OnePlus Nord 4 pros and cons
Sleek all-metal design with premium finish.
Impressive camera, with enhanced low-light capabilities
Confident performance from the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 processor
Lacks wireless charging capabilities.
No charger as standard - but often available as free gift incentive.
Design and specifications
The Nord 4’s design provides an immediate positive impression, a gorgeous device which stands out from the crowd - and head and shoulders above the competition at this price point.
The aluminium unibody construction is also not just for show by providing hardiness without heft, weighing in at a mere 199.5g.
The return of an all-metal body is a welcome one - they fast fell out of fashion due to the challenges in retaining strong connectivity for 4G and 5G antennas, but some clever positioning and craftsmanship from OnePlus has seen the alluring aesthetic make a comeback.
The super-slim 7.99mm side profile also cuts a svelte figure, making for an attractive smartphone silhouette.
The top portion of the device housing the camera is frosted glass - not the Gorilla Glass found on contemporaries, but strong nonetheless.
The front of the device features a nearly bezel-free display, interrupted only by a small centred punch-hole camera, resulting in a near edge-to-edge screen and impressive 93.5% screen-to-body ratio. The in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable, offering quick access and eschewing the need to move it to either the side or the (increasingly rare) rear.
The Nord 4 comes in three distinct hues: Mercurial Silver, Oasis Green, and Obsidian Midnight. Whilst our review model was the impressive two-tone green variant, it's undeniable that the laser-etched Silver model is the perfect vision of Oneplus' full-metal device, looking like an architect's dream.
Each colourway still complements the metal and glass construction, offering a flagship-worthy experience in both look and feel. An honourable mention has to go to presence of the now-iconic OnePlus alert slider, a pleasurable physical switch to deftly toggle between silent, vibrate, and ring modes effortlessly.
The Nord 4's robustness extends to protection from the elements, with an introduction to the Nord range of IP65 ratings for water and dust resistance. A great feature given the presence of OnePlus' Aqua Touch technology, enabling almost uninterrupted use of the screen with wet fingers, or in a torrential downpour.
Aqua Touch is an oft-overlooked feature, but goes from gimmick to great if caught short during the Great British summer...so is entirely welcome here on a Nord device!
Display and audio quality
Those looking for the Nord 4's strengths will also find them in its 6.74-inch Fluid AMOLED display, certainly one of its standout features.
With a resolution of 2772 x 1240 pixels (450 ppi), it offers crisp visuals, vivid colours, and excellent contrast.
The screen also supports as much as a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes interactions—from scrolling through feeds to playing games—feel smoother and more responsive.
Whilst 120Hz can manually be selected as a constant, the default 'auto-select' and standard 60Hz modes tend to be far more common in terms of general usage, unless you opt otherwise.
The high peak brightness of up to 2150 nits ensures great visibility even in direct sunlight, which is a significant advantage for outdoor usage.
The screen’s colour reproduction is accurate, covering 100% of the sRGB and Display P3 colour gamuts, and offers 10-bit colour depth, enabling over a billion colours.
This translates to vibrant and realistic visuals, whether you’re watching HDR content or editing photos - where Ultra HDR, ProXDR support come as standard, as well as eye comfort modes to reduce blue light emission.
Audio quality complements the display experience, with dual stereo speakers flanking the display and delivering immersive sound in most instances.
The speakers provide a balanced audio output, offering a decent amount of bass, clear mids, and sharp highs.
Some of the more premium audio standards like Dobly Atmos aren't here on the Nord 4, neither does the headphone jack, so users who prefer wired audio will need to rely on USB-C headphones or wireless options.
Camera performance
Photo snapping remains as a key selling point, so it was welcome to see the Nord 4 deliver a decent effort, with small compromises made to offer practicality without cost.
The star of the show is the main 50-megapixel 'Truelight' Sony LY-600 sensor, which brings serious capability to this mid-range marvel.
Unlike some smartphones that ramp up the megapixel count at the expense of image quality, the Nord 4 focuses on real-world performance. Photos are packed with detail, and colours are vibrant without veering into the over-saturation territory.
The large sensor size, combined with an f/1.8 aperture, ensures that shots are well-exposed and clear, still performig admirably in low-light conditions thanks to Nightscape.
Nightscape mode is a pleasant surprise, pulling out shadows and highlighting details without that harsh noise and artificiality that can ruin many a late night selfie. Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) helps you achieve steady shots, making fast-paced handheld photography easy.
The 8MP ultra-wide lens is, whilst nothing to shout about, a fun addition to use. With its wide field of view, it's made for those expansive vistas on holiday or fitting a bunch of folks into a group shot. It comes with a minimal amount of added distortion and a drop in quality from the main sensor as one would expect, but certainly comes with the territory. Similarly, performance in low-light conditions sees a decline in crispness, but still results in a high level of quality to capture moments that matter.
For the adventurous photographer, the Nord 4’s does have an impressive macro capabilities allowing for getting up close and personal with subjects.
Video recording is another area where the Nord 4 shines. Shooting in 4K at 60 frames ensures smooth and visually dense footage, and the addition of both EIS and OIS keeps noise to a minimum on even very active shoots.
The dual-view video mode is an unexpected delight, letting content creators easily film using both the front and rear cameras at the same time! Slo-mo aficionados are covered too, with the ability to capture silky action at 1080p at 120fps or 720p at 240fps.
Selfie lovers will find the 16-megapixel front-facing lens capable of capturing decent self-portraits, though fixed focus can sometimes result in slightly soft details. But for the casual snap or social media story, it more than does the job.
In summary, the OnePlus Nord 4’s camera array may stop short of flagship-level photography, but nails the essentials with an emphasis on user-friendly functionality, versatile modes and solid core performance in a variety of lighting conditions.
Once again, the Nord 4 strikes a happy medium between powerful hardware and smart software that makes it easy to capture great photos without having a Masters in photography...which is what we like to see.
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Performance and software
Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset - a level below that of current flagships, yet entirely this year's tech - the Nord 4 delivers frankly remarkable performance for all but the most intense of tasks. The octa-core processor, coupled with an Adreno 732 GPU, is yet another area in which this device strikes a balance of power and restraint, resulting in seamless usage and shrewd power management to retain battery life.
Memory comes in the form of either 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, the phone is more than well-equipped for deft switching between multiple apps, lag-free gaming as well as great navigation through reams of files.
OnePlus's own technology also provides support, as what they've dubbed 'RAM-Vitalization' gives that feel of silky-smooth performance when booting and navigating apps - ever-narrowing that gap of perceived user experience between Android devices and 'others'...
Storage options are either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 4.0 memory - table stakes in today's smartphone world, but another reminder of a corner not cut to bring lower costs. Important caveat, however, in that a lack of support for microSD cards or expandable memory means that's your lot when it comes to on-device storage.
In terms of the operating system, OxygenOS 14 - OnePlus' offshoot of Android 14 - arrives installed on the device. Personally OxygenOS continues to be one of my favourite versions of Android, with cute features like native support for icon packs and personalisation layered on top of a clean and reserved core experience.
When it comes to long-term support OnePlus has pledged to provide four major Android updates and six years of security updates, which ensures that the Nord 4 will remain both up to spec and safe for a considerable period - shorter than some contemporaries, but we agree that it's more than long enough for most modern phones to be expected to last.
Lastly it wouldn't be 2024 unless the Nord 4 came packed with a raft of AI-enabled features, with everything from voice-to-text note taking, article summaries and image manipulation all coming as standard.
The on-device Qualcomm processors do a lot of the heavy lifting, but it does also communicate with the cloud for some of the more intensive tasks, whilst keeping your data secure.
Battery and charging
Given the importance of battery life to consumers, we're glad to say that this is one area where the Nord 4 simply defies belief!
The massive 5,500mAh battery isn't just impressive, it's the biggest to date in any OnePlus device, making a full day of the most committed use a breeze without a top-up.
When the need to charge does (eventually) arise, the Nord 4 is more than capable, thanks to support for OnePlus’s 100W Warp Charge capabilities.
Whilst the beefy charger is sold separately (or as a limited time pack-in), the Nord 4's novel dual-cell battery allows for quicker charging without seeing the device heating up - all the more a feat given the expansive metal rear.
With full charging in less than half an hour - as well as a promise of four years of battery health through extensive testing over thousands of cycles - you'll find it tough to get caught short when it comes to juice with the Nord 4, making it an impressively durable device when it comes to longevity.
Important to note that this device does lack wireless charging, a drawback given its increasingly commonplace nature in cars and homes - but with such swift and robust charging credentials in all other areas, we think it's a trade-off worth making when considering the Nord 4 as your new daily driver.
UK pricing and availability
The Nord 4 is now widely available. At the time of writing, keen pricing of just £429 for the 12GB RAM / 256GB storage variant in the UK, rising to £529 for 16GB and 512GB of memory continues to impress - particularly when you consider just how thoroughly it delivers a premium device experience both inside and out.
Add to that Oneplus' steady stream of discounts and incentives on their store (currently either a free set of Nord Buds 3 Pro earbuds or a SUPERVOOC 100W charger worth £79 and £60 respectively), and it simply continues to stand up as fantastic value.
Final verdict
The OnePlus Nord 4 is a shining example of delivering on the brief of a mid-range mobile with a minimum of compromises. With excellent performance, display quality, and camera versatility, it's easily a leading light when it comes to smartphones launched this year - regardless of category.
The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset ensures smooth daily operation, while the vibrant AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR support makes content consumption a joy, whilst the camera set-up offers the same exacting standards for content creation.
With an IP65 resistance rating, ultra-fast charging and a refined as well as resilient design, the Nord 4 brings a flagship-worthy experience to you at a fraction of the cost.
While it lacks wireless charging and a headphone jack,it more than makes up for in looks and features. A great addition to a strong OnePlus line-up, where it excels against the competition.
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