OnePlus Nord 2T 5G Review: Mid-range all-rounder at the right price!

The new OnePlus Nord 2T 5G offers almost everything that was available in the Nord 2 after some minor upgrades. OnePlus’s first ‘T’ model is not a brand new phone, but it has improved the basics like a good midrange processor, an upgraded fast charging system, a quality display and a capable primary camera that also supports OIS. In other words, it has everything that a user needs at a starting price of Rs 28,999.

But there are rivals like the Realme 9 Pro+ 5G (Review), which offer similar hardware at a much lower price. So how does the Nord 2T 5G fare in its segment and is it a perfect midranger smartphone? I spent a few weeks with the phone and here’s what I think.

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G Price in India

The OnePlus Nord 2T 5G starts at Rs 28,999 for its 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and goes up to Rs 33,999 for its 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phone comes in Greenish Jade Fog and Gray Shadow finishes. I got the 12GB Gray Shadow variant for review.

Design of OnePlus Nord 2T 5G

The OnePlus Nord 2T 5G doesn’t seem to have any major design changes, especially since it’s the ‘T’ version of the phone, so it’s expected to come with only minor hardware changes. Still, there are a few design changes that are mostly visible at the rear. The camera module now features two circular cutouts. One houses the primary camera and the other houses the ultrawide and monochrome cameras. The layout of the phone looks neat but the module juts out a bit too much from the body of the phone. This makes the phone wobble when placed on a flat surface.

The rear panel is made of anti-glare glass and has a soft matte finish, which looks quite premium. It also does a great job of preventing fingerprints. The midframe of the phone is made of polycarbonate and has a chrome-like finish on which fingerprints are very visible. But due to this, the grip of the hand on the device is good. The phone is a bit heavy and gives a premium feel in the hand. I am happy that this time OnePlus has kept the alert slider as it was, which was removed in the more expensive phone OnePlus 10R 5G.

The display has slightly curved edges and is not completely flat. It gives a good grip experience. A hole punch has been given in it for the selfie camera. The fingerprint scanner is also given in the display which is reliable. The display has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, on which fingerprints are easily left, but can also be cleaned quickly. I did not like the thick bezel of its display. It seems quite thick considering the other three sides.

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G Specifications and Software

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G has MediaTek Dimensity 1300 processor. The previous model had Dimensity 1200-AI SoC. This is the main upgrade with this model. The phone has LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. It has a dual SIM tray in which two 5G nano SIMs can be inserted. For communication, it has support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC. The phone has a 4,500mAh battery and 80W fast charging support. Keep in mind that 65W fast charging was given in Nord 2. There is no IP rating in the phone, whereas this feature has now become common in the midrange.

The phone runs on Android 12 based OxygenOS 12.1. The software is similar to OnePlus but this time I noticed a strange omission in it, live wallpapers are not provided in it, only static wallpapers are available. For support, the company promises two major Android updates and three years of security updates which is a good thing for a mid-range device.

OnePlus continues its tradition of offering a smartphone with minimal bloatware. The only third-party app I found was Netflix. I didn’t get any unwanted notifications. The rest of the software is customizable. The theme engine automatically picks up the wallpaper’s colors and applies them to the widgets and keyboard. But the same color doesn’t apply to the system’s accent color, it has to be applied manually from the personalization menu.

Performance of OnePlus Nord 2T 5G

The OnePlus Nord 2T 5G performs well in benchmark tests for a midrange device. The phone scored 6,15,487 points on AnTuTu. On Geekbench, it scored 672 and 2,614 points in single and multi-core tests respectively. These scores were lower than the iQoo Neo 6 in the same price range, which scored 7,29,331 on AnTuTu and 983 and 3,074 points in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests respectively.

The gaming performance of the phone is good and the phone does not heat up much while playing. I tried playing Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends in it. Both the games ran smoothly in default settings. There was no decrease in performance even when the graphic settings were maximized. The 180Hz refresh rate of the display was sufficient even when playing fast-paced titles.

The phone has a 6.43-inch AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The company says that it is HDR10+ certified. On the default Vivid color setting, the display produces saturated colors. On Natural mode, the colors look real. The display is bright enough outdoors but its ambient light sensor dims the brightness a bit too much when indoors and I had to go to the bar and turn the brightness up once I came inside.

Its HDR10+ certification did not seem to be of much use. Apps like Netflix did not detect the display as HDR rated. Color banding was felt while watching HDR content on YouTube. SD content looked sharp and blacks looked quite deep. The stereo speakers sounded good but there was a slight distortion at high volume.

The battery life of OnePlus Nord 2T 5G is good. In normal use, the phone easily lasts two days, which also includes some gaming. In heavy usage, the phone lasts for one and a half days with 2 hours of gaming and half an hour of camera use. In the HD video loop test, the phone lasted 22 hours and 55 minutes, which is quite impressive. With the charger that comes with it, the phone charged from 0 to 55 percent in 15 minutes and was fully charged in 30 minutes.

Cameras of OnePlus Nord 2T 5G

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G has three rear cameras. It has a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 primary sensor with OIS support. Along with this, there is an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera. For selfies, the phone has a 32-megapixel camera. The camera interface is similar to the recent OnePlus phones. Some options are hidden in a mini slide-out menu in the ellipsis button. This is similar to what is found in the recently launched Oppo and Realme devices.

Photos taken in daylight were sharp and clear, with good dynamic range, but dark areas lacked details. Colours were accurate, but how colours looked depended on the colour profile I had set. When set to Vivid, they looked oversaturated. The 2X digital zoom is quite surprising, taking clear shots in ample light. The ultrawide camera takes photos with less details. Photos taken in brighter locations had a purple tinge around the edges.

While the primary camera is not a substitute for a dedicated macro camera, I took some good close-up shots of flowers from a distance with the primary camera and they looked quite sharp. Selfies were a bit sharper but overall dynamic range was good. Portrait shots had good edge detection but dynamic range was limited and the background was overexposed.

In low light, the ultra-wide camera takes usable photos. The primary camera also takes sharp photos with good detail and dynamic range. I had to use its dedicated night mode only in very low light. All I can say about this is that the low light performance of the phone was not always impressive. In night mode, it captured images with better dynamic range and less noise, but the sharpness became a bit too much. I have seen better low-light camera performance than this in Realme 9 Pro + 5G.

The phone records 1080p videos at 30fps which had slight softness but the stabilization was excellent. Less details were found in 60fps 1080p videos. While recording videos in 4K, the best results were obtained at 30fps. At the same time, the best results were obtained in 4K while recording videos in low light. In low light, 1080p footage appeared soft and was also shaking while walking.

Our decision

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G at its price of Rs 28,999 gives everything that a user can expect from a mid-range phone. It neither goes above nor below it. The phone performs within its limits, be it the processor (very midrange), camera (no macro feature) or display (limited to 90Hz). But whatever it performs, it does it well. At this price, it comes as an all-rounder. However, its 12GB RAM (Rs 33,999) variant seems more useful because smartphones like Nothing Phone 1 are offering more features like wireless charging and IP53 rating at this price.

If you are looking for options other than the Nord 2T 5G, there are brands like iQoo and Realme that are offering more value for money smartphones. The iQoo Neo 6 has a powerful Snapdragon 870 SoC, a 120Hz AMOLED display, and a 4,700mAh battery. It comes at Rs 29,999. The Realme 9 Pro+ 5G has a Dimensity 920 SoC, the same primary camera, a macro camera, and the same 90Hz AMOLED panel but it starts at Rs 24,999 with the 6GB variant.