OnePlus Nord CE5 – Unboxing & Full Review
📦 Unboxing & First Look
The OnePlus Nord CE 5 comes in a neat minimalist finicky packaging. Opening the box reveals the phone itself, a SIM ejector tool, Type-C charging cable, documentation, and a cheap opaque blue case. Plastic transparent cases are fading, and it adds a stylish touch that is refreshing. Very nice color coordination adds to a premium unboxing experience.
🤝 Feel & Build Quality
Surprising for a device with such a massive 7100mAh battery, the phone feels relatively light and balanced in hand — weighing around 195g. It strikes a good balance between grip and comfort. It doesn’t feel cheap, but premium indeed, and even though it’s plastic on the back. The red cable and the signature SIM ejector tool ring true to the OnePlus identity.
📸 Camera- Decent but not his strong point.
You will have a dual rear camera setup: a 50MP main sensor and an 8MP ultrawide lens. You have a 16MP selfie camera on the front. Pictures come out decent in normal lighting, with good detailing and fair sharpness: The ultrawide shows some color shift, and dynamic range is average. It shoots videos up to 4K 60fps from the rear camera, while the front-facing up to 1080p 60fps. All in all, a worthy camera for the price, but it’s hardly its strongest feature.
🎥 Display – Large, Bright & Immersive
The Nord CE 5 features a 6.77-inch FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1430 nits. Side bezels are thin, while the chin is otherwise just a little more pronounced. HDR videos on Netflix, Prime, and Youtube are richly colored, and clear. Although we do get mono speakers on board (no stereo), they get pretty loud and fairly clear. Still, stereo speakers would have elevated the multimedia experience.
🚀 Performance – Powerful & Reliable
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 (SM-6450) is the phone’s processor, known as Snapdragon 8350 by OnePlus. It’s said to score around 1.45 million on AnTuTu, delivering impressive performance for day-to-day tasks, multitasking, and gaming. It’s playable at 120fps in COD Mobile and 90fps in BGMI, and both run very smoothly. Under the hood, it has LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, which has option variants like 8GB+128GB, 8GB+256GB, and 12GB+256GB.
💪 Battery & Charging – Long-Lasting Beast
One of the highlights is its whopping 7100mAh battery. With moderate use, it lasts for two good days on a single charge. The 80W fast charging ensures that it can charge under an hour. It is pretty impressive that OnePlus has managed to keep the weight below 200g with a battery that large.
📲 Software & Oxygen OS 15
The phone will be running Oxygen OS 15, based on Android 15 out of the box. The interface is clean, ad-free, and smooth. You also get next-gen AI features such as:
- Circle to Search
- Call Assistant
- Reflection Eraser
- AI Photo Editing Tools
- Unblur for photographs
OnePlus custom dialer with call recording, translation, and transcription features. Four years of major Android updates and six years of security patches assure you that this device is one among the most future-proof devices in this segment.
📶 Connectivity & Sensors
There are support for 10 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and a USB Type-C 2.0 port. There is the inclusion of an IR blaster, which is kind of rare at this price point. The phone also has an in-display fingerprint sensor and face unlock that are both quite fast and reliable. You get a hybrid SIM tray that allows you to use 2 SIMs or 1 SIM + 1 microSD card on this device but no Alert Slider.
📱Design, Durability & Multimedia Experience
Although back for the Nord CE 5 is made of plastic, it does feel solid and sturdy. With a respectable IP65 rating for dust and water resistance, it is good enough for day-to-day usage. The casual drop tests behaved well too, as there were no visible damages. Overall, the multimedia experience is very decent due to a big screen-however, with stereo speakers, it could have been better.
🔧 Small Details & Extras
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No notification LED
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No FM radio
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Safe SAR values
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Pre-installed OnePlus apps like Store & Community (can be uninstalled)
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No Mind Space or Alert Slider
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IR Blaster included
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USB Type-C 2.0 (not 3.0)
📷 Camera Verdict – Just About Average
The 50MP primary sensor does a good job in normal light, but the ultrawide struggles in low light and there may be some inconsistencies in color. Camera features include Pro Mode, Night Mode, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Dual View Mode, High-Resolution Mode, and Tilt-Shift. It doesn’t have a telephoto lens. Even though the selfies and 60fps video performance is decent from the front camera. It has a decent dynamic range and skin tones, which are okay but not excellent. Overall an average camera set-up that is passable for the price.
💸 Price & Availability
Expected INR: 22,999-23,999
Available Variants:
8GB RAM + 128GB Storage
8GB RAM + 256GB Storage
12GB RAM + 256GB Storage
Colors: Blue, Black and White
Verdict – One of the Best Under ₹23K
Spending time with the OnePlus Nord CE 5, one thing is clear – it hits all the right notes. Massive battery, good functionality, excellent software, premium feel in hand – AI features make a good all-rounder. It is not groundbreaking, but everything else compensates.
Bottom line – if you are looking at around the ₹22K price range, this is one of the best three recommendations. Definitely priced better than the Nord 5.
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