OnePlus Nord 2 announced with promising specs but very few surprises

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Smooth and speedy

OnePlus Nord 2
(Image credit: Srivatsa Ramesh)

OnePlus has now unveiled its latest and long-awaited mid-ranger, the OnePlus Nord 2, but really the company has spent the last couple of weeks announcing the phone, with a drip-feed of reveals that ensured there wasn’t a huge amount of new stuff to unveil at the official launch.

Still, what’s here sounds promising. The OnePlus Nord 2 has a 6.43-inch 1080 x 2400 AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, while on the power front there’s a MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI chipset, which the company claims offers 65% faster CPU performance and 125% better GPU performance than the original OnePlus Nord.

On the camera front, there’s a 50MP f/1.88 main snapper (which you’ll also find on the OnePlus 9 range), coupled with an 8MP f/2.25 ultra-wide, a 2MP f/2.5 mono camera, and a 32MP f/2.45 selfie snapper. Video can be shot at up to 4K quality at 30fps, and OnePlus also claims to have improved night mode on the camera, so you can get useable snaps even when it’s really dark.

Speedy charging and a mid-range price

As for the battery, that’s 4,500mAh, and it supports 65W fast charging, which OnePlus says is speedy enough to get the Nord 2 from zero to 100% in just 30 minutes.

Rounding out the specs there’s an in-screen fingerprint scanner, dual stereo speakers, 5G support, and Android 11 – with a promise of two major operating system updates and three years of security updates.

The OnePlus Nord 2 isn’t coming to the US or Australia, but in the UK you’ll be able to buy it from July 29, with prices starting at £399. That gets you a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and that version will be sold at John Lewis, OnePlus, Amazon, Three and O2.

There’s also a version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for £469, which will be sold at John Lewis, OnePlus and Amazon. A model with 6GB of RAM has been announced too, but this doesn’t seem to be coming to the UK.

As well as storage and RAM you’ll also be able to pick the color of the phone, with Gray Sierra, Blue Haze, and Green Wood models all available.

James Rogerson
James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.