I tested the OnePlus Nord 5 — here's my pros and cons

When it comes to affordable phones, there's a tendency to expect the worst. However, many of the best cheap phones manage to exceed that expectation in several ways that might surprise the more cynical. I've been testing the latest affordable phone from OnePlus, the Nord 5, to see if it's worth your time or better left alone.

When it comes to cheaper phones, I believe that the aim isn't to find something that's just worse to save money. Instead, you should want something that offers a balanced experience, but could have some of the bells and whistles you see on many of the best phones on the market.

That means that the phone should have a decent amount of power, cameras that do what they need to and features that are usable, if not exemplary. OnePlus has certainly delivered on this in the past with the OnePlus Nord 4, so the hope is that it can do it again with this new offering.

With that said, let's look at what we're working with and what I liked about the OnePlus Nord 5, as well as what I didn't.

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Specifications

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Design and display

One of the first things that I noticed about the OnePlus Nord 5 was just how bright the screen is. You're getting a 6.8-inch display with a 144Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,800 nits. The images on the display look bright and colorful and there's no noticeable delay between input and execution when scrolling. However, it's sad to see that the 2,100 nit brightness offered by its predecessor has been downgraded, so the phone isn't the best in bright sunshine.

Speaking of its predecessor, it seems that OnePlus didn't want to keep the aluminum sides seen on the OnePlus Nord 4. Instead, the company switches to plastic, which doesn't have quite the same feel to it.

I'm also really not a fan of the new pill-shaped camera block. It simply doesn't have the same presence as the shiny glass section shown in the prior model. On top of that, the phone also only has an IP65 rating, which is okay for phone in 2025.

There's also some bad news for any OnePlus fans who were used to the slider that allowed you to easily switch between silent, vibrate and regular modes. This has been replaced by the new Plus key, which works somewhat like Apple's Action Button.

However, the OnePlus version lacks the utility of Apple's Action Button. You can set it to perform certain tasks, like put the phone in silent or activate OnePlus' Mind Space, but it only works on a long press with no option to add functions for double-tapping or short-pressing the button.

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Performance

Usually, we'd expect a cheaper phone to be less powerful than many of the best phones on the market. The OnePlus Nord 5 certainly won't match devices like the iPhone 16 or Galaxy S25, but the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is still a relatively decent chip. I used the phone to play Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus, and didn't see any slowdown or animation issues.

Meanwhile, when I compare it to phones at a similar price point, I see that the OnePlus Nord 5 vastly outperforms a lot of the competition. In terms of both single-core performance and multicore, the Nord 5 outperforms both the Galaxy A56 and the Pixel 9a. However, it falls behind when compared to the iPhone 16e, which isn't all that surprising.

When it comes to 3DMark's Wildlife Extreme test, however, I can see where the strength of the OnePlus Nord 5 comes in. Its average FPS and score exceed even Apple's iPhone 16e. So, if you're looking for a cheap phone that can handle playing the majority of the games on the Play Store with no difficulty, then this is certainly one for you.

As you can see, the OnePlus Nord 5 has a lot of power under the hood, which makes it all the more strange that OnePlus has made it so that the AI tools it has access to are entirely cloud-based. In concept, the phone should be able to handle on-device processes without too many issues. This means that many of the editing features might be a bit slower than phones with on-device processes.

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Software and AI

Speaking of AI, the OnePlus Nord 5 comes with Google Gemini, meaning you also get access to Hey Google. While this isn't a massive surprise, it's certainly a big win for users as Google Gemini remains one of the best AIs you can have on phones. On top of that, you also have access to Circle to Search and AI privacy.

It's great that you have access to these features, as I find OnePlus AI struggles to find its place as an assistant. The camera features work fine, despite being cloud-based, but the other additions don't really appeal to me.

For instance, things like AI search are easily forgettable. In concept, it's part of OnePlus' broader AI mind suite, and allows you to find information on your device and the internet using more conversational language. For instance, if you ask the phone what time your bus leaves, it will sift through your calendar, notes and files to help provide an answer.

It certainly has its place, but AI search isn't the flashiest feature in the world, and if you're like me, you might end up forgetting it more often than not. The same is also true for the aforementioned OnePlus Mind Space, which is set to the Plus Key. This feature will save and summarize screenshots that you take on your phone and present the information to you. Honestly, I've been trying it out for the last few days and I've yet to really understand what the point of it is.

The problem is that you can only score screenshots, so if you wanted to summarize a whole article, you'd need to take several, then combine the summaries yourself. So, for instance, if I take a screenshot of a Reddit post, I'll get a summary of the question, but none of the answers. I can see what they were trying to do, but I think it misses the mark a bit.

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Cameras

The OnePlus Nord 5 comes with three cameras: a 50MP main camera, 8MP ultrawide, and a 50MP selfie camera. It's odd that we're only seeing an 8MP Ultrawide, but it's arguably the least used camera so it makes sense that it's where the cuts were made.

I took the phone out with the Pixel 9a, which features a 48MP main camera, a 13MP ultrawide and a 13MP selfie camera to see how the two compare.

As you can see, the main camera on the Nord 5 offers a better depth of color than the Pixel 9a, but to my eye the definition is roughly equal between the two phones.

When it comes to the ultrawide cameras, the Pixel 9a offers slightly better definition. However, the Nord 5's image is slightly darker, and doesn't allow as much bloom as the Pixel 9a produces. This allows you to actually see the building on the left, rather than just blinding light.

Finally, you have the selfie cameras, where the Nord 5 again shows a much warmer color palette. However, the definition doesn't show quite as big a difference as I would expect, but the lighting in the background is certainly much better.

Overall, the cameras on the OnePlus Nord 5 are fine. They're not the best I've ever seen, but they'll do more than enough for the average person.

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Battery and charging

One thing I always look for in a cheaper phone is a longer battery life, and the OnePlus Nord 5 certainly features an impressive battery. The phone comes with a 5,200 mAh battery, which is bigger than the 5,000 mAh battery seen in the Galaxy A56 and the Pixel 9a's 5,100 mAh one. However, it's still smaller than the 5,500 mAh battery seen in the Nord 4. Interestingly, the OnePlus Nord 5 in India actually features a 6,800 mAh cell, but the European market missed out on that.

The battery isn't just smaller, it won't last quite as long either, although it will still manage to last the day with little issue. To see what the battery drain was like, I ran a 1080p YouTube video for three hours at full brightness, with the phone's charge dropping by 17%. Don't get me wrong, that's by no means bad, but it's less than the Nord 4, which only lost 11%. It's also worse than the Galaxy A56, which only lost 14% battery when we put it through the same test.

The OnePlus Nord 5 does offer 80W wired charging, although there's no option for wireless charging, but that's still less than the 100W charging that was offered with the Nord 4. In concept, that means that you could reach 80% battery in around 30 minutes while using a powerful enough charger.

OnePlus Nord 5 review: Verdict

The OnePlus Nord 5 is an interesting phone at a glance, with a lot to offer someone looking for something that offers a lot of power in an affordable package. However, it seemingly falls short compared to its predecessor in a lot of ways that make it hard to recommend.

While the inclusion of the AI features is nice, many of them fail to stand out or make their actual function all that clear. However, with access to Gemini and its suite of features, you likely won't mind all that much. The cameras, meanwhile, are serviceable but hardly the best on the market. With that said, the screen is gorgeous and the power exceeds what we'd expect from a phone at this price point.

So, is the OnePlus Nord 5 worth buying? Well, firstly, there's some bad news: the phone isn't available in the U.S. at the time of writing. If you happen to live outside of the U.S. and are looking for a cheap but powerful phone, then you could certainly do worse.

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