OnePlus Nord 4 Review: Putting the Pedal to The Metal

OnePlus is putting the pedal to the metal in Milan, Italy. Yes, that’s what the company did at its grand Summer Launch Event on the 16th of July. The company launched four products; Nord 4, Nord Buds 3 Pro, Watch 2R and Pad 2. Their hero product, the Nord 4, shines with an all-metal body.

The hero is their brand new Nord 4 smartphone with the return of an all-metal body.

OnePlus has gone the nostalgia route that will pay off in the long run, for the company. It’s a bold step, but something that everyone is liking. No matter whom I show the Nord 4 to, they are struck by the sheer beauty of the all-metal body.

Most of the smartphones out there use a mix of glass and polycarbonate materials for their smartphones. OnePlus has gone back many years and re-introduced the all-metal body. Furthermore, OnePlus was able to pack in a bigger battery, with a 5,500mAh capacity, a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 SoC, and an IP65 rating to make this a compelling package. In case you’re wondering, OnePlus has added AI features to keep up with the burgeoning trend across the market.

The “Mercurial Silver” colour variant I received for review is the best of the lot. It’s got this laser-etched design (with over 28,000 nano-level cuts). The other two colour options are Obsidian Midnight and Oasis Green. Priced at Rs 32,999, the OnePlus Nord 4 wins on many metrics such as display quality, raw performance, and having an all-day battery.

The phone isn’t top-heavy and I felt an even balance of the weight across the smartphone. For Rs 32,999 (8GB RAM + 256GB storage), the smartphone should be near the top of your shopping list.

Let’s dive in.

6.74-inch AMOLED display

With the Nord 4, you get a 6.74-inch AMOLED display (2,722x1,240 resolution) with a 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness of 2,150 nits. It’s an Ultra HDR-ready screen with beautiful and vivid colours and fantastic viewing angles. The screen gets plenty bright for outdoor usage. There are slim bezels, to compliment the flat panel. Watching the Olympics, Major League Cricket and some random YouTube videos was a joy on the Nord 4.

 There’s Aqua Touch support (for registering touches even when the screen is wet), which I’ve enjoyed across all OnePlus smartphones this year. The downside is that there is only a sub-standard (Panda Glass) display protection. The in-display fingerprint scanner is accurate and unlocks at fast speeds. One of the best displays in this price range? Top three for sure.

Performance
In my daily usage, I found that the smartphone flies to most tasks, only stuttering and lagging when playing graphically demanding games. The OnePlus Nord 4 comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 SoC and, on the top-end version, is paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage.

Yes, the Nord 4 isn’t a gaming smartphone, but it can play games at medium settings with aplomb. The phone can get warm, but nothing that is a dealbreaker. After just a few minutes of cooldown, it’s back to normal. One would have been worried that the phone would get too hot to handle because of its metal construction, but the moment I started using it that feeling dissipated.

Camera

Going by what the competition offers, the Nord 4 has modest specifications for its camera setup. There’s a 50MP main shooter (with a Sony LYT-600 sensor and OIS) and an 8MP ultra-wide camera. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera. This is the same camera system as in the Nord CE4.

Thanks to a newer and more efficient processor, the camera system’s output, is better. Not by a huge margin, but the Nord 4 shoots some nice and clean photos from the main camera. Daylight images retain plenty of details, and sharp textures while maintaining good natural-looking colours. Even portraits came out nicely with good edge detection and a not-so-strong blur.

What I liked the most was how the colour science between the main and ultra-wide sensors remained almost the same. The ultra-wide sensor exceeded my expectations as the photos that came out were serviceable and useable across social media platforms.

The selfies were good. Even those taken with the portrait mode turned out to be sharp, with good edge detection and retaining natural skin tones.

It’s the low-light images that disappointed me. Thanks to an increased exposure time, the Nord 4 was able to capture more light. Some of the images were good, but the night mode did nothing to improve the photos.

Overall, the camera system is good, but nothing to rave about. It isn’t the best camera system in this price segment but far from the worst. It gets the job done.

Battery

The battery backup on the Nord 4 is what impressed me the most. With a 5,500mAh battery, I was able to get over seven hours of screen-on-time (SoT), which was commendable. The phone easily lasts a day and a half before it has to be charged.

There’s a 100W charging brick included in the box. With that, the phone can be juiced from 0 to 100 percent in just half an hour.

Verdict: The best Nord ever

To me, the OnePlus Nord 4 feels like a souped-up version of the OnePlus 12R that was released earlier in the year. It’s got faster UFS 4,0 storage, a more premium all-metal design, and is eligible for more years of software and security updates.

Pushing the envelope with design, and including a much bigger batter, have paid off for OnePlus. I’ve already recommended this smartphone to a couple of my friends, and they’ve already hit the purchase button.

If you’re a hardcore gamer or someone who wants a more versatile camera setup, then look elsewhere. For everyone else that wants a dependable smartphone, the OnePlus Nord 4 is your best bet. The OnePlus Nord 4 retails at Rs 32,999 for the 8GB + 256GB variant and Rs 35,999 for the 12GB + 256GB model.