At the moment, most Android enthusiasts are familiar with the history of OnePlus phones. What began as a “Flagship Killer” that offered flagship-level features at bargain prices has gradually evolved over the years into a “regular old flagship”. Last year’s OnePlus Nord N200 (opens in a new tab) showed signs that the company is trying to get back to base with its more affordable models, but not in every area.
Enter the OnePlus Nord N20 (opens in a new tab), a sequel to the N200 that will make you forget about the existence of other Nord. This is thanks to an amazing design that looks as tall as it looks, a gorgeous AMOLED display and a pair of large dual cameras on the back. That’s almost all we wanted in the OnePlus X successor (opens in a new tab)and it will undoubtedly be one of the best budget Android phones (opens in a new tab) 2022.
Almost a killer of flagships
The OnePlus Nord N20 looks a bit like the OnePlus X and Nord 2 (opens in a new tab) was a child. Like the OnePlus X, the Nord N20 exactly matches the latest iPhone design language, but doesn’t look exactly like the iPhone. This is the emergence of a higher-end phone without the burden of high cost.
Likewise, the 6.43-inch AMOLED display will immediately make you think that this phone is much more expensive than it probably is – the estimated price is somewhere between 299 and 349 US dollars – until you start scrolling. At 60 Hz, the panel is easily considered a boring old technology, but like the OnePlus X, the Nord N20 makes small concessions where it is necessary to maintain a low price.
Truth be told, if you don’t use a phone with a higher refresh rate next to a phone with a lower one, your eyes probably won’t care too much after a few seconds of use. It’s also good that we see on this phone only a panel with a frequency of 60 Hz, because it probably runs on a Snapdragon 695 processor, which if other phones cost less than $ 400, won’t be able to run at 90 Hz or higher, and still provide a consistently smooth experience.
The Snapdragon 695 provides an important middle ground between flagship and entry-level performance.
Compared to the OnePlus X – which was launched in late 2015 with the same flagship processor as the OnePlus One in 2014 – the choice of the Nord N20 processor is little reason. For comparison, the Snapdragon 695 runs similarly to the Snapdragon 855, a flagship-level processor that was released in 2018.
That’s over four years of Nord N20’s flagship performance versus the full year for the OnePlus X when it came out. But compared to the existing Nord N200 – which uses the extremely weak Snapdragon 480 – the Snapdragon 695 – is a massive upgrade.
But here I believe that OnePlus is setting its priorities the way it was not with the OnePlus X. The OnePlus X could provide amazing daily performance and an amazing display that was unheard of in this price range – and indeed still incredibly unusual at Nord prices – his camera experience was really awful.
One of the big upgrades over the OnePlus X (at the time) is the camera experience, which the company certainly won’t forget this time around.
It may not be a flagship processor, but it provides an important middle ground between flagship performance and entry-level performance, which at the moment in 2022 is really only important for avid gamers or high-end photo processing. After all, North American carriers have killed the available flagship category (opens in a new tab) and it was time for someone else to resurrect him.
An integral part of this is the camera experience, which OnePlus certainly doesn’t forget this time around. This is because the Nord N20 seems to have a much more upgraded camera compared to the existing Nord N200 that American customers can buy.
For comparison, T-Mobile’s existing Nord N200 has a 13-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera on the back. It’s really not a very good camera, but the Nord N20 needs to change that. OnePlus discards the two auxiliary cameras and replaces them with one 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, while the main sensor awaits a significant upgrade to the 64-megapixel sensor.
It may not output the same quality of the 48 MP sensor that is in the recently released OnePlus 10 Pro (opens in a new tab) but if it can at least keep the same handling software and camera under the hood as the 10 Pro, it will give a much better experience than what is expected from the Nord series so far.
Going to win
Noticeably missing in the design is the OnePlus alert slider, which I find particularly silly to abandon. The alert slider remains one of my favorite things in OnePlus phones, and it not only helps differentiate them from the fierce competition in the Android space, but also provides an easy solution to an annoying Android problem: switching between call, vibration, and silent modes.
We could see that the OnePlus continues to grow in the market and overtakes Motorola as long as it maintains high quality and low price.
The Nord N20 will launch later this month, so while there’s no hope that a warning slider will be added before the release, I hope OnePlus will consider adding it back in the future. This is probably the only real downside to the OnePlus X in terms of release dates, even though everything else we know so far looks like it’s knocking it out of the park.
After all, what else are you going to consider at this price in the US, especially with a carrier? Motorola is the third largest smartphone maker (opens in a new tab) in the US simply because they have products in a price range that makes sense to a lot of people, even if most of them aren’t particularly good devices.
With a device like the OnePlus Nord N20 – and more competitive Nord phones at even lower prices – we can well see that the OnePlus continues to grow in the market and overtake Motorola as long as it maintains high quality and low price.