OnePlus Nord N10 5G review: An affordable 5G phone with few compromises – CNET

With the Nord N10 5G and N100, OnePlus is expanding its more affordable “Nord” family of phones after launching its first OnePlus Nord in July. Available in Europe and North America at a later date, the N10 5G costs £329 (US and Australia pricing weren’t released yet, but that converts to roughly $430 and AU$600). This is cheaper than the £379, UK-only OnePlus Nord, and much lower than the company’s cheapest flagship model, the OnePlus 8, which is currently discounted at $599 and £549 (AU$837 converted).

The Nord N10 5G does cut a few corners. For instance, it has an LCD display instead of OLED, it doesn’t have an in-screen fingerprint sensor, it’s powered by a slower processor than any 2020 OnePlus phone, it isn’t IP rated for water resistance and it runs the older Android 10 OS. But it still has some premium features, such as 5G, a 90Hz display and a robust 4,300-mAh battery, as well as a few retro surprises that no new OnePlus phones have, like expandable memory and a headphone jack.

If US pricing stays consistent with the UK, it’ll be one of the more affordable 5G phones available, landing between the $360 LG K92 and the $445 Motorola One 5G. Though I do think the Pixel 4A 5G and One 5G are worth the extra bit of money (the $500 Pixel phone, for instance, will get the latest software support from Google, has an excellent camera and a long-lasting battery life), the N10 5G is a top choice if you’re a fan of OnePlus and want 5G at an affordable price.

N10 5G’s familiar design touches

The N10 5G has a dark blue, glossy design that looks polished and slick. From afar it doesn’t look like a “budget” phone. But when I first picked it up, I could tell it wasn’t as high-end. It’s heavier and thicker, and its bezels, especially the bottom chin bezel, is wider than all of the phones OnePlus released this year. It also doesn’t have the convenient toggle switch for silence/vibrate that OnePlus phones are known for. Nonetheless, it’s still a relatively attractive device, and its rounded edges on the side are comfortable to hold.

The N10 5G also has an LCD display, whereas OnePlus phones usually have AMOLED screens. When viewed side-by-side with the Nord, the AMOLED screen is a bit brighter and vibrant, with more contrast. I also noticed that when viewing the N10 5G from various angles, the color shifting was more noticeable. But these details are only discernible next to another phone. By itself, there is no real issue with the N10 5G’s screen, and watching videos and photos looked sharp and clear. Its 90Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through feeds and apps feel zippy and smooth.

Lastly, unlike many of OnePlus’ new phones, the N10 5G has two things that are familiar but have been missing from many premium devices: a headphone jack for wired headphones and a visible fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone that works quickly.

N10 5G’s has four rear cameras, but it only needs two

Similar to many OnePlus phones, the N10 5G has four rear cameras, and similar to those phones, it really only needs two. The standard and ultra-wide cameras are great and are the ones I used the most, but the monochrome camera is only useful when you want to take black and white photos, which I hardly do. And the 2-megapixel macro camera for closeup shots takes photos that look like, well, they were taken with a 2-megapixel camera. While it did allow me to focus in on an object and get super close to it, pictures ultimately looked washed out and muddy.

But again, the standard and ultra-wide cameras are quite excellent. Photos were sharp with rich contrast, and the camera’s HDR effect is vibrant. The standard camera defaults to 16-megapixel, but you can shoot at the full 64-megapixel resolution. The camera’s 10x digital zoom is also decent, and was able to capture details of faraway objects despite being a tad blurrier. 

The N10 5G’s low-light mode, called Nightscape, wasn’t very impressive however. While taking a photo of a black bookshelf in near darkness, I was able to see a few more details and book titles. But the picture remained relatively dark still and when I compared the same scene on the OnePlus Nord, the One Plus 8T and the Pixel 5‘s Night Mode, all three phones brightened up the scene a lot better. 

N10 5G’s battery and performance

The phone is equipped with a Snapdragon 690 processor. Though on paper that’s not as fast or as powerful as the OnePlus Nord, Motorola One 5G and the Pixel 4A 5G’s Snapdragon 765 chipset, the N10 5G tracked closely with the phones when it came to benchmark tests. I also didn’t notice any speed issues or laggy behavior during my time with the phone. 

The N10 5G has a beefy 4,300-mAh battery, which is the same capacity as the more expensive OnePlus 8. Anecdotally, the phone can easily last a day or two without a charge with mild usage. At the end of one particular night, the battery was only at 70% after I took the phone out during the day to take a bunch of photos and browse the internet. Battery tests for continuous video playback on Airplane mode averaged 16 hours, 27 minutes. For comparison, the OnePlus 8 lasted longer, at nearly 19 hours.

N10 5G’s software and interface

When OnePlus launched its 8T in October, it also updated the company’s OxygenOS interface, refreshing menus and notifications so that they looked more streamlined, modern and clean. I was a fan of it, so it was disappointing not to see it on the N10 5G. This is likely because the phone runs the previous version of Android, Android 10, but even if the N10 5G doesn’t run Android 11 out of the box, it’s still possible for OnePlus to tweak some parts of the N10 5G’s interface with the most recent OxygenOS look. But the N10 5G is expected to receive one OS update (from Android 10 to Android 11) and a total of two years of security updates according to OnePlus.

The N10 5G does still have useful software features, including a native screen recorder, Dark Mode and ZenMode, which is OnePlus’ digital wellbeing app that limits phone functionality when you want to focus.