OnePlus is back with its new budget phone with the somewhat fantastic name Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. Not entirely unexpectedly, the phone has slightly less expensive hardware in essentially all areas, but it will be the OnePlus phone that runs OxygenOS 13.1 with Android 13 straight out of the box.
Inside, there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 along with up to 8 GB of RAM, which can also be expanded with virtual memory up to 16 GB. This is then taken from the internal storage space of 128 GB. It is powered by a 5000 mAh battery, which can be charged with the included charger at up to 67 W. It is expected to provide an 80 percent charge in half an hour. However, there is no wireless charging.
On the camera front, there is a front camera of 16 MP, which may not be the best in the world but works for those who don’t take selfies very often. On the back, there is a main camera of 108 MP, and smartly, OnePlus has used the camera’s resolution to be able to zoom 3x without losing much quality. It doesn’t look quite as good as optical zoom, but it’s a clever solution for a cheap phone like this, where there won’t be any extra telephoto camera with good optics or sensor. Below the main camera, there are two 2 MP cameras, one for macro photos and one that senses depth. We could probably do without these, but who wants to carry around a phone with just one camera hole?
The screen is 6.72 inches and unfortunately not OLED, which is noticeable outdoors where the screen feels quite dark. However, one thing about the screen that is very nice is that it has a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, which makes the phone feel faster than it actually might be. On the bottom, there is also a small headphone jack, which is not seen very often nowadays. If you don’t want to use it, the phone’s stereo speakers have a mode where you can raise the volume above 100 percent, which can be used for media and ringtones. But how does it sound? Actually quite good, the volume is louder than, for example, an iPhone 14 Pro, and not necessarily much worse.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is available in Chromatic Grey and Pastel Lime.
