OnePlus today launched the Nord CE6 smartphone in India as the successor to last year’s Nord CE5. This gets a bigger and brighter 144Hz AMOLED screen, switches from MediaTek to Snapdragon SoC, better build, durability and a huge 8000mAh battery. Is this worth the price? Let us dive into the review and find out.
Box Contents
- OnePlus Nord CE6 8GB + 256GB in Fresh Blue colour
- 80W SUPERVOOC charger
- USB Type-C Cable
- Protective case
- SIM ejector
- Quick Start Guide and Warranty Information
Display, Hardware and Design
The OnePlus Nord CE6 sports a 6.78-inch (2772 x 1272 pixels) 1.5K AMOLED display with a 144Hz adaptive refresh rate, a major upgrade compared to the FHD+ 120Hz screen in the CE5. The phone has ultra-slim bezels on all the four sides.
The phone has a 450 PPI pixel density, and the display is bright since it has up to 1800 nits (HBM) and 3600 nits peak brightness. It offers good color output since it has a 100% sRGB, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and the sunlight legibility is good as well. You can select from vivid, Natural and Pro screen colour modes. The nature tone display feature adjusts the display based on the ambient lighting conditions.
The phone has a 3,840Hz high-frequency dimming technology and can go as low as 1 nit, which is useful when using the phone in the dark. In dark environments where DC dimming can’t work, the phone will automatically switch to PWM dimming mode to maintain accurate colors on the display with a more comfortable eye experience.
The phone also has HDR 10 support, which works for YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. There is also Eye Comfort for Gaming. The phone has Crystal Guard Glass on the front, promising drop and scratch resistance comparable to Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.
The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule. It has a strong X-axis linear vibration motor.
The phone has a tiny punch hole that houses a 32-megapixel camera compared to 16-megapixel camera in the predecessor. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge that doubles up as a secondary speaker. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the power button is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. The Dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C 2.0 port, and loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is on the top, along with a speaker vent. The IR blaster is present on the back, in the camera deco.
The phone features a square metal camera deco similar to the Nord 6. We have the Fresh Blue color, and the phone also comes in Lunar Pearl, and Pitch Black colors.
The phone weighs 215 grams, which is slightly higher than the 199g CE5, and is 8.5mm thick, mainly due to the bigger battery. It also doesn’t miss the waterproof ratings matching the Nord 6 and the OnePlus 15 series with IP68, IP69, and IP69K ratings, so it can withstand water immersion at a depth of 2m for 30 min and high-pressure water jets at temperatures up to 80°C. The phone also has military-grade durability with MIL-STD-810H certification.
Camera
- 50MP main camera with 1/2.88″ OmniVision OV50D40 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS
- 2MP depth camera with Galaxycore GC02M1B sensor, f/2.4 aperture
- 32MP front-facing camera with Galaxycore GC32E2 sensor, f/2.0 aperture
The camera UI in the OxygenOS 16 is familiar. There is Pro mode, Panorama, Macro, Slo-mo, Time-Lapse, Dual-View video, tilt-shift and more. The rear camera offers 12.5MP output after pixel binning, and the front camera images are 32MP in size.
Daylight shots came out well, thanks to the 50MP sensor, and the dynamic range is better with auto HDR. Zoom is good even in 4x mode, but the quality reduces when you zoom further. The portrait shots are good as well. The night mode is useful, but it takes a few seconds to process. There is also a tripod mode. It misses the 8MP ultra-wide camera, which was present in the CE5.
The 32MP front camera does a good job preserving a lot of details. Edge detection is good as well in portrait shots from the front camera. Overall, the camera is decent despite the reduction in the sensor size for the main camera compared to the CE5.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos in up to 4K in 30fps from the rear and front camera cameras; ultra-steady mode works in 1080p 30/60fps. There is slow motion 1080p at 120 fps and 720p at 240 fps, and portrait video mode video with the main camera is limited to 1080p at 30 fps. There is OIS and EIS, which do a decent job.
Software, UI and Apps
The OnePlus Nord CE6 runs Android 16-based OxygenOS 16 out of the box. It has an Android security patch for March 2026. The phone will get 2 Android updates and 4 years of security updates, which is less than 4 + 6 in the Nord CE5. OxygenOS 16 offers AI-powered features, performance enhancements, a redesigned user interface, and new security protocols.
Flux Home Screen lets you reshape app folders with dynamic layout adjustments; you can resize and reposition icons, cards, and folders dynamically, match icon colors automatically with wallpaper tones, and more.
In addition to a smoother user interface, there are improvements to productivity tools.
- AI Recording: Includes AI Clear Voice, real-time transcription, and speaker identification. Auto-generated titles help organize key discussion points efficiently.
- AI Writer: Converts short prompts into structured content such as posts, emails, or documents and can summarize or convert long text into tables or mind maps.
- AI Assistant for Notes: Supports modular editing, allowing users to move, rearrange, or format note components with swipe or drag gestures.
In the Photos app, there is a new AI Portrait Glow feature, Master Cut, that offers speed adjustment, crop, rotation, and 4K export for enhanced video editing, and Motion Photo Collage that combines multiple motion photos into cinematic collages.
OxygenOS 16 enhances cross-device integration and expands interoperability beyond Android, allowing seamless interaction between OnePlus devices, iPhones, and Macs. This doesn’t have Plus key or AI Plus Mind features.
Out of 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, you get 7.38GB of usable RAM, and about 3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has a DRE, or dynamic RAM expansion, feature, which uses the built-in storage as RAM. This has up to 8GB of additional RAM expansion. Out of 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, you get about 218.53GB of free storage. There are some pre-loaded apps like Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but these can be uninstalled. It also comes with a remote app since it has an IR blaster.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
It has an in-display fingerprint sensor that unlocks the phone quickly, and it has an optical fingerprint scanner. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for local apps and payments in apps.
Furthermore, you can change the fingerprint animation and also disable it and also enable the quick launch option to launch apps directly from the lock screen by holding the fingerprint. The phone also has a face unlock feature.
Music and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player. It doesn’t have Dolby Atmos but has OReality Audio with customizable Smart, Movie, Game, and Music modes. It doesn’t have FM radio support. Audio through the stereo speakers is good without any distortion even in full volume. Audio through earphones is good as well.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. It supports HDR content on YouTube and Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The OnePlus Nord CE6 has support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28B/n38/n40/n41/n48/n77/n78 network bands in India. It has Carrier Aggregation on 4G. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo, QZSS. It has OTG support but doesn’t have NFC support. The BeaconLink is a walkie-talkie functionality to connect with other supported OnePlus devices even without network coverage.
Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops, and the earpiece volume was loud. The Clear Voice feature automatically blocks background noise in calling apps. It uses its own calling app with call recording, AI call translation, summary, and more.
The OnePlus Nord CE6’s body SAR is 0.811/Kg and head SAR is at 1.154/Kg, which is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 Mobile Platform. This has 1 x 2.7 GHz ARM Cortex-A720 prime core, 3 x A720 performance cores at up to 2.4 GHz, and 4 x Cortex-A520 efficiency cores at up to 1.8 GHz.
There is an Adreno 810 GPU that offers good gaming performance. The phone has a 5,000 mm² vapor chamber and a total cooling area of 33,147 mm².
There is also a dedicated Touch Reflex Chip that offloads and accelerates all touch processing from the main SoC. It supports an ultra-high 3200Hz instantaneous sampling rate, much higher than most phones.
We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI, and Genshin Impact, since these run in standard graphics. It also supports 144fps gaming in select games, but I only got 60fps in BGMI when set to HDR Ultra graphics. The Dimensity 8350 Apex in the Nord CE5 is slightly faster when it comes to the CPU and also has a much better GPU, offering better gaming performance.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 99.3% which is better than the Nord CE5. The temperature shot up from 35 to 38 degrees, which is less than the CE5. Check out the benchmarks below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs an 8000mAh battery, which can easily last for more than a day even with heavy use. I got over 8 hours of screen on time with over 2 days of use, mostly on Wi-Fi and some 5G with a smart refresh rate. This is better than the OnePlus Nord CE5. The phone should last for more than a day, even for heavy users like gamers, on a single charge.
The Bypass Charging function supports direct device power without charging the battery, avoiding excess heat and preserving battery longevity. The battery is designed to retain over 80% of its health after 6 years of use, said the company.
Since the phone has support for 80W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 30 minutes, and 100% in an hour. You will have to enable the fast charging option if you want to reduce the charging time, but the phone gets a bit hot. It doesn’t have wireless charging, which is not expected considering the price. However, there is 27W reverse-wired charging.
Conclusion
The OnePlus Nord CE6 is different from its predecessor, shifting its focus from raw processing power to extreme endurance and flagship-grade display quality. By packing a massive 8000mAh battery into a frame that still manages to feel premium, OnePlus has created a device tailored for the “marathon” user rather than the “sprinter” gamer.
The “CE” in Nord stands for Core Edition, and with the CE6, OnePlus has redefined what those “core” features are. If you value a stunning 144Hz 1.5K display, industry-leading IP69K durability, and a battery that refuses to die, the Nord CE6 is currently in a league of its own at the Rs. 29,999 price point.
However, this upgrade comes with notable trade-offs. The removal of the ultra-wide camera is a bitter pill to swallow for photography enthusiasts, and the switch to the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4—while efficient—means that heavy gamers might actually find the older Nord CE5 a bit snappier in high-intensity titles.
Overall, the Nord CE6 is a specialized powerhouse, and it is a compelling, high-value package for those who prioritize longevity and screen quality above all else.
Alternatives
The motorola edge 70 fusion has the same chip and comes with an ultra-wide camera but has a smaller battery. The latest Nothing Phone (4a) is also a good alternative with the same chip, offering a better camera setup, but it has a slightly smaller battery and costs more.
Pricing and availability
The OnePlus Nord CE6 is priced at Rs. 29,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, and the 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 32,999. With bank offers, the effective starting price is Rs. 27,999. The OnePlus Nord CE6 exclusive Sandstone Magnetic Case costs Rs. 799.
It will be available from OnePlus.in, the OnePlus Store app, Amazon.in and select offline retail partners starting from tomorrow, May 8th, at 12PM.
Pros
- 144Hz 1.5K AMOLED display is brilliant
- Smooth performance
- Good build, IP68 + IP69 + IP69K ratings
- Excellent battery life, fast charging
Cons
- No ultra-wide camera
- Average gaming performance compared to Nord CE5