So that’s the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G for you. It has a brilliant display, decent battery and performance, a not-so-great design, and an adequate camera. This phone is perfect for people who watch a lot of content, thanks to its bright and detailed display and long-lasting battery. Gaming isn’t bad either but could be better. The photography is okay in daylight, but it’s not a camera phone.
So, OnePlus has launched another Nord 4 series phone under ₹20,000. This is the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite, which comes with two really good upgrades but missed out on one thing.
Now, what are the upgrades? Well, it has an AMOLED display and a bigger battery now. And what did it miss? This phone runs on the processor that also powered the 2-year-old Nord CE2 Lite 5G. In 2024, when we have budget phone chipsets like the Snapdragon 6s Gen3, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G is still stuck on the Snapdragon 695 5G. Who knows the Nord CE5 Lite 5G could also feature this processor…. Anyway, that’s OnePlus’ business. What’s our business is telling you whether the phone is worth the price or not. Let’s go!
Let’s talk about its design first. So, OnePlus continues the plastic frame legacy with the new Nord smartphone, as you know it’s a budget device but it did change the design a little. In the Nord CE3 Lite 5G, we had quite big camera rings, however, we now have smaller camera rings accompanied by a dual-LED flash.
It comes in three colours, Mega Blue which I have here, Ultra Orange, and Super Silver. I swear I can make someone blind with this colour variant. It looks very loud and glossy. The back panel also catches a lot of fingerprints that don’t look good after a time.
The in-hand feel of the NordCE4 Lite is decent. It’s not so heavy, weighs only 191 grams, but it is slightly thick. The thickness of the smartphones measures 8.1mm. I really liked the buttons’ quality as they are properly intact and don’t wobble a lot.
Furthermore, you get an in-display fingerprint sensor that is slightly slower than the capacitive lock screen sensor but not so much that it would bother you. Lastly, you get a 3.5mm jack, Type-C port, and stereo speaker setup but no Dolby Atmos and infrared sensor.
Coming to its display, I must say that OnePlus has really upgraded the display. The OnePlus Nord CE3 Lite 5G had an IPS LCD display. And now the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G has a 6.6-inch AMOLED display that comes with up to 120Hz refresh rate support. You also get an option to switch it to 60Hz as well. OnePlus claims up to 2100 nits of peak brightness, which is for HDR video playback on certain parts of the screen. We recorded a peak brightness of 1028 nits on High Brightness Mode, which is also a good number for a budget phone. In fact, the Nord CE3 Lite had only 535 nits according to our testing.
The display colours are fine and the display is also quite vibrant, so much that I feel it’s more than you need. For some, it’s a con; for some, it’s a good thing. Let’s leave it like this only. The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G has an FHD+ display, offers good details, and is also quite sharp.
Overall, if you watch too many movies and shows, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G could be a good content-consumption phone.
The OnePlus Nord CE2 Lite had a pretty mediocre performance, and the same goes for the OnePlus Nord CE3 Lite. I have to say, it’s the same story for the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite too. Yeah, it would’ve been great if OnePlus had used the latest processors like the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 or 6s Gen 3, but the Snapdragon 695 5G gets the job done.
The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite can be a solid phone for everyday use. Whether you’re scrolling through Instagram, texting a lot, or just need a phone for calls, the Nord CE4 Lite handles all these tasks well. The CPU throttling test was also decent for a budget phone, hitting up to 86% of its peak performance.
However, its direct competitor, the iQOO Z9 performs better than the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G, according to our testing. It is powered by the MediaTek Dimensty 7200 5G processor. Here’s the benchmark comparison.
I also did some gaming on the Nord CE4 Lite with high graphics settings. Surprisingly, the overall gameplay was smooth, but there was a minor lag. It didn’t just happen during gaming but sometimes while using the phone too.
Basically, for your daily needs, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite is a great phone, but its old processor might start to bother you after a while.
Coming to its OS, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G runs on the latest OxygenOS 14, based on Android 14. This UI looks really pretty but… sadly, it has bloatware. It comes with 12-13 pre-loaded apps that you can remove, and that’s the only thing stopping me from loving it.
The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G features a dual-camera setup, with a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 primary sensor and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. For selfies and video calls, it has a 16-megapixel sensor.
I have mixed feelings about the camera. At first, I thought the low-light photography was bad, but then it clicked some really good low-light pictures. The daylight pictures are decent too. It captures good details but adds a warmish hue, which I personally don’t like.
In low light, if there’s a bit of light in the frame, it clicks okayish pictures. In complete darkness, the dynamic range gets messed up, and the pictures lack detail. Typical budget phone stuff.
The edge detection is bad, so portrait shots aren’t great, but the details are good after processing. Sadly, there’s no ultrawide sensor, so you’re stuck with 1x to 10x digital zoom.
If you take a lot of selfies, this isn’t the phone for you. Details are good, but the color accuracy is way off, with a noticeable warm hue.
The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite has a 5500mAh battery with 80-watt fast charging. We tested it by playing Call of Duty, watching high-quality videos, and general use. It used 5% battery in 1 hour of GPS and 15 minutes of COD, and 3% in 30 minutes of high-quality video. I also charged it from 0 to 100% and it took 72 minutes for that.
In my opinion, the Nord CE4 Lite 5G has good battery life, and the 80-watt fast charging is a nice bonus (as we expect from OnePlus).
Also read: OnePlus Nord CE4 review: ‘Nothing’ rivals this in performance
So that’s what the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G was all about. To sum it up, you get a bright display on it, it has a good enough battery and performance, but the design isn’t the best. If you’re someone who watches a lot of content, then this phone can be your weapon of choice thanks to its bright and detailed display and long-lasting battery. As for gaming, it isn’t bad either but could have been better. Lastly, the camera works okay in daylight, but honestly, I will not choose it for its cameras.
