WED, JUL 24
NimishAndAkriti
Almost a decade ago, metal phones were considered to be way to go. They were tough, resilient and often could be used without covers. Then of course, THAT Cupertino company started making THAT phone with a glass body, and the rest of the world laughed the idea...and then followed suit. Yes, it is a pattern. We have been drowning in glass and plastic backed phones for a while, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised we were to see a metal phone suddenly. And a very good looking one too - the OnePlus Nord 4. Read on to get our thoughts.
Let's get one thing straight - the OnePlus Nord 4 might be the latest in the bestselling mid-segment Nord series from OnePlus, and might come with very respectable specs, but the phone is really all about design,. And the design is all about metal! To be fair, not ALL of the back is metal - the upper part of the back which contains the camera unit is glass, but the lower part and the sides are metal, We got the Mercurial Silver variant, and while you also get Obsidian Black and Oasis green colours, the Mercurial Silver with its stripes on the back and shining sides, showcases the metal side of the phone best!
What is extremely impressive is that OnePlus has added all this metal to the phone without making it either too heavy or bulky. The Nord 4 is just 8 mm thin and is about 200 grams in weight, which is not super light, but is light enough for its size (hey, it is 162.6 mm tall). That metal look is going to turn heads, we tell you, and the transparent back cover OnePlus has included in the box is so super as to be superfluous! Incidentally, the phone comes with IP65 dust and water resistance, so will survive splashes of water and the odd rainy spell!
Its innards are pretty impressive too - the OnePlus Nord 4 comes with a 6.74 inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate, and runs on the pretty powerful Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 chip with 8 GB and 12 GB RAM and 128 GB and 256 GB storage. Rather oddly, the 128 GB storage is UFS 3.1 while the 256 GB is UFS 4.0, but we guess that corner was cut to accommodate price.
That rather slim frame packs in a large 5500 mAh battery with support for 100W charging, and well, this being a OnePlus, you get a 100W charger in the box as well. There are also stereo speakers and the interface is OnePlus' OxygenOS 14.1, with some AI elements thrown in on top of Android 14. OnePlus has promised four years of Android updates and six years of software updates; That's pretty good!
"Pretty good" is what we would also call the cameras in that glass enclosure above the metal on the back of the OnePlus Nord 4. The main camera is a 50 megapixel Sony Lytia one with OIS, while the secondary one is a more modest 8 megapixel ultrawide. A 16 megapixel camera in the notch in front handles selfies and video calls.
All of which you get at Rs 29,999 for 8 GB/ 128 GB, Rs 32,999 for 8 GB/ 256 GB and Rs 35,999 for 12 GB/ 256 GB. That's pretty decent for a mid-segment phone. We would recommend skipping the 8 GB/ 128 GB one altogether because of the slower storage (it CAN make a difference, believe us). In best Nord tradition, the OnePlus Nord 4 is a pretty solid phone. But its most appealing feature is the glitter of metal - seen on the back of a phone after ages. We hope other phone brands get their metal acts together too!
As always, feel free to ask us anything you wish to know about the device. We will do our bestest to answer!