So does an aluminium phone in 2024 still make sense? Well, this OnePlus Nord 4 brings it back, and while I was doing my in-depth review of the phone after using it for 3 weeks, besides my fingerprints, something else caught my attention.
Unboxing
So the box comes with an aqua blue box with the familiar Nord branding in front. Then inside, there’s a nice little welcome note, the signature red USB-A to USB-C cable, a SIM ejector tool, and the usual quick start and safety guide.
Design & Build
So yes, by now you already know that the design and the build quality of this phone is totally different than any newly released smartphone because unlike many smartphones today, this OnePlus Nord 4 is taking cues from the past.
The phone comes with an aluminum unibody that is very reminiscent of the OG Android smartphones way back in the day, like the HTC One M8, the old Google Pixel phones, the iPhone 6, and even the previous OnePlus 3 and the 3T.
OnePlus claims that this is the only smartphone in the 5G era to feature an aluminum body, and the reason for this is that aluminum and metal bodies do interfere with the antenna reception, which is why brands switched to either glass or other materials like hard plastic for the back part of the phone.
So to solve this so-called issue, OnePlus has developed a special solution by optimizing the internal structure and the U-shaped antennas of the phone, thus removing the reception problems that are usually faced by metal or aluminum bodies.
So yes, OnePlus’s “Never Settle” motto is really showing here, because that is a lot of work!
And this special type of finish also serves for heat dissipation and cooling properties of the aluminum to improve the thermals of this phone. And it also has a unique thermal conduction barrier design that also prevents heat transfer through the metal unibody in the gripping area.
But yeah, that is the plan at least, because in practice, it’s quite a different story, and I’ll touch on that later.
The variant that I have is the Obsidian Midnight version, which has a smooth brushed metal type of finish, which looks really nice.
This is also the thinnest Nord smartphone that OnePlus has ever produced, measuring at only 7.99mm.
However, OnePlus has also added a section of reflective glass on the back part of the device where the two cameras are located. Now, it is a nice addition that breaks up the mainly aluminum back, but it is a huge fingerprint magnet, so you have to wipe it every single time that you use it.
Now, the phone has flat sides all around, which not only makes the phone look good but also very comfortable to hold. And the excellent news for people like me who always type the phone on a table? Well, this does not wobble at all.
Now, besides the usual button placement and the signature alert slider, there’s also the IR blaster on the phone, I still feel that IR blasters on phones are such an underrated feature, which I wish that more smartphones would adopt.
Then, the phone also has an IP65 water and dust resistance.
Display
Next, let’s talk about display. The phone uses a 6.74″ OLED display (2772 x 1240) and has a peak brightness of 2150 nits. It also supports Ultra HDR and has a 120Hz refresh rate screen.
It is a very good screen that is very bright even when used outdoors or even here in this very bright studio.
There are a few different types of color modes that you can choose from within the screen adjustments between Natural and Vivid, where you can find the settings under the Screen Color Mode option under the Display and Brightness settings.
Then under the Pro Mode, you can choose between a Cinematic Mode or a Brilliant Mode, where I left the display at the Brilliant Mode because I like the higher saturated colors, which was easier on the eyes.
What’s extra nice is that the phone also supports Widevine L1 playback specification, together with HDR10 capabilities, so you don’t have to worry about high-quality streaming on Netflix or even on Disney+ Hotstar, where the stereo speakers do get pretty loud too.
OnePlus also included an Aqua Touch feature, which ensures that the display works well even with wet fingers. Then, there’s also the Eye-Care Magic which uses blue light filters to reduce the OLED flickers in darker environments, which does reduce eye strain.
And while there’s no scientific way of testing this, I didn’t notice any issues when I used the phone daily, both during the day and at night too.
Cameras
Next, as for the cameras, the ultrawide lens is an 8MP lens, and the main lens is a 50MP lens. Yep, just two lenses. No-nonsense depth sensor, black and white lens, or grandma lens. So thank you, OnePlus, for being straightforward with this. And it also comes with a 16MP front camera.
Ultrawide
If you think that the 8MP lens would not do a good job when it comes to ultrawide photos, you will be sadly mistaken, because the ultrawide photos on this phone look amazing, as you can see in these two shots.
Main & Zoom
The main lenses also did a very good job, and even if you compare the ultrawide to the main lens side by side, it shows great image processing without any color shifts when switching between the ultrawide to the main lens, which happens to most other smartphones out there.
Even though there’s no dedicated telephoto lens, the 52mm or the 2x digital zoom looks great. Even if you zoom up to 130mm, which is about 5x zoom, it also still looks flawless. But if you go to the max 20x or 520mm zoom, you will see a degradation of the image quality.
Portrait
Then, there’s also a 1x and 2x for the portrait mode, which looked amazing in both modes with fantastic skin tones and subject-to-background blur.
Then, as for objects, where in this case, a uniquely shaped flower, it did well on the 1x, but the subject-to-background blur was not as good on the 2x mode.
Selfie
Then, as for selfies during the day, again, size did not matter over here, as this 16MP lens was one of the best I’ve seen within this price range, with fantastic dynamic range and subject separation as well. Skin tones were also amazingly accurate.
NIGHT
Ultrawide
Then, switching over to the nighttime photos, I loved the darker areas of the skies, where it looked nice and dark without any noise present compared to most smartphones which would make the skies a bit bluer and brighter than real life. And the balance of the highlights was also really amazing.
Main
Then, the main lenses also did very well, as expected, even up to 2x zoom, and the rear portrait mode at night was also really good for humans and subjects as well.
Selfie
Once again, the front cameras truly surprised me with very good image quality when it comes to taking selfies at night. I mean, size does not matter always, because it does come down to the performance.
Video
[Sample video footage, including a vlogging test, is available in my YouTube video]
Video-wise, the stabilization for the ultrawide was really good, but the recording quality can only go up to 1080p. The main lenses also look very stable. But keep in mind that the 2x and 5x stabilization were not as good as the ultrawide and the main lenses.
Quality-wise, all of the lenses over here did indeed look very nice, even the 1080p ultrawide lens.
And while the main lenses and the 2x video quality were really good, I wouldn’t go past the 5x video quality.
Night Video
Then, the rear video at night looked great for the ultrawide and the main lenses too.
Selfie Video
Then, as for the front video, as usual, it records up to a maximum resolution of 1080p. And always, like always, remember to turn on the stabilization when you record video on the front cameras because it is turned off by default.
While it is a tiny bit wider when turned off, if you don’t turn it on, it looks very unstable. Not sure why they didn’t turn it on by default, so keep that in mind, because when you turn it on, the stabilization and the video quality look really great.
Once again, the front cameras were surprisingly really nice when it comes to video quality and stabilization at night too.
Gaming
As for gaming, the phone comes with a 4nm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 processor, which is pretty great for mid to high-level gaming. With 16GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of internal storage, this is indeed a really good phone for gaming.
Genshin Impact runs surprisingly well over here, with smooth frame rates on medium graphic settings. I even tried pushing the game to high, and even on the higher settings, it was actually quite playable, even though the frame rate did take a little hit.
The phone can also run 120 FPS gaming, where I tested this on COD Mobile and Pokémon Go. COD Mobile managed to run at a consistent 60 frames, and I had quite a blast playing it on this phone.
Pokémon Go also ran at a consistent 120 FPS, but to achieve this, you need to increase the max refresh rate in the settings. You can do this by going to the Display and Brightness section, clicking on the Screen Refresh Rate, going to the App-Specific Refresh Rate, and choosing Pokémon Go or whichever app that you want to change the default refresh rate to 120 Hz, and boom, you’re done.
Now, at this point, you might be wondering, “But Adam, this is an aluminum phone, would it be very hot while gaming?” Well, I’m happy to report that it’s not bad. Yes, you can feel the heat just a little, but not to the point where I needed to put the phone down after prolonged gaming sessions.
Battery
When it comes to the battery, the phone comes with a 5,500mAh battery, which is the biggest battery ever on a Nord phone, and it supports 100W of SuperVOOC fast charging. With that, you can fully charge the phone in under half an hour—that is, if you have the charging brick since it does not come in the box. But yeah, knowing the fact that I can fully charge a phone in just a few minutes is still very mind-blowing to me.
Battery life was also really good, lasting me about a day and a half, even with many gaming sessions, with a screen-on time of 7 hours and 9 minutes from full charge to 20%.
Of course, if you want to increase the battery life further, you can by reducing the screen resolution and the brightness, but honestly, I wouldn’t change that at all since the battery life is plenty good enough as it is.
Software
As for software, the phone runs on OxygenOS 14.1, which is based on Android 14. I really like OxygenOS because it comes with some really great features that I find extremely useful.
I still love how the UI looks very clean and bright, especially with lots of gesture controls implemented. In case you’re not familiar, there’s a swipe up or down with three fingers to take screenshots, and there are other features like opening split-screen and more.
Another thing that I found extremely useful is the OnePlus Games app, which it helps to monitor the gaming performance and the temperature of the phone while playing. There’s also access to different modes that can help with the performance of the phone during games, where I can also tweak the game’s visuals a bit, like the game’s color and saturation as well.
The phone comes with 4 years of Android updates and 6 years of security upgrades.
Similar to other OnePlus phones, it does come with some app bloatware. It may not be an issue for some because you can always uninstall the apps, but yes, it did take me a while when I first unboxed the phone, just taking my time to uninstall all of the apps that I don’t really use.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, I really like the OnePlus Nord 4. The new aluminum finish is a really missed feature in the smartphone world, where OnePlus has proved that this type of material can still work today, and it is great to use when I use it daily.
The screen, for me, is also one of its biggest strengths, especially for watching videos, and the software UI is still nice and clean. The cameras did perform really well too, one of the best I have seen within this price, which really caught my attention.
Speaking of the price, it retails at RM2,599, which is about USD 629, which I think is decent.
🛒 Get the OnePlus Nord 4 at the link below:-
Shopee (MY) – https://invl.io/cllr21o
Lazada (MY) – https://invol.co/cllr22a
