The definition of smartphones is changing. Segments are adopting new definitions of value, which means the chance of a potential buyer finding more value in a slightly more affordable price band will be greater. More choices, and therefore more competition.
Over the past couple of years, the Nord smartphones from OnePlus have pushed this change. The most affordable Nord phone, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G (prices started comfortable below the ₹20,000 mark) has been succeeded by the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G.
Foundations remain the same, but everything seems packaged better. There are two variants of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite that go on sale. The RAM, which is 8GB, remains consistent in both. You’ll part with ₹19,999 if you are okay with the 128GB storage while the 256GB storage option costs ₹21,999. In our opinion, the latter probably has better value, and longevity.
The Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has certainly grown up, something you’d notice almost immediately because the 6.59-inch display makes way for a larger 6.72-inch screen size. Complete with the 120Hz refresh rate requirement ticked off on the spec sheet. This is a fairly bright display, albeit colours don’t always look the richest at higher brightness levels. That’s a small observation, within the larger canvas which includes adequate crispness levels, instantaneous touch response and the sort of fluidity for the interface which makes things look like they’re shuffling along consistently.
Once you’re in sync with the larger display (this is a better bet for a wider demographic of potential buyers), the design is bound to get some attention. It is quite likeable. Your colour choices are pastel lime and chromatic grey, the former you see photographed above. This is the colour which you should make a beeline for, simply because it stands out in a way most other colours don’t.
There is something appealing about phone designs with flat sides, and the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G delivers that. This measures 8.3mm thick, but to be fair, feels thinner in hand. There is restrain in terms of curves at the back or the sides, which adds a bit of symmetry. For a phone that weighs under 200 grams, it is 195 grams to be precise.
The large dual cameras at the back, without a sort of platform to sit on, make for their own visual appeal. To be fair, I like this tweak in design. It looks good, particularly how these two cameras have been placed. An ode to the past, in a way. The very capable 108-megapixel camera alongside a 2-megapixel one are the sort of combination you’d hope to avoid. Yet, a 2-megapixel sensor in some form is quite common in mid-range smartphones. Still stick to the main sensor for photographs, which itself deploys the 9-in-1 pixel binning tech (that means, merges the data from 9 pixels into one), for best detailing.
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OnePlus, during the time we had the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G for review, rolled out an important software update (this would likely be the default version which new phones will be sold with) that among other things, improved the camera performance too. Good photos aren’t a factor of the 108-megapixels alone, tuning makes a difference too. There have been improvements on that front, with means most photos you take come out rich and crisp. However, complex lighting does lead to some level of overexposure in certain photos, while there can be improvements to the overall dynamic range in bright outdoors.
OnePlus has the knowledge of camera tuning from its other phones, from camera experts Hasselblad. This is a good time to deploy that on other phones, which provide an advantage over immediate rivals. Camera performance, alongside the potential, is crucial for most phone buyers.
This is one of the rare(er) phones which retains the 3.5mm headphone jack. This simply means, wired earphones or headphones remain an option for you. Without having to get into the inconvenience of adapters. But the world is moving to wireless earbuds, which makes me wonder — why haven’t you?
It is perplexing that a year later, OnePlus is still persisting with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip for the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. It isn’t a bad chip by any stretch of the imagination, but in the time that’s passed since this arrived on the scene, newer chips have a higher performance ceiling to work with. The generational upgrade does bump the RAM from 6GB to 8GB — anything lesser would have been less than ideal. However, there is no option for 12GB RAM or more, which does limit the performance spectrum.
The Nord CE 3 Lite 5G runs OxygenOS 13, much like its siblings, and there is the familiarity which is present across the board. Given the 8GB RAM as well as improvements on the software side of things, this phone is snappier than its predecessor. You wouldn’t expect anything less, would you? This isn’t the fastest phone in the segment, purely based on specs. For instance, there is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G, which runs the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chip (but there is much lesser RAM to go along with it). Things are quite complicated in the mid-range Android smartphone space.
The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has a 5000mAh battery with the 67-watt fast charging. Battery stamina, from what we observed, gets your through a day and a half on a single charge, with moderately heavy app usage which included a fair amount of time spent with the camera app. There is a definite advantage over the Redmi Note 12 5G’s 33-watt fast charging. Not to say 33-watt is significantly inferior, yet, better and faster translates into more value for someone spending the money.
It is never an easy pick with a smartphone around the ₹20,000 price point. Spec combinations galore, and choices aplenty. The OnePlus Nord phones are in the process of steadily building a legacy for themselves, and there is little doubt the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is a step in that direction. It is the entry point to the Nord line-up, as well as the mid-range Android phone space.
Performance will be limited after a level of multi-tasking, but that isn’t to say the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G cannot do casual gaming, or allow you to leave multiple apps carelessly open simultaneously. We’d call it a limited generational upgrade, but for many buyers, the things that matter most have been tackled — the camera, fast charging and a larger display.
