OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G review: Is it the budget all-rounder you need?

A lot of times our focus is on the flagship phones. And rightly. After all these are the phones that show us what is latest in the tech, the possibilities and everything that is cutting-edge. Yet, these are also expensive phones. Reality is that in India most of us buy phones that cost far less, say something between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. The OnePlus CE Lite series serves these budget-conscious buyers and the latest in the segment is the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G. It is also a fairly capable phone that hits almost all - and believe me on this - marks, giving people an option to get a phone that costs less than Rs 20,000 and functions well-enough to be a good daily driver.

OnePlus surely makes big claims about its latest phone. The company says the Nord CE4 Lite has been developed with technologies first seen in its more premium phones. Sure there are compromises and cost-cutting to hit specific pricing targets but overall, according to the company, the CE4 Lite should offer consumers fairly comprehensive OnePlus experience. The kind of experience that OnePlus says will help Nord CE4 Lite address the common concerns of budget smartphone users, including battery life, display brightness, and camera performance.

That's a big claim. So, does OnePlus manage to get close to these claims in the real-life performance of the Nord CE4 Lite? I have been using the device as my daily driver for the past one week. My experience with it has been fairly good. I am really liking the all-rounder package the Nord CE4 Lite offers. Although the phone also has some misses, which I will detail in a while. First, a quick look at the specs.

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite features a 6.6-inch AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. This is impressive because such displays are usually part of more expensive phones. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset - a sour point in my opinion - with up to 8GB RAM. The phone runs on OxygenOS 14.0 based on Android 14. It has a 5500mAh battery with support for 80W SUPERVOOC charging. The Nord CE4 also supports 5W reverse charging and offers an 80W fast charger bundled in the box.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite design

With its CE Lite phones, OnePlus is taking a bolder approach with phone designs. We saw this in previous CE Lite phones as well. The OnePlus CE4 Lite is no different. The device features a boxy design and a new colour palette. I reviewed the Mega Blue colour. While I like the blue shade here do understand that when OnePlus says "Mega", it really means it. The blue shade in the phone I reviewed is loud, extremely extremely loud. It hits senses, and while some will find their senses pleased by this shade, some would find their senses getting overwhelmed.

The back of the Nord CE4 Lite is made of plastic but has a shiny, glass finish. The frame is brushed aluminium. The overall build quality is solid and in no way the phone feels cheap. Even with a big 5500mAh battery, the device feels light, which depending on how you see it could be a good thing or bad. It weighs around 190 grams but in hands feels lighter.

In line with the OnePlus aesthetics, there is a OnePlus logo in the middle of the back panel, and on the top left corner, the dual camera setup with dual LED lights. While the glass-finish back looks cool and accentuates the colour, it is a fingerprint magnet. In no time you will find it smudgy. Although, we all use our phones with a case so it would hardly be an issue for anyone.

Similar to the Nord CE3 Lite, OnePlus has ditched the island design and has provided two separate round cutouts for each camera lens. There is a distinctive pill-shaped border to highlight the camera module. It has a slightly darker shade of blue and at a glance looks like it is raised. But it is not.

The phone comes with an IP54 rating, which may not be as robust as IP 6X found in premium phones, but it should keep the phone somewhat safe from accidental water splashes. Talking of water, the Nord CE4 Lite comes with OnePlus's latest Aqua Touch, which allows screen use even if with wet hands or even if there are water droplets on the screen.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G gets AMOLED display

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G comes with a 6.67-inch AMOLED display offering up to 120Hz refresh rate. This is a significant upgrade from the CE3 Lite, which has an LCD screen. The AMOLED display offers deeper colours and contrast, providing a vivid and immersive viewing experience.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos, Netflix series, scrolled through social media, and did some of my regular things I generally use my smartphones for, and I really liked the display of the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite. It's bright - both indoors and outdoors - boasting a peak brightness of 2100 nits. It's smoother as well with the 120Hz refresh rate and offers a balanced viewing experience from all angles.

Now coming to vivid, something which is expected from OLED screens, don't expect to see the vividness that we get in more expensive and higher-end phones. The colours, although better than what LED and LCD screens, show belong to an OLED panel that is clearly more mainstream. So, there is riot of oversaturated colours on the screen of the CE4 Lite. This, depending on how you want your colours, could be noticeable to you or not. Irrespective, I do feel that the CE4 Lite has one of the best displays in a phone under Rs 20,000.

A smooth daily driver

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G houses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 695 5G chipset. It is somewhat disappointing, if not in practical sense then at least to me as a tech lover. This is because the Snapdragon 695 is a chipset that we first saw in Nord CE2. It is somewhat old now and while there is nothing wrong with it, I would have liked to see some progress here. For example, this is a chipset that scores around 900 points in single-core Geekbench and around 2000 in multi-core performance. In 2024, we do expect better from mainstream phones.

In practical way, in day-to day-use, the Snapdragon 695 gets the job done. It handles daily tasks fairly well. Whether it's extensive binge-watching, scrolling through social media, opening tens of apps in the background, or multitasking, the processor handles everything smoothly and not once in a week of use did I face any jitter or lag.

Gaming is little limited in the sense that most games don't allow you to the gameplay settings at maximum. Instead setting the graphics at medium to low gives smoother gaming experience. One thing that I really liked about the CE4 Lite is how cool it runs. While gaming it ran fairly cool, although I mostly gamed on it while sitting in an air-conditioned room. But the CE4 Lite also runs cool while running benchmarks such as Geekbench.

Like other OnePlus phones, the CE4 Lite also runs on OxygenOS 14.0 based on Android 14. The experience is classic OnePlus, which means good. The software has a clean user interface, there are a tons of handy features and the colour schemes are pleasant. One part, I did not like though, is the high number of bundled apps. But here too users need not worry because most of the third-party apps can be uninstalled and removed.

The CE4 Lite comes with Dual Stereo Speakers. While dual speakers might not seem like a big feature, many brands skip stereo sound in budget phones. So seeing the stereo speakers in the CE4 Lite is nice. The speakers offer clear, crisp audio, and I never felt the audio output was muffled or screechy. It was loud enough. I watched Panchayat Season 3 and did not reach out to my earbuds as the audio from speakers was satisfactory.

CE4 Lite 5G is a battery hero

The Nord CE4 Lite comes with a 5500 mAh battery, an upgrade to the 5000 mAh battery in its predecessor. While using the phone, I find the battery of Nord CE4 as its top feature. It offers looong battery life, as long enough to last around a day and half for me. And if it lasts this long with my kind of usage, I have a feeling that for most users the battery figures would be similar or slightly higher. Even with incessant streaming and lots of gaming, the CE4 Lite managed to last with me for around a day.

Like other OnePlus phones, the CE 4 Lite also offers fast charging support - to be specific support of 80W SUPERVOOC charging. And to enable this charging, OnePlus has bundled a fast charger in the box. This charger makes the battery go from 0 to 100 within an hour. The phone also supports 5W reverse charging feature. It allowed me to charge my other phone, or even earbuds.

One camera to rule them all

In a sea of phones that come equipped with multiple-cameras, the CE4 Lite has only one. Effectively. I mean there are two rear cameras - one main camera, which uses 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 sensor, and a 2-megapixel camera with a depth sensor. So effectively only one camera. The good news: it is a capable camera.

In good light, the CE4 Lite is capable of clicking photos that have rich colours and well-exposed photos. I particularly like the colours, although in terms of details the camera is a hit and miss. Sometimes it captures photos that have good amount of details (see the photo of the plant for example), but occasionally it also smooths over the texture. At the same time, the phone has a very effective portrait mode, which detects edges and blurs the background in a pleasant way.

Low-light camera performance is obviously a level lower, although in my experience the CE4 Lite still managed to do an admirable job in the cloudy Delhi weather. Yet, in terms of the details the low-light photos clicked with the CE 4 Lite were just usual and not really exemplary in any way.

The front camera uses a 16-megapixel sensor that also clicks good photos in good lighting. In low light, the photos do come out a bit grainy.

To enhance the photography experience, OnePlus has added features like AI Eraser in the Nord CE4 Lite. Similar to Google's Magic Eraser, the AI Eraser of OnePlus allows you to remove unwanted things from the background of the photo. I tried and it worked flawlessly and made editing photos fun.

Overall, I like the camera of the CE4 Lite. Sure it is missing a separate ultra-wide camera, or this lens or that. But cram-more-cameras in a phone is anyway a useless trend. What users really need are good cameras, particularly a good main camera, and not 3 or 5 separate cameras, all of which are useless.

[ITG:TECH-PHOTOS]

Nord CE4 Lite review: should you buy it?

Let's summarise: The Nord CE4 Lite has a lot to offer. It has a really good AMOLED display, a big battery with fast charging, good speakers, and even a capable camera. The processor gets the job done, though it has not been upgraded.

Design is a subjective part. If you like a boxy design, then you will appreciate the CE4 Lite. OnePlus also offers some good colour options. But it has a downside too. The boxy design feels a bit dated and gives the illusion of the phone being bulky, even though the Nord CE4 Lite is lightweight.

I would have absolutely loved the CE4 Lite if it had come packed with an upgraded chipset, or if older then a more powerful Series 7 Snapdragon. Because the rest of the phone is well-put together package that gives users not spending more than Rs 20,000 on their phone the kind of experience which is polished and reliable. In other words, if you are looking to buy one of the best phones under Rs 20,000 the CE4 Lite should be in your shortlist. And not just in your shortlist but, in my opinion, on top of your shortlist.