OnePlus Breaks Into Budget Phones With OnePlus Nord N Series
OnePlus partners with T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile to bring its budget duo to the masses.
Over the past several years, OnePlus has grown from a beloved niche brand to a powerhouse in the US market. Its strategy is simple: sell flagship smartphones at affordable prices. Last year, the company announced its first midrange offerings, the OnePlus Nord and OnePlus Nord N10 5G. And while neither made it to the US in 2020, OnePlus is now making good on its promise to bring the Nord N10 5G to the US along with its first budget phone, the Nord N100.
The OnePlus Nord N10 5G and OnePlus Nord N100 will be available at T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, and on the OnePlus website later this month. Both offer serious hardware at rock-bottom prices, which puts them up against the likes of the Motorola Moto G Power.
With a 6.49-inch display and 90Hz refresh rate, the $300 Nord N10 5G is the more expensive and feature-rich of the pair. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 chipset, and sports 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. And if the name didn’t give it away, it also works on T-Mobile’s 5G network.
There’s a chunky 4,300mAh battery that should easily get heavy users through a full day between charges. But if you find yourself running low, OnePlus includes a 30W Warp charger in the box. A quick 10-minute charge will easily add several hours of juice to a depleted battery.
On the back of the phone, you’ll find a fingerprint sensor along with a quad camera stack with a 64MP primary lens, 8MP ultrawide lens, and 2MP depth and macro lenses. A 16MP selfie shooter is on the front.
OnePlus Nord N100
If you’re not worried about 5G or simply want to save a little money, the OnePlus Nord N100 is worth a look. It’s a pared-down version of Nord N10 5G that clocks in under $200. It features a 6.52-inch display, stereo speakers, and a massive 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging.
The phone sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. There’s a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, alongside a triple camera module with a 13MP main lens and 2MP depth and macro sensors. The front-facing camera clocks in at 8MP.
Both phones ship with Android 10 along with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 10.5 skin. It’s amongst our favorite Android skins and offers features like Zen Mode to help you step away from your phone, as well as a Black and White Mode for reading. There’s no word if either phone will get the Android 11 treatment in the coming months, but OnePlus tends to have an excellent track record with software upgrades.
The Nord duo will be available online and at T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile stores on Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. ET. The 5G-capable Nord N10 will set you back $299.99 while the Nord N100 will be available for $179.99. Pre-orders go live on Amazon, Best Buy, B&H, and OnePlus on Jan. 8 at 10 a.m. ET.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
