Last year, apart from the OnePlus NORD 2, the company also launched the OnePlus NORD CE, a cheaper version of the 2020’s OnePlus NORD. The phone launched at €299, and for that price, it offered Snapdragon 750G SOC, a 90Hz AMOLED & a 4,500mAh battery. OnePlus is preparing to launch the successor to the NORD CE & it is expected to launch as soon as in the first quarter of 2022. Unsurprisingly, it will be called the OnePlus NORD 2 CE, so just like the NORD CE was a toned-down version of NORD, the NORD 2 CE is going to be a toned-down version of NORD 2.
Today, we got the official renders of the phone, thanks to an exclusive report by 91Mobiles.
First of all, the phone remains unchanged from the front, so there is a flat panel with a hole-punch cutout on the top left corner. The only design change is on the back, where the camera module has a new design. There is a rectangular camera housing that has two big circles for the two main sensors. The LED flash cutout & the cutout for the third camera sensor are of the same size. There is a power button on the right side & volume rockers on the left. Just as in the case of the NORD CE of this year, there is no alert slider on the NORD 2 CE.
Another thing to note here is that the OnePlus NORD 2 CE has a 3.5mm headphone jack just like its predecessor. So, that’s a good thing. The 3.5mm port is placed on the bottom alongside the Type-C port and the speaker grill. And well, that’s pretty much all about the design. OnePlus hasn’t done anything fancy in terms of the design, such as going for flat sides. It kept mostly the same design as the predecessor. There are stereo speakers and an in-display fingerprint reader. Just as the NORD CE, we are expecting a glass back & a plastic frame.
As far as the specifications as concerned, 91Mobiles earlier reported that the OnePlus NORD 2 CE has a 6.4-inch AMOLED with a 90Hz refresh rate & a MediaTek Dimensity 900 SOC, which is a 5G chipset. There are three cameras on the back where the primary camera has a 64MP sensor by OmniVision, the secondary ultrawide camera has an 8 Megapixel sensor & finally, there is a 2MP macro camera. For selfies, there is a 16MP camera. One major upgrade over the OnePlus NORD CE is that the NORD 2 CE supports 65W fast charging. That is more than double the charging power that the NORD CE supports. The battery size, however, remains the same at 4,500mAh. And finally, NORD CE 2 runs OxygenOS 12 out of the box that is based on Android 12.
Finally, speaking of the expected pricing, the OnePlus NORD 2 CE is expected to be priced between ₹24000 to ₹28000. For comparison, the NORD CE launched at ₹22,999 and the NORD 2 at ₹27,999.