OnePlus Nord N10 5G

OnePlus Nord N10 5G has long been the bastion of value-for-money within the Android world, but as its flagship phones sneak up in price, more room has been made for lower-cost devices that also offer some great features. the first OnePlus Nord exemplified this, with a solid design and good battery life. Now, OnePlus is expanding the series — with the new OnePlus Nord N10 5G.

  • ONEPLUS Nord 5G AC2003 EU/UK Model. Memory: 8GB+128GB, Rear Camera Quad 48MP + 8MP + 5MP + 2MP Lens and Sensor Tech 48 MP f/1.8 26mm (wide) 1/2.0″ 0.8um PDAF OIS, 8 MP (ultrawide), 5 MP f/2.4 (depth), 2 MP f/2.4 (macro) Flash & FocusDual LED Flash OtherCINE aspect ratio video recording, UltraShot HDR, Nightscape, Super macro, Portrait, Pro mode, Panorama, AI scene detection, RAW image, Filters, Quick share 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED display; 1080 x 2400 pixels (Full HD+)
  • Unlocked phones are compatible with GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile, but are not compatible with CDMA carriers such as Verizon and Sprint.
  • Please check if your GSM ceIIular carrier supports the bands for this model before purchasing, 5G may not be available in all areas: 2G/GSM Bands 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz 3G/HSPA BandsB1, B2, B4, B5, B8, B9, B19 4G/LTE BandsLTE-FDD: B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32, 66, LTE-TDD: B34, 38, 39, 40, 41 . 5G: BandsN1, N3, N7, N28, N78
  • This device may not include a US warranty as some manufacturers do not honor warranties for international items. Please contact the seller for specific warranty information.
  • The box contains Your new device, USB cable, UK/EU Charger, CIear Case, Documentation.

The new device is currently only available in Europe and therefore the U.K., however, OnePlus says that it’ll be bringing it, alongside the also-new OnePlus Nord N100, to North America soon. At 329 British pounds it’s still not an inexpensive phone but definitely budget conscious. do you have to buy it? We put the OnePlus Nord N10 5G to the test to seek out out.

Editor’s Note: Because the Nord N10 5G is out there in Europe first, we were sent an EU model to check. Testing within the U.S., the phone has technical limitations around 5G bands and other network technology. The North American model shouldn’t run into any of those issues.

Design and display

Midrange phones are getting an entire lot better, and lots of the simplest midrange devices now offer a contemporary design with a foothold to edge display. The OnePlus Nord N10 5G is not any exception thereto rule. The display has nicely rounded corners, there’s a (relatively large) hole-punch cutout for the front-facing camera on the highest left of the display, and so on. the sole thing that breaks the illusion may be a large chin at rock bottom of the display, but it’s never a dealbreaker.

The back of the phone looks very almost like other modern OnePlus devices. There’s a squircle-shaped camera module on the highest left of the rear of the phone, which houses the quad-lens camera. the sole difference, a minimum of in appearance, is that the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, which generally worked well.

Of course, appearance and feel are a touch different. the rear of the phone looks nice, but it’s built from plastic, which is often felt. It’s common in phones during this price range, but I might still wish to see midrange phones beginning to get built from more premium materials.

Around the edges, you’ll get all the usuals: A USB-C port, a volume rocker, and an influence button. Also on rock bottom may be a strange hole. After consulting the instructions, I decided that it’s called a “headphone jack.” Weird.

The Nord N10 5G offers a 6.49-inch display with a 1080p resolution and it’s good. No, it’s not a high-end 1440p display, but a minimum of it’s a 90Hz high refresh rate display. It gets bright enough to use even in direct sunlight, it offers relatively vivid colors, and for many, it’s quite ok.

Performance and battery

The OnePlus Nord N10 5G offers a Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 processor, including 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It’s not a nasty lineup of specs, and actually, it’s very nice that the bottom model comes with 128GB of storage. But there are other phones that feel snappier within the price range. an ideal example of that’s the Google Pixel 4a, which is about an equivalent price, and features a Snapdragon 730G — and therefore the higher-end Pixel 4a 5G, which is admittedly a touch pricier, features a Snapdragon 765G. While the quality Pixel 4a won’t beat the OnePlus Nord 10 5G in benchmarks, Google’s phones are very responsive in real-world use and more up so far with software.

The limitations of the phone’s performance are often felt sometimes. Sometimes it takes a second or two to load the keyboard, and sometimes once you type, it can skip a beat to truly show the character on the display. The basic operation is comparatively smooth most of the time, but it’s the occasions that it’s not smooth that you simply are reminded you’ve got a budget device.

Benchmark results confirm this. The Nord N10 5G got 281,214 in AnTuTu and 606 single-core, 1,804 multi-core in GeekBench 5. Gaming with the phone may be a decent experience. Games take a beat to load, but actual gameplay worked fine in our testing with games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9.

The battery on the phone sits in at 4,300mAh, and it had been easily ready to deliver a full day of use. That said, i like to recommend disabling the always-on display on the phone. The OnePlus Nord 10 5G has an LCD panel, and with the display feature enabled, the backlight stays on even when the display is “off.” which will seriously suck battery, and with the feature switched on, I did find that battery was impacted, to the purpose where I needed to charge the phone before the top of a moderate-use day.

Camera

The OnePlus Nord 10 5G offers a quad-lens camera system, but it’s not necessarily as versatile as you would possibly assume. While you’d think that among those four lenses there’s a zoom lens, there, unfortunately, isn’t. Instead, you’ll get a 64-megapixel main sensor, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 5MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro lens. I actually wish OnePlus would do away with the macro lens — it’s useless.

Photos are fine, but not groundbreaking. If you would like the simplest photos on a phone during this price range, you’re happier turning to the Pixel 4a, which has flagship-level image processing.
In general, the phone didn’t deliver the maximum amount of detail as I might have liked to ascertain. Colors were also a touch muted, and not as vibrant as I might normally expect from a 2020 phone. That’s very true in tricker shooting situations, for instance with a bright background and darker foreground. ensuring HDR is on does help in those situations, but it doesn’t completely solve the difficulty.

Software

The OnePlus Nord 10 5G comes with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 10.5, and it’s a touch frustrating to ascertain that it doesn’t accompany the newest OxygenOS 11 supported Android 11. That newer software is widely available already, and just sets the Nord N10 5G up for frustration when it involves longer-term software support. That said, the general experience of using any modern OnePlus phone remains good, and therefore the OxygenOS Android customization remains simple and straightforward to navigate.

You’ll get a couple of extra features too. for instance, the phone comes with OnePlus’ Zen mode, which allows you to limit your own access to your phone for a limited amount of your time. Other features include the App Locker, which allows you to hide apps behind the fingerprint sensor or a PIN code. Basic theming options make it simple to customize the design of the phone, and OnePlus is especially good at keeping duplicate apps and bloat to a minimum.

Price, warranty, and availability

The OnePlus Nord 10 5G is out there in Europe and therefore the U.K. for 329 British pounds, which directly translates to about $430 — though I might guess the U.S. price will find yourself under $400. Eventually, the device is going to be released within the U.S., however, we don’t have a date for it just yet.

The device comes with OnePlus’ standard 12-month limited warranty, which just about just covers manufacturer defects.

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