OnePlus Nord packs flagship 5G specs without the high price tag

A one plus phone with 5g high end specs and an affordable price. Say hello to the one plus node. [MUSIC] One plus has been known for doing more affordable handsets but its phones have been getting more expensive over the years with its. Current flagship one plus eight pro sitting right at that thousand dollar threshold. The company's new phone called the Nord aims to change all of that. So let's start with the price. Now one plus hasn't given specific pricing details for the Nord just yet, but it has said that it will be under 500 euros Now 500 euros roughly translates to about 453 pounds in the UK or $572. In the US. There's no question then that the Nord is a much more affordable handset than it's much pricier one plus eight pro sibling. But despite that lower price tag, the Nord still packs a hell of a punch. Let's take a look at the design. I love this bold blue colour, the metallic edging and the screen that stretches all the way to the edges. It's a 6.4 inch display which makes it very, very comfortable to hold and use in one hand, or at least it does in my own hand, and there's a fingerprint scanner built into the display as well. So there has been no need to take up precious room elsewhere by trying to squeeze in a fingerprint scanner on the back or even worse. Under the display, what you don't get is any IP rating for waterproofing, which means it's probably best if you don't intentionally drop your phone down the toilet, but then I can't really think of any phone that I would want to intentionally drop down the toilet. The screens 2400 by 1080 pixel resolution is lower than the eight pros but it still looks Perfectly pin sharp when I've been using it in my hands on time. There's no fuzziness to any of the text or icons and even watching high resolution videos in YouTube looks great. So sure the top end phone may have a lot more pixels squashed into that screen. But I'm not really sure in everyday use you'd ever noticed much difference. Under the hood is Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 processor which brings 5G connectivity to the node, it actually makes it amongst the most affordable 5G phones around. Of course, you'll need to be on a service plan that supports 5G and you'll need to make sure that you are in an area where 5G is available. Now 5G is still somewhat in its infancy, so Service can be very patchy in both the U.K. and in the U.S. but it's definitely a smart time to be thinking of buying a 5G phone now in the hopes that you'll be able to take advantage of those superfast speeds when they become more easily accessible. The processor itself has eight cores and it's backed up by either eight or 12 gig of ram depending on the variable you go for. The 12 gig version I've been testing has seemed more than powerful enough for almost anything I'd want to throw at it. While the various changes that one plus has made to its oxygen software has made it a very, very smooth and lag free experience. Down to the software sits on top of Android 10. And I actually really like it. It's smooth, it's uncluttered, and one plus hasn't loaded this phone app with loads of extra apps and bloat ware. So it's actually really nice phone to use. Okay, so let's talk about those cameras. There are three main lenses to know about on the back. There's the standard camera, which is a 48 megapixel Sony sensor. It's actually the same one that you'll get on the OnePlus 8. And that's joined by 12 megapixel super wide-angle lens. And then there's also a 2 megapixel macro camera that lets you focus close up on tiny details I've only done some quick tests so far but the shots look pretty good especially considering the affordable price of the phone itself. The shots look sharp, well exposed, and the colors look vibrant and accurate. I'm definitely looking forward to spending a bit more time seeing just how it compares To its more expensive sibling,there's also a portrait mode uses the five megapixel depth sensor to give some attractive out of focus backgrounds to your portrait shots, as well as other features like 4k slow motion video and a night mode to help get brighter shots in low light. On the front is the first dual lens selfie camera we've seen from one plus The main front lens offers a huge 32 MP resolution, to let you see every excruciating detail on your face. While the other is a wide angle lens which one plus sides will let you fit more of your friends into the same scene. Or of course, because of social distancing, allows you to take a very wide lonely selfie and then you can just badly Photoshop in some friends. One plus has stuck a 4150 milliamp hour battery inside the node, which should be able to provide enough juice to keep you going for a whole day. As always, though, that does really depend on how much you use your phone. If you If you spend all morning streaming videos from Netflix or playing demanding games like asphalt nine, then you can probably expect to give this thing a good juice in the afternoon. That said, like all smartphones, I do expect that you'll need to give this a full Full charge every night. And if you're wondering about the name Nord, it's sadly got nothing to do with a race in the Elder Scrolls game, but instead refers to North which is called Nord in many European languages. OnePlus 8 is that north on a compass point towards growth and success which it doesn't. It's just a direction but who am I to argue. Misunderstanding of compasses aside though I'm pretty impressed at this phone so far. It looks great, have solid specs, it's got 5G as well and it's definitely a lot more affordable than the other recent phones in OnePlus' range. But are you a fan of this more affordable option or are you still saving up for the top end one plus eight pro? Do let me know your thoughts in the comments below and make sure to subscribe to c|net for a lot more. [BLANK_AUDIO]