This review was written after analyzing its features as well as evaluating hands-on video reviews by trustworthy reviewers.
It brightened our day after we have discovered the OnePlus Nord 3 5G smartphone. It was first released back on July 11th and it’s over 3 months now. But this model didn’t arrive in the Bangladeshi market via official OnePlus smartphone sellers yet. We very recently discovered it in the unofficial market with a price tag of ৳43,499. The price is very close to the current Indian price in Flipkart, which is ₹32,428 as of today (roughly ৳43,000).
Intro
So, why were we so excited and happy to find this phone? Firstly, OnePlus is finally back in its true flagship killer form. Their tagline “Never Settle” sort of comes back again that they have not settled for less this time. It’s been a while that we have seen this kind of precise boldness from OnePlus.
Another thing is that, the smartphone market is on the downward trend when it comes to sales. There are a lot of hypes around the market but it does not reflect the sales. As a smartphone expert who is involved in this industry for the past ten years, we can say that it has more to do with the economy than the competitiveness of the phone features.
That being said, there are still a lot of gaps in the industry and room for improvement. So, some brands have a more clear vision ahead of themselves to realize that this is the time to strive for excellence. OnePlus is one of those brands who has done it with the Nord 3 5G.
Nord series phones have already got a good response from the market. Take the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. It has been one of the successful upper mid-range phones in many countries, including Bangladesh. But there were other competitors who did similar or better than this. With the Nord 3, now, OnePlus has made it very difficult for others to compete. Let’s get into the features.
Design & Build
Firstly, OnePlus did a very nice presentation on the phone with its pictures and visuals in digital form. It does play a big role when you see so many phones side by side in an era of information overload. It comes with just two colors; Misty Green and Tempest Grey. The grey color seem to have a matt finish whereas the green color looks more plain. From our perspective, it looks like just the right design for the right model and time. Nothing missing, nothing excessive. That’s our kind of phone. It’s 8.2mm in slimness. You may wish it to be like 7.8mm but some like a bit of a thicker phone and it’s also something in between.
A Dragontail glass protects the screen whereas a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protects the backside. The frame is made of plastic and there is IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance. This is the maximum build quality for the price and we are fully satisfied with it.
Display
It’s not uncommon these days to have a QHD+ quality screen around this price. We have seen it in a few other smartphones. But it’s a Fluid AMOLED QHD+ display with HDR10+. Now we are talking about a real flagship display, absolutely amazing to have such a screen around this price. It is also 6.74” large so, you’ll get that immersive view. 1450 nits max brightness makes it deal for sunlight viewing. There is 120Hz refresh rate support and 1B colors.
Camera
It gets a little tricky here. There is a 50+8+2 MP back camera which looks a bit mediocre in the specs sheet. But we have seen samples and it’s far from mediocre, thanks to the Sony IMX890 sensor. The details and colors are stunning. You may see a bit of a color boost, but it doesn’t look unnatural and the details cover up for it. The same goes for 4K video recording. Although, you’ll get stabilization with up to Full HD (1080p) recording and this is the first disadvantage of the phone that we came across. But it is good for night time photo shots which are more rare. The lighting, the details, was pleasing.
But if we are talking about downsides, the major downside is its 16 MP front camera. It’s not a very bad camera. It’s just pretty average. The soft tones in the skin of the human subjects were very clearly visible. It’s still decent under daylight. There is also EIS for the 1080p max video recording. But still, you’ll get such front cameras under 30K price.
Battery
We are getting an 80W wired charger with Oppo SuperVOOC technology. Basically they are calling it “80W SUPERVOOC Endurance Edition.” It has a battery Health Engine to double the charging cycles from 800 to 1,600. According to OnePlus, it’s about 4 years of daily charging to over 80% of battery. So, not only that a maximum charge takes about just 32 minutes but also it (the 5000 mAh battery) should remain stable for a long period of time.
Performance
OnePlus packs its OxygenOS 13.1 on top of Android 13. OnePlus UI has a reputation for being clean and smooth. But users are more interested in upgrades. OnePlus Nord 3 is supposed to get upgrades till Android 16 (for three years) and the security update should be there for at least 4 years as OnePlus has promised. So, if you buy this phone in late 2023 or let’s say from early 2024 till mid-2024, you can use this phone for at least three years or more very comfortably. Most users will not go over four years with a smartphone so, we think it’s a great deal right now.
MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chipset, a 4 nm build chipset with a Nanoreview gaming score of 84 out of 100 (as of October 16, 2023). You’ll find plenty of phones above the price of Nord 3 coming with a gaming score of around 60 or less. This we had to mention for you to see the level of performance OnePlus is offering at a price like that. We are not overpraising anything. This phone deserves the recognition and its due status for the commitment it has shown to excellence and for bringing the industry forward at a rather challenging time. It is just a very small appreciation from us to write a few words of compliments for that.
The 8 GB base version should do just fine, but if you want maximum gaming, there is also a 16 GB model which will cost a bit more. There are 128 and 256 GB storage options with fast UFS 3.1 technology. There is no MicroSD slot, so maybe you can think of the 256 GB model if in-built storage is important to you. But you can always store your photos in the cloud like in Google Photos etc. so, it’s not that big of a deal.
Other features
Stereo speakers and an in-display fingerprint sensor are some of its other mentionable highlights. There is 5G support, dual Nano SIM, NFC and Infrared as well. OnePlus Nord 3 is a complete package and experience, a recommended device from us.
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