For a long time, OnePlus was regarded as a brand for people searching for an alternative to mainstream manufacturers such as Samsung or Apple. What made the brand so successful was its individuality and close contact to its community in particular. The OnePlus smartphones' independence has gotten much more limited in the past few years - for example, they now use their sister brands' software: realme, Oppo and Vivo.
The OnePlus Nord N30 is a mid-range phone being sold below the $300 threshold - a rare achievement when you look at this year's other releases. The device is also sold under the name OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G in other countries, the only difference being that the Nord N30 has a slightly slower charger.
Can the OnePlus Nord N30 still prove itself to be a high-quality alternative to other mid-range smartphones? Or have OnePlus' phones become replaceable in the meantime?
The OnePlus Nord N30 comes in black and light green - the back of the phone's case is shiny, which means that grease or fingerprint marks quickly become a real problem for the device. Both camera openings are identical in size and are positioned below one other. A matte plastic frame surrounds the phone's case.
The front side features a small "chin" below the screen - in general, the device has quite slim bezels, meaning that 87 % of its surface is taken up by the display. Gorilla Glass 5 protects the Nord N30's screen.
Corners are nicely rounded off and all-in-all, the phone feels quite ergonomic. If you feel the corners on the front of the device, the transition does feel a little rough, which overall worsens the feel of the build quality a bit. At 195 grams, the phone weighs the exact same as its predecessor, the Nord CE 2 Lite. There are definitely lighter phones in this price category, but with regard to its screen size, we find the weight to be acceptable.
The phone's case is stable, can hardly be twisted and only strong pressure gets through to the liquid crystal. In total, the phone has a high-quality feel.
The OnePlus phone retails for $299.99 - something rarely achieved by phones in this price range released in the last year. For the money, you get 128 GB UFS 2.2 flash storage and 8 GB RAM.
The smartphone also features a 3.5-mm jack, NFC and Dual-SIM. Although, one of the two Nano SIM slots is also occupied by the microSD card, which means you have to choose between the two.
The microSD card reader supports cards up to 1 TB and it was a little slower than other phones in our copying test. In the CPDT, the phone also achieved slightly below-average transfer rates. In everyday use, this shouldn't be terribly noticeable.
OxygenOS 13.1 is based on Android 13 and shares a software base with ColorOS, FuntouchOS and the realme UI. At the time of testing, the last safety patch was from May 2023, so relatively up-to-date. The device is set to receive two big Android updates and 3 years of smaller patches.
Many of the pre-installed apps are doubles of functions taken care of by Google apps, such as the photo gallery or the proprietary browser. You can deactivate some of them, but you can't delete them entirely. Even so, the manufacturer has chosen to not install any third-party sponsored apps.
The phone supports WiFi5 and thus, it has similar transfer rates to those of its competitors. During our test, data was transferred consistently and without any hitches. Near the router, the phone keeps a good signal and internet pages are loaded quickly. With a ten-metre distance to the router and with three walls in between, however, you only get about half of the original signal and it takes quite a bit longer to load pages.
The Nord N30 is a 5G smartphone that supports lots of frequencies, meaning it is perfect for taking with you on trips. Although, it isn't entirely a world phone. Its signal strength always lay a little behind that of high-end smartphones - but the signal never cut out entirely in bigger cities.
Outside, our phone was quickly located within a 3-metre accuracy. All the big satellite networks used for locating are supported, as well as SBAS for even more precise locating.
During our test bike trip and using the Garmin Venu 2 as a comparison device, the Nord N30's performance was a little disappointing when it came to determining our position. The phone recorded our route in a way that suggested we sometimes cycled straight through houses and gardens, instead of on the road.
In tight alleyways within the Old Town, this worked a little better and the phone's accuracy was acceptable. If you occasionally use your phone to navigate, you will be just fine with the Nord N30. If you require extremely precise locating, then you will likely need to turn to using a different device for this.
The OnePlus Nord N30 uses Android's standard telephone app.
While on a call, you can turn the internal earpiece's volume up quite far, but voices never quite sound totally clear and you also start to hear a bit of background noise. Even so, you can still understand the person you are talking to and the microphone transmits your voice well, even when you talk quietly.
The built-in speaker outputs callers' voices much more clearly and precisely. The hands-free microphone also does a great job.
Compared to its predecessor, the OnePlus Nord N30 has a much stronger main camera: Now it features a striking 108 megapixels - however, the aperture remains to be f/1.7, meaning the camera isn't any more light-sensitive.
Images taken using the main camera struggle a little with lacklustre color depiction. Especially very light and very dark areas lose a lot of detail. On the landscape image, we liked the sharpness of some of the details and in total, it left a good impression on us. In lower lighting conditions, you have to expect more gloomy-looking photos. You can still see some of the lighter areas, but darker areas remain completely black.
Videos can be recorded in a maximum of Full HD and at 30 fps. Within this price range, you can't really expect any more. The autofocus works a little less consistently: Sometimes, it reacts quickly and other times there is quite a delay. However, the camera adapts quickly and reliably to different lighting conditions.
The phone still doesn't have a wide-angle lens - only a low-resolution macro camera and a lens to support a higher depth-of-field effect.
In terms of image sharpness, the main camera did well in our laboratory test - at only 1 lux lighting brightness, the subject was still just recognizable, but it was very grainy.
Next to a USB cable and a fast charger, the phone also comes with a SIM tool and a silicone bumper. On OnePlus' website, you can buy the iconic sandstone bumper case which the brand is well-known for.
The phone comes with a standard one-year warranty in the US.
The OnePlus Nord N30 can be operated very smoothly thanks to its 120-Hz display, which samples the screen for touch inputs up to 240 times a second. The whole display is sensitive right up to the corners and inputs are acted upon quickly.
You can also choose to unlock the phone biometrically. The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the standby button and practically unlocks the phone instantaneously, even if it was in standby mode before. You can also unlock the phone via a facial recognition function which uses the phone's front-facing camera. It works quickly and reliably, but it isn't quite as safe.
The Nord N30's IPS screen is 6.72 inches in size, has a 20:9 Full HD resolution and is considerably brighter than its predecessor's screen. Compared to many other phones within this price range, our test device provides better brightness levels with an average of 656 cd/m² more.
And no need to worry: We didn't measure any PWM on our test device - even at very low brightness levels.
According to our measurements using CalMAN and a spectrophotometer, the phone's color reproduction is not on the typical level of OLED displays and shows a slight blue cast in light gray tones. Especially bright blue tones are depicted somewhat distorted, but its overall color accuracy is sufficient for private use.
Outside, the display struggles with reflections - in the sun, the screen is very difficult to read from. In bright conditions without direct light, it works just fine.
The viewing-angle images show no color or brightness differences when you view the display from flat angles.
In our graphics benchmarks, the phone behaved just like a typical mid-range phone: Average benchmarks in Full HD were completed at 30 fps but rendering in 4K was only possible to do very slowly.
If you just want to game occasionally using the phone's native resolution, then you will have no problems if you use medium settings. The phone doesn't have much more in reserve.
Internet pages load quite quickly, but you occasionally have to wait for pictures. Scrolling through the pages works very smoothly thanks to the 120-Hz display.
The phone was also very fast in our browser benchmarks, which might partly be due to the newer version of the Chrome browser.
Modern UFS 2.2 memory can be found in many mid-range phones. However, the storage controller has to be able to use the high possible data throughput rates of the flash devices, which only works really well in realme 10. The OnePlus Nord N30 is on par with many similarly priced phones, but it cannot stand out in terms of storage speed.
60-fps gaming is possible on the Nord N30, but only when playing simple games such as Armajet. PUBG Mobile can be run at 40 fps using low settings; in Diablo: Immortal, there is only a 30-fps option to pick. We tested the frame rates using software from GameBench.
For a mid-range device, the rates we measured were acceptable - there weren't any major drops. If you just want to play games occasionally on the phone, then you will be sure to have fun with the Nord N30. For more demanding games, you will likely have to look elsewhere.
The phone heats up to 44.1 °C at room temperature, which can definitely be felt - but that in itself isn't too problematic. It is only in higher surrounding temperatures and when demanding more from the phone that things might start to get a bit tricky.
A raise in temperature certainly didn't affect the phone's performance, as the 3DMark stress test confirmed: After 20 runs, the phone had the same amount of power available as it did at the beginning of the test.
The OnePlus phone's sound system consists of only one mono speaker, but it can get quite loud (up to 84.9 dB(A)) and still sounds pleasant. Even very high sounds aren't overemphasized and varied types of music all sound different.
Of course, real audio enthusiasts will still need to use headphones or external speakers. These can either be connected via the 3.5 mm jack or via Bluetooth 5.1. If you choose the wireless option, a good selection of codecs is available. At most, we miss very high-quality (but not yet widely used) codecs like LDHC.
The OnePlus Nord N30 doesn't have to shy away when it comes to power consumption - in total, it is about on the same level as other similarly priced devices. Although, its predecessor was a little more frugal. Especially when the system is under relatively little load, its base consumption is quite high.
It is great that the OnePlus smartphone can be charged at up to 65 watts; the matching power adapter can be found in the package. Thus, it takes about 40 minutes until the 5,000 mAh battery is fully charged again from 0%. At the same time, the Nord CE 3 Lite can be connected to the charger for a short time if you do not have much time, and you will have enough power for several hours of operation after a few minutes.
In fact, the phone's slightly higher power consumption is noticeable in the form of slightly shorter battery runtimes compared to its predecessor. Nevertheless, our test device lasted for 16:26 hours while surfing using WLAN, which is a good result.
This should easily last for a full work day - and it should even prove to be enough for two days if used sparingly.
The OnePlus Nord N30 features a good main camera, bright screen, decent sound system and mid-range performance levels.
Slight weaknesses can be found in the phone's locating functions: Despite supporting SBAS, our recorded routes were sometimes quite far off the routes we actually took. A wide-angle camera is also missing, and the incoming sound could be a little clearer when phoning.
Operating the phone is easy and reliable, its runtimes are sufficient for everyday use and it can be charged quickly.
But - does the Nord N30 still feel like a OnePlus phone? Well, its case is sleek and stable, and this relatively cheap OnePlus series never did feature an alert slider. Its new software is now fast and intuitive. However, it is understandable that many fans miss previous models' high-quality and community-developed OxygenOS.
The OnePlus Nord N30 is a good mid-range phone for an affordable price of under $300. Its main camera is capable of taking quite good photos.
Its predecessor, the Nord CE 2 Lite, can now be found for quite a bit cheaper. However, it features slower charging times and shorter updates - apart from that, its changes are minimal. It is also worth taking a look at the realme 10, which features a very quick storage controller.
Currently, the OnePlus Nord N30 can be found on Amazon for $299.99.
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