OnePlus Nord Vs OnePlus 7T – Worth The ‘Cheaper’ Upgrade?

OnePlus has launched the OnePlus Nord as its latest budget offering after raising the pricing of its devices to ‘Flagship’ levels for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro. But how does the budget phone from OnePlus stand against last year’s OnePlus 7T? And is the phone an upgrade or downgrade from last year’s flagship’s vanilla version? Let’s find out.

Also Read: OnePlus 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs iPhone 11 Pro – Is The ‘Flagship Killer’ New Flagship King?

Display

First things first, the display, and to put it in simple words the display is just a different sized but same panel. Like literally.

The OnePlus Nord features a 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a color range of 16M colors. The display has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, an aspect ratio of 20:9, and a pixel density of 408ppi. The screen to body ratio is 86.7% (majorly because of the dual-camera) with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+. The screen comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

While the OnePlus 7T has a 6.55-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a color range of 16M colors. The resolution offered is 1080 x 2400 pixels with the same aspect ratio of 20:9 and a pixel density of 402ppi. The display also has a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ but the screen to body ratio is 86.5%. The protection offered is the same Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

A lazy move by OnePlus or the thinking of not changing an aspect that has worked before is up to you to decide. But the two panels are exactly the same. The company could have added 120Hz display to the Nord but again it is the ‘budget variant’ so can’t complain there.

Software and Performance

OnePlus provides one of the cleanest and best OS in OxygenOS. The two devices are backed by OxygenOS and Android 10 making the processor deciding factor between the two.

The OnePlus Nord is backed by the Octa-Core Qualcomm SDM765 Snapdragon 765G SoC. The GPU in place is the Adreno 620. The phone comes with up to 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of UFS 2.1 storage.

The OnePlus 7T is powered by the Octa-Core Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855+ (Predecessor of the 865 in OnePlus 8 series) SoC. The phone has an Adreno 640 GPU. And all this coupled with up to 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of UFS 3.0 storage.

Some distinct differences between the two here, as OnePlus 7T comes on top with better chipset and GPU but the Nord does have a higher RAM option. However, on Benchmark scores, OnePlus 7T device crushes OnePlus Nord and clearly comes on top.

Camera

The section that interests the most is the camera. After all the hype around OnePlus Nord created by OnePlus saying it has ‘stolen’ the camera of OnePlus 8 let’s see how does it stand against OnePlus 7T.

Also Read: OnePlus Nord Vs OnePlus 8: Are The Compromises Worthy?

The OnePlus Nord has a Quad rear camera setup. The primary sensor is the 48-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 along with PDAF and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The ultrawide camera is an 8-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/2.3 and 119˚ field of view. The phone also has a 5-Megapixel depth sensor for enhanced portraits having an aperture of f/2.4. And finally the 2-Megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture. On the front, the phone has a dual-camera setup. The primary front camera is a 32-Megapixel lens with an f/2.5 aperture. The additional camera is the 8-Megapixel ultrawide camera for taking group selfies. Coming to the video capability, the back camera can take 4K videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at 30/60/240fps. While the front camera has the capacity to take 4K video at 30/60fps while 1080p video at 30/60fps.

The OnePlus 7T comes with a triple camera setup on the back. The primary camera is a 48-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.6 along with PDAF and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The secondary camera is a telephoto lens 12-Megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture and 2x optical zoom. Finally, the 16-Megapixel ultrawide camera sensor with f/2.2 aperture. The device has a single 16-Megapixel camera on the front. The lens has an f/2.0 aperture. For videos, the back camera can take 4K videos at 30/60fps, 1080p video at 30/60/240fps, 720p videos at 960fps. The front camera can take 1080p videos at 30fps.

The battle here is between 6 cameras and 4 cameras here, but numbers do not mean quality here. Although both the phones can take pretty good snaps and videos, the overall performance of OnePlus 7T is just better than Nord. It may be edge detection, color detail, smoothness, or overall picture last year’s OnePlus 7T is just better. But when it comes to selfies, the dual camera on the front does the trick for OnePlus Nord. The group selfies and 4K front video capability is just an interesting feature to have. But not just that, the overall image quality and detail are better on OnePlus Nord. It all boils down to what are the requirements here. OnePlus 7T has a better back camera while OnePlus Nord wins the front camera battle.

Battery

The OnePlus Nord packs a 4,115mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. The phone supports 30W Warp Charging and Fast Charging.

The OnePlus 7T has a 3,800mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. The phone also supports 30W Warp Charging and Fast Charging.

The two phones have exactly the same battery with just a 315mAh difference between the two. They also have the same fast charging and OnePlus’s 30W Warp Charge technology. Both can be charged to about 70% in just 30 minutes. Pretty much another draw between the two here.

Connectivity

The OnePlus Nord is amongst the cheapest phone around to be 5G compatible. The phone supports 5G, 4G-LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, and USB 2.0 Type-C. The phone does not have a headphone jack or external MicroSD card slot. It does have a dual nano-SIM slot.

The OnePlus 7T apart from not being 5G compatible, the phone has pretty much exact same connectivity options as OnePlus Nord. The difference, however, is Bluetooth 5.0 and USB 3.1 Type-C on this phone.

Apart from 5G compatibility, there’s no considerable difference between the two. Moreover, even the 5G network is not expected to be in India anytime soon and in other parts of the world even where it already is available, the connectivity is too less.

Pricing

The OnePlus Nord is priced in India at Rs. 24,999 to Rs. 29,999.

The OnePlus 7T is priced in India at Rs. 37,999. The phone will be available for Rs. 35,999 with an additional 10% HDFC discount when purchased on Amazon during the Prime Day sale on 6th and 7th August 2020.

Verdict

The OnePlus Nord and OnePlus 7T are much more similar than one can expect. It literally makes no sense for anyone to shift from OnePlus 7T to Nord as despite being one year old (almost) the 7T is much better when it comes to performance and back camera. The Nord does have a better front camera but that’s it. The phones have exactly the same display panel, battery, and charging specifications.

However with the Rs. 8,000 (top variants) difference in the pricing between the two, OnePlus Nord does become an interesting pick. It offers a lot of flagship-level features slightly toned downed at an extremely competitive price.