The OnePlus Nord 2 may have just been detailed in a new set of renders, which tease design tweaks over the original OnePlus Nord.
The leaked images come courtesy of Steve "OnLeaks" Hemmerstoffer, via his Voice page, who claims that while the device has the codename "Ebba" he believes this will be the follow-up to the OnePlus Nord N10 5G.
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The design is familiar to anyone who's seen the Nord N10. The construction sounds similar also, with this device apparently using a glossy plastic back with a metal frame, and a USB-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom.
Hemmerstoffer gives us the dimensions too: 162.9 x 74.7 x 8.4mm. That equates to 6.4 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches, or in relative terms, slightly narrower and thinner than the Nord N10.
A 6.49-inch display with flat edges and a punch-hole camera in the top left corner is shown off in the renders. This is identical to the Nord N10's LCD display, which also boasted an FHD+ resolution, and a 90Hz refresh rate. We'd expect this next Nord phone to use these features too.
The three rear cameras are positioned in the same rectangular camera block as the Nord N10, the cheaper OnePlus Nord N100 and OnePlus' most recent flagship, the OnePlus 8T. However, that's one less than the Nord N10, which has four cameras, consisting of main, ultrawide, monochrome and macro sensors.
In our Nord N10 review, we criticized the poor performance of the Nord N10's monochrome and macro shots. So assuming it's one of these that's been omitted, we won't be too upset.
A notable change is the relocation of the fingerprint scanner. It's moved from a circular patch on the back to inside the power button on the right side. This seems like a good chance, since it cleans up the look of the back, and is arguably more convenient to use when you need to unlock the phone.
This leak doesn't tell us about any internal changes, such as which chipset, camera sensors or battery tech the phone will use, so perhaps we'll see more significant changes there.
One rumored internal change is that OnePlus will ditch its current Snapdragon chipsets in favor of MediaTek-made ones for the Nord 2. This would decrease the price of the phone, and possibly increase their performance too depending on which Dimensity chip was used.
The original Nord N10 only went on sale in the U.S. in January (or November 2020 in the U.K.). It could be several months before we see OnePlus launch this new Nord device, particularly given the imminent launch of the OnePlus 9. Whenever it does debut, however, there's a chance it'll become one of our best cheap phones picks, managing what the original Nord N10 couldn't.
