OnePlus Nord N30 5G review

Triple-cameras without and ultrawide

OnePlus really wanted to market the Nord N30 5G as having a tripe rear-camera setup but went about implementing one in an unfortunate way. The phone has one main 108MP camera and two supplementary 2MP modules. One is a depth sensor for portraits, while the other is a dedicated macro camera. We are not calling these additional cameras outright "throwaways", but it is undeniable that a usable ultrawide camera instead would have been better.

In terms of hardware, the main 108MP, f/1.7 camera on the N30 is based on a Samsung s5khm6 sensor. It is a 1/1.67" sensor with 0.64 µm individual ISOCELL 2.0 pixels and a Nonacell Bayer RGB color filter. As per the phone's hardware reporting, the 2MP, f/2.4 macro camera on the back is based on an OmniVision ov02b10 sensor, while the other 2MP, f/2.4 supplementary cam is using either an OmniVision ov02bib or a GalaxyCore gc02m1. Makes little difference in the grand scheme of things.

The Nord N30 5G has a 16MP, f/2.4 selfie cam on the front. It seems to either be based on a Samsung s5k3p9 (1/3.1", 1.0µm) sensor or a Sony IMX471 (1/3", 1.0µm). The latter sensor is fairly popular among OnePlus phone selfies of the past, so our money is on it. Not that it matters much.

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 many 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. In fact, there are two separate 108MP modes - one called Hi-res, as a toggle within the main camera interface, while the other is a separate camera mode called Extra HD. There is also an AI mode, but it didn't seem to do much during our testing.

Camera app UI

Among the different camera modes is Macro, which activates the dedicated camera. Also found here is Pro mode. It offers ISO(100 - 6400), shutter speed(1/8000s - 30s), EV(-2 - +2), white balance(2000 - 8000) adjustments and manual focus. It even comes with its own histogram readout, which is nice. Unfortunately, the Nord N30 5G does not support RAW capture to take full advantage of the otherwise powerful Pro mode.

Daylight photo quality

The main 108MP camera uses a Nona-Bayer pixel arrangement, meaning it captures 12MP photos by default. These regular photos look very decent in daylight. The amount of detail in the frame and the dynamic range are good. Color reproduction is decent, which has been the case with most recent OnePlus phones. You can get more toned-down colors by disabling auto HDR if you prefer.

These photos do look slightly oversharpened at times, while details remain looking soft, but it's not a major complaint.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera samples

Here's how the main camera on the Nord N30 5G stacks up against the competition in our extensive photo compare database.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G against the Samsung Galaxy A34 and the Xiaomi Poco X5 Pro in our Photo compare tool

You can get slightly better detail and an overall sharper image by shooting in 108MP mode. As mentioned, the Nord N30 has two different 108MP modes. One is the main camera UI's Hi-res toggle. It produces pretty clean photos with notably-improved finer details.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 108MP main camera Hi-res samples

Then there is the dedicated Extra HD camera mode. It oddly captures stills in around 108.5MP instead of 108MP. And that's not the only difference between the two modes. Looking at the photos side-by-side, we noticed that the Extra HD camera mode generally produces softer images with less pronounced fine detail.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 108MP main camera Extra HD samples

Given these observations, we would stick to using the Hi-res toggle and avoid Extra HD mode altogether.

The main camera can capture pretty nice portrait shots in 12MP resolution. Subject detection and separation are decent, though not perfect, especially with a busier background. On the other hand, the quality of the background blur is almost always spot on.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera samples

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Portrait mode works well enough on non-human subjects as well, but it's pretty fiddly to get the phone to properly and consistently detect the subject.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera portrait samples

The 2MP macro camera captures surprisingly usable shots. There is plenty of detail to work with here, colors look nice, and even dynamic range isn't bad.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 2MP macro camera samples

We would still probably prefer to have a usable ultrawide camera instead, but this is a surprisingly competent macro. It should be noted, though, that you have to get pretty close to your subject to work around the fixed focus of the macro cam. Also, be sure to have plenty of light, or you will get a rather dark image.

The 3x zoom mode on the primary camera is an interesting addition. OnePlus calls it "lossless", which is kind of the case since it produces 12MP photos by cropping from the center of the 108MP sensor. These zoom photos are nice and sharp, with practically no noise. The level of detail this produces is rather impressive (for a digital zoom photo).

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera 3x zoom samples

Colors do appear notably washed-out in these 3x shots compared to regular 1x ones. This is understandable due to the cropping that is taking place. 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.

The 16MP selfie camera is decent but largely unimpressive. It has a fixed focus but a fairly wide and forgiving focal plane. Colors are nice and dynamic range is decent.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 16MP selfie camera samples

Facial features look rather soft, with most texture lost in the capture process.

Selfie portraits look about as well as regular selfies in terms of facial quality. The background blur is nice and convincing.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 16MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video capture quality

The Nord N30 5G can capture video at a maximum resolution of 1080p@30fps. That's a hard limitation stemming from the Snapdragon 695 chipset and not something you can get around by using an app like Open Camera. Video is captured in a standard H.264/AVC video stream at around 20Mbps with 48 kHz stereo AAC audio, saved inside an MP4 container. You can use H.265/HEVC for video capture to apply some compression and save some space.

Quality-wise, these FullHD videos are not amazing in any way and are merely passable. Detail is alright but unimpressive. Dynamic range is narrow, with shadows frequently crushed. At least colors look nice, and there is no noise or shimmering on the finer detail.

Here's how the Nord N30 5G stacks up against the competition in our video compare database. Pixel-peep away.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 and the Realme 10 Pro in our Video compare tool

You can also capture video in 3x mode. However, we recommend against it since the quality is really low. There is very little actual detail in the frame, and what is there is aggressively oversharpened. Dynamic range is poor once again. The only saving grace, once again, are the colors.

The main camera on the Nord N30 lacks OIS, and there are no signs of EIS in the video camera app - no toggle, no mode or anything. However, some electronic image stabilization is obviously constantly applied to the footage. It's not really doing a great job, though. The footage is still shaky, and there is some focus hunting taking place.

The selfie camera on the Nord N30 5G is also limited to 1080p@30fps video capture. These clips look passable but are largely unimpressive. The level of detail is alright for FullHD, and colors are decent, though the selfie does tend to overexpose.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera on the Nord N30 5G has passable but largely unimpressive low-light performance. The level of resolved detail is decent, but nothing beyond that. Colors are mostly true to life.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera low-light samples

Light sources are not handled particularly well and are frequently blown out. Dark areas are almost entirely crushed. There is also more noise than we would have liked visible in the frame.

The Nord N30 5G has a dedicated Night mode. It is sort of a mixed bag. On the plus side, it is reasonably quick to capture photos, impressively so for a Snapdragon 695 chipset. Night mode also noticeably brightens up shots and boosts shadows nicely, particularly restoring some lost detail there. Light sources are also handled better overall.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera night mode samples

Unfortunately, Night mode seems to capture less actual detail. Pixel-peeping reveals less detailed and softer shots, which the algorithm then tries to improve by applying liberal sharpening. This results in photos that are both soft and overprocessed. Not a great combo.

We would also call 3x zoom low-light photos from the main camera passable. These tend to be a bit darker than their 1x counterparts, and colors are notably off. On a more positive note - detail isn't bad.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera 3x zoom low-light samples

Applying Night mode to these 3x shots brightens them up noticeably and restores some much-needed detail in the darker areas. Colors get fixed up as well.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 12MP main camera 3x zoom night mode samples

However, we can't say that night mode renders light sources better. At best, they look the same; at worst, there are oddly sharpened and shaped bloom artifacts surrounding lights. Speaking of which, just like 1x night-mode shots, 3x ones are softer than their non-night-mode counterparts, with less detail and a lot of artificial sharpening applied.

We also tried to get some 108MP low-light photos, but the phone disables the mode when it deems the environment too dark, probably for the better.

We feel like we are overusing this qualification, but it's the only one that really fits, and once again, we would call low-light shots from the 16MP selfie camera merely passable and nothing more than that. Colors look alright, and skin tones come out looking close to their actual color.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 16MP selfie camera low-light samples

Skin texture, however, is almost entirely smeared over by artificial smoothing. At least faces get that extra treatment, unlike some of the other textures in frame which come out looking downright noisy.

OnePlus Nord N30 5G: 16MP selfie camera night mode samples

Night mode has a dramatic effect on selfie shots and a largely positive one. There is more detail and less smoothing applied to faces. While we wouldn't say the rest of the frame has noticeably more detail, what is there is nicely sharpened up, not nearly as aggressively as sharpening on the main camera, for some reason. We'll take it. There is also a lot less noise in the frame overall. Night mode selfies get a nod from us.

Low-light video from the main camera is nothing to phone home about. It is pretty dark and noisy. Detail isn't bad for 1080p, and colors look alright.

We would advise against shooting 3x zoom videos in low light. These are very overprocessed and oversharpened, likely in an attempt to make up for the lack of detail and general softness. Noise is also a big issue.