Introduction.
The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is the company's latest entry-level model for the Asian and European markets. The third-generation variant is a modest upgrade over its predecessor, with the most notable changes on paper being the switch to a new 108MP main camera and faster 67W SUPERVOOC charging.
The Nord CE 3 Lite is also largely identical to the Realme 10 Pro, a phone we have reviewed in the past. This means it has the same 6.72-inch 120Hz 1080p display, 5000mAh battery, headphone jack and the aforementioned 108MP main camera. And since this is a rebranded Realme phone, it also lacks unique OnePlus features like the alarm slider.
So, at the risk of retreading familiar ground, let's get on with the Nord CE 3 Lite review.
Unboxing
The Nord CE 3 Lite comes with a basic package that includes the phone, a clear silicone case, an 80W SUPERVOOC charger, and a charging and data cable.
The case has flaps for the USB port and the headphone jack, which are not only annoying, but can also prevent some headphones from plugging in properly.
The design
The design of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is very similar to that of the Realme 10 Pro, with some minor changes.
The front has a flat glass display with the same large cutout in the middle at the top for the front camera. The bezels are thicker at the bottom of the display, but the Nord CE 3 Lite also appears to have thicker bezels at the top than the Realme 10 Pro. This could be due to the slightly larger dimensions despite the same display.
On the sides, the Nord CE 3 Lite has a power button on the right that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. It's much less convenient to use than a display-based sensor, as it's only on one side, making it difficult to use with the left hand or when the phone is on its back. It's also constantly triggered when you're just holding the phone, and when you're actively trying to press it, it's hard to locate because it's flush with the frame.
Not found on the right side of the phone is the usual OnePlus alarm slider. We've seen this in the past when the rebranding of Oppo's other products has been slower than usual, and this being a budget model probably doesn't help. Whatever the reason, one of the most iconic OnePlus features is missing from this OnePlus phone.
On the left side of the phone is the dual SIM tray. The volume buttons have been moved to the left, as they are on the right on the Realme 10 Pro. The new layout will be more familiar to those used to other OnePlus phones.
The top of the phone has a microphone. You can see a slim bezel for the earpiece, which is wedged between the display and the top of the bezel. The earpiece also acts as one of the speakers.
The bottom of the phone houses a second microphone, the other speaker of the stereo pair, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is also a USB-C port that supports USB 2.0 speeds.
The back of the phone is quite similar to that of the Realme 10 Pro. It has the same large dual circular elements for the cameras, only this time there are three cameras instead of two. The flash has also been moved to a more central position with a larger aperture.
As an entry-level model in the Nord series, the CE 3 Lite is unapologetically plastic. Everything from the frame to the back cover is made of plastic. The front is made of Asahi Dragontrail Star glass instead of a Corning model found on more expensive devices. The front glass seems to have a better oleophobic coating this time, as the Nord CE 2 Lite had either a much worse version or no coating at all. The plastic back, on the other hand, gets smudged in no time at all and is also more susceptible to scratches than glass.
The build quality is good for a phone that is mainly made of plastic. There is no bending or creaking in the case and the phone feels sturdy enough in the hand. The phone is not claimed to have an ingress protection or coating.
The Nord CE 3 Lite is available in two colors, Chromatic Gray and the bright Pastel Lime shown here. All the marketing material for the lime variant shows it as a flat green color, but in real life it looks quite different due to the iridescent finish that changes the green hue in different lighting.
Screen
The Nord CE 3 Lite has a 6.72-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 2400x1800. The display supports refresh rates of up to 120Hz. The "up to" part is important because most apps on the phone don't actually work at 120Hz, but more on that later.
OnePlus claims a typical brightness of 550 nits and a peak of 680 nits. This display didn't quite reach 680 nits when we tested it on the Realme 10 Pro, but it was close enough at 619 nits. Regardless of the numbers, the display gets bright enough to be visible outdoors in direct sunlight.
OnePlus claims that the display supports P3, but we don't know to what extent it covers the color space. In any case, it has full support for sRGB. Out of the box, color accuracy is substandard, something we have come to expect from Nord phones as the company rarely bothers to calibrate them. The main culprit is the color temperature, which is visibly too cool out of the box, and even setting it to the warmest manual level doesn't make it warm enough for standard sRGB values.
Contrast and black levels are worse than a typical OLED panel, but not to the point of being distracting or even noticeable if you don't know what you're looking for. Viewing angles are actually better than they tend to be for budget OLED panels, with no weird color casts when viewed at an angle.
The device does not support HDR, which is just as well, as the HDR experience on LCDs is mediocre at best.
On the subject of refresh rates, the display can refresh up to 120Hz, which it does on the home screen and in some of the standard applications. The display can also switch between 30Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz depending on the content, which is a good thing as it covers all the popular frame rate combinations.
Unfortunately, the good news stops there. The Nord CE 3 Lite has one of the most aggressive and draconian implementations of dynamic refresh rates we've seen. Most of the time, the phone runs at either 60Hz or 90Hz. Most of the apps we tested on the phone, regardless of what they were doing, either refreshed at 60Hz or 90Hz. Only a handful of apps refreshed at the full 120Hz, and even when they did, it felt more like an accident than a deliberate choice.
Of course, as is typical of OnePlus phones, almost all games are locked at 60Hz.
This leads to the 120Hz claim being nothing more than a marketing buzzword, as you will rarely see the phone hit that number in regular use. It's so serious that we'd go so far as to call it false advertising, potentially opening OnePlus up to lawsuits if they don't fix it in an update.
Finally, the dynamic refresh rate adjustment doesn't work in all apps. While the phone was able to detect the video frame rate in the YouTube app and adjust the display's refresh rate accordingly, in all other video apps, the display just stuck at 60Hz. Even when it did change in the YouTube app, it would occasionally bounce back and forth between the correct refresh rate and 60Hz for no apparent reason.
Charging
The Nord CE 3 Lite has the same 5000mAh battery as the Realme 10 Pro. You can check out our full review of that phone to get a complete lowdown on the battery life numbers. What we were more interested in checking out here were the charging speeds, as that was the only advertised change with the Nord CE 3 Lite. The phone comes with an 80W charger, but supports up to 67W, which is still a big improvement over the Realme 10 Pro's 33W.
Unfortunately, the faster charging doesn't seem to be enabled in the tested firmware. When we did our charging test, the Nord CE 3 Lite charged 1%-55% in 30 minutes, which is identical to what we got on the Realme 10 Pro with a 33W fast charger. A full charge took 1 hour and 11 minutes, which is also identical to the Realme 10 Pro's result.
When checking the input power, the phone also reported a maximum of 27W, which is on par with what you'd expect from a 33W charger (the advertised claim is what it pulls from the wall). Whatever internal change was required to enable the full 67W charge simply wasn't present on our review unit, and the device still behaves like a Realme 10 Pro.
We expect this to be an issue with the review unit and not something that retail units will experience. We will have to wait and see if a future update changes anything to update this section.
The camera
The Nord CE 3 Lite has a triple camera system on the back, but as you will see, there is only one usable camera. The 108MP f1.75 main camera is carried over from the Realme 10 Pro, as is the 2MP depth sensor. New here is the 2MP macro mode, but you can probably already tell that this is not going to be a worthwhile addition. There is a 16MP camera on the front.
