OnePlus Nord CE 6 review: Bang for buck phone for most buyers

The OnePlus Nord carries a legacy in the Indian smartphone market. Ever since the original Nord in 2020, the line-up is known to deliver big bang for your back. The same applies for the Nord CE line, which is priced even more aggressively. Now, with the Nord CE 6, OnePlus is following the same blueprint. But things are only getting tougher.

Thanks to a global memory shortage, smartphone prices are increasing. The Nord CE 6 is also more expensive than the Nord CE 5 by a margin of Rs 5,000 no less. The phone starts at Rs 29,999 for 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. The silver lining is that despite the price hike, OnePlus has still managed to undercut peers like the Nothing Phone 4a and Poco X8 Pro in specs. Let’s find out if the Nord CE 6 makes good use of that spec bump and offers more value in this India Today Tech review.

OnePlus Nord CE 6 design: New yet familiar

The Nord CE 6 looks quite different from the Nord CE 5. Now, you get a square-ish camera module with circular rings for the cameras on the back. This makes the Nord CE 6 feel at home with OnePlus’ current line-up, be it the Nord 6 or even the OnePlus 15.

We have the Lunar Pearl shade. It comes with a metallic-like finish which is nice to look at and gives excellent tactile feedback. What stands out with this variant is the subtle outline that glows depending on how light hits it at different angles. It actually looks quite similar to the effect on the violet variant of the OnePlus 15.

While design is subjective, I do feel that this consistency adds to the appeal. In the past, the Nord line-up usually had quite different designs when compared to the company’s flagships.

The OnePlus Nord CE 6 has a thickness of 8.5mm. The device is not slim by any means, but it is justified considering the battery size. When you hold the device, you get used to the thickness quickly, and the frame has gentle curves around the edges that make it easier to hold the phone in one hand. Do note that the frame is plastic. And the back is made of plastic too. OnePlus has improved durability. The Nord CE 6 comes with IP66/IP68/IP69/IP69K ratings for dust and water resistance. This makes the device as durable as you can expect. Thanks to this, I was able to use the phone carefree even during light rain outdoors.

OnePlus Nord CE 6 display and sound: Fixing the one thing we missed

Now coming to the front. The OnePlus Nord CE 6 comes with a 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED display. The refresh rate is set at 144Hz, but as is the case with most phones, that only works on select games. The rest of the time it is capped at 120Hz.

The bezels on the Nord CE 6 are uniform, they are not thick either, for the price. To give you some context, the device has marginally slimmer bezels when compared to something like the Nothing Phone 4a.

One thing that you will need to do if you use the OnePlus Nord CE 6 is to change the resolution to 1.5K. On default, the phone is set to 1080p. While this setting is likely to conserve battery, the average user may never notice this and use the device at 1080p – which would be a bummer since the display is quite impressive.

The peak brightness of the Nord CE 6 is set at 1,800nits. While it is lower than the peak brightness of devices like the Realme 16 which comes with 4,200nits, for the most part, the display will do the job. You won’t have to squint your eyes while looking at the screen under direct sunlight.

And the One Nord CE 6 gives you a good viewing experience. You get punchy colours and deep blacks – everything you expect from a good AMOLED panel nowadays. And the cherry on top is HDR support for Netflix, which we don’t often see at this price point nowadays.

OnePlus seems to have listened to feedback when it comes to the Nord CE 6. The company has brought back dual speakers this time around – the Nord CE 5 came with a single bottom firing speaker. And it does make a difference. Having the dual speakers allowed me to watch shows on Netflix or stream videos on YouTube without having to look for earbuds.

Though rivals like the Infinix Note 60 Pro or the Poco X8 Pro have better speakers, with JBL and Dolby Atmos support respectively. But these devices do cost slightly more.

OnePlus Nord CE 6 performance and battery: Fully stress-free

The Nord brand is known for performance. And OnePlus is keeping a similar theme with the Nord CE 6. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset. You get the same processor in some similarly-priced devices like the Infinix Note 60 Pro or the Nothing Phone 4a. However, the Poco X8 Pro comes with the more powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8500 chipset. Though on the flip side, the Realme 16 uses the Dimensity 6400 SoC.

Coming to day-to-day performance, the OnePlus Nord CE 6 feels quite smooth. You can switch between apps, multitask, and the phone doesn’t really struggle. Even when I tried to multitask with Bluetooth, maps, music and the camera, the phone could handle everything without breaking a sweat.

On the gaming front, you can get up to 90FPS on both Call of Duty Mobile, and BGMI. No 120FPS support for these games here. However, the gameplay is impressive. Even after playing multiple rounds, the Nord CE 6 got marginally warm. When I played the same games on both the Nord CE 6 and the Phone 4a side-by-side, the OnePlus was noticeably cooler.

When it comes to benchmarks, the Nord CE 6 scores 1.1 million on AnTuTu. In Geekbench, the device scores 1,083 points in single-core, and 3,100 points in multi-core. This is on par for this chipset.

But what about the battery? The Nord CE 6 packs an 8,000mAh battery, an upgrade from the 7,100mAh battery on the Nord CE 5. During my time with the device, I found that even after some gaming sessions, and a full day of use, I would still end the day with around 40 per cent battery left in the tank. That is, with a screen on time of more than 7 to 8 hours.

For a casual user who usually just scrolls through social media, or watches videos, the OnePlus Nord CE 6 can easily be a two-day device. And for charging, you get an 80W fast charger in the box. The Nord CE 6 usually charges quite quickly and gets to full charge in just over an hour.

OnePlus Nord CE 6 cameras: Does the job

The Nord CE 6 comes with a dual rear camera setup – a 50-megapixel sensor, paired with a 2-megapixel monochrome lens – that is you really get a single usable camera. We would’ve appreciated an ultrawide, as some phones like the Nothing Phone 4a offer a triple-camera setup.

Nevertheless, the main camera does a decent job. Images come with good detail, and colour accuracy is not bad either. When it comes to portraits, we found that the edge detection works well, but in low light, the camera does struggle somewhat to get things right.

For selfies, you get a 32-megapixel front camera. I noticed that the sensor was able to handle lighting well, and most images do not turn out to be overexposed. For portraits, the edge detection is good, and photos do not look oversharpened.

You can check out the image samples from the OnePlus Nord CE 6 below. Click on any image to see the entire gallery.

The OnePlus Nord CE 6 can record up to 4K at 30FPS on both sensors. The main sensor also gets optical image stabilisation (OIS). This allows for good footage from the rear camera, with decent details. The front sensor can also do the job for occasional users. To sum it up, the cameras can do the job for you, but there’s not much to write home about.

OnePlus Nord CE 6 user experience: OxygenOS is still fun

The Nord CE 6 comes with Android 16-based OxygenOS 16 out of the box. OxygenOS 16 runs on the same source code as Oppo’s ColorOS. Before we talk about the user experience, keep in mind that OnePlus is offering 2 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches, which is an acceptable support timeline. But 3 years of OS updates would've been better.

The user interface is quite smooth and is arguably one of the best out there at the moment. The UI is sleek, animations don’t stop all of a sudden, and you get a ton of features.

OnePlus offers you the option to customise the lockscreen with various layouts along with the depth effect. You can also save multiple lockscreens, and switch between them when you want to. OxygenOS can turn all app icons into the colour of your lockscreen too.

The Nord CE 6 also gets Always-On Display. But it doesn’t stay on all the time. Rather, it wakes up for a few seconds when you tap your screen.

When compared to something like Xiaomi’s HyperOS, or even Vivo’s OriginOS, OnePlus still leads the software front with simply a more appealing interface and experience.

But there is some bloatware. The Nord CE 6 comes with five-preinstalled third-party apps including Facebook and Instagram. You can uninstall them, but phones like the Phone 4a ship with fewer third-party apps, two in this case, so that is something to keep in mind.

OnePlus Nord CE 6: Where does it stand?

So now that we’ve gone through every aspect of the OnePlus Nord CE 6, where does the device stand? The smartphone market is at a crossroad, but OnePlus seems to have got it right when it comes to who the Nord CE 6 targets – a user who wants good performance and long battery life, with a decent experience.

And that’s exactly what the device does. The OnePlus Nord CE 6 may not have the most powerful chipset out there, but the device is optimised well, and for the most part, you won’t feel the need for more power. And the 8,000mAh battery is more than enough for even a heavy user.

Add to that the seamless OxygenOS experience, and everything seems to be lining up perfectly for the Nord CE 6, particularly at a price of Rs 29,999. But there is a catch. The Nord CE 6 is simply not targeting those who want to buy a camera-focused phone. And that is okay. You know what they say, you win some, you lose some. While the Nord CE 6 may not get everything right, it does almost everything for those performance-savvy users who fell in love with the original Nord back in 2020.