OnePlus Nord N30 5G review

OxygenOS 13.1 on top of Android 13

The Nord N30 5G runs on the latest OxygenOS 13.1 on top of Android 13. That's the same combo as found on the Nord CE 3 Lite, which makes sense. In fact, Realme UI 4.0 and ColorOS 13 are not too different from the current OxygenOS either. If you've had some experience with one of these, then you'll feel right at home.

For the most part, the main UI of OxygenOS feels stock to operate. It has both home tabs, with a custom Google feed on the far left and an app drawer. Though, you can disable the latter if it is not to your liking.

OxygenOS 13.1 main UI

The notification drawer also has a very custom look with a mishmash of stock Android and iOS design elements, but it works fine for the most part. The reserved section at the top right for audio playback is especially handy as it doesn't take up notification space below.

The UI is fairly customizable. You can tweak things like fonts, icons, colors, as well as transitions.

UI customization

In terms of additional features, you get some advanced multi-tasking, expanded over stock Android. Aside from the usual split-screen mode, you can open some apps in their own floating windows, which can be pinned at the top or to the sides of the display. Smart sidebar lets you keep frequently used apps in a special drawer attached to the side of the screen that can be accessed from anywhere.

Additional features

App cloner lets you create two instances of apps that don't let you use two accounts simultaneously. The Battery menu is pretty extensive. An optional battery health feature that waits to charge past 80% until just before you start using your device.

App cloner • Battery settings

The Nord N30 5G also includes the Zen Space app to help you focus without the phone distracting you by simply preventing you from using it. There's also Oppo's O Relax app, which includes a variety of comforting music tracks and ambient nature sounds to relax. These sound a bit too compressed, though.

Zen Spaces and O Relax apps

Speaking of additional apps pre-installed on the OnePlus N30 5G, there is no real bloat to speak of, which is great. However, there are plenty of duplicate apps. OnePlus has the habit of including its own first-party apps alongside Google alternatives for said apps, which can sometimes get a bit confusing.

Duplicate apps

Surprisingly enough, OxygenOS has pretty extensive gaming options through the gaming launcher app and the in-game gaming overlay.

Gaming features

Some highlights include focus modes, screen recording and even an extensive system status overly, including an FPS counter. It's a shame that the Nord N30 5G can't really do high refresh rate gaming to properly use the gaming features.

Performance

Just like its Nord CE 3 Lite sibling, the Nord N30 5G uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset. It was never a particularly great chip, even back when it was announced in 2021. Now it's getting on in age and is still wholly unimpressive. The Nord N30 5G pairs this chip with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. It can be further extended through a virtual RAM feature with 4GB, 6GB or 8GB of additional space on a pagefile. The N30 5G comes with 128GB or 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, extendable via microSD. Our review unit is the base 128GB one.

The Snapdragon 695 has an octa-core CPU configuration but only has the two big Kryo 660 Gold cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz. It also has another six smaller Kryo 660 Silver ones, working at up to 1.7 GHz. As far as CPU performance, the Nord N30 5G makes the most out of the hardware it has. That's not a lot in modern terms, but it still gets the job done.

AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark, which includes graphical tests and takes into account things like memory speed. It is pretty kind to the Nord N30 5G, placing it around the middle of the pack of the comparable devices we've chosen.

The Nord N30 Pro appears to slightly outpace the Redmi Note 12 in performance with its newer Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset and the Nord N300 5G with the Dimensity 810. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy A34 offers better performance with its Dimensity 1080.

The Adreno 619 GPU inside the Nord N30 5G isn't particularly powerful either.

The Adreno 619 is still better than the Mali-G57 MC2 GPU inside the Dimensity 810 and Dimensity 700. Though, it gets notably outperformed by the Mali-G68 MC4 inside the Dimensity 1080.

Looking at the charts, it is hard to beat the Google Pixel 6a for GPU and, in fact, overall performance in this price range. Even in the lowest intensity GFXBench test, the Nord N30 5G never manages to even come close to the 60fps mark.

3DMark tends to offer a more concise and well-structured GPU performance comparison in general, though its off-screen rendering. Again, we can see that the Nord N30 5G is far from a chart-topper.

The Snapdragon 695 is not a particularly power-hungry or difficult-to-cool chip in general. The Nord N30 5G does a pretty decent job maintaining performance in relatively long bursts. Given enough time, however, its less-than-ideal thermal management shines through. Rather than gradually and gracefully dropping performance over time, the N30 5G succumbs to jarring drops, which can lead to in-game stutters. That's not great in terms of thermal-throttling behavior. At least the phone's surface does not get overly toasty or uncomfortable to hold, even after a long torture test.

Thermal-throttling

It is hardly a secret that the Nord N30 5G is not a particularly powerful device. Even so, it has enough power to deliver what we would describe as a fluent day-to-day experience. The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through the UI and menus a pretty responsive and pleasant process.

Unfortunately, the phone's refusal to use 120Hz in most apps and games leads to a less fluent experience otherwise. We noticed the occasional slowdown and some stutters here and there while using the Nord N30. We really do wish OnePlus went with a more powerful and potentially newer chip to deliver a better overall experience.