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Art et designTranscription
00:00All right, so the OnePlus Nord 2 is launching in a couple of days, and the leaks of this
00:07device look really good, almost too good.
00:10Now OnePlus had their senior product manager available for an interview, his name is Sam
00:14Twist, and I thought to myself, hell yeah, I got questions, why not go straight to the
00:19source about this stuff, right?
00:20So here's my conversation that I had with Sam Twist about the Nord 2.
00:25Okay, well first of all, thanks for even doing this.
00:28I feel like this is a rare opportunity and a privilege, so thanks.
00:33Okay, I'm just going to jump into the questions, let's get into the rip, okay?
00:38All right, so I understand this is all done before your announcement, this conversation
00:42we're having, so obviously some of it you've got to hold back, but I'd like to pry as
00:47deep as I can.
00:49So the rumors I've seen so far, Nord 2 with a MediaTek 1200 chip, 90Hz display, an IMX766,
00:58so that same camera sensor that we see on the OnePlus 9 products, Warp Charge 65, and
01:03seemingly it's still a good price point, like $350-$400.
01:07So how much of this can you confirm or deny?
01:13Always a tough question, with pre-launch.
01:15So I can confirm all of that, we're not going to be discussing anything to do with price
01:19because I would be taken away, I think Spencer would have words with me.
01:27Yeah, we can confirm the MediaTek 1200 AI chip, see the 90Hz AMOLED display, that camera
01:36sensor you're saying, the 766, and Warp Charge 65 and the 45 100mAh battery, and I think
01:44all of them have been officially confirmed apart from the Warp Charge and the battery,
01:50and we can confirm them for you today.
01:55So last year when the Nord 1 launched, I remember Carl showed this, it was like a prototype,
02:01and I think it was a design that, it just didn't look anything like OnePlus at all,
02:05it didn't look like any kind of previous product, but it looked cool, it looked, I don't know,
02:11what's the word?
02:12It's not, it looked so unique, in the sense that no one else has that, and if Nord had
02:18gone down that road, if that was the design language that Nord had used, it'd just be
02:22more recognizable as, you know, that's a brand X phone or whatever.
02:29And I, when I look at even the OnePlus 9 phones and the new Nord 2 photos, it feels so much
02:35more generic, and not to rip on the image of what you guys are going for, right?
02:40It just looks like you guys have the capability of making something super unique and super
02:45cool, but it feels like this is a more safer choice, and is there like a, is that what
02:52it is?
02:53Like a safety pick?
02:54Yeah, sure.
02:55I'm guessing you're one with like the three rings.
02:57Yeah.
02:58Or it was like squares too.
03:00Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it is, it is cool.
03:03I'm sure that's hiding away in a drawer somewhere with hundreds of other prototypes.
03:07It's not the weirdest or the most wonderful one I've seen either, there's more that won't
03:12reach your eyelids, but yeah, I think, so for one, obviously there's that kind of design
03:22language, there's design, because we're not a massive brand, right?
03:26When you show OnePlus phones to people, often you're going to get, it's going to go one
03:32or two ways.
03:33It's going to be like, maybe I don't know them, or, oh my God, I love them, is kind
03:36of my personal experience, but we've got to try hard to create a kind of brand identity.
03:43And I think that's kind of coming out in our products.
03:46Obviously it's not as unique and we're kind of sharing something which is striking and
03:52stands out for reasons that just because it's completely different, but we are there just
03:57trying to create this kind of hierarchy in our products and that kind of design language
04:02and DNA that really make a brand a brand.
04:07So I think from the industrial design team, that's probably their thinking, and I think
04:13it comes up a little bit in the colors as well, to differentiate the two lines.
04:20The first Nord, very blue, right?
04:23It's a bright blue color.
04:25I find, and this isn't just with OnePlus, it's like a lot of brands do this, they'll
04:29put, like their flagship products have like more muted colors, like kind of like grays
04:35and just like darker, flatter tones, and then their mid-tier or budget lines, like they're
04:39just, they're crazy, they're bright, they're colorful.
04:42And like the really cheap brands, they do like these really eye-catching textures and
04:46patterns on them.
04:49In my brain, and this is why I'd love to hear your thing, it's like, wouldn't you want
04:52the reverse of that?
04:53If you're going to have a flagship product, wouldn't you want it to be recognizable and
04:57like, and flashy?
04:58But the, right, so what, let's hear, what are the thoughts on your, what are your thoughts
05:02on how to color things?
05:04I've run a number of color studies across Europe, South America, and I mean, color is
05:09just so subjective.
05:10It's impossible almost to create something that everybody is really going to connect
05:18with.
05:19In a cheaper line like Nord, then to be honest, you've got to create something which is gender
05:25neutral, that's not appealing to one half of the world, it's appealing to everybody.
05:31And the aesthetics at that kind of lower end price point, they are a little bit bolder.
05:36But yeah, if you look at the original Nord, for instance, that blue marble, you'll be
05:42super disappointed to hear, Dave, that it wasn't in homage to you.
05:46It was actually more of an experiment that went right.
05:52Users loved it, the community loved it.
05:54And yeah, we've taken a little bit of that language, obviously, through to Nord 2, but
05:59being a little bit bolder, I think at that price point is a bit more playful.
06:04And it appeals more to the audience that are more likely to buy, or the target audience
06:09for that device.
06:10But you've got to keep that link, right, you can't go completely one direction and completely
06:15another direction with your flagships, you need to have something tangible between them.
06:20So I think that's what's really coming through in Nord 2.
06:23It's got like, it's kind of reminiscent of the flagship devices, but it's got its own
06:28slightly bolder style.
06:30All right, warp charge.
06:33So warp charge, 65, and a 4500 milliamp hour battery, right?
06:40So is it the same tech as in the, so the same speed, same, so the double battery, everything's
06:46the same.
06:47Same cells, same dual cells, and yeah, 65 warp charge.
06:54And still no wireless charging?
06:57No wireless charging, yeah.
06:58So it's the same tech with wired charging down on the Nord 2, which is great, you know.
07:06For me, I'm a 9 Pro user right now.
07:09It saved me on a number of occasions, obviously, it's like a day's power in 15 minutes, plug
07:14it in, panic's over.
07:17And then, yeah, it's super useful, and kind of fundamentally does change the way you use
07:21devices.
07:22For me, that's a feature that out of the box, it's just, yeah.
07:26Okay, my favorite part of the phone, based on the specs we've seen, is the camera system.
07:32That IMX 766, the potential for that, it's big, right, especially at this kind of price
07:37point.
07:38Now, my question would be, if it's running the same sensor as the OnePlus 9 series,
07:46so number one, I'm assuming there's no Hasselblad partnership here, right?
07:50That's just, okay.
07:52But do you guys have to tune the Nord 2 camera down, like intentionally, or is there any
07:59kind of limitation?
08:02Because you got, right, same camera sensor, you could do a lot with it, but you have
08:07the King product, and then you have the lesser King product.
08:11How do you guys play with that?
08:12Yeah, it's a tremendous sensor, and we're doing no tuning down at all.
08:18It's a 9 series device, obviously it's got all the Hasselblad technology in it, it's
08:22got the color grading, all of the fantastic technology that comes with that.
08:28And then we've got the same sensor in on this Nord 2 device, and yeah, it's phenomenal when
08:36you compare it with the original one we had in Nord, it's 50% more light, OIS, 50 megapixels,
08:43like it's a beast.
08:45And so you're taking great photography, but combine that with a lot of this kind of like
08:50AI and ML stuff that we've been working on with MediaTek, not only are you going to take
08:55great stock out of the box, like sunny, your normal photos, a lot of the, what we call
09:03situational photography is improved as well.
09:06So things like Nightscape, all of that is leveling up based on the MediaTek work and
09:15obviously the phenomenal hardware that we're putting in.
09:19And I guess going back to, are we here, like worried about stepping on or like flying a
09:27little bit too close to the flagships, I think like as a, in the product division and in
09:33this industry, you are going to be disrupted and it's nice to be the disruptor, it's not
09:41nice to be disrupted.
09:45And they always going to have it and it can come from a third party or it can come internally.
09:49And it's nicer that we're the ones pushing, we're the ones pushing out what's kind of
09:52challenging ourself.
09:55And I think we've kind of done that with the Nord 2 device, but yeah, it's nice to look
09:59around the office and know that the toes you're stepping on are in the office or looking around
10:05a Zoom call.
10:07Okay.
10:08I'm looking forward to it.
10:09Good luck with the launch.
10:11Yeah, I'm looking forward to review this thing.
10:13It looks good.