OnePlus Nord 5 review: Pretty solid phone

Since the launch of the OnePlus Nord series in 2020, it has been one of my top recommendations to our readers, colleagues and friends, looking for a mid-range phone. It doesn't compromise on build quality and performance.

OnePlus has now come up with the new generation Nord 5 in India. Compared to the predecessor, it has an all-new design language and comes with a reliable Qualcomm Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 and a very big battery. Here are my thoughts on the Nord 5.

Design, build quality and display

OnePlus has made cosmetic changes to the Nord 5 compared to the Nord 4 (review). The latter had horizontally aligned dual camera islands with an LED flash at the top.

OnePlus Nord 4 (left) and Nord 5 (right).

The new model features an elongated camera capsule with vertically oriented camera sensors and an LED flash. Except for the brand logo, the rest is clean. This particular variant of marble sand is gorgeous. It mimics the smooth and matte finish attributes of the crafted marble stone. It not only offers a good grip for the fingers to hold on to the device, but also repels the fingerprint smudges.

The company also offers the device in a phantom grey and dry ice colour variants. They also look visually appealing.

OnePlus Nord 5.

Another new thing we see in the Plus Key, which was first introduced with the OnePlus 13s (review). It is rightly placed on the left side, so that it cannot be accidentally triggered when using the volume rocker or power button.

The Plus Key replaces the OnePlus' trademark alert slider, which has been the mainstay in almost all OnePlus phones for a decade.

With Plus Key, consumers get options to do far more functions than the alert slider. The latter offers only three options-- ring, silent and vibration. Here with the Plus Key, users can programme it to perform operations such as turn on silent/night mode, do not disturb, camera, shortcut to take screenshots, take voice memo, torch, and Mind Space, a new AI feature.

OnePlus Nord 5.

The rest of the device has the same standard buttons and ports we see in a phone. It has a power and volume rocker on the right side.

It has a speaker, a microphone and a Type-C USB port at the base. And, at the top, it features a microphone, a proximity sensor and an IR blaster. The latter comes in handy to control smart TVs and other smart Internet-of-Things (IoT) gadgets.

The device also comes with an IP65 rating, meaning it can survive accidental water splashing as well. Add to that, the company offers a high-quality silicone cover case free of charge with the retail box. And, every OnePlud Nord 5's display, which comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i shield, features an additional layer of screen guard out of the box.

The device is well protected not just to survive daily wear and tear issues, such as scratches, but also accidental falls on a hard surface. The silicone cover case has specially designed thick corners, which can absorb impact and protect the device from cracking.

OnePlus Nord 5.

The Nord 5 sports a 6.83-inch 1.5K(2800 x 1272p) AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and supports up to 1800 nits peak brightness. It is great not just for watching content on OTT platforms, but also for playing graphics-rich games for hours.

OnePlus Nord 5.

The device features an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is good compared to the Nord CE 5. It can detect the finger impression and quickly unlock the home screen of the device.

Performance

The OnePlus device comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor with Adreno 735 GPU, 8GB/12GB RAM, with 256GB/512GB storage.

It works amazingly smoothly during all day-to-day tasks. Even when used to the extreme usage, such as playing games, the device remains stable and does not overheat as much, thanks to the massive 7,300mm2 vapour chamber to efficiently dissipate heat.

OnePlus Nord 5's CPU and GPU performance score.

For a lag-free gaming experience, the device's antenna bands have been redesigned and come with three additional bands to deliver a stable internet connection via 5G and Wi-Fi.

In a sincere attempt to improve the user experience, OnePlus has introduced a proprietary 'Mind Space' feature. It can assist users in recording on-screen information, which can be recalled to work on a project. It can scan what's appearing on the phone's screen, offer insights, and, if required, be able to add them to a to-do list.

For example, if you are looking at a product on an e-commerce app, he/she can just trigger Plus Key to summon the Mind Space app and the latter will automatically view the page and offer a suggestion on bank offers for discounts or give an option to add this to the shopping list for purchase on a later date.

OnePlus Nord 5 supports several generative AI feaures.

As noted in my OnePlus 13s review, for now, the utilities of Mind Space are kind of limited, but with future updates, it has a lot of potential to enhance the user experience on the phone.

The device also supports Google's gen AI features including Gemini Live, Circle to search and more.

The device runs Android 15-based Oxygen OS 15. It is clean and though, it has pre-loaded third-party apps, but they don't eat away much storage. The device comes with a base storage of 256GB, and it won't run out of space anytime soon.

OnePlus Nord 5.

As far as the battery life is concerned, it can easily last one and a half days. The device comes with a massive 6,800mAh battery, 1,200mAh more than the predecessor (5,500mAh). However, the charging speed is 80W compared to the 100W SuperVOOC Charger we saw in the Nord 4.

It takes close to one hour to fully charge the Nord 5 from zero to 100 per cent mark.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

Photography

The OnePlus phone houses a dual-camera module-- main 50MP (with 1/1.56-inch Sony LYT-700 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) + 8MP 120-degree ultra-wide camera (with f/2.2 aperture, 3.5cm macro) with LED flash on the back.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

It takes pretty good photos in natural, sunny, bright conditions. The subjects, such as flowers, appear vibrant and rich compared to what we see through our eyes. The picture quality is excellent, worthy of being shared on social media platforms.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

It can take really good ultra-wide-angle photos without any software tricks of bending structures just for the sake of accommodating more stuff in the frame.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

Even indoors, with controlled light conditions, the Nord 5 takes nice photos.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

With portrait mode too, it works fine in terms of sharp focus on the subject and artfully blurs the background to deliver a bokeh effect.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

At night, the image quality is quite decent with less noise.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

The device's native Photo Gallery app supports AI Editor and comes with AI Recompose, AI Eraser, AI Detail Boost, AI Unblur, and AI Reflection Eraser.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

It supports Zoom feature. It can digitally zoom up to 20X. The picture quality remains good at 2X, 5X and 10X, but beyond that point, the pictures begin to accumulate grains.

On the front, it features a 50MP (with a 1/2.75-inch Samsung JN1 sensor, f/2.0). It takes pretty nice selfies and portrait images in the sunlight.

OnePlus Nord 5's camera sample.

Both the front and back cameras can record high-quality 4K videos at 60 frames per second.

Final thoughts

OnePlus Nord 5 is a solid, well-rounded phone. It comes with praiseworthy build quality, delivers stable lag-free performance and long battery life. It has decent photography hardware.

OnePlus Nord 5.

The Nord 5 is available in dry ice, marble sands, and phantom grey --colour options. It comes in three configurations-- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 31,999, Rs 34,999 and Rs 37,999, respectively.

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