Update: the OnePlus Nord 2 has been released, and there's now a OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition. But now the OnePlus Nord 3 has been tipped with some big upgrades.
The OnePlus Nord 2 now has an official launch date: July 22.
The company confirmed the news via a tweet simply reading “July 22. #OnePlusNord." The tweet links through to the official OnePlus Nord 2 landing page, where the company has been drip feeding teasers about the handset ahead of its official reveal.
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The July 22 date shouldn’t come as too big a surprise to OnePlus watchers. On Wednesday, the company’s Indian site accidentally revealed the July 22 date ahead of time, before reverting the text to read “coming soon.”
Whether July 22 merely points to the day of OnePlus’ unveiling event or the day you can actually buy one isn’t clear, though in the recent past the company has left a small gap between announcement and release date. The OnePlus 9 was unveiled at an event on March 23 before arriving in buyers’ hands from April 1, and more recently the OnePlus Nord CE was announced on June 10 before being available to buy 11 days later.
That the OnePlus Nord 2 is following up so quickly from the OnePlus Nord CE (the ‘Core Edition’ of the original OnePlus Nord) is a little surprising. But the company is taking a new direction with the upcoming handset.
OnePlus has already confirmed that the Nord 2 will be abandoning Qualcomm to use MediaTek’s Dimensity 1200-AI chip instead, which isn’t a SoC we’ve encountered before. OnePlus said the chip will use AI to help the new phone boost its image and video quality, with automatic color and contrast adjustments promised for photos, and a feature called AI Resolution Boost that will apparently enhance video resolution.
It will be intriguing to see how these promises bear out, and how the phone fares against other handsets in its price bracket which opt for a Snapdragon SoC instead.
In terms of other specs, it's looking like the Nord 2 won't be a radical departure in terms of design from its predecessor; there's likely to be a 6.4-inch FHD AMOLED flat screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and punch-hole selfie camera, and a plain plastic back with a rectangular camera bump on the top left.
Only three rear cameras are tipped for the Nord 2, with the depth or macro sensor potentially dropped. Leaked Nord 2 specs claim the main sensor will see a bump to 50MP, using the same Sony IMX766 sensor found on the OnePlus 9 Pro. Battery capacity has been tipped to jump from 4,115 mAh to 4,500 mAh; 65W charging could feature, but the jury is out on that.
That price bracket is, of course, up in the air at the moment, but the original OnePlus Nord arrived at £379/£469 (it didn’t get a US release, but that’s around $522/$646) when it launched last year. The Core Edition, which aimed to leave the ‘core’ specs untouched while reducing the price, arrived last month for £299 (~$412), so where OnePlus places the Nord 2 relative to both these and the $729 OnePlus 9 should prove interesting when the phone is officially unveiled in 12 days’ time.
