OnePlus Nord N10 5G review

Oxygen OS is great but still at Android 10

OnePlus has recently confirmed that it only plans to update the N10 5G to Android 11 and offer two years of security patches, so this might be worth keeping in mind if you expect longevity from this device. OnePlus defended its decision, saying that the update schedule was in line with other devices within the N10 5G's price point.

All the software features that we saw on Oxygen OS with other OnePlus flagships have made their way here except some features that are not available due to hardware limitations like always-on display or color profiles.

Although there isn't an "always-on" screen within the Ambient display setting, you can set it to activate when you lift the phone or when a notification comes in, so the usefulness of the feature isn't entirely dumbed down.

The use of a lower-cost LCD panel has removed the display's ability to use color profiles, but there is still a color-temperature slider if you want to adjust the white tones. This display also supports a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling and navigating. - you can always switch it back to the industry-standard 60Hz.

Ambient display • Display temperature • Refresh rate

The LCD screen limited the possibility of an in-display fingerprint scanner, so the reader is on the back of the phone. We experienced some inconsistent performance with the scanner, but a recent OTA update fixed the issue, and it worked better. It is, however, rather slow, which is a shame for a regular capacitive reader. technology there matured a long time ago, and all other FP readers of this type already work flawlessly.

Fingerprint enrollment

OnePlus makes it easy to migrate data with the OnePlus Switch app. It works with either Android or iOS devices and will transfer almost everything. There is, however, the occasional app that needs to be manually transferred, like WhatsApp or apps you need to log into.

OnePlus Switch

The OnePlus launcher is quite simple and straightforward. Your Google feed lives on the leftmost home screen, your app drawer is just a swipe-up away, and the OnePlus Shelf is accessible with a swipe down from any point on the home screen. The shelf is a collection of widgets and shortcuts that you can customize to your liking. This is different from accessing the notification shade, which requires you to pull from the top of the screen.

Home screen • Google feed • App drawer • OnePlus shelf

You can customize the launcher within the Settings. Here's where you can switch between light and dark themes, the ambient display clock style, accent color, system icon shape, icon packs, and the font.

UI and launcher customizable options

Pinching in on any home screen lets you access Hidden Space. It's a quick way to hide any apps you don't want to appear in the app drawer. Of course, you should combine this with "App locker" (in the Utilities section of the Settings) if you want to take it a step further and limit access from the app with a passcode or fingerprint.

The OnePlus launcher also supports Parallel apps. Supported apps like WhatsApp or Snapchat would populate this list and let you manage dual instances (or accounts) on a single device.

Hidden Space and App locker

First introduced with the OnePlus 8 series, there's an Optimized charging setting that learns your charging patterns and can reduce overnight charging loads. You'll still be charged up when you unplug in the morning.

Optimized charging

We can't leave the software section without mentioning that the N10 5 G's vibration motor is not great. It's a generic motor, so text and touch inputs don't feel as stellar as they do on the OnePlus Nord. Also, there's no physical alert slider as OnePlus has had on every device before the Nord N10.

Synthetic benchmarks

This phone is one of the first to arrive with Qualcomm's newest chipset with 5G support. The Snapdragon 690 is a higher-end SoC in the 600-series, though support for 5G only comes in the sub-6GHz flavor. Still, phones with these chipsets are more future proof than before. Now let's see how well the processor would stand the test of time.

The Snapdragon 690 5G is an octa-core chipset built on the 8nm process. It's made up of 2 clusters, one with 2 x 2.0GHz Kryo 560 Gold and another with 6 x 1.7GHz Kryo 560 Silver cores. Graphics are powered by the Adreno 619L GPU.

Starting with the CPU-intensive GeekBench 5 test, the N10 5G's single-core test scored just as it did on several other devices running the Snapdragon 765G chipset. Meanwhile, the multi-core test was somewhere on the lower spectrum of Snapdragon 765 devices and above other devices powered by the Snapdragon 730 and the 675.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  1953
• OnePlus Nord (Fnatic)
  1945
• vivo X50 Pro
  1937
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  1927
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  1848
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  1815
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  1694
• Google Pixel 5
  1647
• Google Pixel 4a
  1626
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  1624
• Motorola One Zoom
  1534
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  1517
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1294

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• vivo X50 Pro
  636
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  616
• OnePlus Nord
  610
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  609
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  608
• OnePlus Nord (Fnatic)
  605
• Google Pixel 5
  594
• Google Pixel 4a
  553
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  521
• Motorola One Zoom
  509
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  508
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  398
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  347

AnTuTu combines CPU, GPU, and UX performance - which rewards devices with well-optimized software. The N10 5G was right in the gap between the Pixel 4a and the Pixel 5's performance scores on the same benchmark. Again, it falls somewhere around the Snapdragon 730's performance.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• vivo X50 Pro
  323736
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  318117
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  315641
• OnePlus Nord
  312794
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  308231
• Google Pixel 5
  289261
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  279579
• Google Pixel 4a
  268714
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10
  256717
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  253271
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  227810
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  215308
• Motorola One Zoom
  180000
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  175363

In graphics performance, the N10 5G pulled through. It scored better than the other Snapdragon 600-series phones and even did marginally better than the Snapdragon730G-powered Pixel 4a.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  38
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  38
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  38
• vivo X50 Pro
  36
• Google Pixel 4a
  30
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10
  30
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  30
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  26
• Google Pixel 5
  22
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  15
• Motorola One Zoom
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  10

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  34
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  34
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  32
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  32
• vivo X50 Pro
  31
• Google Pixel 4a
  27
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10
  27
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  26
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  23
• Google Pixel 5
  22
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  13
• Motorola One Zoom
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  8.9

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  21
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  21
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  21
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  21
• vivo X50 Pro
  20
• Google Pixel 4a
  17
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10
  17
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  17
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  14
• Google Pixel 5
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  8.7
• Motorola One Zoom
  8.1
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  8
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  7.3
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  6.6

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  19
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  19
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  18
• vivo X50 Pro
  17
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  17
• Google Pixel 4a
  16
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10
  15
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  15
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  13
• Google Pixel 5
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  7.9
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  7.4
• Motorola One Zoom
  7.1
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  13
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  12
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  12
• Google Pixel 4a
  11
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  10
• Google Pixel 5
  9.1
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  5.7
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  4.7
• Motorola One Zoom
  4.7

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3294
• OnePlus Nord
  3285
• vivo X50 Pro
  3214
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  3214
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  3187
• Google Pixel 4a
  2487
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  2467
• Google Pixel 5
  2318
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  2166
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1574
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  1243
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  1091
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  974
• Motorola One Zoom
  972

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3080
• OnePlus Nord
  3067
• Oppo Reno3 Pro 5G
  2995
• vivo X50 Pro
  2983
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  2960
• Google Pixel 4a
  2275
• Google Pixel 5
  2267
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  2248
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  2012
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1554
• Oppo Reno3 Pro
  1551
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  1169
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  1061
• Motorola One Zoom
  1055

These days, pretty much all games are optimized to run on any smartphone. So while you will find better performers out there, the Nord N10 5G will run any game just fine.

The Snapdragon 690 is by no means an entry-level chipset. The performance in day-to-day use was snappy and responsive. It appears, however, that this processor is tuned more for battery efficiency rather than ABSOLUTE performance. Based on our experience with the N10 5G, the Snapdragon 690 feels like a 5G-enabled version of the Snapdragon 730G. Of course, 5G radios can take their toll on battery life, but we consider this chipset to provide a great balance between battery life and power.