I spent two weeks with the OnePlus Nord 5, and I can't decide whether it's an upgrade or a downgrade

09 Sep 2025, 11:49 · TechRadar

TechRadar Verdict

The OnePlus Nord 5 has a few select improvements over its predecessor, including a bigger, higher-refresh-rate display, a higher-res front camera, and a more powerful processor. However, it’s also seen some curious downgrades like a smaller battery, slower charging, lower max brightness, less RAM, and a more boring design. It’s still a decent-value Android phone, but I can’t help but feel as though OnePlus has dimmed out some of the classic Nord sparkle.

Pros

+Powerful processor
+Attractive screen
+Lower start price

Cons

-Boring design
-Unimpressive cameras
-Certain key downgrades

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OnePlus Nord 5: Two-minute review

Despite having a few sparkly upgrades over its predecessors, I can’t help but feel as though the OnePlus Nord 5 is a bit of a downgrade from last year’s model overall.

This new entry to OnePlus’ mid-spec (and mid-price) line of Nord Android phones is largely what you’d expect if you’ve been following the company for the last few years. In its top-end handsets, like the OnePlus 13, OnePlus offers novel designs, fancy camera arrays, and scary price tags, but the Nords are more modest in feature set and cost, and like all good mid-rangers, they generally focus on two key areas to excel in.

Even more so than in the OnePlus Nord 4, it’s clear that the focus of the Nord 5 is on its performance and its display, which are, funnily enough, the same two departments that most other mid-range Android makers focus on too.

And, credit to OnePlus, the Nord 5 does have such great specs in these areas that it may convince people to buy the phone for its performance and its display credentials alone.

Take, for example, the screen: it now exceeds 6.8 inches diagonally, making the Nord 5 one of the few mid-range Android phones to do so, and that extra real estate will give gamers more space for their fingers – I don’t even need to mention the higher refresh rate to get people raring to play.

The use of a Snapdragon 800-series chipset – albeit a toned-down one – also gives gamers a lot more processing power than we’ve seen on a Nord handset before (and that's saying something!). Few mobiles at this price perform better under benchmark tests than this OnePlus.

I’m now on my sixth paragraph, and I’ve only talked about performance and display, and the reason is simple: while these two departments see notable increases, most other aspects of the phone show either no improvement or, in a surprising number of areas, spec downgrades from last year’s phone.

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