OnePlus Nord N20 SE Smartphone Review – The OnePlus is finally settling down with entry-level phones, and the company has precisely added a few new and interesting devices over this year. It includes especially the Nord N-series lineup that offers a wide range of features at a quite inexpensive price point. Around August 2022, the smartphone makers launched the OnePlus Nord N20 SE, which is the downgrade version of the Nord 20 5G.
Although, there’s no denying the company has put some effort into making its devices more valuable to users. Therefore, you can expect long-lasting battery life with this phone with standard camera results and good enough display support. All of this combined still doesn’t determine the accurate value of this phone and there are flaws that you should consider looking into before purchasing this phone. Let’s head toward the OnePlus Nord N20 SE smartphone review to find out more details about this phone.
Table of Contents
OnePlus Nord N20 SE Smartphone Review
Highlights
- For the starter, you will obtain a 6.56-inches IPS LCD panel that supports 720p resolution.
- You can expect the Android 12 firmware based on the clean OXygenOS 12.1 interface.
- As for the hardware support, the company inserted the Helio G35 chipset on this phone.
- A regular dual camera setup will appear on the back panel with 8MP selfie support.
- Under the hood, the phone equips a Li-Po 5000 mAh battery with 33W fast charging support.
Design and Display
The first impression of this phone is looking pretty refreshing, but at the same time, it offers the standard camera module. The Nord N20 SE comes with a sleek design layout that appears to be more elegant and classic with shade options like Blue Oasis and Celestial black. Both of them are a premium choice of color variety, and you can choose anyone that fits your preferences.
On the other hand, the overall built quality is sturdy even though it’s just a boxy plastic frame. Besides this, when you hold this phone, it shines in front of the light and renders a lightweight body. The phone roughly weighs around 187 grams and offers an 8 mm thick side frame where you will find the fingerprint scanner is emblemed on the power button. Although, there’s no information regarding protection coating.
Moving to the front display, the smartphone maker gives a water drop notch 6.56-inch screen based on the IPS LCD panel. Although, the HD resolution might sound underwhelming, still, you won’t face any problem watching content. Though, the colors and contrast can’t be on par with the AMOLED panel. Hopefully, the brightness level can reach up to 600 nits.
Memory and Internal
The hardware department of the OnePlus Nord N20 SE is a powered 12nm MediaTek MT6765G Helio G35 chipset that will handle the overall performance aspect and provide ample support for your daily usage. With this chipset, the CPU can provide a 4×2.3GHz cloaking speed that will support the gameplay. It will render smooth gaming sessions, but it will struggle a bit with high-resolution and graphic games.
As for the software end, you can expect a clean UI interface that will help the users easily navigate different aspects of OxgyenOS 12.1, which is associated with the Android 12 interface. Although, the simple user interface does bring lots of customization features from which you can modify the overall appearance of the android ecosystem in a pretty hassle-free manner.
Following this, the GPU setup is downgraded since you are only getting a standard PowerVR GE8320, which is not that powerful to support all of those heavy-end visuals and graphics of nowadays games. Besides this, the additional performance comes through 4GB RAM support, while the 64GB eMMC 5.1 internal storage is underwhelming for average users’ needs. But, it’s good to say that the company added a secondary expandable option in the SIM tray.
Camera
The OnePlus Nord N20 SE is a brilliant phone when it comes to the software end, and the AI software for the camera island is also improved a bit compared to the previous generation phones. The new OnePlus Nord N20 SE smartphone comes along with a 50MP primary lens that will lead the camera app to provide impressive photos with fine details and proper color saturation.
In the daylight results, you won’t notice that many problems and the clicks are looking pretty much presentable so that you can share them to your social media account in the meantime. Aside from this, the night mode does feel downgraded since you won’t notice proper noise reduction. Anyway, it’s worth noting that the prostrate photos are comes out great with the 2MP depth lens support.
On the other hand, the 16MP lens that appears on the OnePlus Nord N20 is replaced by the 8MP lens on Nord N20 SE. This downgrade does impact the overall selfie quality and you will receive mediocre results with the front camera. Lastly, let’s talk about the video recording aspect. The native camera app only recorded up to 1080p from both side lens.
Battery and Others
Moving to the battery section, you will obtain a massive Li-Po 5000 mAh battery that will support thorough content streaming, long gaming session, and a few hours of social media usage in a single go. Besides this, you will generally get more than 6+ hours of screen time to enjoy all of those perks, and a big thanks to better battery optimization.
Aside from this, you will find a 33W fast charging with this phone and it roughly needs an hour and a few minutes to fill the battery capacity to 100%. At the same time, the sound output is not that great, but you are getting the standard 3.5 mm jack. Finally, the OnePlus Nord N20 SE smartphone is priced at $139 (Rs. 14,999 in India) approx, which is a good deal according to the price point.
OnePlus Nord N20 SE Pros and Cons
OnePlus Nord N20 SE Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the OnePlus Nord N20 SE smartphone.
| Specifications | OnePlus Nord N20 SE |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Announced | August 2022 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.45 x 2.95 x 0.31 inches |
| Weight | 187 g |
| Size | 6.56 inches |
| Display | IPS LCD 90Hz 480-600 nits brightness 20:9 ratio ~269 PPI density |
| Protection | No |
| Resolution | 720 x 1612 pixels |
| OS | Android 12, OxygenOS 12.1 |
| Chipset | 12nm – MediaTek MT6765G Helio G35 |
| CPU | Octa-core 4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 |
| GPU | PowerVR GE8320 |
| Card slot | microSDXC |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Internal | 64GB eMMC 5.1 |
| Camera | 50 MP (wide), PDAF 2 M, (depth) LED flash, HDR, panorama Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Selfie | 8 MP (wide) Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (dual speakers) |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 5.3, A2DP, LE, aptX HD |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS |
| NFC | No |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go |
| Sensors | Side-mounted fingerprint, accelerometer, proximity, compass |
| Battery | Li-Po 5000 mAh Fast charging 33W |
| Colors | Blue Oasis, Celestial Black |
| Expected Price | $139 (Rs. 14,999 in India) approx |
Conclusion
In general, we don’t recommend readers go with a 5G phone that comes under the $150 price tag, since you are losing a lot for just that tag. Hopefully, that’s not the case for the OnePlus Nord N20 SE because it offers 4G connectivity with a comparatively good set of specs and features to give interested users a balanced smartphone choice.
You should purchase this phone if you are not planning to move to 5G connectivity anytime soon. Besides this, there are several other options that appear in the same price range, and if you are looking for an alternative option, then you can check out the Vivo iQOO Z6 Lite smartphone, which comes with a better display and octa-core processing speed. The final decision is in your hand to choose as per your budget and requirement.
