OnePlus Nord CE5 review

At first glance, the Nord CE5 is… a phone. It’s a clean, minimalist slab of tech, which is very much OnePlus’s jam. Our review unit came in a rather fetching ‘Nexus Blue’, a textured finish that’s meant to evoke the “romantic essence of the twilight hour”. While we’re not sure about romance, it does a grand job of not showing up greasy fingerprints, which is a win in our book. 

The plastic frame and back might feel like a slight downgrade to anyone who’s clutched a metal-framed mobile before, but it keeps the weight down to a manageable 199g – impressive, considering the behemoth battery lurking within.

However, I’d like it to have more than just an IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. Many smartphones in this category are now going to IP68.

The Nord CE5’s window to the world is a rather lovely 6.77-inch Super Fluid AMOLED display. It’s a mouthful, but it translates to a bright, vibrant screen with a buttery-smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Colours pop and it gets bright enough (up to 1,430 nits peak brightness) to fend off the summer sun.

OnePlus has also packed in some clever tech to make the screen more user-friendly. ‘Aqua Touch’ claims to ensure accurate swipes even with wet fingers, which is handy if you’re trying to skip a track in the middle of a downpour. It also supports Ultra HDR, which adds a bit more depth and contrast to your snaps and games. It’s a cracking display for the price point, but don’t expect it to floor you with colour accuracy and HDR tuning.

Right, let’s address the elephant in the room: the absolutely gargantuan 7,100mAh battery. This is, frankly, nuts. OnePlus claims it’ll last for up to 2.5 days, and for once, the marketing blurb isn't far off. We're talking 27+ hours of YouTube, 18+ hours of Instagram, or a marathon 9+ hours of BGMI on a single charge. Battery anxiety is officially a thing of the past. These are OnePlus’s numbers, though. We got a day and a half’s worth of juice, leaving 20 to 30% left in the tank for day 2. Our usage included WhatsApp messaging, Reels, Netflix, calling, doomscrolling and a bit of photography. Gaming was thrown in as well. 

When you do eventually drain it, the 80W SUPERVOOC charging will juice it back up in a jiffy. Powering this endurance champion is the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset, a nippy processor built on a 4nm process that balances power with efficiency. Paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM, it handles multitasking and demanding games like BGMI at up to 90 FPS with ease. Oh, and yes, there are no stereo speakers here. The earpiece does not double as a speaker while gaming or watching content. To stop things getting toasty, there's a large CryoVelocity VC Cooling system. And for all you digital hoarders, there’s even a microSD slot for up to 1TB of extra storage.

OnePlus has equipped the Nord CE5 with a 50MP Sony LYT-600 main sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS), the same one found in the previous OnePlus Nord CE4. This means the camera quality is pretty much the same, and you might feel a bit left out with iQOO and Motorola doing a better job with skin tones.

In practice, daylight shots are crisp, vibrant and ready for the ‘gram. The Ultra HDR support really helps to make photos pop. There’s also an 8MP ultra-wide camera for when you want to cram more into your shot, and a respectable 16MP front-facing camera for your selfies. 

I am not a fan of how the colour tuning is different between the Ultrawide and the main camera here. The ultrawide is a little on the saturated side, and the main sensor does a good job of bringing the colours back to their original state.

The Nord CE5 runs on the latest OxygenOS 15, based on Android 15, and it’s a smarter, slicker experience. The big news is the infusion of AI, courtesy of both OnePlus and Google’s Gemini models.

While the Nord CE5 doesn’t get the Plus Key from the Nord 5 or the OnePlus 13s, there are some software AI features borrowed from the OnePlus 13 family. The AI Toolbox 2.0 offers handy features like summarising articles or translating text from a sidebar. AI VoiceScribe can transcribe and summarise your calls and meetings, while the AI Editor can intelligently reframe your photos or erase unwanted objects. Google’s Gemini stuff is also here so you can always pick that for more accurate answers.

The OnePlus Nord CE5 is a bit of an oddball, but in the best possible way. The decision to cram in a tablet-sized battery is a bold move that pays off handsomely, creating a phone that simply refuses to die. It’s a mid-ranger with the stamina of a flagship, and then some.

If you’re a power user who’s sick of being tethered to a charger, or just someone who values practicality over pointless fripperies, the OnePlus Nord CE5 is a deeply compelling package. However, there’s not a standout feature which makes it a boring phone of sorts. Ironically, it also makes it a safe bet to choose if you’re confused in the budget segment. No blinking LEDs at the back, no weird colour schemes and no bloatware, there’s plenty to like about the Nord CE5 over the competition.