OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G Review: Needs More Work

OnePlus has been a solid performer in the mid-range and flagship smartphone markets of late.

The OnePlus 12 and OnePlus Open can hold their own at the top of the market, while the OnePlus Nord 3 and OnePlus 12R have plenty to offer for those who want to spend a little less money.

While it would be a stretch to say that the brand’s more affordable phones have let the side down, they’ve undoubtedly underwhelmed. After a particularly flat showing with the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G last year, we’re intrigued to see if the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G can inject some excitement into the sub-£300 category.

Improvements to the display, camera, battery, and design offer reason for hope, while the price has mercifully stayed exactly the same. Does that all add up to a compelling package, though?

Design & Build

• Slightly smaller and lighter than before
• Flat-edged all-plastic design
• Super Silver or Mega Blue, latter inspired by Mega Man

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G felt like a fairly big and heavy phone considering its price and materials, so it’s good to see that OnePlus has shaved a few millimetres off in all directions.

At 162.9 x 75.6 x 8.1mm and 191g, you’ll still know it’s there in your pocket, but it’s not excessively chunky. The bill of materials still includes plenty of plastic and no hint of (external) metal but the design has at least gotten a little more distinctive.

This time around the back is as flat as the sides, lending a more industrial look. The Super Silver model that I received really leans into this, though I have to say that the Mega Blue alternative looks way more interesting. OnePlus claims that the latter shade has been inspired by Capcom’s Mega Man character, which puts me in mind of the OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition from a couple of years back.

The design has at least gotten a little more distinctive.

Another reason to go with the blue variant is that it promises a certain level of fingerprint resistance. The mirror-like finish on this silver model almost instantly donned a coat of greasy prints. The bulk of the body has a slightly diffused effect, while an extended lozenge-shaped area around the camera module is full-on reflective.

One noteworthy advantage over the previous model is the inclusion of an IP54 rating, which means it’s better equipped to take on this damp squib of a summer British people are living through at the time of writing. It still falls well behind the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion with its IP68 rating, mind.

Another ostensible upgrade is the provision of an in-display fingerprint sensor, rather than the previous side-mounted variant. It’s not the speediest unlock around, likely due to the humble chip at the phone’s core, but I found it to be way more reliable than rival efforts from Xiaomi’s budget sub-brands.

The return of a 3.5mm headphone jack will be good news to those still living the wired headphones life.

Screen & Speakers

• 6.67-inch OLED
• FHD+ & 120Hz
• Stereo speakers with ‘300% Ultra Volume Mode’

OnePlus has changed up its budget display game with the Nord CE 4 Lite 5G, and the screen might be the biggest area of improvement for the whole phone.

While it’s slightly smaller than before at 6.67in, the crucial difference is a fundamental upgrade to OLED panel technology. Not just any OLED either, but a high quality Samsung E4 panel that offers the same illumination material as the OnePlus 11, which was the brand’s 2023 flagship.

The result is a way richer and more vibrant output, not to mention more accurate colours. I recorded an sRGB gamut coverage of 99.8% and an average Delta E of 1.38 in the Natural colour mode, which is exceptional at this price.

It gets really bright too, with a recorded peak manual brightness of 586 nits. OnePlus claims that it can hit 1200 nits in HBM conditions (with autobrightness on), and up to 2100 nits in HDR scenarios.

Together with a 120Hz refresh rate, these are figures we’d normally associate with way more expensive phones.

The screen might be the biggest area of improvement for the whole phone

OnePlus is also shouting about its ‘Aqua Touch’ feature, which promises to enable you to use the screen even with wet hands, or indeed when the screen itself is wet. I put this to the test, and while the fingerprint sensor didn’t work properly, the screen itself was indeed reasonably responsive to my touch straight from having just run my fingers under the tap.

Once again, you can count on a strong pair of stereo speakers. You don’t expect exceptional bass at this price, but I was impressed by the depth and clarity for a £300 phone.

OnePlus’s claims of a “300% Ultra Volume Mode” sounds impressive, but the feature is apparently subject to a vague “OTA content” software update. What can’t be disputed is that the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G speakers get nice and loud without excessive distortion.

Specs & Performance

• Ancient Snapdragon 695 chip
• 8GB RAM
• microSD slot

Last year I grumbled a little over the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G‘s use of the exact same Snapdragon 695 chip as the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G. I can scarcely believe it, but the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G uses the very same chip again.

Qualcomm’s chip is now a couple of years old, and it was hardly a super-speedy component when brand new. It’s backed by 8GB of RAM, which is plenty, but that processor really holds things back.

OnePlus claims to have made its UI smoother than before, but there’s no disguising the juddery scrolling I experienced in Chrome and on the Google Discover screen. Or, even worse, the slight stuttering delay when you jump into the Settings menu. Hopping between multiple open apps isn’t the silky experience that you get with other phones selling for similar money, either.

Benchmark scores aren’t particularly great, as you might expect from such an underwhelming component. Compared to contemporaries like the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G and the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, both of which offer the more modern Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chip, it’s not even close. Nor can it stand up to the Samsung Galaxy A35, which is hardly recognised as a speed demon.

There’s no disguising the juddery scrolling I experienced in Chrome and on the Google Discover screen

The Pixel 7a and the Motorola Edge 40 Neo – two older phones that can now be at for the same or even less money – also comfortably trounce the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G in most if not all metrics.

Gaming performance isn’t great either. Wreckfest performance seemed downright broken, with the game consistently stuttering to a freeze after less than a minute, until I cranked the settings right down and steadily edged them up with none of the graphical bells and whistles active.

It’s clear that OnePlus has prioritised areas other than performance this time around, but I’d argue that the processor was in as much need of a refresh as the display and the camera. Maybe even more so, given that it affects the fundamental experience of using the phone.

The spec is a little more competitive elsewhere, with 256GB of storage as standard, along with a microSD slot providing up to 2TB of expansion. But if there’s one area OnePlus badly needs to improve for the Nord CE 5 Lite 5G, it’s this one.

OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G benchmarks

Camera

• 50Mp Sony LYT-600 sensor
• 2Mp depth sensor
• No ultra-wide or telephoto

Last year’s OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G disappointed in the camera department, with its 108Mp main sensor not living up to the pixel count. Understandably, OnePlus has changed things up for the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G.

It now uses the same 50Mp Sony LYT-600 sensor that found its way (in some other regions at least) into the OnePlus Nord CE 4 earlier this year. In some ways this is a downgrade, with fewer pixels and a smaller 1/1.953-inch size. However, it’s worth noting that combination results in larger pixels, meaning superior light capture.

The shots this camera produces are detailed and rich with colour in good lighting conditions. However, I found that it tended to blow out highlights, and that it didn’t cope well when shooting on a sunny day, opting to darken the overall picture beyond what I would have preferred.

Ultimately, image quality falls well short of what the Pixel 7a can now offer for similar money

Ultimately, image quality falls well short of what the Pixel 7a can now offer for similar money. Google’s phones are an outlier, of course, and the Pixel 7a still technically carries an RRP of £449. But the £349 Motorola Edge 50 Fusion packs in a higher grade of Sony image sensor, not to mention a better processor. The Samsung Galaxy A35 also offers a better-balanced camera set-up.

Indeed, all of those rivals also provide a dedicated ultra-wide camera, which OnePlus has chosen to omit here. There is a strong argument for this approach, with ultra-wide cameras invariably being sub-par in anything short of flagship phones. Still, having extra shooting options is always welcome.

As it is, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G features only a 2Mp depth sensor in addition to that main camera. On the plus side, the cropped 2x shots that it produces are pretty good.

Night shots are quite typical for a modern phone at this price. It can brighten the shots to a reasonable degree, aided by OIS (something the previous model omitted), but there’s evident noise to be found in darker areas.

Video is restricted to 1080p and 30fps, however, which is pretty poor. All of the aforementioned rivals offer 4K.

Selfie quality from the 16Mp front sensor is pretty good for a phone of this price, capturing skin tones and colours reasonably accurately.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5110mAh battery
• Two days of moderate usage
• 64% charge in 30 minutes

OnePlus has had to compromise on the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G’s battery here in the EU. Instead of the global model’s 5500mAh battery, we have to make do with a 5110mAh one. How on Earth will we cope?

I jest, of course. Most full-sized Android phones – including the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G – will pack in a 5000mAh battery, so OnePlus is still going above and beyond with this year’s model, if only slightly.

The resulting stamina is predictably strong. An average day of light usage, with 2 hour 30 minutes of screen on time, dropped the battery gauge to just 74%. You could quite conceivably go through two full days of moderate usage on a single charge.

In the PC Mark Work 3.0 battery test, which simulates a constant mixed workload, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G scored 13 hours and 49 minutes, which is about 45 minutes longer than its predecessor.

The Redmi Note 13 Pro, with its similarly capacious battery, lasted almost two hours less. The OnePlus also outlasted the Samsung Galaxy A35 by about 1 hour 30 minutes. You get the picture: stamina is a strong point here.

You could quite conceivably go through two full days of moderate usage on a single charge

OnePlus has also cranked up the potential charging speed to 80W. The operative word here is ‘potential’ though, as it…