OnePlus is set to unveil the latest addition to its midrange Nord lineup – the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite. Despite its unimpressive name, it boasts impressive features for its price point of €329 (£299). The smartphone will go on sale in Europe on April 20th and in select Asian markets, but not in the US.
Alongside this, OnePlus will also release the Nord Buds 2, a new pair of true wireless earbuds that will be available in the US, as well as Europe and Asia.
The most noteworthy feature of the Nord CE 3 Lite is its 108-megapixel sensor in the primary camera, which is the same resolution as the flagship Galaxy S20 Ultra from Samsung in 2020 (although not the same hardware). While megapixels aren’t the only factor in camera quality, high-resolution sensors are significant for overall picture quality. It’s important to note that Samsung has since improved upon their camera hardware with a 200-megapixel sensor in this year’s flagship.
Another noteworthy feature of the Nord CE 3 Lite is its fast-charging capabilities, which can reach up to 67W. This is sufficient to charge the device’s 5,000mAh battery to 80% in only 30 minutes, which is impressive considering its price range. This is more than double the 33W fast charging of the previous Nord CE 2 Lite, and even higher than the 65W charging of last year’s higher-end model, the OnePlus Nord CE 2.
The naming convention of the OnePlus Nord lineup can be perplexing, particularly in Europe, where the range now includes three tiers: the numbered Nord (such as Nord, Nord 2, and Nord 2T), the lower-tier Nord “Core Edition” or CE, and the more economical “CE Lite” devices. Meanwhile, US Nord devices have a different naming system, resulting in names like the Nord N300 and Nord N20. The name “OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite” can be confusing, especially for those who are not familiar with the background.
Let’s return to the Nord CE 3 Lite, or more technically, the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. It is equipped with a mid-range Snapdragon 695 processor, 8GB of RAM, and comes with 128GB of storage in Europe, with the option to add up to 1TB of storage via microSD support. The phone has a triple camera setup, but the secondary cameras are only two-megapixel macro and two-megapixel depth assist lenses. However, the main sensor’s resolution allows for “3x lossless zoom” without requiring a separate telephoto lens. The Nord CE 3 Lite is available in gray or lime green and will receive two years of Android software updates and an additional year of security updates.
The Nord CE 3 Lite includes a headphone jack and stereo speakers with technology that can increase their loudness by up to 200%, according to OnePlus. Although this sounds like an exaggerated claim, it refers to the optimizations OnePlus has made to double the perceived loudness of the speaker hardware. The phone’s 6.72-inch LCD screen has a 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
