OnePlus Nord 5, Nord CE 5, and also Buds 5 were launched today in India. Here’s all you need to know about their price, specifications, and much more.
Introduction and First Impressions of Nord 5
Friends, the Oneplus Nord 5 is such an interesting phone, isn’t it? I was just talking to Sajid, and my thoughts are a bit different about the Nord 5 in every aspect. You should definitely check out other videos, but I’m not sure about the Nord. It’s not a phone I wouldn’t recommend, but it’s also not one I’d wholeheartedly recommend. There are reasons for that. Watch this video fully, and you’ll understand what I’m saying. In China, you get the 9400 E, but here they give you the 8S Gen 3, not even the 8S Gen 4. I’ll talk about that too. But in some aspects, it’s good, and because of that, I feel this phone goes a bit ahead. Let’s talk about it.
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Oneplus Nord 5 Box Contents and Design
Blue, red box, black box, blue, black, red… tell me, alright, not red, friends, blue and black box. You’re not colorblind, are you? There’s a quick guide, meaning documentation, and a good-quality gray case. Nice quality case—nowadays, they don’t give clear cases, but this is a good-quality opaque case. It feels a bit thick, but we’ll open it and see. It comes with an 80W Super VOOC charger, which is nice. The familiar red cable, USB Type-A to Type-C, and a SIM card tool. That’s everything inside the box. Let’s keep it aside.
Oneplus Nord 5 Design and Build Quality
Let’s look at the phone. It feels like glass, friends, but it’s like a marble finish. It definitely looks premium because of the covering around the camera module, which looks like metal. I’m not sure if it’s metal. Yes, the sides are metal, with flat sides. The frame is plastic, and it comes with a scratch guard. As soon as I saw the scratch guard, I wanted to remove it. Let’s do this. It should make a sound. Nice. This is definitely over 200 grams, friends. It doesn’t feel too big; it’s not a huge phone but feels slightly stocky and sturdy. It’s 213.7 grams. Nowadays, even mid-range phones are going above 210 grams. Not sure why, but it’s because of the bigger battery. It has a 6800 mAh battery. So, if it’s over 210 grams but had a smaller battery, it wouldn’t be worth it. It’s a big battery, so I’ll excuse it.
Ports and Buttons
Let’s look at the ports and buttons. At the bottom, there’s a speaker grille, microphone, USB Type-C, and a SIM card tray. You get a Plus key, like we saw in the OnePlus 13s, and it’s here too. So, Oneplus Nord now has the Plus key as well. The alert slider is gone. By the way, the C5 video is coming soon. I’ll say it here: the C5’s proposition is more compelling, much better than the Nord 5. Stay tuned for that. On the top, there’s an IR blaster and a speaker grille. On the right-hand side, there’s the volume rocker and power on/off button. It has Gorilla Glass 7i protection. Nowadays, in the 25-30k price range, they’re giving 7i, which is not bad.
Oneplus Nord 5 Drop Test and Display
One, two, three… oh man, no sound. Okay, your table is broken. Let’s drop it from the corner. One, two… okay, nothing. We’ve seen the outside. Let’s look at it from the inside. Talking about the display, it’s a 6.83-inch, 1.5K resolution, up to 144 Hz. It’s 120 Hz, but in some gaming cases, you get 144 Hz. That’s there; it’s theoretically possible. Not 1400 nits peak brightness, but in HBM mode, it’s 1800 nits peak brightness. I’m happy that in the 25-30k price range, bezels are very thin, and the chin is barely visible. It’s equivalent to the side bezels, which is quite good. The screen-to-body ratio is over 93%. The display is quite good, excellent in fact.
Performance and Processor
I can’t call one thing excellent—the Nord 5’s performance. They gave it the 8S Gen 3. Before this phone launched, if someone had asked me what the Nord 5 would come with, I’d have said 8S Gen 4. Yes, they downgraded from the 9400 E to the 8S Gen 3. If they had given 8S Gen 4, it would’ve been fantastic. The base variant is 8GB+256GB, so giving 256GB is a good thing. But it has LPDDR5X RAM type and UFS 3.1 storage type. If it had 4.0 or 4.1, it would’ve been better.
Oneplus Nord 5 Battery and Charging
It has a big battery, 6800 mAh, with 80W charging. There’s no wireless charging support. Talking about battery life, you shouldn’t have any problems. It’ll last one and a half to two days. If the battery runs out, it charges from 0 to 100% in 54-55 minutes. No problems with battery and charging.
Performance Shortcomings
There’s some problem with performance. Its AnTuTu score is around 1.4-1.5 million. For 30,000, or even under 25,000, I would’ve said fantastic. You can easily get 8S Gen 4 under 30,000. There are better options for performance. Especially because, during the Nord 5 briefing, they said it’s a gaming-focused phone. A gaming phone should have performance, but in my opinion, it’s a bit lacking.
Oneplus Nord 5 Gaming Performance
But yes, the 8S Gen 3 is tried and tested. You can game at the highest settings, no problem. You can game at 90fps, play BGMI. You can even upscale to 144fps for games. Thermals are in check. As I said, the 8S Gen 3 is a very stable chip. We’ve seen it in many phones. Why? Because we’ve tested heavy games like Genshin Impact. It has a 7300 mm² vapor cooling chamber, so it keeps the phone quite cool. In Genshin Impact, we got continuous 57.8 FPS gameplay, which is good.
Operating System and UI
Talking about the OS, my favorite part of a OnePlus phone—Oxygen UI. No question about it. You may get better options in camera, performance, and display, but the experience Oxygen UI gives, I love it. No question about it. It comes with Oxygen UI 15, based on Android 15. Four years of major updates and six years of security updates. It’s future-proof in my opinion. The system size, including Android and Oxygen UI, takes around 28-30 GB. So, you effectively get 225-230 GB for storage, which is good.
Pre-installed Apps and AI Features
One thing, when you install it, there are a lot of OnePlus apps and third-party apps installed—App Picks, OnePlus Store, Community. What’s the need for these? The good thing is you can uninstall them. But why include them? I noticed the Plus key is multifunctional. You can do seven or eight different things. One feature is Mind Space, an AI feature. Whatever you’re doing on the screen, it contextually reads it and saves it like a journal. Other features like Circle to Search, Call Assistant, Gemini integration, and the caller app allow recording with no problems. These AI features are now standard.
Oneplus Nord 5 Sensors and Connectivity
All sensors are there—in-display fingerprint sensor, face unlock, both work quite well as usual. The optical fingerprint sensor’s position is slightly lower. For connectivity, all 5G bands, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC are supported. There’s also support for 5G Advanced. If you’re on Jio in a good network area, you might get speeds above 1Gbps. That’s the operative word.
Other Features and Shortcomings
There’s no notification light or FM radio. It has an IR blaster. It’s USB 2.0. SAR values are within limits. It has IP65 certification, but at 30,000, I wanted IP68/69. That’s a big miss. It supports Widevine L1 and HDR on Netflix and more.
Multimedia
Multimedia is quite good. A 6.83-inch immersive display, good audio quality, stereo speakers. You can do HDR streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube. No problem.
Oneplus Nord 5 Camera Features
Talking about the camera, online and in the briefing, they said it’s better than the OnePlus 13s camera. But let me tell you, I didn’t like the OnePlus 13s camera. That’s not the benchmark, to be honest. At 30,000, the Oneplus Nord 5’s camera isn’t the best; there are better options. The rear has a 50MP primary and 8MP ultrawide, no telephoto sensor, which is a must in this price range for me. The selfie camera is 50MP. The photos aren’t bad—colors, dynamic range, details, edge cutouts are quite good, but there are better options.
Camera Features and Videography
The camera app has night mode, high resolution, panorama, film, slow motion, time-lapse, long exposure, dual view, Bruno scan, tilt-shift mode, portrait, photo, pro, video—all are there. The primary sensor records 4K 60fps, the selfie sensor is also 4K 60fps, and the ultrawide is 1080p. We’ve taken lots of photos in different conditions—portraits, landscapes, low light. I’m giving a G Drive link; if you’re thinking of buying the Oneplus Nord 5, check those photos in original quality. It’ll make your decision-making process easier.
Overall Conclusion
As techies, we give a lot of importance to performance, but 80-85% of people don’t just look at performance. They want an overall good phone. In that sense, this is decent. At 30,000, the value-for-money quotient is a bit low. It should’ve been higher. They could’ve given 8S Gen 4 and at least a telephoto sensor. Because of this, I can’t fully recommend it. But if you want a good Oxygen OS experience and a big battery, you can definitely look at the Oneplus Nord 5. For camera and performance, there are better alternatives for sure. That’s all for this video, friends. Keep tracking until the next video and stay safe.
