In what feels like about the 50th OnePlus smartphone launch of the year, the company has just unveiled two new handsets for the UK – the OnePlus Nord 2T and the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite.
Of these, the OnePlus Nord 2T is the star, being the higher end of the two – but it’s also a remarkably similar phone to the OnePlus Nord 2.
It has a 6.43-inch FHD AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, a 4,500mAh battery, 5G, a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide one, a 2MP mono one, and a 32MP front-facing one.
That’s basically all the same as the OnePlus Nord 2, but there are a few upgrades here. For one thing, you get faster 80W charging here, which is the same as you’ll find on the OnePlus 10 Pro. There’s also a better chipset (the MediaTek Dimensity 1300), and it ships with newer software in the form of OxygenOS 12.1. There are also some improved camera features, including nightscape and AI video balancing modes.
This doesn’t sound like an enormous upgrade then, but with a starting price of £369 (roughly $460 / AU$655) it doesn’t need to be, as that’s exactly what the OnePlus Nord 2 costs at the time of writing.
That’s for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and the price rises to a still quite reasonable £469 (around $580 / AU$830) for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
As for the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite, that has previously launched in India so we already knew what to expect. It has a 6.59-inch 120Hz LCD screen, a Snapdragon 695 chipset, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 5,000mAh battery, 33W charging, a 64MP main camera, a 2MP depth sensor, a 2MP macro one, and a 16MP selfie camera.
You can pick this phone up for £279 (approximately $345 / AU$495), with both phones going on sale on May 24 in the UK. There’s no word on US availability, but we wouldn’t expect to see them there, and Australia is even less likely, since OnePlus doesn’t currently sell anything in Australia.
Finally, OnePlus has also launched the OnePlus Nord Buds in the UK, following a recent announcement for the US. For $39 / £49 (around AU$85) they give you up to 98 decibels of volume, Dolby Atmos audio, a 12.4mm titanium coated driver, 4 microphones, AI-powered noise reduction algorithms, and an IP55 rating.
You can expect 7 hours of battery from the Nord Buds, while the charging case offers 30 hours before that needs juicing up. There’s no exact release date for these but expect them sometime around June.
Analysis: the Nord line keeps on growing
Right now in the UK, OnePlus is selling the original OnePlus Nord, the OnePlus Nord 2, the OnePlus Nord CE, and the OnePlus Nord CE 2. So with the addition of these two new phones, the line will have got 50% bigger.
Of course, the company may well discontinue the OnePlus Nord 2, given that the Nord 2T is a better phone at the same price. At a minimum a price cut will be needed if the company hopes to keep selling the older model.
The OnePlus Nord CE might also need a price cut if OnePlus hopes to keep selling it, as it’s priced at almost exactly the same level as the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite and looks on paper to be a slightly worse phone.
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