OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G Long Term Review: More of the same again- Technology News
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OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G Long Term Review: More of the same again
Other than a new main camera, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is very much like its predecessor which happens to be our least favourite phone from the company.
May 30, 2023 09:09:41 IST
Pros:
Good build quality and design
Surprisingly good main camera in good lighting
Android 13 with periodic updates
256 GB internal storage option available
Good battery backup
3.5 mm headphone jack, MicroSD card slot, 5G ready
Cons:
Hardly any substantial changes from the Nord CE 2 Lite
Camera performance drops drastically even in average light
No ultra-wide camera, sub-par macro camera
Charging speed is a lot slower than it should be
Price: Rs 19,999 onwards
Rating: 3.3/5
Typically, OnePlus launches a new Nord series with the top-of-the-line phone from the series with respectable specifications and features. In the subsequent months, the company starts to cut corners and add suffixes like CE and Lite to come up with scaled-down but more affordable versions of the new Nord phone. This year, the company is looking to take a different route. The first of the Nord 3 series isnt the Nord 3 itself but the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G which targets the sub-20K segment.
Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi
Exactly 12 months ago, we reviewed the Nord CE 2 Lite and were far from impressed. We termed it the most non-OnePlus phone ever as it was underpowered, missed out on certain signature elements of the brand and didnt offer anything special. If we compare the spec-sheets, its successor doesnt seem to offer anything drastically different either, barring an 108MP primary camera. Would that be enough to make the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G a viable option that trumps the competition? Lets find out.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G: Design (3.5/5)
The Nord CE 3 Lite design, though not striking, isnt bad at all, especially the new Pastel Lime shade. The phone is constructed out of good-quality plastic with a smooth matte finish on the frame and all-out gloss at the back. The build quality is good but the back does attract smudge marks. There are no rough edges on the phone though. Just like its predecessor, the bottom bezel is quite thick, and the punch-hole for the front camera has moved from the top left to the top centre.
Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi
A volume rocker and a SIM + MicroSD card tray are located along the left edge of the phone, while the power button can be found on the right side. The surface of the power button also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. The scanner here is a lot more responsive than the one on our Nord CE 2 Lite unit and unlocks the phone briskly. The placement of the volume rocker and power button are well thought out and you dont have to stretch your fingers much to reach them.
Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi
The bottom edge of the phone has a speaker, a USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm headphone jack thats present on all CE series phones so far. There are dual speakers on this phone with the other located behind the earpiece on top of the screen. The phone is 8.3 mm thick and weighs 195 grams which is on the heavier side for a phone without a metal frame or a glass back. The phone also feels fairly large in hand courtesy of its sizable display which we will talk about next.
Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G: Display (3.25/5)
The display on Nord phones keeps getting larger. The Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has a 6.72-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The display is protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass (version not specified). While the display is large and fairly bright, it isnt the best we have come across in phones around Rs 20,000. It could have done better in sharpness and colour accuracy. There arent too many screen calibration options either that you get in more expensive OnePlus phones.
Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi
You get to choose between Vivid and Natural colour profiles, and you also get a manual colour temperature adjustment slider, which is certainly handy given that the default colour temperature of this screen is on the colder side. The vivid profile makes the colours look over-saturated, while Natural makes them appear dull. If you have to choose between the two, we would suggest going with Natural and pushing the colour temperature slider halfway towards the warmer side from the centre for the best results.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G: Hardware and performance (3/5)
OnePlus literally went Lite on processing power on the Nord CE 2 Lite by using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G chip, and a year later, they have decided to continue using the same on the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G too; a questionable decision. You get two variants of the phone, but unlike the CE 2 Lite, you get 8 GB RAM on both and a choice between 128 GB or 256 GB UFS 2.2 internal storage. You can expand the storage further with a MicroSD card.
The performance of the phone is acceptable for general usage but not special. Things work smoothly in day-to-day tasks like using social media apps, browsing, watching videos or switching between multiple apps. You can do a bit of casual gaming too but at medium to low settings. The phone doesnt get too hot, which is good. The speakers on this phone produce a loud and punchy sound output with a decent stereo effect. You also get a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a slightly downgraded Bluetooth 5.1 (its predecessor had v5.2) to plug in wired or wireless earphones. The call quality and reception were fine during testing.
Lets look at some benchmark numbers for reference. We cannot have a direct comparison with its predecessor in Geekbench as we have moved on to version 6 of the benchmark, while the older phone was tested using version 5. The Nord CE 3 Lite managed to score 911 and 2107 points in the single-core and multi-core benchmarks respectively. In PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, it returned a score of 8347 as compared to 7777 on the Nord CE 2 Lite despite using the same SoC.
Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi
Clearly, the newer version of Android and further optimisations is getting more out of the Snapdragon 695 chipset. The same cannot be said in gaming benchmarks where the scores are neck and neck. In 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Vulkan benchmark, the Nord CE 3 Lite goes as high as 2754 points, which is just 21 points higher than the CE 2 Lite. Similarly, in the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark, the Nord CE 3 Lite scores 1215 points as opposed to 1213 on the CE 2 Lite. Thus, not even a 1% jump in performance. Clearly not a phone for gamers, this.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G: OS and User interface (3.5/5)
The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G runs the latest Android 13 with OxygenOS 13.1. If you are expecting one more rant on this topic, it is not happening! No no, not because OxygenOS is back in its old glory, but we have just given up on it. It is now very much ColorOS, and not like ColorOS. We are done ranting; its time for you to deal with it and move on too. For those who havent e
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 at 3:05 am