Content
- Equipment and design
- Software
- Cameras
- Performance & Tests
- findings
OnePlus today unveiled the OnePlus 11 - itsflagship smartphone of 2023. Despite a significant upgrade in terms of the camera, the phone turned out to be weaker in many respects than its classmates and even predecessors. This reflects a general change in how OPPO treats OnePlus. But a much more striking symbol of change for me personally was the Nord N20 SE - a product completely impossible for the old OnePlus. This smartphone is literally worse than the OnePlus One in many key ways! However, first things first.
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OnePlus Nord N20 SE Specifications |
|---|---|
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Firmware | Android 12 with OxygenOS 12.1 |
| Screen | 6.56″, 1612x720 pixels, 20.1:9, 269 ppi, 60 Hz, 120 Hz touch, IPS |
| Chipset | MediaTek Helio G35, 12 nm CPU: 4 x A53 x 2.3 GHz + 4 x A53 GPU: PowerVR GE8320 |
| Ram | 4 GB LPDDR4X |
| ROM | 64 GB eMMC 5.1 |
| SIM and memory card | Dual SIM + microSD slots |
| Camera | Main: 50 MP, 1/2.76″, 0.64 µm, 5 lenses, f/1.8, autofocus (phase + contrast), video recording 1080p@30fps Depth sensor: 2 MP, f/2.4 |
| Selfie | Waterdrop notch, 8MP, OmniVision OV08D10, 1.12µm, f/2.0, fixed focus, 1080p@30fps video recording |
| Battery | 5000 mAh |
| Charging | USB Type-C, 33W |
| Wireless interfaces | WiFi 5 Bluetooth 5.3 A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC | Not |
| Biometrics | Fingerprint scanner (in power button) |
| Sound | Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Water protection | Not declared |
| Dimensions and weight | 163.74 x 75.03 x 7.99mm 187 g |
Equipment and design
OnePlus Nord N20 SE comes in blackcardboard box with blue lettering, typical of the Nord series. The delivery package is nice: a 33-W charger, a USB cable, documentation, a SIM needle and a silicone case with reinforced corner protection. The cover really inspires confidence, and although it will turn yellow over time, it will be able to protect the smartphone from damage for a long time.
OnePlus Nord N20 SE is made entirely ofplastic, the back texture imitates frosted glass. There are two colors - blue with pink tints, like ours, and dark gray (conditionally black). Despite the fashionable design with flat ends, ergonomics are generally good: the ends are beveled for a more comfortable grip and do not dig into the hand. Small thickness (8 mm) and weight (187 g) also affect.
The arrangement of elements at the ends is standard forOPPO budget. Below is an audio jack, a microphone, USB Type-C and a speaker, on the right is a lock button with a fingerprint (fast and accurate), on the top is nothing, on the left is a triple tray (2 x nano-SIM + microSD) and volume buttons. Of course, I was not mistaken in calling this smartphone “OPPO budget”: it is built on the same platform as OPPO A77s, A57 4G, A57s, A77 4G, A57e. OPPO A57, K10 5G and OnePlus Nord N300, OPPO A58 and A58x are also close relatives.
6.56″ IPS screen with a resolution of 1612x720points (lower than OnePlus One) does not offer anything special - 60 Hz panel itself, 120 Hz touch. The promise not to release smartphones without a Hertz card has been forgotten once again, but no one will remember what was promised there. Color rendition is not bad, there is no yellowness or blueness observed when tilted. There is enough brightness in winter, but in summer it can be too close under the bright sun. Vibro is normal. A pleasant surprise are stereo speakers. One and a half, but quite pleasant. Especially for this segment.
Software
OnePlus Nord N20 SE is based on Android 12 withproprietary shell OxygenOS 12.1. The software is the only thing that reminds me of OnePlus in this device. It really does not look like OPPO, and I personally found it more pleasant in everyday use than, for example, Realme UI. In addition, OnePlus is obsessed with the speed of Oxygen, so even on budget hardware, the firmware works quite quickly. But adaptation to low screen resolution was not very successful, so sometimes you can see jackal icons.
Cameras
The main camera of OnePlus Nord N20 SE is dual.The second module is a 2 MP plug, and not even for macro, but for bokeh, that is, completely useless. The main camera is based on our favorite Samsung JN1 sensor (1/2.76″), which is only slightly larger than the OnePlus One camera (1/3.1″). Here, after binning, 12 megapixels at 1.28 microns, and there there were 13 megapixels at 1.12 microns.
Good budget camera.Even night shots do not look too embarrassing, especially in night mode (although for some reason it not only improves detail and adds light, but also greatly reduces the viewing angle). Not photo masterpieces, of course, but for most users, such photos will be enough. At the same time, I can’t say that it shoots better than OnePlus One, it must be compared on identical photo examples, and not taken with a difference of 8.5 years.
The front camera in the new product has a resolution of 8 megapixels, which is undoubtedly better than the 5 megapixel in OnePlus One. But the selfies are still mediocre.
Video can only be written in 1080p@30fps, and thisanother downgrade compared to OnePlus One - it was able to record 4K. And there was stabilization (electronic), but not here. But by the standards of modern budgets, the video is not written badly. There is continuous autofocus.
Performance and tests
OnePlus Nord N20 SE runs on the super popularMediaTek Helio G35 chipset - it was also the basis of Redmi 9C, Realme C20 / C21, Nokia G20 and many other budget smartphones. This is not a very productive processor, which almost does not throttle on the CPU, and also does not support Vulkan, so we could not run 3DMark on it. But here are screenshots from the CPU Throttling Test in normal and performance modes (yes, there is a performance mode, when you turn it on, the results grow by about 1%):
normal mode
performance mode
But on Helio G35, our old one easily startedfriend and comrade of GFXBench - and in the classic Manhattan test, the smartphone lost to OnePlus One. Slightly yielded, of course, but yielded. That is, the gaming capabilities of the novelty are even worse than those of the very first smartphone of the company.
To verify this directly, I had nopossibilities, but believable. Genshin Impact is hardly playable here even at the minimum and even Hungry Shark is a little dull. Only in the simplest games like Ballz you won't have any problems. The average fps in SuperTuxKart for an hour of testing is 16, it is simply impossible to play a racing game with such a frame rate. By the way, the letter G in the name of the chipset stands for Gaming. It seems MediaTek thinks we are idiots.
OnePlus Nord N20 SE battery capacityis 5000 mAh - according to this indicator, the smartphone is far ahead of OnePlus One, where the battery was only 3100 mAh. There are no complaints about the autonomy of the smartphone. In 4.5 hours of active testing, it only drained 43%, which includes an hour of YouTube (-7%), an hour of browsing (-7%), and an hour of SuperTuxKart (-9%). With normal use, you can safely count on two or even three days of operation with 8-10 hours of screen.
Charger power is one of the mainsmartphone chips: infrequently in such simple phones you will see a 33-W unit. A full charge takes 75-80 minutes, while you can charge your smartphone halfway in 35 minutes. For a budget, this is very good; and compared to the OnePlus One, which took almost two hours to charge from its 10.5W unit, it looks cool.
In conclusion, I note that in OnePlus Nord N20 SEno NFC support. As you might guess, OnePlus One had it. However, in the time that has passed between the announcements of these two smartphones, the presence of NFC first became a useful feature, and then again rolled back to distant positions.
Conclusions
I'll start my conclusions with the fact that the Nord N20 SE - in general,good budget. Cool design, fast charging, nice screen, quality software. True, on AliExpress it now costs about 12,000 rubles, so I would look at some smartphone on the Helio G85 or UniSoC T61x, because the performance of the N20 SE leaves much to be desired, but still the smartphone as a whole leaves a pleasant impression.
But why was it released under the OnePlus brand? Guys from BBK, who did you want to fool? What were they going to achieve? Whatever the answer, I don't think you've succeeded.
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© Oleg Lazarev.