OnePlus Nord N30 5G Review: $300 Phone Recharges Faster Any iPhone
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Speaker 1: This $300 one plus phone charges faster than any iPhone right now. And just to show you, it's 12:32 PM It's battery is at 62% and I'm just gonna plug it in while we talk and we'll see where it ends up.
Speaker 1: The one OnePlus Nord N 30 5G is one of the more exciting 300 phones I've tested so far this year. The company has released a number of phones at this price or less in its Nord line, [00:00:30] but this year's N 30 is stacked with specs that we simply haven't seen hit this price range. It's headline feature is, it's a 108 megapixel main camera. I'll go over that more later because while it grabs attention, it's actually one of the more weaker spots for this phone. The OnePlus N 30 5G also includes a bright 6.72 inch screen with the 120 hertz refresh rate and 10 80 p resolution. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 95 chip has Android 13 with an oxygen [00:01:00] OS skin. The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor for unlocking the phone N F C for Google Pay Contactless payments also really rare for this price range. Makes the cut too around back phone has a glossy reflective finish that one plus calls chromatic gray and two camera humps that house, that main camera, A two megapixel macro camera and a two megapixel deficit camera for portrait mark.
Speaker 1: So let's go back to charging. It's been about 15 minutes since [00:01:30] we plugged in the OnePlus phone and let's see where the batteries ended up. And the phone's now at 90%. This is using the 50 watt charger included with the one plus and 30, which has a large 5,000 million per hour battery. That typically lasts me about a day and a half to two days, depending on how heavy I use it. In my other tests, I've been able to charge this phone's battery from 1% to 75% in 30 minutes. These charging speeds are superb. There isn't a single iPhone that comes close and in other 200 [00:02:00] to $300 phones that I test, the max charging speed there tends to be about 15 watts and charging a same 5,000 million for hour battery takes over two hours. Whereas with the one plus, I can get 200% in 45 minutes.
Speaker 1: So about that 108 megapixel main camera, the megapixel count is quite high for this price range. Megapixels aren't everything. Software and processing power are critical. Part of what makes our photography look really good. [00:02:30] And this is where the one plus starts showing its price. I took the phone with me to Washington DC's Pride Parade last weekend and like a lot of cheaper phones, my daytime parade photos and videos look nice, but they struggle when smoothing out all the movement. Like a lot of cheaper phones. It's quite good when you're somewhere with good lighting and minimal movement. Like my food photography from Filipino restaurant Purple Patch is quite tasty looking. But when night came and we went over to DC's Metro Bar for a drag show, I to get good [00:03:00] photos in the darker environment, even with night mode enabled, the 16 megapixel front facing camera fared. Similarly, I'm quite happy with my outdoor photos and portrait mode, but my indoor video footage, some of which you are watching right now, it's fine, but I feel like it's quite noisy. So even though the one plus has the 108 megapixel main camera, Google's Pixel six A, which is often discounted to $300, has the tensor chip [00:03:30] and great photo processing software. So we're gonna take both phones, take a few photos and see how those images stack up to each other.
Speaker 1: [00:04:00] However, as cool as this phones 108 megapixel main camera is without the software and processing power to back it up, we're looking at photos that are only a little bit better than other phones that cost $300. But with Google's Pixel six a constantly getting discounted about $300, the one plus Norden 30 faces really stiff competition despite [00:04:30] impressing in a lot of other areas. Thanks for spending some time going over the One plus NRD N 35 G with me. Uh, you might be able to tell the chromatic gray is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. Uh, so flashy fun, your hands are all over this. Uh, if you want more about the one plus node N 30 5g, you could check out my written review on cnet.com and like subscribe to our CNET [00:05:00] YouTube channel for more reviews like these.
