three design variations. The Nord 4 radiates a soft yet sturdy feel enhanced by boosted by rounded corners and edges. The surface is easy to slip, but the light build and rounded edges provide a nice grip.

The antennas are integrated seamlessly onto the metal surface, and OnePlus says that the metal cover helps in amplifying signals. OnePlus has retained its popular slider on the Nord 4 with the signature knurled top and excellent tactile feel.

The Nord 4 uses a 6.74-inch 1.5K (2772 x 1240) Fluid AMOLED display offering 450 ppi resolution and up to 2150 nits of brightness. It supports ProXDR technology, which analyses images and videos in the gallery and adjusts the display’s characteristics to match what is being displayed. The display supports up to 120 Hz refresh rate and supports Ultra HDR for content. Nearly all popular brands have introduced phones with displays that respond to touch even while wet. The Nord 4’s AquaTouch feature combines tech in display and CPU to make it respond only to touches and not to drops of water. This, combined with an IP65 splash-proof rating lets you use the phone even in the rain.

Specs apart, the display is bright, brilliant and easy to read even in sunlit outdoors. Vivid mode is applied by default, displaying images oversaturated, but you also get Natural, Cinematic and Brilliant colour modes along with Warm, Default, and Cold colour temperatures. There’s also a colour wheel if you want to apply your own hues to the screen (it could be useful for the colour-blind).

The main sensor of the Nord 4 is a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 and it delivers images with good details and sharpness. The main camera features Optical and Electronic Image Stabilisation and you can get reasonably steady images even in low light. Portraits turned out exceptionally well with smooth circular bokeh. One could easily use these on an A4 print without any issues.

The second camera is an 8-megapixel ultra-wide unit with a 112-degree field of view. This one doesn’t pick up details as much as the main camera, but the colour rendition is flawless except for some harmless deepening of colours without affecting the tonality. In low light, you can make out the effects of processing, which render the images with a mild softness, which evens out the details a bit. But if your main use is social media, you won’t find anything to complain about either of the cameras and will notice the minor issues only on a larger screen.

The cameras offer some useful AI editing features like AI Eraser with tools like Smart Lasso and Remove People. These features work impressively, and the generated components appeared quite seamlessly blending with the image. And the best thing is that the whole operation took just a few seconds unlike in the case of some other devices we have used. 

The camera can capture videos up to 4K 60 fps and you get to set the depth-of-field even in videos. However, shallow depth-of-field footages are not perfect with the system unable to separate the subject and background when the frame is in motion. You get all the standard options like slow-motion, time-lapse and dual-view video. The front camera is a 16 MP unit which delivers exceptionally good portraits for your social media handles with good detail under proper lighting.

At the centre of the Nord 4’s performance is a Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 SoC that powers mid-priced phones like the Realme GT 6T. The phone comes in three variants with two housing 8GB RAM and either 128 or 256GB storage and the 12GB RAM variant sporting 256GB of storage. OnePlus uses its machine learning Trinity engine to optimise RAM, ROM and CPU so that you can utilise the resources to the peak and extract the maximum juice out of its 5500 mAh battery. The battery lasts more than a day in typical use cases. OnePlus bundles a 100W charger, which tops up the battery in 30 minutes. The phone is not an exceptional gaming device but can hold itself up convincingly up to medium graphics settings. And even with a metal back, the Nord 4 doesn’t heat much. The phone uses dual stereo speakers that are good enough for daily entertainment.

The Nord 4 runs Android 14 under OxygenOS 14.1 and OnePlus promises four years of software updates and a further two years of security updates. The OS is not free of bloatware, but most of the pre-loaded apps can be uninstalled. The phone has achieved Fluency 72 Month A rating from TUV SUD, proving that it can endure six years of heavy use.

OnePlus has infused the Nord 4 with AI-powered features doing some heavy lifting. Apart from visible traits like AI Eraser, AI Groupie and AI Audio summary, the device uses AI to analyze battery use and charging habits to optimise charging and power delivery for a long-lasting battery. Unfortunately, we have no means to verify these.

OnePlus has crafted this version of Nord with some features that trickled down from the flagship OnePlus 12 series. The metal unibody design offers a clean and refreshing look combined with peace of mind that not many phones can assure you of. The cameras do their jobs quite well and you won’t have a reason to complain unless you really miss a third camera in a mid-priced phone.

The OS is comparatively clean and six years of support is incredible for a smartphone in this price range.