The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite has officially arrived with the promise of delivering “a flagship-rivalling long-lasting and bright experience that exceeds all expectations.” Indeed, the new most affordable Nord brings some notable quality-of-life improvements including a brighter AMOLED display and faster 80W charging. Those two parameters in fact appear to be the key USP of the Nord CE 4 Lite, or at least that is what OnePlus’s marketing material seems to suggest.
Interestingly, the name of the underlying processor isn’t being thrown around as much as one would hope based on past experience. That was probably the only crucial detail that OnePlus didn’t talk about or tease ahead of launch. Even today’s formal announcement makes only but a fleeting reference, instead the script focuses entirely on “flagship-level battery performance” and “all-round brighter and smoother experiences.”
It could be because OnePlus has pulled off a “hat-trick” by equipping the Nord CE 4 Lite once again with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695, the same chip which was inside last year’s Nord CE 3 Lite and the Nord CE 2 Lite before it. Like Xiaomi with the Snapdragon 620 once upon a time, OnePlus can’t seem to get enough of the Snapdragon 695, it seems. The Snapdragon 695, at this point, is three years old which in tech is a long, long time. Even if OnePlus had used the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 —which is just a rebadged Snapdragon 695 — it would have given a sense of “newness.” But alas, that wasn’t meant to be.
The Snapdragon 695 has become so mainstream, you can find it in phones under Rs 15,000 (the Moto G34 starts at only Rs 10,999). The Nord CE 4 Lite starts at Rs 19,999 and all credit to OnePlus for keeping the pricing consistent with last year, but a slightly more modern chip would have done it a lot of good.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite—Big battery, bright display in focus
But that is not the case because the Nord CE 4 Lite’s priorities lie elsewhere. It has a 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution and up to 2,100 nits of peak brightness. The panel has a hole punch cut out at the centre housing a 16-megapixel selfie camera and aqua touch, a feature seen on OnePlus and Realme phones that reduces ghost touches when your hands are wet or you’re stuck in a drizzle. OnePlus doesn’t specify any IP rating or screen protection.
Powering the Nord CE 4 Lite is a 5,500 mAh battery with 80W fast wired charging. There is an option for 5W reverse charging as well which means that you can use the phone as a power bank to charge other devices. For photography, the Nord CE 4 Lite has a dual camera setup with a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 main sensor with OIS paired to another 2-megapixel depth sensor.
The Nord CE 4 Lite retains a couple of features now staple with these phones including headphone jack and stereo speakers. RAM caps out at 8GB and is of the LPDDR4x type while storage can go up to 256GB (UFS2.2). Micro-SD expansion is available. The phone runs OxygenOS 14 with Android 14. It comes in a choice of three colours—Super Silver, Mega Blue and Ultra Orange.
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite starts at Rs 19,999 for 8GB/128GB. The top-end 8GB/256GB model is priced at Rs 22,999. It will be available starting June 27.
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