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Art et designTranscription
00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here, and as some of you may have suspected, I have been using
00:12the OnePlus Nord for quite a few weeks now actually, maybe the longest I've ever used
00:17something pre-launch, but OnePlus is one of those companies where they have a separate
00:23impressions embargo for unboxings and stuff, and then a reviews embargo.
00:28Which is smart, because then you've created two separate waves of press about your product,
00:34I talked about this on a Waveform Podcast episode, so I get it, but that means that
00:38I can't share my full review of this guy with you guys quite yet.
00:42But nevertheless, here we are, they did their event, it's unveiled now, so I figured I'd
00:46give you guys this quick video of all the official stuff about Nord in one place.
00:51So the spec, the design, the hardware, and some of the important stuff like the availability
00:58and the price.
00:59So this is everything you need to know.
01:00So we saw the design of course revealed already in our exclusive, but here's a better, crispy,
01:05high resolution look at Nord.
01:07And these two colors here are Blue Marble and Gray Onyx.
01:11And it's not bad, but my take is pretty mixed on the design.
01:15So remember when Carl showed those prototype designs that they were considering before
01:19they scrapped them and then went with the more traditional design?
01:22I actually like those designs more than the one they settled on.
01:27Like these had a little more character, they had that matte finish, they had a little
01:31more unique and identifiable features.
01:34But they ended up going back here to a more recognizable OnePlus design, which basically
01:38means the vertical camera module on the back, which fair, you know, that's been a OnePlus
01:44thing for a little while, but I kind of think it takes away from the character.
01:48I mean, look at this, this is not the Nord, this is the Oppo Reno3 Pro.
01:53It just looks like yet another version of kind of the same phone.
01:56I'm just saying.
01:57But the point of the OnePlus Nord is to move down in price.
02:01So we've all heard the OnePlus story a thousand times, but they'd been creeping up and up
02:05and up slowly in price over the years as they approach flagship status and use more and
02:10more expensive parts.
02:11And so people started to wonder, are they just leaving the whole cheap phone thing?
02:16Are they abandoning what got them so many fans in the first place, which was great
02:19phones for a low price?
02:21And so with Nord, they're back at that.
02:24And to be honest, it seems like this is about as good as an overall package as you're going
02:29to get for the price.
02:30And that price is €399, specifically because this phone isn't available in the US or North
02:38America at all, but we'll get to that in a second.
02:40So for that price, you're getting a lot.
02:43So in the spec department, that's a Snapdragon 765G, 8 gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of storage,
02:49but there's also a 12-256 model.
02:52And then up front is a flat 6.4 inch, 1080p, 90 Hertz AMOLED display with the fingerprint
03:00reader underneath and 180 Hertz touch sampling rate.
03:03Now that's pretty nice for this price.
03:05Now you can tell it's not quite the tippy top flagship stuff we expect for higher prices.
03:10Of course, a $900 or $1,000 phone will have a higher refresh rate and even higher resolution
03:16and just overall better quality panels.
03:19But even at 1080p here, you're looking at over 400 pixels per inch and most people
03:23spending 400 bucks on a phone can't tell the difference between 90 Hertz and 120 Hertz.
03:28And the whole thing gets pretty close to the bezels.
03:30Basically, this does not feel like a cheap phone screen at all.
03:35And it's also got the dual hole punch cutout at the front and just overall, it's a pretty
03:39nice display.
03:40The fingerprint reader from what I can tell is about the same as what I've seen in other
03:43OnePlus phones.
03:44It's optical and it's pretty low on the phone, so it's actually easy to reach.
03:49And then behind that display, powering everything is a 4,115 milliamp hour battery.
03:55Pretty good sized battery.
03:57And it comes with Warp Charge 30T charger in the box.
04:02So you're getting fast charging that we're used to with other OnePlus phones included
04:06at this price.
04:07So that's like zero to 70% charge in half an hour if you need it.
04:11That is always nice to have.
04:12Now, there is no wireless charging in this phone.
04:15There's no official IP water or dust resistance rating.
04:18And while we're at it, there's a couple other places they save money.
04:21They've used UFS 2.1 storage and they've used USB 2.0 data speeds, even though you still
04:27have fast charging.
04:28So there's some places where they've cut it back.
04:30But if you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed something by now, which is
04:33unlike a lot of the other budget phones I've reviewed, especially lately, this doesn't
04:37go super all in on one spec and then kind of skimp on the rest.
04:44This definitely feels like a much more balanced package.
04:47The build quality is definitely here.
04:48You have metal and glass.
04:50You've got that alert slider we're used to.
04:52The 90 Hertz OLED display is a great place to start.
04:55You have a pretty good sized battery with fast charging, a pretty nice set of specs.
04:59Again, this isn't the review, but the 765G has some pretty good performance results so
05:04far and that's paired with plenty of RAM.
05:07So maybe with a budget phone, you're hearing all this, you're like, oh, I know.
05:10So the camera's trash, right?
05:11That's usually how it goes.
05:13Cheap phone, cheap camera.
05:15Here's a scoop on the camera.
05:16So it is a quad camera system.
05:19So you start with a 48 megapixel main camera, an 8 megapixel ultra wide camera, and then
05:25a 2 megapixel macro camera, and then a 5 megapixel depth sensor.
05:30So it's like, okay, they can say it's a quad camera system, but most people, most people
05:36are just going to be using the first two cameras.
05:39And then the main camera is actually the same camera, same hardware as the OnePlus 8.
05:44Not the OnePlus 8 Pro, the OnePlus 8.
05:46So again, this isn't my review.
05:48That review will have my photo samples and video samples from this camera system and
05:53the selfie cameras.
05:54You've got a 32 megapixel selfie camera, and then a second 8 megapixel ultra wide selfie
06:00camera up front.
06:01I got to be testing all of those things, but a couple of things on the camera.
06:05One, OnePlus has called it like a flagship quality camera.
06:09I wouldn't call it a flagship camera.
06:10I'll say the OnePlus 8 Pro has what I consider a flagship quality camera because it's their
06:15flagship and that stays up to par with the Samsungs and Apples and Huawei's of the world.
06:22The OnePlus 8 camera, if you go back and watch that review, was a step below that.
06:27But also, OnePlus does have a pretty great track record, at least from my experience
06:32of improving camera quality over time with software updates.
06:36So while this isn't the highest end, most amazing camera, this is now a couple months
06:42or multiple months into the development in this camera system.
06:46So it's going to be better than some of the garbage we've seen in other $400 Android phones.
06:51And then I do like that they have dual selfie cameras up here, the one standard, one ultra
06:54wide instead of like some borderline useless depth sensor.
06:58So if you're going to do the dual cutout, which this is the first time OnePlus has actually
07:02ever done two cameras up front, you might as well make use of it.
07:05So they got the pillbox cutout and two cameras.
07:08So my full analysis of these cameras, of this new chipset and the performance, and of course
07:13all the other stuff, the screen and everything that goes with it will be in the full review.
07:17So definitely get subscribed, make sure you're among the first to see that if you haven't
07:20already.
07:21But basically, if I'm remembering my first impressions well enough, it's that this is
07:25a pretty promising package.
07:27They've kept up because of that balance, a lot of the fast and smooth stuff pretty well.
07:32So the most important thing left then is availability.
07:36So with this first Nord phone, OnePlus is focusing on India, China and Europe.
07:42So it's not coming to North America.
07:43This is your list of launch countries here.
07:45So you can see if your country is or isn't on that list.
07:49It's not the widest launch ever, but we also learned, at least from when I was talking
07:53to Carl in that interview, that there will be more phones later in the Nord lineup with
07:58other names that may come to the United States or to North America or to other regions that
08:03aren't listed in that graphic.
08:05So most people who aren't in those regions probably won't get their hands on this phone,
08:10probably won't be importing it because that's not something most people do.
08:13And if you can't get your hands on a Nord, which let's face it, that's a lot of people,
08:17you definitely still have the option of these matte pastel skins, which are available across
08:22channel sponsor dbrand's entire device catalog for every device.
08:26So there's probably something in there for you.
08:28I'll link it below.
08:29And I'll just add that my favorite of these new colors is their new pastel orange.
08:33But there you have it.
08:34That's everything you need to know about OnePlus Nord right off the jump.
08:37My take, kind of like I've said, is it's that overall steady package of nothing too crazy
08:43but not skimping on almost anything.
08:45A lot of phones in this price range, like if we take out iPhone SE because that's the
08:49other giant gorilla in the room at this exact price, this seems like one of those better
08:55well-rounded things you can get.
08:56You're going to get a big battery, fast charging, pretty nice screen, high refresh rate, 5G compatibility.
09:03There's a lot going here.
09:04Turns out the reason people wanted OnePlus to come back to this lower price and make
09:07a device in this space, it's because they're pretty good at it.
09:11But anyway, full review's coming up, bunch of other videos coming up right on the horizon.
09:14I feel like we are right about to descend into smartphone season.
09:19Like it's rolling over the hill right now.
09:22You think you're safe, but your sub box should be prepared.
09:26I'll leave it at that.
09:27Thank you for watching.
09:28Catch you guys in the next one.
09:30Peace.