OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite has been launched in India as a successor to the Nord CE 3 Lite model that was launched last year. The new OnePlus Nord phone has some upgrades in terms of specifications and features an updated design. The phone is the latest arrival in the highly competitive budget segment in India, where most smartphones are equipped with OLED displays, support 5G connectivity and offer fast charging support. We spent a few days with this smartphone to find out if it offers enough to stand out in this segment.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite Price in India
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite price in India starts from Rs. 19,999 for the 8GB + 128GB RAM storage configuration, while a 256GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 22,999. The phone is available in Mega Blue, Super Silver and Ultra Orange color options.
The company sent the 8GB + 256GB variant of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite for review, and the phone comes along with a TPU case, an 80W SuperVOOC charging brick, a USB charging cable from type A to type C and a SIM. ejection tool
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite Review: Design
The 'Mega Blue' color variant of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite has a plastic back panel and flat plastic edges with a metal-like finish. The corners of the phone are slightly rounded and the flat edges help you to hold it comfortably. The phone feels slightly heavy, even without the included TPU case (it weighs 191g), but not enough to cause fatigue while using it.
The smooth back panel is reflective and doesn't attract too many fingerprints or smudges
Like its predecessor, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite has a vertically aligned rear camera design, but this year's model has a new pill-shaped section that surrounds the camera lenses that sit under the rear panel and also houses a dual LED flash setup.
The bottom edge of the Nord CE 4 Lite houses a 3.5mm audio jack, a microphone, a USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. There's an additional speaker on the top edge, while the power and volume buttons are on the right side. The SIM card tray is located on the left edge of the phone. The phone is IP54 rated and the transparent cover also has built-in covers for the phone's audio and charging ports.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite Review: Specs and Software
In terms of specifications, there are two notable upgrades that the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite offers over its predecessor: an OLED display and a main camera with optical image stabilization. The smartphone has a 6.67-inch full-HD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels) AMOLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. When auto-brightness is on, it goes up to 1,200 nits, which is higher than last year's model that had an LCD screen.
You get the same Snapdragon 695 chipset in the Nord CE 4 Lite, which means OnePlus has used the same 6nm chip for the third year running in its Nord CE Lite series. The phone is equipped with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite offers some company-added features, but also some bloatware (tap to enlarge)
The phone boots Android 14 with the company's OxygenOS 14 skin on top. There's no word from OnePlus on the phone's software support window, but its predecessor is slated to get two major Android version updates and an extra year of security updates.
The new OnePlus phone also offers the same connectivity options as the Nord CE 3 Lite, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, 5G, 4G LTE, GPS and a USB Type-C port. There is no support for contactless payments on due to the lack of NFC connectivity.
The company has increased the battery size of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite to 5,500mAh and the charging speed has also been improved, with support for 80W SuperVOOC charging. Unlike the previous models, it also has 'an on-screen fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication, thanks to the OLED screen.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Performance
The Snapdragon 695 is a decent smartphone chip for ordinary tasks and offers similar performance to its competitors powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 7050 chipset. It can run some popular games and several widely used applications, as long as they are not too demanding.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite benchmark results (tap to view larger image)
I played Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Asphalt 9 on Nord CE 4 Lite. While the former ran fine at default graphics settings, there was a bit of lag in some scenarios when the phone warmed up a bit. On the other hand, Gameloft's Asphalt 9 ran smoothly, even after 30 minutes of gameplay.
I also ran some synthetic benchmark tests on the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite, and you can check the table below to see how it performs with two other phones equipped with similar chips.
| Referent | OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite | Realme P1 5G | iQoo Z9 5G |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 Single Core | 904 | 956 | 1151 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi Core | 2015 | 2369 | 2669 |
| AnTuTu v10 | 448,127 | 570,926 | 687,545 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 9,850 | 13,319 | 13,319 |
| 3DMark Wild Life | 1508 | 4126 | 4126 |
| 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited | 1507 | 4205 | 4205 |
| 3DMark Slingshot | 4226 | 6654 | 6654 |
| 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme | 3121 | 5766 | 5766 |
| GFXBench Car Chase | 17 | 21 | 33 |
| GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 | 30 | 39 | 60 |
| GFXBench T-Rex | 60 | 60 | 108 |
I haven't had any issues with OxygenOS 14 on the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite in terms of stability. Apps stay in memory for a while after use, switching between apps is easy (especially when using navigation gestures), and most apps can load quickly.
Like other smartphones in the same price segment, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite comes with pre-installed bloatware including Agoda, Bubble Pop, Netflix, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft 365, Myntra, Tile Match and Word Connect . I was able to uninstall all these apps, which were present on the phone as soon as it was set up.
The Nord CE 4 Lite's AMOLED screen is bright and a nice upgrade over last year's model. OnePlus says the panel has a maximum brightness of 1200 nits, and it provided good visibility during the time I used the phone outdoors, as long as auto-brightness was turned on.
The Nord CE 4 Lite's AMOLED screen is a huge improvement over its predecessor's LCD panel
The battery life of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is on par with other smartphones in the same price segment. It lasted 22 hours and 17 minutes on our HD video battery loop test, while averaging about 6 hours of screen-on time over the course of a week. It takes about 30 minutes to charge the phone to 72 percent, while the phone is fully charged in about 55 minutes.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite Review: Cameras
The OnePlus features a dual rear camera setup that includes a 50-megapixel shooter with a Sony LYT-600 sensor and an f/1.9 aperture, as well as a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. Practically speaking, the main camera is the only one you can use to capture images.
While the Nord CE 4 Lite's main camera has a lower megapixel count than its predecessor. It is worth noting that the latest model offers support for optical image stabilization (OIS) and electronic image stabilization (EIS).
During the time I spent testing the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite, the main camera was able to capture clear images during the day, as long as the subject wasn't too far away. These images look decent enough for social media, but don't have enough detail when you zoom in.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite daytime shots are good enough for social media apps (tap to enlarge)
Nord CE 4 Lite processes sky color differently in 1x and 2x modes (tap to enlarge)
The camera app also offers an in-sensor zoom mode that lets you capture images at 2x zoom. and the feature allows you to capture detailed images of nearby subjects. However, just like the default 1x mode, you'll notice a lack of detail when zooming in on images.
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite also features a dedicated night mode, for capturing images in low-light conditions. My biggest gripe with the camera app is that you have to manually turn on night mode; it won't automatically apply any enhancements when it detects a dark scene.
When activated, night mode offers better results in terms of visibility and there is a bit more detail compared to images taken in automatic mode. However, it takes just over a second to capture each image, which means you can't use it to capture images of moving subjects. There's also a lot of smoothing to remove noise, and it also tends to make the sky appear much brighter than it actually is at night, which isn't ideal.
Nord CE 4 Lite's night mode improves images in low-light scenarios (tap for larger image)
Night mode photos captured on the Nord CE 4 Lite have a considerable amount of smoothing (tap to enlarge)
OnePlus has equipped the Nord CE 4 Lite with a 16-megapixel main camera, which is good for capturing selfies outdoors during the day, or even indoors, assuming you have enough light around. However, images captured at night are blurry and colors look a little less vibrant.
You can capture video up to 1080p/30fps on the main rear camera, with 1x and 2x zoom, and both modes offer OIS and EIS support, with no option to turn it off. Videos are clear and good enough to upload to social media, but the OIS performance takes a bit of a hit in low-light scenarios. The selfie camera lets you capture up to 1080p/30fps, but there's no stabilization.
OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite review: Verdict
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite offers upgrades over its predecessor (in terms of display and primary rear camera), but faces stiff competition at under Rs. 20,000, from other brands and proprietary models that offer better camera performance or a more powerful chipset. The company's older OnePlus Nord CE 3 has a more powerful processor and often drops below Rs. 20,000 mark on Amazon.
As a result, it's hard to recommend the Nord CE 4 Lite unless you're specifically looking to buy a budget smartphone from OnePlus. There are several alternatives to the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite in the same price bracket. The Poco X6 5G and Realme 12+ both have faster chips than the one powering this phone and have a more versatile set of cameras. Other options to consider include iQoo Z9, Realme P1 Pro 5G, Vivo T3 and Tecno Pova 6 Pro.
