OnePlus launched its Nord CE5 smartphone in India earlier this week. It is a major upgrade from last year’s Nord CE4, since this gets a brighter display, faster SoC, bigger battery, while maintaining the same price tag. Is this worth the price? Let us dive into the review and find out.
Box Contents
- OnePlus Nord CE5 8GB + 256GB in Nexus 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 CE5 5G sports a 6.77-inch (1080 x 2392 pixels) Full HD+ curved AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling rate and 387 PPI. The display is bright since it has up to 1430 nits peak brightness and the outdoor HBM brightness is 1300 nits. It offers good colour output since it has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
You can select from vivid, Natural and Pro screen colour modes. Nature tone display adjusts the display based on the ambient lighting conditions. There is Aqua Touch Aqua that uses HyperTouch algorithm for even smoother touch experience even when the hands are wet.
The phone also has HDR 10 support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. There is always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule.
The phone has a tiny punch-hole that houses a 16-megapixel camera. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge, but it doesn’t double 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 Hybrid SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C 2.0 port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is on the top, along with a speaker vent. The IR blaster has been moved to the back, inside the camera deco.
The Nexus Blue colour that we have has captures the romantic essence of the twilight hour and infuses it into every detail., said the company.
It also comes in Marble Mist inspired by nature with marble texture that shimmers with golden highlights under sunlight, delivering a refinened and organic elegance. The Black Infinity has a deep, timeless black that evokes the boundless cosmos, conveying strength, courage, and quiet confidence, said OnePlus.
The phone has IP65 ratings for dust and water resistance. The phone weighs 199g, which is heavier than the CE4, but considering the huge 7100mAh battery, this is fine.
Camera
- 50MP rear camera with 1/1.95″ Sony LYT-600 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS,
- 8MP 112° ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture
The camera UI in the OxygenOS 15 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 16MP in size. This uses the same HDR algorithm as the OnePlus 13 series.
Daylight shots came out well, thanks to the 50MP sensor, and the dynamic range is better with auto HDR. Zoom is good even in 2x 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. The 8MP ultra-wide camera is decent. Low-light camera performance is decent, but could have been better.
The 16MP front camera does a decent job, but the edge detection in portrait shots is a hit or miss. Overall, the rear camera is better compared to the CE4 even with the same sensor, and the front camera could have been better.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos in up to 4K in 60fps from the front cameras and the rear camera supports up to 1080p. There is slow motion 1080p at 120fps. Portrait video is limited to 1080p at 30 fps, and ultra steady mode is supported at up to 1080p 60 fps. There is OIS and EIS which does decent job.
Software, UI and Apps
The OnePlus Nord CE5 runs Android 15 based OxygenOS 15 out of the box. It has Android security patch for June 2025. The phone will get 4 Android updates and 6 years of security updates, a huge upgrade compared to Nord CE4 which only supports 2 Android updates and 3 years of security updates.
OxygenOS 15 offers redesigned icons, new design elements, Parallel Processing, reduction in system storage, AI features such as AI Detail Boost, AI Unblur and AI Reflection Eraser.
The Intelligent Search is an AI-powered feature that leverages natural language processing, allowing you to search across apps like Settings, Files, and Notes using simple, everyday language. There is open canvas that lets you use 3 apps on a single screen.
There is circle to search. You also get OxygenOS 15 bring AI Notes feature that automatically organizes notes, highlights key points, and enhances readability. It can expand or reduce content, adjust formality, and even correct grammar errors.
Apart from the usual set of OnePlus apps and Google apps, it comes with several pre-loaded with Netflix, Facebook, PhonePe, and LinkedIn, which can be uninstalled, but come back once the phone is reset. The IR remote app is useful.
Out of 8GB LPDDR5X RAM, you get 7.4 of usable RAM, and about 3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has 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 UFS 3.1 storage, you get about 214.65GB of free storage.
AI Plus Mind
Even though this doesn’t have the Plus key like the Nord 5, there is AI Plus Mind that lets users save and organize important on-screen information — such as events, bookings, or listings — into a dedicated Mind Space just by swiping up with three fingers, helping avoid information overload.
Beyond simple saving, AI Plus Mind uses artificial intelligence to understand the context of saved content. For example, it can pull event details from an image or message and add them directly to the user’s calendar. Using AI Search, users will be able to locate saved content through natural language questions.
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 app local and payments in apps.
Furthermore, you can change the fingerprint animation and also disable it, and also enable quick launch option to launch apps directly from the lock screen by holding the fingerprint. The phone also has 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 mono speaker is decent, but the CE4 had stereo speakers, so it is a dowgrade. 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 CE5 has support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28B/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78 Network Bands in India. It has 5G VONR for Jio. There is also 4G Wi-Fi, VoLTE and Carrier Aggregation. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, Navic, GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo, QZSS. It has OTG support, but lacks NFC support.
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 has stock dialer with call recording, AI call assistant and AI translation in 29 languages.
The OnePlus Nord CE5’s body SAR is 0.907W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.199W/Kg, which is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
This gets the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex 4nm processor, a huge upgrade from Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 in the CE4. This has 4x Arm Cortex-A715 at 3.35GHz and 4x Arm Cortex-A510 at 2.2GHz. The SoC is fabricated using the TSMC’s second generation 4nm process technology.
There is Mali-G615 6-core GPU that offers good gaming performance. The phone has CryoVelocity VC Cooling system that includes a graphene-based composite vapor chamber cooling with a total area of 7,041 mm², one of the largest in its class, says the company.
We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact. It supports 120 fps gaming in COD Mobile, BGMI, and more. There is also Adaptive Frame Booster. In BGMI HDR + Ultra works.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 38.4% which is less. The temperature increased from 36 to 46 degrees, which is not decent. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see, there are huge improvements compared to Nord CE4, and the GPU performance is close to Nord 5.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 7100mAh (typical) graphite battery, which can easily last for a day even with heavy use. I got close to 7 hours of screen on time with more than a day of heavy use mostly on 5G with Smart refresh rate. It should last more with average use on Wi-Fi.
Since the phone has support for 80W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 25 minutes and up to 100% in slightly over an hour. You will have to enable fast charging option if you want to reduce the charging time, but the phone gets a bit hot.
The phone also comes with Bypass Charging, which directly powers the phone instead of the battery, reducing heating and allowing for extended gaming sessions without the need to worry about the battery or overheating. The phone doesn’t have wireless charging support.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 24,999, the OnePlus Nord CE5 5G is a strong mid-range competitor that can’t be ignored. It maintains the price, while improving several aspects such as display, performance, battery life, and the camera has also seen some improvements with improvements in the software. Even though it gives good competition to others in the range, it misses out on stereo speakers.
Alternatives
With offers, the iQOO Neo 10R is a good competition. The realme P3 Ultra offers better camera, and has the same chip.
Pricing and availability
The OnePlus Nord CE5 is priced at Rs. 24,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 26,999 and the 12GB + 256GB is priced at Rs. 28,999. With launch offers, the effective starting price is Rs. 22,999.
It will be available from Amazon.in, OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store App, as well as mainline stores such as OnePlus Experience Stores, and partner stores starting from 12th July 2025, 12 AM onwards.
Pros
- 120Hz AMOLED display is good
- Good build, IP65 ratings
- Smooth performance
- Good camera performance in daylight
- 4 OS updates and 6 years security updates
- Excellent battery life, fast charging
Cons
- Average low-light camera performance
- No stereo speakers
- Bloatware