One Plus Nord CE5 review: strong performance and an epic battery life for an affordable price | Tech Radar

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‘Never get blindsided by an empty battery’: I was pleased with the One Plus Nord CE5's performance and camera, but its battery life is the part that truly impressed me in real-world testing

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Given its affordable price, using the One Plus Nord CE5 is a surprisingly polished experience. Both its display and camera deliver seriously dynamic color, its OS is smooth to use and makes multitasking a breeze, and its battery can outlast many flagship phones. Admittedly, its chipset is far from top of the range, it’s packed with more bloat than I’d like, and it can’t handle games on max graphics settings, but none of its shortcomings are egregious. It’s a seriously skilled phone in many areas given its low price tag.

+Great productivity performance and gesture control

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The One Plus Nord CE5 is an affordable yet premium-feeling handset that punches way above its weight. Although its successor, the CE6, has launched in some markets, One Plus has confirmed that it and future handsets will no longer sell in the UK. So, in lieu of a newer version, is the CE5 still worth your consideration?

The One Plus Nord CE5’s design certainly doesn’t make it look bargain basement, but it doesn’t feel super luxe either. While it’s pleasantly tactile under your fingertips, there’s no confusing its plastic edges for metal, and I’m not totally bowled over by the pearlescent effect on the Marble Mist colorway. However, I will grant that it feels solidly made and its vertical camera module looks pretty neat when so many handsets’ lenses look like they’ve been grafted on by Dr. Frankenstein.

Although it’s not a total knockout, the Nord CE5’s display definitely packs a punch given its price. Colors are bold and vivid, making the nature documentaries I was watching seriously pop. Its 387PPI display showed off most images in crisp detail, even if it wasn’t as pin sharp as some of the best phones. On the flip side, whites run a little bit blue for my liking, and the display is not quite bright enough to make up for how reflective its screen is. Still, there was plenty about the screen that dazzled me, figuratively at least.

Under the hood, the Nord CE5 runs the Media Tek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset. That’s not a current-gen So C by any means, but I still got great productivity performance out of it. Not only was I able to have myriad apps open, but I also ran Google Docs and a streaming app in split-screen with no noticeable slowdown.

Gaming performance was also pretty stable. Playing lengthy sessions of both Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact, the Nord CE5 ran very smoothly and showed no hint of lag or jitter. Cranking the graphics settings up to their highest on Genshin Impact did throw up a warning that I was overclocking the CPU, though, so while performance remained stable, you might not want to run things that high. On the plus side, the Nord CE5 didn’t experience all that much warming during this, thanks to its Cryo Velocity graphene vapor chamber.

Based on Android 15, the Oxygen OS 15.0 that the Nord CE5 runs on is nice and agile. Multitasking is easy thanks to its split-screen mode and there are great shortcuts on offer, like screen-off gestures that let you open the camera or switch on the flashlight by tracing an O or V on the display. On the whole, its AI tools are unobtrusive yet helpful, and One Plus offers a full six years of software updates. The only thing I don’t love here is the bloat that comes pre-installed — seriously, phone makers, can you stop foisting Temu on me?

For a phone in this price range, the Nord CE5 also offers a very decent camera. Whether I was popping off shots of brilliant yellow roses or the deep blue sky reflected in a river, colors felt vibrant and its HDR performance rendered textures like stonework with a nice depth. Admittedly, its smaller 1/1.95 inch sensor can’t quite rival flagship phones in terms of sheer detail, but it still captured textures and details with real precision. And even though I’d personally prefer at least a 3x lens in my camera, the 2x zoom conveyed excellent detail without showing any distortions or aberrations.

In my book, though, by far the Nord CE5’s strongest feature is its battery. One Plus has managed to eke more than 20 hours of life out of its 5,200m Ah battery, meaning it can happily outlast many of the flagship phones we’ve reviewed in recent times. Not only that, but during my testing I found its 80W SUPERVOOC charging could comfortably juice it up from 0% to 100% in just 59 minutes, which is blisteringly fast.

All in all, the Nord CE5 is a solid, if unexceptional, phone… until you consider its price point. Considering a list price that starts at £299, there are many areas it pulls ahead of similarly priced rivals, while in some areas — chiefly battery life — it can honestly give flagships a run for their money. Ultimately, if your intended spend sits on the border between budget and mid-range phone, the Nord CE5 has plenty of highlights and few enough deficits to make it a worthy investment.

128GB / 256GB (UFS 3.1, expandable via Micro SD up to 1TB)

128GB / 256GB (UFS 3.1, expandable via Micro SD up to 1TB)

50 MP main (f/1.8, OIS, Sony LYT-600) + 8 MP ultra-wide (f/2.2, 112° FOV)

50 MP main (f/1.8, OIS, Sony LYT-600) + 8 MP ultra-wide (f/2.2, 112° FOV)

List price of £299 for 128GB storage or £349 for 256GB

Succeeded by the Nord CE6 — but that’s not available in the UK

Having launched on July 8, 2025, the One Plus Nord CE5 is currently available in the UK. While it has technically been supplanted by the One Plus Nord CE6, released on May 8, 2026, the latter isn't sold in the UK and, with no launch rumored, is unlikely to make it here at all. So that means the Nord CE5 is still the budget One Plus to aim for if you’re a Brit.

When it comes to cost, the Nord CE5 retails for a list price of £299 for the model with 128GB of storage or £349 for 256GB. That means it leans slightly more toward budget territory than mid-range. You can choose from one of two colorways for that spend, either the minimal Black Infinity version or the iridescent Marble Mist I’ve tested here.

Overall, I like the build of the One Plus Nord CE5. While it doesn’t quite feel as premium as more expensive phones — that lightweight plastic trim around its edge can’t compete with my i Phone 16 Pro’s titanium, for example — that flat design still feels comfortable in your hand.

Measuring 6.44 x 2.99 inches / 163.58 x 76.02mm, the Nord CE5 is slightly taller and less broad than some of its affordable rivals, making it easy to hold in one hand — although you might need your second hand to reach the very top of the screen. But, at 0.33 inches / 8.27mm, and 0.32 inches / 8.17mm deep for the Marble Mist / Black Infinity versions respectively, it’s not the thinnest device on the market, with only a few handsets like the Nothing Phone (4a), i Phone 17 Pro and i Phone 17 Pro Max being thicker.

As I’ve mentioned above, the Nord CE5 comes in two colorways: Black Infinity and Marble Mist. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the pearlescent marble effect — while it sounds premium, in reality it looks a touch gaudy to me. On the plus side, its matte finish feels wonderfully smooth, with just enough of a grain to remain tactile.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the budget price, its design is pretty minimal elsewhere. But that’s actually something of a relief, given how crowded some flagship phones can now feel with their full-width camera modules and bunches of bonus buttons. The Nord CE5’s vertically aligned dual-lens camera module looks neat and nicely self-contained, while it only has a lock button and volume rocker adorning one edge, making it feel lean and sparing.

Measuring 6.77 inches, the One Plus Nord CE5’s screen is more expansive than that of many flagships. It outstrips the i Phone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy 26+ at 6.3 and 6.7 inches respectively, although it’s not quite as extensive as phones like the 6.83-inch Nothing Phone (4a) Pro or the 6.9-inch i Phone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy 26 Ultra.

One Plus has shared 2392 x 1080 pixels across that display, giving the Nord CE5 a pixel density of 387PPI. Keen to see how that stacks up in practice, I streamed Planet Earth II in 1080p on the Nord CE5 side-by-side with my 460PPI i Phone 16 Pro. During a scene involving a pride of lionesses on the savannah grappling with an African buffalo, the Nord CE5 felt just a tiny bit less crisp, with the drops and spray of water being cast up not feeling quite as sharp as on my premium phone. Most images still look pretty crisp though, even if they’re not quite up to flagship standard.

On paper, the One Plus Nord CE5 offers 1430 nits peak brightness and a typical brightness of 800 nits. Unfortunately, its display didn’t exactly feel dazzlingly bright to me. Some scenes felt like their white level was a bit too low; for example, the canopy of a jungle looked thicker and more oppressive than it did on other screens. And the whites that are there are a little too cold for my liking, with the white highlights of exposed tree bark looking a little on the blue side.

This isn’t helped by the fact that the Nord CE5’s display is quite reflective. While most phones reflect the lighting in the Tech Radar testing labs — they're huge fluorescent ceiling panels — the One Plus’s display seems to mirror many other objects in the room as well. Without the extra brightness that more expensive models are capable of, it can’t quite overcome local sources of light.

That’s a shame because the Nord CE5’s color fidelity is pretty spot on elsewhere. Watching a Wilson’s bird of paradise trying to court a mate, I was impressed with how vibrantly the display rendered its bright blue crown, red back and yellow mantle, not to mention its bright green fluorescent collar. But thanks to that slight paucity of white highlights, it still doesn’t have quite the HDR pop it otherwise could have.

I’ll give the Nord CE5 credit where it’s due though: the display’s max 120 Hz refresh rate ensures that everything looks smoother than an Olympic diver slathered in goose fat. Navigating menus and swiping between apps, everything felt wonderfully fluid and never showed even a hint of judder or slowdown. The device can absolutely rival any premium handset here.

Running Oxygen OS 15.0, based on Android 15, the One Plus Nord CE5 offers a pretty clean software experience with some seriously clever shortcuts built in. I like being able to swipe down with three fingers to take screenshots, while screen-off gestures that allow you to open the camera by tracing an O or switch on the flashlight by tracing a V are a fun touch. I can also see being able to lift the phone to my ear to auto-answer calls or flip it screen-down to mute them as features I’d end up using a lot.

On top of this, the Nord CE5 offers solid productivity features. For example, the smart sidebar allows you to quickly access your most-used apps by swiping from the top-right of the screen. Split View allows you to drag and drop two windows into a split-screen mode — not only does this feel super fluid to do, but you can easily resize each window by dragging the boundary between them.

It’s a little unfortunate then that One Plus doesn’t seem able to resist the temptation to burden this otherwise lightweight experience with unnecessary bloat. Don’t get me wrong: it’s not the worst offender in this category. But the Nord CE5 still includes loads of apps that really should not be included by default, like Ali Express, Amazon Music or Tik Tok. Honestly, phone manufacturers: stop doing this.

The AI features on the Nord CE5 certainly aren’t as extreme as a phone like the Honor 600, with its Image to Video and wild VFX tools, but there are some useful tools available for tweaking your photos. Not only can you remove blur and reflections and upscale the quality of your images, but you can also erase those annoying people who walk straight through your shot and swap in a different expression for that one friend who always seems to have their eyes closed.

Overall, AI features are nicely unobtrusive, which is good news for those who are more AI-agnostic. The Google Gemini app comes pre-installed, offering answers, generative text and images. But if you’re not interested in its help, it’s easy to remove from your home and lockscreen, a pleasingly light-touch approach compared to some of the more gung-ho handsets.

Even if it doesn’t have the most cutting-edge advances, you can be sure the Nord CE5 will last you for the long haul. That’s because One Plus has committed to providing six years of software support for its handset, something that’s definitely appreciated in an era when more of us are trying to eke more longevity out of our handsets, rather than ditch them every year.

All told, the software the Nord CE5 offers here isn’t groundbreaking. But it’s smooth and super-usable. Just please, One Plus: shed some of that bloat.

Given the One Plus Nord CE5’s affordable price point, you won’t be surprised to hear that it doesn’t pack a top-of-the-range chipset. Don’t get me wrong: its Media Tek Dimensity 8350 Apex So C isn’t bad, offering roughly similar performance to something like the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, but it doesn't offer as much thrust as many current flagship chips. With 8GB of RAM backing this up, I was expecting decent if unexceptional performance here.

And that’s generally what I found. During day-to-day productivity use, the Nord CE5 seems to run smoothly. Dipping in and out of apps, I never found any delays or witnessed anything hanging, no matter how many I opened. I even tried typing part of this review in split-screen mode while streaming What We Do In The Shadows — admittedly, this was atrocious for helping me focus, but both Google Docs and the video were unfaltering, marching on without a single misstep.

The Nord CE5 has surprisingly good gaming performance, given its budget price too. Playing Call of Duty: Mobile with the high-res texture packs, everything ran smoother than cappuccino foam. I played around eight ranked matches back-to-back and at no point did any judder or lag cause me to lose my kill-streak or stop me hoovering up MVP awards.

Genshin Impact was warier of the Media Tek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset. While I was able to get balanced performance on the Higher graphics setting, switching it up to the Highest setting gave me a warning that I was overclocking the chipset. Despite this, the game still ran without any real issues — it’s possible the game developers were being overcautious, but I’ve obviously not conducted any long-term testing on how this might affect the life of the chip, so I’d urge caution before doing the same.

While some mid-range processors I’ve tested lately have gotten pretty warm during extended play sessions, I’m pleased to say that’s not an issue here. Thanks to its Cryo Velocity graphene vapor chamber with a 7041mm² cooling area, the Nord CE5 stayed frosty even with Genshin Impact running at its overclocked settings. So while you might not get flagship-level performance out of the Nord CE5, it packs a pretty decent punch for such a low cost.

For the price, I was expecting the One Plus Nord CE5’s camera to feel limited, but it’s actually relatively talented. First off, it’s capable of some bold, punchy HDR. One shot I snapped nearing the golden hour of a stone urn on a pedestal showed really deep blacks, while the highlights were warm enough to feel true-to-life.

Thanks to its 50MP resolution main lens, the One Plus Nord CE5 is capable of crisp resolution, although its 1/1.95 inch sensor can't keep up with those offered by flagships. Zooming into a shot I took of a bumblebee crawling over a thistle, its detail was pleasingly crisp and kept everything wonderfully sharp. But, by comparison, my i Phone 16 Pro picked up every speck of pollen on its fuzzy coat in sharp detail and captured the sun reflected in its glossy black eye.

Colors are also captured with a real vibrance, the petals of a rose rendered in a wonderfully rich pink, for example. Naturally, you can’t expect top-tier chromatic performance here — my i Phone conveyed more range between darker and lighter tones and gave the dappling of each petal more pop. But the Nord CE5 still records delightfully lush hues and at least avoids the shortcut some brands take of oversaturating certain shades to artificially make images seem more vivid.

When taking photos close up, the One Plus has a much shallower depth of field compared to some phones I’ve used. While that’s useful for creating a wonderful depth effect in your images, it does mean the Nord CE5 sometimes struggles to keep the whole subject in focus — some of the petals of a purple coneflower I shot looked slightly less crisp than on my i Phone, for example. Having said that, I actually quite like its bokeh, which feels much more Gaussian and subtle compared to phones that tend to make their bokeh too sharp and ‘swirly’.

While there are some decent Pro camera apps out there that unlock more granular control over your phone’s snapper, I love that One Plus has already parceled this up in the Nord CE5’s native camera app. Using the Pro setting, I was able to tweak the camera’s ISO and shutter speed, as well as its white balance. For me though, the most invaluable setting is the manual lens’s focus, although this is far harder to set accurately on a phone screen than a DSLR viewfinder, so I do wish One Plus had created a shortcut for zooming in on the screen while tweaking the focal range.

Night photography on the Nord CE5 is also generally strong. Taking shots at my favorite riverside pub at dusk, it struck a good balance between light and dark, with bright highlights not feeling overblown without compromising the shadows. Occasionally, faces could look a little soft around the edges, but that may have just been my subject not remaining as still as they could have. And at least the phone avoids overexposing night-time images — I’m not Truffaut, so I have no desire to shoot day for night or vice versa.

One area where I’d say the Nord CE5 falls further short of more premium phones is the zoom lenses. While the phone has a decent 2x optical zoom, it did make me realize how dependent I’ve become on my phone’s 5x optical zoom. On the plus side, the Nord CE5’s zoom lenses are crisp and distortion-free — the shots I snapped of flapping sky rats pigeons near a local river rendered their wings in decent detail.

All things considered, the Nord CE5’s camera is very good. Not only is using it an uncluttered experience, but its shots feel a lot truer to life than some of the flashier cams on other mid-market phones.

One Plus generally packages outstanding batteries with its handsets, and the Nord CE5 is no exception. The brand suggests you should get several days of normal usage out of the CE5’s 5200m Ah battery before needing to charge it.

Eager to put these claims to the test, I set the phone to stream a 2K video at 50% brightness on a loop — after 6 hours it had dropped to 71%, so I’d expect it to last roughly 20 hours and 40 minutes total. Not only does that mean One Plus’s estimates are pretty on the money, but it also means the Nord CE5 comfortably outlasts many of the best phones on the market, whether premium options like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra or budget bangers like Google Pixel 10a.

But where the One Plus Nord CE5 really leaves all competition eating its dust is charging. Thanks to One Plus’s 80W SUPERVOOC charging, topping up this handset feels faster than a pitstop fuel change — hooking it up to a cable and brick rated for up to 100W, it took around 59 minutes to go from 0% to 100%. While that’s not quite as ludicrous as the One Plus 15’s blistering 120W charging, it still means you could juice it back up in the time it took you to scarf down your lunchtime bagel and boba tea.

So if your biggest priority in a budget phone is that it can last alongside you on your busiest days, the One Plus Nord CE5 has definitely got you covered.

Solid, well-built design, narrow aspect ratio makes it easy to grasp in the hand. Not the biggest fan of the faux marble colorway though.

Solid, well-built design, narrow aspect ratio makes it easy to grasp in the hand. Not the biggest fan of the faux marble colorway though.

Expansive 6.77-inch display, rich colors, super-smooth 120 Hz refresh rate, strong resolution even if it falls a little short of flagships, 1430-nit peak didn’t feel that bright, especially given how reflective the screen could be.

Expansive 6.77-inch display, rich colors, super-smooth 120 Hz refresh rate, strong resolution even if it falls a little short of flagships, 1430-nit peak didn’t feel that bright, especially given how reflective the screen could be.

Smooth agile OS, great screen-off gestures and raise-to-answer functionality, solid productivity tools, discreet AI tools, six years of software support, annoying unnecessary bloatware.

Smooth agile OS, great screen-off gestures and raise-to-answer functionality, solid productivity tools, discreet AI tools, six years of software support, annoying unnecessary bloatware.

Chipset not top of the range but fares well, never witnessed any lag during productivity tasks and split-screening, games ran smoothly although running the highest graphics settings forced me to overclock the So C, stayed cool during heavy loads.

Chipset not top of the range but fares well, never witnessed any lag during productivity tasks and split-screening, games ran smoothly although running the highest graphics settings forced me to overclock the So C, stayed cool during heavy loads.

Striking hues, strong contrast, good resolution that falls just a little short of flagships, surprisingly good low-light performance, soft subtle bokeh, only offers up to a 2x zoom.

Striking hues, strong contrast, good resolution that falls just a little short of flagships, surprisingly good low-light performance, soft subtle bokeh, only offers up to a 2x zoom.

Lengthy 20-hour battery, can charge from 0% to 100% in just 59 minutes.

Lengthy 20-hour battery, can charge from 0% to 100% in just 59 minutes.

While the Nord CE5 isn’t perfect, it offers quality that rivals many mid-market phones. And when you factor in its starting price of £299, that’s a whole heap of quality for not much cash.

While the Nord CE5 isn’t perfect, it offers quality that rivals many mid-market phones. And when you factor in its starting price of £299, that’s a whole heap of quality for not much cash.

You need a battery that will go the distance If you never want to get blindsided by an empty battery, the Nord CE5 has you covered. Not only should its 5,200m Ah battery last you around 20 hours, but you can fully charge it in just one hour via its 80W SUPERVOOC.

You want a solid camera for a cheap price Having tested a few mid-range phones whose cameras cut corners or overprocessed images, the Nord CE5’s camera is a breath of fresh air, focusing on getting the fundamentals right.

You’re after a top-tier gaming phone If you like some casual gaming, the Nord CE5 will still deliver rock-solid stability. But if you want to play on the highest graphic settings, a higher-spec phone might be a better shout.

You want it to look bold even in daylight Not only is the Nord CE5’s screen a little too shiny, it also can’t quite rival flagships when it comes to outdoor peak brightness. So if you want a phone that will outshine the midday sun, maybe look elsewhere.

50 MP main + 50 MP ultra-wide + 50 MP (3.5x telephoto)

50 MP main + 50 MP ultra-wide + 50 MP (3.5x telephoto)

Red Magic 10 Air If you’re looking for a dedicated gaming phone, the Red Magic 10 Air sits right in that sweet spot between solid gaming performance and an affordable price. Costing

One Plus 15 Should you have a little more moolah to spend, the One Plus 15 offers all the things that make the Nord CE5 great, dialed up to flagship levels. Its top-of-the-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset offers staggering performance, its stunningly detailed display is capable of a 450ppi pixel density and can hit refresh rates of 165 Hz, while its battery is an enormous 7,300m Ah. That’s a great spec given its price starts from

I tested the One Plus Nord CE5 over the course of several weeks. To assess the performance of its display, I watched multiple HDR 4K videos and compared them side-by-side with my i Phone 16 Pro to assess contrast, color and brightness. I tried the camera out in a range of contexts, from shooting flowers with a short focal range to long-distance shots using the zoom.

When weighing up the performance of its chipset, I used the phone for a range of productivity tasks in split-screen mode and played a range of demanding games on their max graphics settings. Finally, to assess battery life, I set the phone to stream a 2K video at 50% brightness for six hours to assess how long it would take to drain the entire battery.

Having covered and reviewed gadgets for more than a decade, I have a lot of experience in this area and have tested a range of phones, tablets and drawing tablets during my time at Tech Radar. I’m a keen smartphone photographer, having snapped over 47,000 photos over the last 15 years — a small proportion of which I’d say are actually competently shot — and a reformed smartphone game addict who still periodically falls off the wagon.

Josh is Reviews Editor at Tech Radar. With over ten years of experience covering tech both in print and online, he’s served as editor of T3 and net magazines and written about everything from groundbreaking gadgets to innovative Silicon Valley startups. He’s an expert in a wide range of products from Spatial Audio headphones to gaming handhelds. When he’s not putting trailblazing tech through its paces, he can be found making melodic techno or seeking out the perfect cold brew coffee.

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