Flagship smartphone prices keep rising as manufacturers pack more and more features into them. But some of the top features are tricking down to midrange devices. Enter OnePlus Nord 4, which could well be among the best midrange phones of the year. It packs a brawny chipset, a substantial battery and respectable camera chops. The best part of the deal: it’s an all-metal unibody.

Beauty lies in the design

There used to be a time when phones looked gorgeous and companies didn’t skimp on the material front. OnePlus has put in a top-quality metal body. I have been using the device without a protective case because the phone feels smooth to hold. Further, it has taken a few drops and has come away without any scratches.
Despite the design update, there is no issue with connectivity. And OnePlus has managed to keep the weight fairly low. At around 200g, it feels like a flagship phone.

The main camera keeps the overall colour palette neutral.

There is a subtle change in texture to divide the back panel into two halves, with the upper portion housing the cameras. The surface can easily resist smudges and fingerprints. OnePlus has avoided controversy by retaining the alert slider.

The phone is IP65 rated for splash and water resistance but don’t give this a bubbly bath.

Software experience

In the software department, the phone, of course, comes with Android 14 out of the box and on top of it is Oxygen 14.1. You get four Android upgrades and six years of security patches. Midrange phones are headed towards the Google road and coming with longer update cycles, which means you can hold on to devices longer.

The popular Alert Slider has been retained.

Unfortunately, OnePlus has fallen prey to bloatware. Candy Crush, Bubble Pop, Fitbit, Netflix, LinkedIn, Tile Match, Myntra and whatnot come preloaded. Even though you can delete all of this but why add things that people forget to throw out?

There are quite a few variants to the phone — 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB and 12GB/256GB. Keeping speed factor going is LPDDR5X RAM with Ram-Vitalisation and the 256GB variant is UFS 4.0 (128GB version is UFS 3.1).

Generative artificial intelligence features? You will have to wait for that to make its presence felt in plenty on midrange devices but you can certainly use quite a few AI tools without experiencing software lag.

Shiny display

The phone has a gorgeous display — a 6.74-inch AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate. It’s sharp and colours pop, making this a movie-lover’s dream device. Try watching animated films and you will enjoy it. The ProXDR support takes it closer to the OnePlus flagship phone. At 2150 nits, the screen is reasonably bright. You will be able to read whatever is on the display even under bright sunshine.

A fair amount of details are captured by the OnePlus Nord 4.

Making the screen shine are the reasonably well-tuned stereo speakers. Despite the absence of a headphone jack, I am not complaining because OnePlus has a pair of new wireless sound cans.

Brain power

Keeping the phone going is Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 Mobile Platform. I have been happy with this phone for the past few days since the memory doesn’t get clogged.

Be it playing Genshin Impact or working on any app, you will not feel the phone slowing down. Even when you max graphic settings, games run fairly smooth and the phone doesn’t heat up.

Camera action

There are two cameras — 50MP main (Sony LYTIA sensor) and 8MP ultra-wide. The camera tech is decent. Under uneven lighting, the phone boosts pictures slightly more than I enjoy but colour reproduction is correct and enough details are retained in shots taken after sundown. The cameras are accurate when it comes to skin tones.

In terms of video, there is the option to record 4K@60fps but the front camera is restricted to max 1080p. There is a dedicated Pro mode if you want to fiddle around with ISO and white balance. The ultra-wide is standard but there is nice warmth to photos.

There is a fair degree of bloatware on the phone but it can be deleted.

One of the AI features in the photos app involves AI Eraser, which gets the work done but I am looking forward to more such features.

What’s missing? The useless 2MP macro camera is missing. And it’s time other brands follow in OnePlus’ footsteps.

Should you buy it?

There is a massive 5,500mAh battery while the chipset is power efficient, which translates into a day and a half of usage. Even if you play heavy-duty games, the phone should see you through the day. Juicing up? The device supports 100W Supervooc charging. But there is no wireless charging.

Overall, this is a very polished midrange phone and it’s a package that’s tough to turn down.

At a glance

Device: OnePlus Nord 4

Price: Upwards of Rs 29,999

High notes

• Metal body

• Excellent display

• Good charging speed

• Long software upgrade cycle

Muffled note

• Bloatware