OnePlus has seen a lot of changes recently, from the dropping of the OnePlus 10 model to just having a OnePlus 10 Pro, then flip-flopping in the other direction to offer just a OnePlus 11, ditching the Pro – a policy the company still maintains.
But that's perhaps not the most interesting segment of OnePlus' line-up, with the Nord family offering much more competitive specs for the money. That brings us to the latest update, which sees the OnePlus Nord 5 and OnePlus Nord CE 5 launched.
I've been testing the OnePlus Nord 5 over the past week. I'm not quite ready to review the phone, but there's another OnePlus change here that struck me. While reviewing the OnePlus Nord 4 in 2024, Basil Kronfli highlighted that it was "a bit of a tonic to the samey phones of today."
What was the reason for that? The stunning metal unibody, something we've not seen on phones for the best part of a decade.
On the OnePlus Nord 5, however, it's a return to that more common design with a glass back.
The OnePlus Nord 5 is more conventional in its design, with a camera layout that, well, looks like a Samsung phone. It's essentially a natural rival for the Samsung Galaxy A56 – it's about the same size, looks similar and the display is close too.
While Samsung offers three cameras in comparison with OnePlus' two, the latter phone is cheaper and more powerful. This is really at the core of what the OnePlus Nord 5 offers – and the part that I'm enjoying the most – the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 hardware.
This sub-flagship hardware has more appeal than the Exynos 1580 and I've found it to be snappy in my testing so far. Interestingly, it's a generation older than the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 that powers the Nothing Phone (3) – as recently launched by ex-OnePlus founder Carl Pei – although there's a gulf in the price of these phones.
The OnePlus Nord 5 starts at £399 (8/265GB), and will be €449 in Europe. That's great value for money, undercutting Samsung, but it's a segment of the market where there's some serious competition – the Poco F7 for example.
The OnePlus Nord 5 offers two cameras on the back, the main being a 50-megapixel Sony Lytia 700, f/1.88, while there's an 8-megapixel ultrawide too. The front camera is a 50-megapixel Samsung JN5.
On the front of the phone is a 6.83-inch AMOLED display protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, with a refresh rate running up to 144Hz and with a native 2378 x 1080 pixel resolution. It has a brightness of 1800 nits, which in modern terms is a little dull – just look at the Moto Edge 60 with its 4500 nits brightness, for example.
A 5,200mAh battery will power the OnePlus Nord 5, with 80W charging support.
A cheaper option: OnePlus Nord CE 5
The new Nord 5 is joined by the CE model, which makes a few key changes, using the MediaTek 8350 Apex and with a slightly smaller 6.77-inch display – but again has that glass back on it.
The OnePlus Nord CE 5 will cost even less – £299 (€349) for the 8/128GB launch model – but it still comes with a big battery and fast charging.
While it's great to have this value for money from the new Nord phones, I still miss the uniqueness of the metal unibody from the OnePlus Nord 4.
