The OnePlus Nord CE4 is set to launch on April 1st, 2024, at 6:30 PM IST, in India. We already have a good idea of the specifications, from various leaks. According to the leaked spec sheets, we’ll get the same two generic OnePlus color options of Blue and Black, and the CE model will not get the alert slider.
The chipset choice is really good; the Nord CE4 will launch with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset. We’ve already seen this on the Vivo V30, and it performs really well- a major performance boost from the Snapdragon 782G on the OnePlus Nord CE3. It’ll have LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, and the base variant is expected to start at 128GB, which is the same as last year.
The leaked pricing is 24,999 for the base 128GB model and 26,999 for the 256GB model. Both of them have 8GB RAM. The design is different from last year too. One key detail: the Nord CE3 was 27,999 at launch. That’s 3000 INR more than the leaked Nord CE4 pricing, and additional discounts could drop the price of the CE4 even lower!
This definitely leaves room for one major question: what did OnePlus downgrade? The answer is the primary sensor. The Nord CE3 had the relatively expensive IMX890, which is an upper-midrange sensor. However, the tuning was not very good and the phone was not really known for a great camera experience. Despite that, the IMX890 is really good hardware for the price.
The OnePlus Nord CE4 drops that to the Sony Lytia 600 sensor. This is also a 50MP sensor, but it’s a downgrade in terms of size. The Lytia 600 is just 1/2″, which is closer to the OV64B sensor in terms of size. The OV64B is what other performance-centric phones like the Poco X6 Pro use to save on costs. OnePlus has now gone down the same route, and downgraded the main sensor from 1/1.56″ to 1/2″ in an effort to deliver a better chipset at a cheaper price.
It’s plenty obvious why OnePlus wants to cut down the pricing, and it’s the Nothing Phone 2A. The Nothing Phone 2A made waves, definitely sold very well, and got a very positive critical reception except for the camera performance. If OnePlus tunes the cameras of the OnePlus Nord CE4 better than the Nord CE3 and also the Nothing Phone 2A, then the drop in sensor size is easily justified, considering the price drop as well.
Either way, this leaves a lot of room for discussion. If the Nord CE4 doesn’t have good camera performance, it’s very easy to argue that Nothing doesn’t have it either. For just a thousand more than the Nothing, we’re getting an objectively superior 7 Gen 3 chipset, which leaves the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 (Pro) that Nothing chose in the dust. It’s also worth mentioning that the Nothing Phone 2A is stuck on UFS 2.2 storage, and paired with the 7200 Pro, it’s safe to say that it won’t beat the OnePlus in longevity.
Do not mistake the Nord CE4 for a performance-centric device. It aims to deliver a balanced experience for the price. The Poco F5 and X6 Pro offer much better performance with the 7+ Gen 2 and MediaTek Dimensity 8300, respectively. However, the 7 Gen 3 is still far better than the 782G and Dimensity 7200 Pro, so the OnePlus isn’t too bad if you want a balanced smartphone.
Further opinions and judgements cannot be made without actual reviews of the product, and we’re merely speculating. We hope OnePlus addresses the camera woes, since that’s the only bar to an otherwise fantastic product on-paper. 3 years of software updates will also be welcome to see on a Nord CE phone, since Nothing is offering 3 years of major software updates, up to Android 17, for the Nothing Phone 2A.
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