Weekly poll results: the OnePlus Nord CE is not the new king of the mid-range, but may edge out the original

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G struggled to make a case for itself in last week’s poll – it received some positive votes and, crucially, it edged the original Nord by a decent margin. But the majority voted against it.

The whole point of the “Core Edition” device was to trim the fat off the spec sheet and bring a price cut that will make this mid-ranger one of the best value-for-money phones out there. Did OnePlus succeed?

Not quite, by the looks of it. The shadow of two Poco phones - the X3 Pro and F3 - loomed large over the Nord CE. Other alternatives like Samsung’s Galaxy A52 5G (and offerings from the related F-series) were brought up in the comments too (though it should be noted that the 5G is pricier than the Nord, while the A52 4G is less capable).

OnePlus Nord CE 5G highlights

The question is how much do you value that stock-ish interface of OxygenOS? For some it’s a key selling point. And you’ll get two years of OS updates, plus an extra one of security patches. However, the Samsung phones will get an extra year, while the Xiaomi’s should match the OnePlus.

Anyway, the Nord CE also packs some niceties like a 3.5mm headphone jack and an always-on display and stellar battery life with fast charging (though the advantage over the competition isn’t ground-breaking).

If you’re still undecided, you can read our review for a detailed examination of the phone. There are things that can be tweaked, e.g. the camera image processing could be better. However, no software update is going to add the missing HDR10+ support on the display or a Gorilla Glass to protect it.

It appears that the OnePlus Nord CE 5G has failed its mission of being a “mid-range killer”. However, the original Nord proved quite successful and if there’s any good news from these poll results it is that more people voted in favor of the CE than the original Nord. The original Nord itself faced many doubters in the early days.