OnePlus Nord 4 5G review: The best in its segment

The OnePlus Nord 4 5G is one of the best phones around Rs 30,000, I have used in a while. The smartphone is beautifully made, it performs well, and it has a good set of cameras. It is a well-rounded smartphone. It has some quirks, but I find them easily pardonable. Yes, that’s it. That is my review of the OnePlus Nord 4 5G. And if you would like to know more about why I like the Nord 4 5G so much, let’s dive deep into the what, where and how's of my week-long experience with the phone.

The metal is back

The use of metal in smartphones has seen various shifts over the years. Initially, most smartphones featured plastic bodies. This later transitioned to all-aluminium designs for the sides and back, which I believe is the most practical design ever created for smartphones. Aluminium offers greater durability than plastic or glass and provides a balanced mix of style and sturdiness. It looks more attractive and feels more premium than plastic. However, metal doesn't offer the same range of colour variations and gradients that manufacturers have been experimenting with on glass and "glasstic" phones in recent years. Metal also makes heat management harder. Thanks to OnePlus, metal has made a comeback, proving that it can deliver style and aesthetics, without compromising on performance.

While I was testing the OnePlus Nord 4 5G, I was particularly mindful of noticing if the phone heats up. Given the all-metal body, and the power the phone packs with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip and up to 16GB RAM, it won’t be completely crazy to experience some heating issues. However, I have been using the smartphone for a week as my primary device with all my work and social media apps running on it all day, along with the Spotify app that I use in the background throughout the day, and an occasional session on Hogwarts Mystery, I never experienced the device heating up. Even with the Delhi heat, the Nord 4 5G maintained its cool. OnePlus says that it has specifically kept in mind how users hold their phones, such as horizontally for gaming and vertically for selfies and calls, which led the company to design a new internal structure to create a thermal conduction barrier between the phone's components and your hand, ensuring the phone stays comfortable to use no matter what you're doing.

Solid performance

Even the general performance of the Nord 4 5G has been pretty smooth. I was expecting nothing less from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip. The chipset is from last year, but it's a solid one. That paired with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS4.0 storage, gives you a snappy performance that is lag-free.

I also ran some benchmark tests on the device, but before I share that, there is an interesting thing that OnePlus has done with the Nord 4 variants this time, which I think is important to mention in this review. The write speeds you get now actually depend on which model you are opting for. The 128GB one is UFS3.1, whereas the 256GB or the 512GB model is UFS4.0. All three RAM variants are LPDDR5X.

Coming back to the benchmarks, the Nord 4 5G scored 1868 on single-core on Geekbench, and 4348 on multiple-core. The smartphone has a score of 12915 on the Work 3.0 test on PC Mark.

The UI of the phone is neater than an average Android phone’s, thanks to OxygenOS. There are a lot of customisation options as well. But the operating system isn't completely free of bloatware. There are some pre-installed apps on the device, including a folder of gaming apps that is titled Must Play. But the good thing is that these apps are all uninstallable. But here’s the best part, the OnePlus Nord 4 comes with the “longest-ever support” the company has ever given in its smartphone. It is offering four years of software updates, plus a further two years of security updates. Which means you can actually easily use the device for next 5-6 years without any hassle of the support ending. You won’t at least be forced to buy a new phone if you don’t want to.

Like the recently launched Oppo Reno 12 series, the Nord 4 includes several AI features such as AI Audio Summary for quick transcription of recordings, AI Record Summary for summarising emails, and AI Text Translate for, well, translating text. Throughout the review period, I tested all the features, and I found them quite impressive. The AI Eraser 2.0, which is similar to Magic Eraser on Pixel phones, is a useful feature for removing unwanted details from images. However, the standout AI tool for me is the AI Record Summary. This tool is incredibly handy for journalists who conduct numerous interviews or for anyone responsible for transcribing meeting minutes. The AI tool efficiently transcribes voice recordings, and during my testing, it provided mostly accurate transcriptions. It's important to note that I conducted all recordings in English.

A long battery life

The performance and UI of the device is well-supported by the phone’s battery life, which lasted well over a day on a single charge. In addition to all the apps I was using on the device, I also had the Bluetooth connected with the OnePlus Watch 2R and the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro at all times. I was also using the phone for an internet hotspot. With all of this, my phone drained about 55 per cent in 12 hours.

The Nord 4 5G also comes with an 80W charging adapter in the box. The charging speeds of the phone aren't as fast as you would expect, especially if you are an existing OnePlus user, it's highly likely you are used to your phone charging faster. The Nord 4 5G has a 5,500mAh battery that takes 35 minutes to charge from 0 to 60 per cent. Basically, in a little less than an hour, you can fuel up the phone to full charge. For people for whom charging speeds are critical, this might be a pain point, but for most, with the long battery life, this is an easily ignorable quirk.

Gorgeous display

I was using the Nord 4 5G as my primary smartphone while travelling for the OnePlus Summer Launch event in Milan. This means, the Nord 4 5G was my device for checking up on emails from the office, or watching a film or show while on the aeroplane, or scrolling on social media apps. And during all of this, the Nord 4 display did not disappoint. The OnePlus Nord 4 has a lovely AMOLED display and it’s absolutely stunning. There is a lot of tech wizardry behind the screen. It’s a flat 1.5K display that uses the company’s ProXDR technology –– the same display we saw on the OnePlus 12 series. Simply put, the display tech basically analyses images and videos and adjusts their brightness and clarity so that you see them at the best quality, regardless of how the lighting is around you. And that really works. The screen displays rich colours and the darkest blacks. It squeezes in 450 pixels per inch, and it can achieve a peak brightness of 2,150nits when needed. However, do note, in bright sunlight the auto brightness struggles a bit.

The camera impresses

The OnePlus Nord 4 camera actually surprised me. I did not expect the Nord 4 camera to be this good. It’s not perfect, but looking at other smartphones in this category, the Nord 4 offers a pretty decent set of cameras. I have been testing out the portrait mode quite a bit, and I am largely happy with the camera performance. The images naturally have a slightly high contrast, but the final outcome looks quite nice.

The portrait mode got me some lovely shots with ample colours and details, and good background diffusion. In some lighting conditions, however, you may notice that the edge detection missed out on some strands of hair or the edge of a shoulder. In low light, you may also notice images getting slightly oversaturated sometimes, like this image of my cat.

I even tried about 8-10x zoom and I found the camera is able to get a good shot with a good amount of details in it.

What I also liked was that the shutter speed on the Nord 4 is pretty good, which means you are able to click the exact frame you want, and you don’t have to worry too much about holding your phone still for too long.

The selfie camera is again pretty decent with a lot of details and good colours, but edge detection is still a bit of an issue in a low-lit environment.

Overall, like I said, the OnePlus Nord 4 camera may not be perfect, but the images you get generally have good details, and are ready for social media.

Should you buy the OnePlus Nord 4?

I have tested the Oppo Reno 12 Pro, Xiaomi 14 Civi, and the Realme 12 Pro+ this year, while all these phones had their pros and cons, and so does the OnePlus Nord 4 5G, but what makes the OnePlus Nord 4 5G the easiest to recommend is its pricing. The Nord 4 is priced starting Rs 29,999 for the base variant, and the top model that we have been testing is priced at Rs 35,999. That's just really good pricing. Beyond the price too, the Nord 4 offers a well-rounded performance, good cameras, a beautiful design, and an excellent battery life.