I consider OnePlus to be more of a marketing company than a phone manufacturer, as it really is a flashier subsidiary to OPPO. There was a time, long ago, when they used to build hype through online-only reservation channels. But in the highly competitive world of C-brand phones, it’s easier to stand out as an odd outlier.
I actually like this phone. The Nord CE4 Lite 5G comes with a tad of things I can enjoy. Smart packaging with the iconic red charging cable (it’s 80W SUPERVOOC ready), a 3.5mm jack for the old-school audiophile, 5500mAh battery, 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM (PLUS memory expansion with the hybrid dual SIM slot) spells decent specs with, to be honest, a camera that is quite capable. Here are some photo samples taken with some of the 12 built in filters:
Specs wise we’re looking at a decent phone — except for one thing. It makes use of an older Snapdragon 695 5G Chipset that came out in 2021. For the price of P18,000 you can get other phones — and change. The realme 12+ that comes with a MediaTek 7050 is cheaper by P3,000 and scores much higher in Antutu benchmark scores. The 695 is a bit closer to the Helio G99 and should be priced accordingly — definitely slightly above P10,000 but below P15,000.
That being said, OnePlus did set expectations saying that this is really an entertainment consumption device. They’re probably aware of the bottleneck — or as I would like to humorously surmise, had an excess stock of 695 chips in the factory and needed to push out something (anything!) to move inventory.
Which is sad. Because without the price consideration, this phone is a looker. I’m not sure if they intentionally used the “absurd” marketing jargon on their website — because yes, this phone is absurd. It’s absurdly expensive for a 695 in 2024.
If you’re considering this phone, probably wait for a price drop to around P10,000. Available now, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G comes with P2,500 worth of freebies including a pair of bluetooth earbuds, a power adaptor, and phone case.
