The OnePlus Nord became official just yesterday, and now OnePlus has revealed another handful of official specs.
In an interview with our sister site TechRadar, OnePlus co-founder and director of OnePlus Global Carl Pei explained in detail about OnePlus' motivation to capture the mid-budget market that it began its journey serving with the OnePlus One, and how the Nord range will fit into its existing line up. But most interestingly, the company confirmed that the phone will cost under $500, and uses a Snapdragon 765G chipset.
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First, that price. $500 (£403 converted) is more expensive than the iPhone SE (2020), and also more than the rumored cost of the unreleased Google Pixel 4a at $349. But the Nord is believed to offer a lot more hardware in return, such as a 90Hz display, three rear cameras and dual selfie cameras.
As for the chipset, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G is a good call for OnePlus. It doesn't offer the same performance as the Snapdragon 865, found in the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro as well as many other Android smartphone flagships. However, this chip does offer 5G connectivity, which makes the Nord more future-proof than its low-cost rivals.
At under $500, the OnePlus Nord should be one of the cheapest 5G phones yet. The iPhone SE is a 4G-only device. And since we're expecting a Snapdragon 730 in the Google Pixel 4a, OnePlus will have a strong advantage over its main Android competition.
The only thing missing is US availability. OnePlus has confirmed the phone will go on sale in Europe and India, but only a select few US users will be able to access the phone via a small-scale beta program. Hopefully OnePlus launches the Nord line properly in North America at a later date.
We're expecting the OnePlus Nord to launch by the end of this month, with a reveal event of some kind taking place on July 7. However, OnePlus has been very careful about the amount of information it has revealed so far. So it's possible that the July 7 event won't be a full launch, but more of an explanation of exactly what products the Nord line will entail, since the company promises that the Nord phone is just the beginning.
