02/23/2022 07:11
Thorsten Nowag
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Conclusion from 02/16/2022
The OnePlus Nord CE 2 scores in the test with a very good battery life and an excellent charging time. Like its predecessor, it is equipped with a solid processor that ensures fast performance that is also suitable for gaming. The OLED display has a nice and sharp resolution and shines with strong colors, but it is quite dark and offers little contrast – like the predecessor. And the camera also comes with the same weaknesses: because it reaches its limits in weak light. As with the predecessor, you will have to do without wireless charging and an IP certificate. The only thing that speaks for the OnePlus Nord CE 2 is the 23 minutes faster loading time. Savers should therefore first take a look at the OnePlus Nord CE, because experience has shown that prices will drop significantly in the coming months.
From €0.00: Find the best price for OnePlus Nord CE 2
Test ratings from the CHIP test center (as of February 16, 2022)
CHIP ratingGood (1.8) Price assessmentAcceptable (3.0)Price from €349.00
OnePlus Nord CE 5G in the test: Sharp but dark
The 6.4-inch OLED display of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 is pleasantly sharp. This is due to the resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 pixels with a pixel density of 409 ppi. Thanks to a contemporary screen refresh rate of 90 Hz, content also scrolls smoothly across the screen. It covers 134 percent of the standard RGB color space and also supports the DCI-P3 color space, which is important for HDR streaming, almost completely at 95 percent – solid, if not particularly good values.
In contrast to the competition in this price range, the maximum brightness does not stand out. The OnePlus Nord CE 2 achieves a maximum of 668 candelas per square meter in the test. This means that the content can only be read to a limited extent in direct sunlight. The contrast ratio hardly helps in this respect: The contrast value without ambient light is still okay at 154:1, but with ambient light it is only 36:1 – well below the average.
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Strong running time – great loading time
The clear highlight of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 is the charging time of the 4,500 mAh battery. 100 percent of the nominal capacity is available again after just 37 minutes. After 30 minutes it's already a strong 95 percent.
After this very fast loading time, the Nord CE 2 runs for a very good 12:32 hours in our demanding endurance test. The display is set to a brightness of 200 cd/m² at 60 Hz. In everyday use, the battery should easily last more than a whole day – with moderate use of TikTok and Co. Because in addition to gaming, the well-known social media apps in particular take their toll. The scope of delivery also includes the appropriate quick-charging power supply unit. The only drawback: the OnePlus Nord CE 2 does not offer wireless charging. Nevertheless, we like the battery all in all very much.
While OnePlus used the high-end Snapdragon 750G CPU in the predecessor, the Nord CE 2 uses a powerful Mediatek Dimension 900 processor. But this eight-core processor, which is more in the middle class and has a clock rate of up to 2.4 gigahertz, is also convincing in the test.
Overall, this makes for a satisfactory performance. The smartphone takes around 4 seconds to load our complex test PDF – the OnePlus Nord CE 5G is not quite at the level of high-end devices, but it offers performance suitable for everyday use. This is also noticeable in the graphics performance benchmark (GFX-Bench), in which the smartphone achieves 23 fps. Top models achieve around 70 fps. However, the performance is easily enough for most mobile phone games.
The sister model OnePlus Nord 2 also scores in the test with very good charging and runtime values.
CHIP/Belkis Köz
The OnePlus Nord CE 2 is equipped with a triple camera on the back. This consists of:
a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens
The camera of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 achieves solid results in the test. In daylight, our experts rate the image quality as good (1.9). However, the main camera slowly reaches its limits in dim light. Here we award the grade 3.2 (satisfactory). Even in daylight, the images are missing fine details – in twilight, filigree structures disappear completely. Our experts rated the selfies as good (2.3). This gives the One Plus Nord CE 5G the subjective overall rating of 2.4 (good).
The camera setup is highlighted as a design element on the OnePlus Nord CE 2.
CHIP/Belkis Köz
Equipment & price
The equipment of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 is very successful overall and only has a few small gaps:
Even if the name doesn't suggest it, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 enables 5G mobile communications – and that too with a dual SIM function. There are also NFC for contactless payment, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6 and a 3.5 mm Jack connection on board Biometric unlocking is possible via fingerprint sensor and face recognition Using a memory card slot, the memory of the OnePlus Nord CE 2 can be expanded to up to 1 TB The internal memory is nominally 128 GB – of which 106.7 GB were freely available to us The mobile phone with 8 GB of RAM is not lacking in buffer memory either. Gamers should still prefer another smartphone: The OnePlus Nord CE 2 cannot run the latest games in the highest settings. Unfortunately, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 does not have an IP certificate for dust and water protection.
In Europe, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 will go on sale from March 10, 2022. It can be pre-ordered from March 3rd. You can choose between the colors "Gray Mirror" and "Bahama Blue" from a price of around 350 euros (price comparison).
Test center: Christoph Giese
Editor: Thorsten Nowag
Step-by-step advisor: Find the right smartphone
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