We recently got our hands on the the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G, their latest entry to the brand’s more lower midrange lineup of smartphones. Midrange is an interesting terminology here, as with the brand’s respective device roster classifications and their pricing, things can get a tad confusing. As this year, we got the Philippine launch of the OnePlus 12 flagship, its more affordable counterpart in the OnePlus 12R, and now to round up a supposed trifecta and represent the midrange, the Nord CE4 Lite.
After spending a short time with this device, we’ve more or less seen what it can do–and what it likely can’t. Nonetheless, a full review is well underway, so allow us to give you what we have from the top of our heads, and right out of the box.
You get a lightweight box with quite a few contents–a USB-C to A cable, some documentation, and the phone itself. TPU case and charging brick sold separately, or via online promo. The Super Silver colorway is one heck of a fingerprint magnet, but that luminous, mirrorlike sheen is quite nice. Very industrial chic.
The flat edges and 191 grams make it nice and handy–easy enough to wield without flying out of your grasp. It has just enough heft to feel like a premium device–which OnePlus devices are. The two camera peepers stick out, but the edges adorning it are surprisingly laid flat against the phone’s back surface–making it part of the ensemble. Aesthetics-wise, the Nord CE4 Lite is very no-nonsense, at least with our unit’s colorway. The blue variant has a more playful, Megaman-esque look to it.
Flipping things over, we’re greeted by a 6.67-inch AMOLED display that, nicely enough, lacks that chin. You love to see it. Supposedly sporting a 87.2% screen-to-body ratio, you’d think it would have chunkier bezels. While it doesn’t curve towards the side, it has a decent amount of viewing real estate. It’s also bright enough. No complaints here.
The 120Hz refresh rate made things snappy and smooth enough while browsing through apps, and choosing which ones to install. To make things easy, a bit of Honor of Kings would suffice. Going to the camera, we’re supposedly working with a 50 MP main shooter with OIS coupled with–you guessed it, a 2MP macro lens. We won’t dismiss it, as all that matters is the output. As such, we snapped a few photos while waiting for our game to download.
The main shooter goes from 1X to 2X with its lossless zoom. You can crank it up to a maximum of 10X. It produces a good amount of color, and the details all look in order. Under proper lighting, it doesn’t get all washed up even at maximum distance. Interesting.
The portrait camera has both 1X and 2X zoom– f/2.8 and 4/4.5 respectively. There’s a slight change of color under 2X zoom, but it’s nothing too egregious. Good amount of detail as well.
As for selfies, it’s safe to say that you need the best lighting to bring out the best you. No extra zoom settings on either normal or portrait shots. Still, you get a good amount of bokeh.
Now, we’ve finally downloaded our game and gone through a few minutes of gameplay. When we go ahead and try more demanding titles, it would be safe to keep anything and everything at their default settings. See, this device runs on a not-so-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G. For context, this is the same processor on the two Nord CE Lites that came before this one. So, you see where we’re coming from.
Honor of Kings ran smoothly enough with just a bit of a struggle after the initial asset download as the game’s title screen and other options have a ton of animation. Once we stepped into a game, though, things were fine. Just don’t go trying to max out the graphical settings. We also got a taste of the Nord CE4 Lite’s dual stereo speakers that you can crank up to 300% with ultra volume. It didn’t crack, which was nice. Still, don’t use this setting when you’re in public–for all our sakes.
Now, we’ll be diving deeper in the next few days, consume a bit more media, and play a few more titles while exploring the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite’s additional features. As of now, it works just fine. Still, at the backs of our minds, we were hoping to have a chipset that wasn’t two generations old. It most definitely could make a difference with gaming–at least on paper, but we’ll have to see how well the processor meshes with everything else. Who knows? Maybe the 695 will surprise us once we fire up Zenless Zone Zero. We’re all for surprises. Until then, stay tuned for our full review.
If you wish to learn more, and check out the full specs for the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G, check out the official website.