OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite hands-on review

Camera

The Nord CE 3 Lite has a triple camera system on the back, but as you will see it really just has a single usable camera. The main 108MP f1.75 camera is carried over from the Realme 10 Pro as is the 2MP depth sensor. New here is the 2MP macro mode but you can probably already tell this is not going to be a worthwhile addition. On the front is a 16MP camera.

There is no ultra-wide on the back, which should rightfully disappoint a lot of people. Most people would have opted for a single usable ultra-wide over two placebo cameras but the bean counters don't think like you or us so two placebo cameras it is.

The camera software is similar to a lot of other OnePlus/Oppo/Realme phones. The relatively low-end nature of the phone means there aren't a lot of options here. You can digitally zoom to 3x using the dedicated button, which activates what OnePlus calls lossless zoom. You can also manually disable HDR or switch to the 108MP mode. There is also an AI mode but it didn't seem to do much during our testing.

Camera app

Among the different camera modes is Macro, which activates the dedicated camera. Also found here is Pro mode, which lets you adjust the usual parameters but is ultimately rendered a bit pointless due to the lack of RAW capture.

The main camera produces decent results in daylight. The level of detail is good but ultimately limited by the 12MP output resolution of the images so it doesn't really matter if the images are made using 108MP pixels, especially since these aren't standard RGB pixels. The images are also slightly oversharpened as if to sell you on the 108MP hype.

Daylight samples

The color reproduction is good, as it has been on OnePlus phones for the past couple of years. The dynamic range is also decent with HDR enabled but the images do look more natural with HDR disabled so that may be something to experiment with. The sensor doesn't work well with low light, however, and shadow regions even in well-lit images often have noise and noise reduction artifacts in them.

HDR on • HDR off

The 108MP mode doesn't do much. You get a 108MP image but it's just the 12MP image that has been upscaled to 108MP since the sensor can't actually output 108MP images.

108MP samples

The 3x lossless zoom feature is interesting. It too produces 12MP images by taking a crop from the middle of the sensor. When it works, it looks pretty good in terms of detail reproduction. Unfortunately, colors do take a hit as they are often undersaturated with a cooler white balance. With the sensor working in a 1:1 pixel mode instead of 9:1 mode, there aren't enough pixels to go around to estimate the color value for each of them, causing the images to lose color definition.

3x lossless samples

Aside from that, the 3x zoom often just didn't work as intended. Some images look similar to those from the 108MP mode while others just looked soft as if they were out of focus (they weren't). We assume these issues would be fixed in the final firmware.

The macro camera is bad as expected. Images are dark with poor detail and colors. The fixed focus is difficult to navigate around and the wide nature of the lens requires you to manually get close to the subject, often obscuring it with your own shade or reflection.

Macro samples

Video performance is also forgettable. You are limited to a maximum of 1080p at 30fps. There is no OIS and the digital stabilization doesn't look great while also adding artifacts. The level of detail is mediocre and the dynamic range is subpar. The colors seem to be the only good thing about the image quality but those too falter when the light levels go down.