OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G Review: A Capable Sub-RM 1000 Smartphone

OnePlus is on a road to redemption, not just as a company but they are managing to revive that lost spark among consumers. They did do that with the OnePlus 11 which we did review here and we were very happy. However, one lineup of smartphones doesn’t resonate with that sentiment – the Nord. The majority have this sentiment that it’s a “rehashed” sister brand smartphone. In some way it kind of is, as it does belong under the same parent company. But OnePlus is fighting harder to make their Nord series stand out – and this time it really does. Here’s our OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G Review.

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G Review

Nice Lime Silhouette

Credit, where it’s due – to have a colour that’s bold and striking, takes guts to make and I have to appreciate OnePlus for giving a unique colour we don’t generally see in a phone. The Lime colour is just striking and one that will definitely turn heads. Once you do see the phone, it’s hard to forget how it looks. The more curved yet defined shape gives a nice feel to hold in the hand and one-handed use is pretty nice to experience with no issues whatsoever.

Very “I-have-seen-this-specs-before” Feel

In terms of specification, this phone hits a lot of that “hold-on-i-have-seen-this-before” and you have. It runs the same processor as the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite which was priced RM 100 higher than the CE 3 Lite. Now, you might immediately go, “Well, then it’s just a rehashed phone”. Not quite. There are some improvements to make it a little better. For one, the charging speeds have been upgraded from the 33W SuperVOOC to 67W SuperVOOC. Secondly, the camera has been bumped from 64MP to 108MP. Finally, the storage, the CE 2 Lite caps at 128GB but the CE 3 Lite gives you double the storage.

On top of that, when It’s nice to see a headphone jack on it and a USB-C port, so you don’t have to go through a “to listen or charge” phase. Despite the slight stutters because of the rather “hefty” Oxygen OS, its performance is pretty good for a mid-tier smartphone. I do wish it had a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, which would have been extremely delicious and would have given OnePlus the advantage of selling something that has not made it into Malaysia from other brands.

But regardless of that, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G puts up a good show with decent capabilities in handling tasks, and apps and providing an experience that is on par with what you could expect with a mid-tier. That said, it isn’t a flagship, so you have to keep your expectations at an optimum.

You can play games, but not high-intensive ones that could cripple the experience. You can have multiple apps and switch between them easily, but there is a chance that you may not be able to pick up from where you left off with some apps and that’s okay. While the Nokia X30 5G we reviewed ran the same processor, due to the different OS and UI, the experience isn’t as on par with the Nokia.

Surprisingly, there aren’t much bloatware in the phone when we set up and that was an absolute relief. So, credit where it’s due – I am happy that OnePlus chose to keep it as clean as possible.

The Camera does a Decent Job

On the back, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has a triple camera setup: comprising 2 nonfunctional depth and macro sensors and one 108MP sensor which does take the pedestal. Now how well it performs?

Well, surprisingly better than we expected. The colours that come out of this camera, are quite possibly one of the most pleasant ones I’ve seen in a while. With or without HDR, the camera retains most of the details very well in a bright condition – like this picture, you see taken at the bridge interconnecting Mid Valley and KL Eco City.

The brown colour of The Gardens Mall is nicely retained with the details, followed by the sun rays and the shadow created on the road, leaving no sign of over and under-exposed spots. Finally, the sky looks quite alright.

In a brightly lit condition, this 108MP camera does a fantastic job of retaining every little detail and the colours were just swell. Personally, I don’t prefer oversaturated colours as it ruins the look. But here, I’d be happy with the images I take. When the sun sets, the quality of the image does set a little, however, if you choose to be patient and use the night mode, images do come out way better than I expected. But that’s the thing if you don’t use the night mode, which is going to be the case most of the time, it doesn’t scream perfection.

Low-light images, do generally look a little softer – and there isn’t much sharpening or details caught. This is pretty normal for a phone that doesn’t have enough processing power for imaging.

So, for the entire camera score, I’d give OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G’s camera, B-. The front-facing camera does whitewash images with darker skin complexion – which I wish is something a phone camera didn’t do.

Battery Life is absolutely Delightful

During my time using this OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G, I managed to have a good duration of 1 and a half to 2 days of battery life with a good 9-10 hours of screen time. This is all possible to the 5000mAh battery and the processor which seems to be doing a very good job in keeping the power consumption efficient. If you do want to charge fast, you can do that – all thanks to the 67W SuperVOOC which gets the phone from a noct-to-100 in just less than an hour.

Since this phone was my daily driver, I used it for navigation, entertainment needs, music, social networking and even for work as well.

Physical Fingerprint over Under Display, any day

OnePlus chose not to implement an under-display fingerprint sensor with the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G and I thank them for that as mid-tier smartphones that tout an optical under-display fingerprint sensor are slower and find a harder time recognizing if you have a screen protector installed. This does eliminate the anomaly of an under-display fingerprint sensor and more times than often, it’s faster than a flagship I had in my pocket with an Ultrasonic Fingerprint sensor.

The Display is the same but it’s Nice

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G’s 6.7” inch 120Hz Full HD display is pretty good at producing a nice colour and overall does have a nice experience. It isn’t an AMOLED but an IPS LCD display – so, you don’t get the true deep blacks of an OLED or the power-efficient consumption.

However, it is easy to get your eyes tricked when you do look at this display as with colours, it gives a nice viewing experience. It’s only when you watch content that takes place in a darker environment – you will be able to immediately tell, this isn’t an AMOLED display.

Conclusion

Even if this isn’t the first Snapdragon 695 processor-powered phone we are reviewing, it is a much more capable processor – we saw that with the Nokia X30 5G. Now, we have the same experience here with the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. This phone does join that list of phones where one does not simply underestimate the phone based on what you see on the paper. Truth be told, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G brings delightful battery life, a good build and experience, packed in a nice Lime-coloured package (or Grey if you want something toned down).

At the price of RM 1,099, it’s safe to say that the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is worth consideration. All I can hope is that they keep the same level of consistency in the update cycles just like we reviewers got to experience.

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