OnePlus has just revealed the OnePlus Nord 4, a new mid-ranger set to hit the market in the coming weeks – but how does it compare to the king of the mid-range market, the Pixel 8a?
While the Pixel 8a is undoubtedly one of the best mid-rangers on the market, it looks like the OnePlus Nord 4 could bring some fight to Google’s budget-friendly smartphone with a unique all-metal design, a high-end screen, fast charging and more.
Here’s how the OnePlus Nord 4 stacks up against the Google Pixel 8a based on spec to help you decide which you should spend your hard-earned cash on.
One of the biggest differences between the Nord 4 and Pixel 8a is the material the phones are made of.
The Pixel 8a sports the same combination of plastic, aluminium and glass as most other mid-range smartphones, and it’s available in nice pastel shades including Obsidian, Aloe, Porcelain and Bay.
The OnePlus Nord 4, on the other hand, is the first phone in the 5G era to offer a full metal body like phones from the mid-2010s.
The company figured out how to accommodate the increased needs of 5G connectivity while offering a (mostly) metal body, available in three shades including Obsidian Midnight, Mercurial Silver and a classic OnePlus green in the form of Oasis Green, though the Mercurial Silver features a nice machine-etched finish for added personality.
It’s not a complete win for OnePlus, with the Pixel 8a offering improved IP67 dust and water resistance compared to the Nord 4’s IP65 despite its metal chassis, but it’s not too far off either.
The Pixel 8a has more AI smarts
The OnePlus Nord 4 comes with a range of AI features, some of which haven’t been seen on previous OnePlus phones including the high-end OnePlus 12 and OnePlus Open.
These include AI Audio Summary that summarises long recordings, AI Note Summary that can summarise long chunks of text, AI Translate for text-based translation and Magic Eraser 2.0 to remove elements from photos, with other photo editing features coming in a future update.
That’s a pretty good start, but Google has been dabbling in AI for much longer than the competition, and that means the Pixel 8a is brimming with AI-infused features and functionality. This ranges from AI-powered photo modes like Super Res Zoom to editing features like Magic Eraser and Best Take, but it goes further than that.
It offers much of the same functionality as the Nord 4, and then some, with impressive accuracy when transcribing recordings in particular. It uses AI to perform actions like automatically identifying music you hear throughout the day, it can take calls for you (region-dependent) and much more.
The OnePlus Nord 4 has a bigger, higher-res display
While mid-range display tech has come a long way in the past few years, it looks like the Nord 4 is about to take that experience and crank it up a notch.
The Nord 4 sports a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with a pixel-packed 1.5K resolution, 2150nit peak brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, support for Google’s Ultra HDR format as well as OnePlus’ own ProXDR display tech.
That’s impressive enough, but the Nord 4 also does away with the fairly thick bezels we see all too often in the mid-range space, with something more akin to a flagship phone – on three of the four edges, anyway.
The Pixel 8a’s screen looks a little dated mainly because its bezels are much thicker than that of the OnePlus, but it also trails behind the Nord 4 with its spec. More specifically, the Pixel 8a sports a 6.1-inch OLED screen with key specs including an FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and a 2000nit peak brightness.
The Pixel 8a has better long-term support
If there’s one area that the Pixel 8a stands out in the mid-range market, it’s its long-term support. While most mid-rangers offer anywhere between 3 and 5 OS upgrades, with 5 being pretty rare, Google’s mid-ranger will get a whopping seven OS upgrades – the longest in the industry, along with recent Samsung smartphone commitments.
That does take the shine off the Nord 4 despite offering an increased 4 OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches compared to its predecessors, but it’s still a competitive long-term software promise.
The OnePlus Nord 4 is cheaper
When it comes to the all-important pricing, OnePlus’ latest mid-ranger is cheaper than Google’s Pixel 8a. More specifically, the Nord 4 starts at £429, while the Pixel 8a starts at £499, though the prices of both increase if you opt for more storage/RAM.
The Google Pixel 8a is available to buy right now, while the OnePlus Nord 4 is due for release on 8 August with pre-orders live right now.
