What you need to know
- OnePlus today shared more on the OnePlus Nord CE 5G, a stripped-down version of the OnePlus Nord.
- It's set to come to Europe and India for an affordable price.
- An official launch will reveal everything on June 10.
OnePlus today introduced the OnePlus Nord CE, following up on its OnePlus Nord N200 reveal yesterday via an exclusive shared to TechRadar. The OnePlus Nord CE aims to replicate the core of the original Nord, one of the best cheap Android phones in 2020. Of course, OnePlus will also be cutting down on many of the specs to accomplish this.
Down from a quad lens, OnePlus will have a triple-lens layout at the rear. With two of the Nord's lenses being more or less useless, though, this is doesn't quite matter. Instead, what does matter is that the company will keep a powerful main shooter and likely an ultra-wide. TechRadar speculates it may have a depth or a macro shooter of some unknown resolution; a 5MP variant of either would be expected.
OnePlus will keep the 90Hz screen, though it comes below rivals like Xiaomi which offer 120Hz screens on phones such as the Mi 10T Lite or its Redmi-skinned cousins. It'll also be adding in things as fast charging with its Warp Charge 30T Plus.
Design-wise, if you've seen the OnePlus Nord 2020, you've seen this phone. OnePlus doesn't claim to be reinventing the wheel here; the main thing here is that the phone has things that people like, so they're keeping what works and jettisoning what doesn't.
If it seems like nothing is really improving in comparison to other phones, it's a deliberate choice, OnePlus says. Many cheap phones nowadays offer a lot to consumers in terms of hardware, so OnePlus wants to set itself apart by "actively" avoiding them and offering the bare minimum of fast charging, a smooth display, and 5G. As far as strategies go, that is certainly one of them.
Much like the OnePlus Nord N200 5G revealed yesterday, the company seems to deliberately be running in place with its phones. With Samsung, Xiaomi, and even Google having overall better packages at sub $400 price-points, it's not clear if the Nord CE 5G will fare critically as well as the original Nord.
OnePlus has yet to share pricing or street dates other than noting that it'll be available in Europe and India for an affordable price. It'll do so on June 10th when this officially launches.
