OnePlus’s decision a few years ago to invest in the production and marketing of its budget “Nord” smartphones (much like its sister brand Oppo) was certainly an interesting choice, and while it hasn’t been received too warmly by hardcore OnePlus fans, it hasn’t stopped the company from regularly updating its Nord roster with new handsets and accessories.
With that said, the company recently unveiled its newest addition to the Nord line in the form of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite (quite a long name, we know), and a pair of new wireless earbuds with the Nord Buds 2. The Nord CE 3 Lite is geared towards consumers looking for a wallet-friendly Android phone, and it does pack some surprising features – let’s check it out!
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite
Available in Grey and Lime colour variants, the Nord CE 3 Lite comes with a rather large 6.7-inch LCD display, which comes with a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution, in addition to a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen also houses a hole-punch cut-out for the front camera, which comes with a 16MP resolution. In terms of performance, the phone does come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 5G mobile chipset, which is supported by 8GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, and an Adreno 619 GPU. The phone will come with Android 13, alongside OxygenOS 13.1, OnePlus’ proprietary Android interface.
The rear panel of the phone comes with a triple-camera setup, which features a 108MP main camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor, which is common as far as budget Android phones are concerned. Other hardware features include a 5,000 mAh battery which works with 67W fast-charging, and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner for biometrics.
The phone does pack a few more surprises though – OnePlus has included a 3.5mm headphone jack on the phone, which means you’ll still be able to use “traditional” wired headphones and earphones with the new handset. There’s also expandable storage via a Micro SD card slot, which accepts cards of up to 1TB storage. The CE 3 Lite’s retail packaging also includes a charging brick, a rarity in most smartphones these days. The Nord CE 3 Lite can be pre-ordered now on OnePlus’ UK website, and will cost £299.
OnePlus Nord Buds 2
Also launched were the OnePlus Nord Buds 2, which come with a pretty good set of features. OnePlus says that the earbuds feature active noise cancellation, and up to 36 hours of usage with the charging case. Using the Nord Buds 2 with ANC will give you around five hours of usage per charge, and seven hours with the ANC feature turned off.
The nord Buds 2 also come with an IP55 rating, meaning they will be safe from most splashes, raindrops, and such (not counting total water immersion). They will also be available in two colours including white and grey, and are priced at £69 in the UK.
