OnePlus Nord review

A familiar setup, now with four modules

Cameras are a bit of a touchy subject on OnePlus phones, especially when it comes to the non-Pro line. Much of the tension seems to stem from the decision to abandon the telephoto camera on the OnePlus 7T and also slightly downgrade the aperture on the main 48MP one, moving to the OnePlus 8.

The OnePlus Nord also partakes in this saga in its unique way, mostly by borrowing its main camera straight from the OnePlus 8. It is the same Sony IMX586, 48MP, 0.8µm, 1/2.25", Quad-Bayer sensor, behind an f/1.8 lens. Its additional perks of OIS and PDAF are carried over, as well. And seeing how the OnePlus Nord is cheaper than the OnePlus 8, this can technically be counted as a step in the right direction value-wise? It depends on how you look at things.

On the flip side, the ultrawide has seen a downgrade, compared to the OnePlus 8. The Nord gets a smaller 8MP, f/2.3, 119-degree unit. In comparison, both the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 7T got 16MP ultrawides. That being said, the OnePlus 8 already endured all the backlash for ditching the autofocus functionality. So, all you have to live with, beyond that, on the Nord is a bit less resolution and a slightly dimmer lens. Make of that what you will.

OnePlus decided to count up to four on the Nord. Perhaps, in part, due to mounting pressure from competitors in the cutthroat midranger segment. The Nord gets a dedicated macro snapper, with a resolution of just 2MP, alongside a 5MP depth sensor. Both behind dim f/2.4 lenses.

OnePlus camera app

The Oxygen OS camera app experience remains consistent and impressively full-featured on the Nord. You get every bit of software functionality from the mainstream OnePlus 8 pair with the same familiar layout too.

Most of the settings are in the top right corner of the viewfinder. The app now makes it easier to shoot 48MP images without having to switch to the manual camera. There's a toggle at the top row of icons that you can use to switch between the 12MP or the full resolution 48MP modes. Relatively new to the top row are the Macro camera toggle, and a new shortcut for filters.

Otherwise, the camera UI is intuitive for the most part. Swiping either direction horizontally changes the modes while swiping up shows you the drawer with all the camera modes available. You can customize which modes you want to keep outside of the drawer.

Camera UI and settings

Pro mode lets you shoot in RAW (12MP), saves two presets, and lets you adjust all the camera settings (ISO, White balance, shutter speed, focus, and exposure compensation). Interestingly enough, in auto mode, both the ISO and white balance values can set themselves even higher than what their respective sliders allow. There's also a histogram and horizontal level - both useful for composing shots and exposure. You can also save your custom settings as a preset for extra convenience. Shooting in Pro mode only works with the main camera.

Pro camera mode

Double-pressing the power key fires up the camera app in a pinch. From a deep sleep, this could take as long as three seconds. In most cases, it'll take just under two seconds. Snapping the image is quick but there might be a slight delay if you immediately try to preview the most recent photo.

Daylight photo quality

The main 48MP camera on the Nord has become somewhat of a familiar mainstay on recent OnePlus devices. The Nord borrowed it from the OnePlus 8 and it, in turn, got it from the OnePlus 7T Pro, which lifted it from the OnePlus 7 Pro.

There are certain benefits from using the same hardware over so many phone generations. You get plenty of time to refine processing and it also provides some cost savings by reusing a proven software+hadware combo.

Indeed, the 12MP shots from the Nord have a consistent and recognizable processing.

In good light, there is plenty of detail. And to OnePlus' credit, color intensity seems to be dialed-back a tiny bit, compared to what we saw in our OnePlus 8 review, but it's still well saturated. On the flip side, skies come out looking grainy if you are into pixel-peeping.

The dynamic range is quite good with the help of OnePlus' local tone mapping algorithms, which work well in high-contrast scenes. We didn't see any image-stacking artifacts. These have been plaguing OnePlus cameras lately with camera shake or moving objects causing blurry areas in parts of the frame.

OnePlus Nord 12MP main camera samples

HDR is always on and works behind the scenes. The puzzling bit is that the camera settings have an option called "UltraShot HDR", which is turned on by default, and yet, turning it off doesn't seem to change how the photos look. Either the UltraShot HDR algorithm is not triggering properly, or it is always on, regardless of this setting toggle.

OnePlus has made it very easy to switch to the full 48MP resolution of the main camera with just a single tap on the main camera UI. Quad-Bayer sensors aren't meant to be used in this manner, though, and it shows in the end result. 48MP shots come out looking softer and noisier than their 12MP counterparts. They don't really offer enough extra detail to be worth it either.

OnePlus Nord 48MP main camera samples

The Nord can technically capture 2x zoom shots. The lack of the dedicated telephoto snapper is quite apparent, though. The 12MP, 2x shots are a bit too fuzzy and noisy for our taste. The quality is still serviceable if you refrain from pixel-peeping, though.

Hardly a surprise, when we consider that the Nord zooms in by cropping the center of its main 48MP Quad Bayer camera. The algorithm first goes through the standard binning process to get a regular 12MP photo, then crops a 2x zoom from that and upscales it to 12MP as a final step.

OnePlus Nord 2x zoom samples

With a resolution of 8MP, the ultrawide snapper on the Nord is a bit of a downgrade from the usual 16MP modules, OnePlus tends to use. This camera struggles to maintain both sharpness and dynamic range at the level of the main camera. Since this is a lot more common with ultrawides, it is a bit more forgivable but we've also seen better ultra-wides at lower price brackets. The choice of this camera is an apparent cost-cutting decision.

OnePlus Nord ultrawide camera samples

Ultra Wide Lens Correction is an option in the settings menu, on be default. We tried snapping a few shots with it off, as well.

OnePlus Nord ultrawide camera samples, without lens correction

Circling back to the question of UltraShot HDR, the option is available across the two cameras but we still didn't see any difference in the photos by the ultra-wide.

The Nord also offers a Portrait mode. It even comes with two different zoom levels - 1x and 2x and with an optional beauty filter. This is where the dedicated 5MP depth camera comes into play and it seems to be pulling its own weight. Portrait shots come out looking very impressive, with excellent subject detection and separation.

OnePlus Nord 1x portrait samples: Off • On

The actual image for the portraits comes from the main camera. So when you zoom in, it goed through the same binning, cropping, upscaling routine as the regular zoom mode. Hence, it's not terribly sharp.

It should be noted that covering the depth sensor up does not cripple portrait mode entirely. It still manages to work, but not nearly as well. Especially on non-human subjects.

OnePlus Nord 2x portrait samples

On the software side of things, Portrait mode is light on options. There is a clear indicator, showing whether or not the algorithm has picked-up the subject, which is convenient. But, you can't actually adjust the intensity of the background blur effect. Or at least, we didn't find a way to do so. We were perfectly pleased with the auto settings, though.

There is a single toggle to enable beauty mode, on top of the portrait shot. You don't really get any additional options or intensity sliders here, either. The filter that gets applied is very light and barely noticeable. For what that's worth.

OnePlus Nord portrait beauty mode samples

Despite this lack of extra options to fiddle with, overall, we are quite impressed with portrait mode, it is snappy and accurate. Once a subject gets picked-up, the algorithm tends to hold on to it well. And it doesn't just work on human subjects either.

OnePlus Nord portrait samples on non-human subjects

Speaking of non-human subjects, last and probably least, there is a 2MP dedicated, fixed-focus macro camera on the OnePlus Nord. With an aperture of f/2.4, it is rather dim, as well. Naturally, some patience, special care and attention and a few tries are necessary to get usable shots. It is possible, though. Results are serviceable.

OnePlus Nord 2MP macro samples

We shot our standard posters with the OnePlus Nord, at both its default 12MP binned and 48MP un-binned resolution. Here are the shots in our extensive photo compare database, for your pixel-peeping pleasure.

OnePlus Nord against the OnePlus 8 and the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G in our Photo compare tool

64MP: OnePlus Nord against the OnePlus 7T and the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G in our Photo compare tool

Selfie camera quality

The Nord has a pair of selfie cameras at its disposal - a 32MP and an 8MP, both with dark f/2.5 lenses. Nothing too fancy, like autofocus, but you do still get the benefits from the bigger 1.12µm pixels and wider 105-degree field of view on the secondary selfie cam.

In good lighting, both snappers perform admirably. Detail is good, so is sharpness. Colors look vibrant and not overly saturated. The native 32MP output is a bit heavier to work with, due to its high resolution. But, that's not really a proper complain.

OnePlus Nord 32MP selfie samples

The secondary 8MP selfie does offer a slightly more saturated pallet and has noticeably more corner softness. Even so, the two are similar-enough in overall look.

OnePlus Nord 8MP ultrawide selfie samples

As expected, there are beauty filters for selfies. You even get to choose between three intensity levels. The Nord never goes overboard, so no complaints there.

OnePlus Nord selfie beauty mode samples

Video capture quality

The OnePlus Nord can capture video at up to 4K@30fps from both its main and its ultrawide cameras. Seeing how the latter is 8MP and outputs stills at 3264 x 2448 pixels, we are not exactly sure how 4K video is achieved. But, the simple test of covering the corresponding sensor proves that both modules shoot video in 3840 x 2160p.

At full 4K resolution, clips from the main camera look very competent, but are far from perfect. Colors look nice but could be considered a bit too saturated by some. The level of detail is excellent for the class.

4K footage from the ultrawide has a narrow dynamic range, a noisier output and overall a lower quality. On the plus side, OnePlus has tuned the ultra wide to output a similar looking footage color-wise.

Dropping the resolution down to FullHD doesn't hurt overall quality that much, which is a plus. That goes for both cameras.

Shooting zoomed 2x clips is an option. These come out in FullHD resolution, and look a bit soft. Interestingly enough, not particularly noisy, which would have been our first guess, but just soft across the frame. Still usable, though.

Besides the regular 16:9 aspect options at 4K and FullHD, the Nord also has a "Cinematic" 4K variant. It is cinematic in the 21:9 aspect ratio sense, but not in the frame rate sense. The resulting clips have a resolution of 3840 x 1644 pixels, meaning that the Nord is simply cropping-off some vertical real estate from its 4K capture.

The videos, hence, have the exact same qualities as the regular, non-cropped ones. You can also use cinematic mode on the ultrawide camera, again in 4K@30fps and with the same expected results.

For stabilization, the main snapper on the OnePlus Nord has OIS. For some extra stability on top of that, there is Super Stable mode. That one always uses the ultrawide camera as its source and crops away quite a bit of the frame. Even so, you still get a slightly wider field of view than the one from the main camera. The actual effectiveness of the stabilization itself is rather impressive.

The ultrawide camera does not have OIS, but footage from it with Super Stable Off still looks relatively stable. Mind you, this clip is taken while sprinting.

Selfie video is possible from both selfie shooters at up to 4K resolution. It is solid, even if not amazing, in terms of overall quality. Narrow dynamic range is, expectedly, the biggest limiting factor. And the ultrawide, once again, has it a bit tougher, exhibiting extra softness, especially around the edges.

There is no video stabilization for the selfie cameras.

The only slightly unusual spec here is the 4K@60fps mode for the 32MP selfie cam. The footage is quite jittery while walking, in part due to the higher frame rate, and the field of view appears to be slightly more vertically-cropped. Still, it's there if you want to use it for vlogging with a gimbal or for recording for TicToc where the phone is usually stationary.

Finally, here is the OnePlus Nord in our extensive video comparison database.

OnePlus Nord against the OnePlus 8 and the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G in our Video compare tool

Low-light camera quality

Low-light photo quality on the Nord is a bit of a mixed bag. OnePlus has had a lot of time to gradually and incrementally improve the performance of the familiar 48MP main camera since it is so prolific in its lineup. The little tweaks and improvements do add-up.

As a result, the OnePlus Nord has some of the best low-light photos in its class. Noise is noticable but is not a problem. The level of detail is commendable, as well as contrast, dynamic range, and color saturation.

OnePlus Nord main camera 12MP low-light samples

Using the 2x mode in low light isn't as bad as you'd expect. perhaps this is due to the already excellent low light photo quality by the main cam.

OnePlus Nord 2x zoom low-light samples

Ultrawide cameras naturally have an even harder time in low-light conditions. That definitely rings true for the modest 8MP, f/2.3 unit on the OnePlus Nord. Noise and softness are abundant and light sources tend to clip easily.

OnePlus Nord 8MP ultrawide low-light samples

Enter Nightscape - the name of choice for the OnePlus night mode implementation. We are thoroughly pleased with how it works and the results it produces. Shots come out looking not only brighter, but with more detail and well-balanced contrast. The effect is convincing.

OnePlus Nord Nightscape 12MP main camera samples

Capturing and stacking Nightscape photos is surprisingly quick too. Or rather, not as slow as we have seen on other competing solutions. And that's with the Nord's mid-range hardware. Impressive stuff.

Nightscape is available on the main camera, as well as the ultrawide. Unfortunately, there is no 2x zoom Nightscape. Using it on low-light ultrawide shots often makes the difference between a throwaway shot and a keeper. Really impressive stuff.

OnePlus Nord Nigtscape 8MP ultrawide camera samples

The main camera manages to perform surprisingly well in low-light capture.

The same can't be said for the ultrawide, though, as it produces very noisy footage.

Finally, on the selfie side of things, you also have the freedom to choose between both cameras. Results from both look consistently mediocre. Serviceable, but nothing to phone home about.

OnePlus Nord low-light selfie samples

There is an optional screen-flash for extra-dark environments. It seems to trigger a bit randomly, though, so we resorted to keeping it off for most of our testing.

OnePlus Nord low-light selfie samples with screen flash