The OnePlus Nord 4 Brings A New Look And Bigger Specs To The Lineup
The OnePlus Nord is the company’s low-cost alternative to the year’s big, bad, numbered OnePlus device. That means the OnePlus Nord 4 is what you should go for if you want something a lot cheaper than the OnePlus 12 or 12R. Let’s see how last year’s Nord 3 stacks against this year’s Nord 4.
The Designs
These phones have the same general shape, with curved corners. The front of each device is pretty hard to distinguish too. However, when you flip the phone around, you’ll find the most notable differences between them.
The OnePlus Nord 3 has a plastic frame and a flat glass back from top to bottom, with two vertically stacked camera cutouts in the top-left corner. However, the lower camera module holds two lenses instead of just one (for a total of three rear cameras). The Nord 4 opts for an aluminum unibody with a glass window in the top part of the back panel. That glass window holds the two horizontally placed cameras. Here, there are only two actual lenses, as it looks.
The OnePlus Nord 3 only has IP54 certification while the Nord 4 steps up to IP65 for greater resistance against dust and water.
The Screens
There’s not much difference between the displays of the Nord 3 and Nord 4. Both devices have a 6.74-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a 1240 x 2772 resolution and HDR10+ certification. The only major difference is that the Nord 4 gets slightly slimmer bezels and a higher peak brightness of 2,150 nits as opposed to 1,450 on the Nord 3.
The Chipsets And Memory
The Nord 3 had a MediaTek Dimensity 9000, which is a great chip, but they decided to leave MediaTek and go to Qualcomm for its Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 in the Nord 4. It’s the better chip, so you get the expected year-over-year improvement in the processor.
The Nord 3 had a maximum spec of 16/256GB with UFS 3.1 storage. The Nord 4 builds on that with 16GB of RAM in its top model but doubles the storage to 512GB and brings UFS 4.0 storage. You also get an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.4 (over 5.2).
The Batteries And Charging
The battery in the Nord 4 also gets bigger at 5,500 mAh compared to its predecessor’s 5,000 mAh cell. The charging speed isn’t let out of the improvements, as the already fast 80W charging on the Nord 3 gets pushed up to 100W, which allows for faster 1 to 100% charging even with a bigger battery in the phone.
The Cameras
The cameras are somewhat similar on paper. The 16MP selfie cam doesn’t change and the 8MP ultrawide makes another appearance too. The main cameras on both phones are 50MP units with OIS, though it looks like the actual sensor has been changed.
The Pricing, And Which One Should You Go For?
Now, the question is, does the OnePlus Nord 4 bring enough over the Nord 3? Before we get to that, we need to talk about the launch price for each phone. The Nord 3 started at €499 for 8GB/256GB and the Nord 4 starts at the same price for 12GB/256GB. However, you can likely get a new Nord 3 for cheaper than its launch price at this point. You can get it for nearly 100 euros cheaper on Amazon, which makes the decision tougher.
However, with a better processor, bigger battery, faster charging, and more RAM, the Nord 4 has just enough to be worth an upgrade, especially if you’re a big fan of the new design. However, if you’re big on savings, then you won’t be disappointed with the Nord 3 either.
