Weekly poll results: OnePlus Nord 3 is well-liked, Nord CE 3 needs to prove itself

The one upgrade that OnePlus skipped on the Nord 3 may have been the upgrade that mattered the most – the camera. The phone has a bigger, better display than its predecessor, bigger battery and faster Dimensity 9000 chip too.

It’s not like the camera wasn’t upgraded – the IMX890 sensor produced better images than the IMX766 inside the Nord 2. Not perfect (we found them to be over-processed), but better. And 4K videos can now be recorded at 60fps. However, the ultra wide camera remained underwhelming (just 8MP resolution with a narrower 112° FoV) and the resolution of the selfie camera got halved.

Even so, 1 in 3 voters in last week’s poll like what they see. They gave the thumbs up to OnePlus’ extended software support and the software in general – the Poco F5 and F5 Pro were mentioned as alternatives multiple times, but some people just don’t like MIUI all that much.

The Dimensity 9000 is another strength, we like seeing old flagship chips in mid-rangers since they have better GPUs than mid-range chips that are a year or two younger – the 9000 beats the new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, for example.

All that said, some people like the phone, they just think it is too pricey for what it offers at €500/₹34,000. Sales will get a boost once the right discount comes around.

Some of the complaints from those who have no interest in the Nord 3 were easy to predict – with a 6.74” display, this phone is too large for some people, especially considering that the Nord 2 had an average-sized 6.43” display.

Moving on to the OnePlus Nord CE 3, many have this one down as a “maybe” – it all depends on how it does in reviews. Some like the CE well enough to go for it without waiting for reviews, but almost as many people think that the regular Nord 3 is the better choice.

While the CE 3 is available only in India (for now), very few picked the “not available near me” option, which suggests that OnePlus has found the perfect market for this phone.

Reader comments

I have done the GCam thing on my ColorOS phone (Realme Q3 Pro) it was a huge improvement to Realme's camera, but it was no comparison to the Pixels of the time. I have a custom ROM running on that phone now and it's no Pixel, but it's...

That is true, but for many use cases such as photos, audio, videos, some games, and other files, that speed is not necessary.

  • OpposedScroll75

You know that you can install a fork of GCam to produce the same if not better results on the Nord, right? The Pixel is simply not worth it specs wise, regardless of the software AND it's also unavailable in 80% of the world. I'd ...