OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite Review: Budget-friendly, long battery life, decent camera

Recently, OnePlus launched the new Nord CE6 (Core Edition 6) Lite series in India.

It comes in three variants-- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage-- with prices starting at Rs 20,999.

Design, build quality, display

OnePlus Nord CE 6 Lite comes in a regular candy bar design. It features a flat display panel and curved corners.

On the back, it features a plastic-based cover panel with a frosted glass-like matte finish. It offers a good grip for the fingers to hold the device firmly, and also does a fine job of repelling the sweaty fingerprint smudges.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite.

The phone also features MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability certification and an IP64 rating, meaning it can withstand accidental water splashes and is protected against light dust intrusions.

The company offers a free silicone case with the retail box. It is of premium quality and also comes with raised lips around the display panel, which ensures the screen doesn't crack during an accidental drop on a hard, flat surface.

Additionally, the device comes pre-fitted with a screen guard for protection against scratches.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite.

The device comes in two colours-- vivid mint and hyper black.

It sports a 6.72-inch full HD+ (2400 x 1080p) LCD IPS screen with 30-144Hz adaptive refresh rate, pixel density of 392 pixels per inch (ppi) and support up to 1,000 nits peak brightness.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite.

The display is good enough to consume multimedia content or doom scroll on social media platforms indoors. But, outdoors, under the direct sunlight, users will face a reflection issue. The user has put the display to maximum brightness and take up to chest height to view the content more clearly.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite.

It comes with hybrid dual-SIM slots (nano SIM-1 + nano SIM-2 or microSD card), a Type-C USB port, stereo speakers and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The latter works fine with a low false rejection rate.

Performance

The device is powered by a 4nm class MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Apex octa-core processor with Mali-G615 MC2 GPU, / 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB / 256GB (UFS 3.1) storage (expandable up to 2TB).

The device works smoothly, and even while playing games, it remains stable. The phone comes with a large 5300 mm² vapour chamber for efficient heat dissipation when performing heavy-duty tasks such as running generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI) apps like Gemini, ChatGPT, and others.

The device runs on Android 16-based OxygenOS 16. The user interface is clean. It is guaranteed to get two OS updates and four years of security patches against cyber threats up to 2030.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite.

The device houses a big 7,000mAh battery. Under normal usage with Wi-Fi connectivity at home and the office, it can easily last for one and a half days.

With a full charge, it can stream videos continuously for 24 hours or play games for an extended session for up to 10 hours on a stretch.

It comes with a 45W SuperVOOC wired fast charger in the retail box. It will take around one and a half hours from zero to the 100 per cent mark. With 10 minutes of charging, it can last for more than six hours of phone calls.

It also supports 10W reverse charging capability.

It boasts of 5G++ tech, which enables the phone to deliver a stable cellular connection. It will come in handy while attending a call, an elevator or an underground parking lot of a mall.

It also promises two times faster internet for streaming multimedia content in the aforementioned conditions.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

Photography

The Nord CE 6 Lite features a dual-camera module-- a main 50MP (with 1/2.88-inch Omnivision OV50D40 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, EIS: Electronic Image Stabilisation) and a 2MP (f/2.4) monochrome camera with LED flash on the back.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

The phone takes pretty decent quality photos in the sunlight.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

It performs admirably well with portrait mode, and even in close range, too.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

At night, the device performs fine with sharp images.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

It supports 2x optical zoom and can digitally zoom up to 10X. However, the photos begin to accumulate noise beyond 5X zoom.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

It also boasts of gen AI tools, including AI Portrait Glow, AI Reframe, AI Reflection Eraser, AI Detail Boost, AI Unblur, AI Perfect Shot and AI Eraser.

The primary camera on the back can record decent-quality 4K videos at 30 frames per second (fps).

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

On the front, it has an 8MP(f/2.0) camera. It takes good selfies in the daylight.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

Also, it comes with built-in tools and filters to superficially enhance the face's skin tone, make it photogenic and good enough to share on social media platforms.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite's camera sample.

The front-facing camera can record full HD (1080p) videos at 30 fps.

Final thoughts

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite is a value-for-money phone. It comes with a solid build quality, decent display, reasonably reliable camera and most importantly delivers good on long battery life.

OnePlus Nord CE6 Lite.

It comes in three variants-- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 20,999, Rs 22,999 and Rs 25,999, respectively.

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