OnePlus Nord N20 5G review

Price When Reviewed

$299

Best Prices Today: OnePlus Nord N20 5G

Despite humble beginnings with only one phone per year, OnePlus has evolved into a different beast altogether, and is now attempting to not only capture the high-end Android flagship market, but also the budget and mid-range markets with devices like the Nord N20 5G.

Design & Build

• 7.5mm thick
• 173g
• No IP rating on the international model

Despite its large display, the Nord N20 5G is a fairly compact device that can easily be used one-handed. It’s especially helpful for those not wanting a larger phone.

The Nord N20 5G’s 173g weight strikes a good balance to make the phone feel more premium than its price tag. While it’s not made from metal and glass like flagship phones, the Nord N20 5G’s plastic does feel great in the hand, though is a bit slippery so a case may be necessary.

While it only comes in one colour option, the Blue Smoke colour that OnePlus went with looks great, and it is a welcome change from the black and white colour options you may see nowadays. 

On the back of the phone, there are two camera bumps that protrude out far enough to make the phone wobble on a flat surface.

Another major omission of the Nord N20 5G is any sort of IP rating – though oddly enough, that’s only the case with the unlocked international version of the phone. If you buy the phone in the US from a carrier, that version of the Nord N20 5G features IP52 water and dust resistance. 

Screen & Speakers

• 6.43in 
• AMOLED display tech
• Full HD+ resolution

On the display side of things, the Nord N20 5G has a 6.43-inch AMOLED Full HD+ display. While OnePlus went with a 90Hz LCD display for the Nord N10 5G, the company decided to sacrifice refresh rate for display quality, opting for a 60Hz AMOLED display for the Nord N20 5G. 

While having a lower refresh rate isn’t ideal, it does seem like a fair trade-off because AMOLED brings much better blacks and colours that pop. Versus an LCD display, it may seem dull. 

Hopefully, for the next phone in this lineup, OnePlus can offer the best of both worlds, an AMOLED display with a high refresh display at either 90Hz or 120Hz, but that’s just wishful thinking from us. 

One of the weak points of the Nord N20 5G is the phone’s haptic feedback. It isn’t anywhere near as strong as on other Android phones, but it still gets the job done most of the time.

For speakers, the Nord N20 5G just has a single grille on the bottom next to the USB-C port. The mono speaker sounds fine, but it won’t blow users away.

Specs & Performance

• Snapdragon 695 5G
• 6GB RAM
• Up to 128GB of internal storage 
• MicroSD card slot for expandable storage

Powering the Nord N20 5G is the Snapdragon 695 5G chip, which is a solid mid-range chip found in similarly priced smartphones like the Nokia G60, Moto G82 and OnePlus’ own Nord CE 2 Lite that gets the job done. The 695 5G is paired with 6GB of RAM in the Nord N20 5G, which is about standard for a smartphone at this price.

Getting around the interface was fairly quick but, unsurprisingly, wasn’t super snappy. The good news is that there were no major slowdowns using the phone with typical tasks like web browsing, video watching or taking photos, though it’ll likely slow to a crawl if running high-end Android games. 

That’s in line with our benchmark results, which you can see below:

With the Snapdragon 695 5G chip, you get 5G connectivity (Sub-6 GHz and mmWave) as well as Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 5. There’s also an NFC chip present, useful for paying for items wherever contactless payments are accepted via the likes of Google Wallet.

Cameras

• 64Mp main camera
• 2Mp macro camera
• 2Mp depth
• 16Mp selfie camera

On the camera front, the Nord N20 5G features three cameras on the back; a 64Mp main lens, a 2Mp macro and 2Mp depth camera. 

For most use cases, the macro and depth cameras aren’t that useful, and it’s clear that OnePlus was cutting some corners.

The main lens on the Nord N20 5G is capable of capturing good photos most of the time. These photos aren’t the absolute best but for the price, they’ll be good for the average consumer not too focused on the latest smartphone photography.

If you’re shooting in bright lighting conditions, photos on the Nord N20 5G turn out well. The images are detailed and vibrant without being super punchy.

When shooting in low light or at night, the Nord N20 5G does a pretty good job, so long as there’s a good light source like a street lamp nearby. There is a dedicated Night Mode in the camera app that does help, but it can be a bit sluggish to capture a nighttime photo, and it’s not quite up to the standard set by flagships.

For video, the Nord N20 5G can shoot up to 1080p video at 30fps. It would have been nice to see at least 1080p@60fps video recording, but you take what you can get. The video quality is fine, though it can a bit undersaturated at times. 

For the front camera, the Nord N20 5G has a 16Mp selfie camera which shoots good photos with a fair amount of detail, ideal for quick snaps for social media and the occasional video call.

Battery Life & Charging

• 4,500mAh
• 33W wired charging 
• Adapter included in the box

The Nord N20 5G comes with a fairly sizable 4,500 mAh battery that means the phone is comfortably able to last a full day, and sometimes even a second day depending on how often you use it.

In the PCMark for Android test, the Nord N20 5G lasted 13 hrs and 16 minutes, which should be plenty for the average user, though other SD695 5G-equipped phones including the Sony Xperia 10 IV lasted way longer at 24 hours and 52 minutes, so it’s not the best around.

While there’s no wireless charging – unsurprising at this price range – the Nord N20 5G comes with a 33W SUPERVOOC Fast Charger in the box. Using the included charger, Nord N20 5G got 25% in 15 mins and 50% after 30 mins of charging. 

A full 0% to 100% charge of the Nord N20 5G took around 90 mins using the 33W charger. 

Software & Apps

• Android 11 with OxygenOS 11
• Only one major OS update

For software, the Nord N20 5G is running the fairly dated Android 11 (which launched in 2020) with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 11 on top. The UI of OxygenOS shares some similarities with Samsung’s OneUI and Google’s Pixel UI, offering a largely clean yet stylised experience.

A lot of the UI in OxygenOS has been optimized for larger phone displays like that featured on the Nord N20 5G. That means touch controls are easier to access and closer to the bottom of the screen. 

Other features of OxygenOS 11 include an Always On Display that can show you incoming notifications in addition to a clock.

In terms of software updates, this is where things take a downturn. The Nord N20 5G will only be getting one software update (to OxygenOS 12). 

This is disappointing when you see other budget/mid-range phones like the Galaxy A series get three years of Android updates. The Nord N20 5G isn’t even getting the latest version of Android – it’s for Android 12, which launched in 2021.

OnePlus hasn’t announced when the OxygenOS 12/Android 12 update for the Nord N20 5G will be rolled out either, so you could be waiting for quite some time. 

Other than that, the Nord N20 5G comes with a few pre-installed apps such as Clone Phone, a file manager, Gallery app, notes and a few more, but nothing too intrusive.

Price & Availability

While the Nord N20 5G isn’t available in the UK, the phone is available in North America including Canada and the US. 

The phone costs $299 USD/$379 CAD when buying it unlocked from OnePlus along with retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.

The price tag of the Nord N20 5G puts it within earshot of phones including the Samsung Galaxy A53 and Sony Xperia 10 IV, though the Nord is still comfortably cheaper.

Verdict

The Nord N20 5G is a good device that provides decent bang for your buck for a few reasons.

The first is that while the phone is $300, it doesn’t feel cheap in the hand. The look and feel of the phone are in line with pricier phones like the Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G or Galaxy A53 – a real win for OnePlus.

Second is the Snapdragon 695, delivering solid performance even though it’s not the top-of-the-line chip from Qualcomm.

There are a few downsides of the Nord N20 5G, including the lack of a high refresh rate on the display, no official waterproofing on the international variant, the weak vibration motor and the one Android update, but these won’t be dealbreakers for everybody.

OnePlus Nord N20 5G Specs

• Android 11 w/ OxygenOS 11
• 6.43in FHD+ AMOLED 60Hz, 20:9, 
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Face unlock
• Schott Xensation Up
• 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G
• 6 RAM LPDDR4x
• 128GB UFS 2.2 with microSD card slot
• 64Mp, f/1.8, main camera with OIS
• 2Mp, f/2.4 macro camera
• 2Mp, f/2.4 depth
• 16Mp, f/2.4 front-facing camera
• Single speakers
• 5G
• WiFi 5
• Bluetooth 5.1
• USB-C port
• Headphone jack
• 4500mAh battery
• 33W fast charging
• 159.9 x 73.2 x 7.5mm
• 173g
• Launch colours: Blue Smoke

Best Prices Today: OnePlus Nord N20 5G