The OnePlus Nord 3 is essentially a OnePlus 11R Lite in spirit and that’s good news for budget-conscious buyers. The 11R is one of the most exciting OnePlus phones to launch in recent memory. The Nord 3 is way more exciting, given that it offers mostly the same bells and whistles at an even more affordable price.
The design is obviously more utilitarian, but polished. And styling, very Nord CE 3 Lite-like. OnePlus is using Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the back (the frame is made of plastic, flat, and smooth to the touch) and offering a choice of two finishes, matte black and glossy green. You can get either and be rest assured, you’re getting a dash of premium regardless. OnePlus also went ahead and put an IP54 rating on this phone, a feature that is missing on the 11R.
The overall dimensions are more user-friendly than the 11R’s. The Nord 3 weighs 193g and measures 8.15mm and while it is still a big phone for comfortable one-hand use over an extended period of time, it isn’t significantly bigger than its predecessor—the Nord 2/2T—despite having a larger screen.
The screen is virtually identical to the 11R’s except that it is not curved. You get the same high-quality specs: 6.74-inch AMOLED with 1.5K resolution and up to 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. The panel can peak 1,450nits and supports HDR10+ across Netflix and Amazon Prime. The bezels are slim. There is Dragontrail glass for protection.
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The Nord 3 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9000, the same chipset seen inside the OnePlus Pad. The performance is comparable to the 11R which has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 running the show except maybe in a few GPU-intensive edge cases where we observed some throttling. The Nord 3 scored 1,03,0187 on AnTuTu.
Benchmarks aside, the Nord 3 is a go-getter phone that does everything from basic day-to-day tasks to high-end gaming well enough. You can get it with 8GB/16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB/256GB of non-expandable UFS3.1 storage.
The 5,000mAh battery easily lasts a day scoring a respectable 11 hours and 10 minutes on PCMark while 80W fast charging support means it is up and running (from 0-100 percent) in about 35 minutes.
The same degree of reliability extends to the phone’s camera setup as well, or at least that is the case with its 50MP Sony IMX890 main sensor. You get the same sensor inside the 11R as well, the flagship OnePlus 11 too, and even the budget Nord CE 3 that launched alongside it. It goes without saying that the hardware is quite capable.
The results are also impressive. Mostly they are in line with the 11R’s which is to say that the main camera performs surprisingly well, especially when you give it lots of light to play around with. Details come out nice and sharp, colours mostly true-to-source. Dynamic range could be a bit better but it is not a deal-breaker. Low-light photography on the Nord 3 is an effortless experience more often than not as the camera does well to cut down on noise and also minimise watercolour/smudge effect in challenging conditions to produce clean photos.
The 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro auxiliary sensors have been carried over from the 11R with the exception that the former now sits behind a 112-degree lens (versus 120-degree in the 11R). As for the output, the ultrawide has slightly better dynamic range than the main camera and ekes out more natural colour tones but there is some corner softening regardless even more so under low light. The macro camera is average at best.
The OnePlus Nord 3 can record at up to 4K@60fps (same as the 11R), but practically speaking, 1080p@30fps is the sweet spot. You get electronic image stabilisation at this resolution and videos come out nice and fairly stable, something that should suffice for social media posts.
The 16MP front camera in this phone is serviceable and takes decent selfies with mostly natural colour tones in good light. Performance takes a hit as the intensity of light goes down. It can do 1080p@30fps with videos coming out nice and clean, especially in good lighting, with decent amount of stabilisation as well. Software-induced bokeh or portraits are just about okay.
Other hardware niceties include dual speakers with Dolby Atmos support (these get nice and loud), an X-axis linear vibration motor (for crisp, tight haptics), IR emitter (for controlling smart home appliances like air conditioners and TVs), Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC. The phone has an optical fingerprint reader for biometrics which is fast and accurate but could be positioned a bit higher. The alert slider is here, too.
Also Read | OnePlus 11R review: The fan edition OnePlus phone you’d been waiting for?
Software-wise, the Nord 3 is among the first OnePlus phones to boot the new OxygenOS 13.1 right out of the gate adding a couple of more digital detox features including Zen Space which lets you selectively tune out background noise and notifications and O-Relax which is supposed to calm you down with relaxing sounds and mini games. It’s a subtle but important update over the OxygenOS 13— seen on the OnePlus 11/11R— one that strives for more stability and while the amount of bloatware has started to shoot up gradually, the experience still remains “burdenless” relative to an Oppo/Realme phone. The Nord 3 is guaranteed to get 3 major OS and up to 4 years of security updates.
OnePlus Nord 3 5G: Should you buy it?
The Nord 3 feels like déjà vu. It is so, so, very similar to the 11R, the story writes itself. And it is a good story to tell.
You can get it with 8GB/128GB for Rs 33,999 and 16GB/256GB for Rs 37,999. The 8GB/128GB OnePlus 11R is priced at Rs 39,999 while the 16GB/256G variant will set you back by Rs 44,999. The math is simple. Get the 11R if you can stretch your budget and want a curved screen, faster gaming performance, and slightly quicker charging. For everybody else, the Nord 3 is a no-brainer.
With its right mix of specs and value-adds like IP-rating, the Nord 3 is a solid contender for best smartphone south of Rs 40,000. And because it’s been a long time in the making, coming over 2 years after the Nord 2, it is only befitting to say that OnePlus is back, with a bang no less.
| PROS | CONS |
| Premium glass design with IP54 rating | No headphone jack |
| Colourful display | No micro-SD card slot |
| Fast, fluid performance | No high-refresh rate gaming support |
| Capable cameras | |
| Good battery life, fast charging |
