OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite announced with 6.67" OLED display, 50MP OIS camera and large battery

2024-06-30

The new OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite adopts some features from the Nord CE4, which is mostly good news when comparing it to the previous model, the Nord CE 3 Lite. Note that there is a slightly different model with the same name for India. There are a few choices that might leave you scratching your head too, but let’s start with the positives.

The phone leaves behind the LCDs of its predecessors and adopts an OLED panel. It’s a good panel too, with the same emissive materials that were used in the OnePlus 11. It is a 6.67” display with 1,080 x 2,400px resolution (20:9) and 120Hz refresh rate. It has a peak brightness of 1,200 nits (for the whole display, local brightness can hit 2,100 nits), which is a huge upgrade over the 680 nits of last year’s model. As an extra bonus, the fingerprint reader is now under the display instead of mounted on the side.

The Nord CE4 Lite is equipped with a battery with 10% higher capacity, 5,500mAh. That is the capacity for the Indian model. The global version has a 5,110mAh battery instead (110mAh more than the CE 3 Lite). Either way, charging has been boosted a bit to 80W, so a full 100% still takes a reasonable amount of time – 52 minutes on the 5,500mAh variant. That larger battery can do 20 hours of uninterrupted YouTube marathon.

Charging is done through the USB-C (USB 2.0) port with the supplied USB A-to-C cable, but note that only the Indian variant is bundled with the necessary charger - in Europe, you have to supply your own. Or you could use a USB-PD charger, but this caps the charging speed to 55W.

Despite the increased battery capacity, the new model is thinner and lighter than its predecessor – 8.1mm and 191g vs. 8.3mm and 195g for the Nord CE 3 Lite. Even better, Lite inherits the IP54 dust and water resistance of the regular CE4. This is a first for a CE Lite model.

This is a very versatile phone. It has a microSD slot for extra storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers with 300% Ultra Volume Mode. And you can share some of that large battery with the 5W reverse charging mode.

For whatever reason, the phone is powered by the Snapdragon 695. Yes, the same chipset as in the Nord CE 3 Lite and Nord CE 2 Lite. It’s paired with 8GB of RAM (LPDDR4X) and 128/256GB storage (UFS 2.2), so there’s no improvement on this front either.

We mentioned that the Lite adopts some CE4 features. The OLED display and water resistance, but also the Sony LYT-600 camera sensor – this is a 50MP 1/1.95” sensor. On the plus side, it has Optical Image Stabilization now (another first for the CE Lite series). On the downside, this is a major downgrade from the 108MP 1/1.67” camera of the CE 3 Lite.

This remains the only camera of interest on the back – there is a 2MP depth sensor, but there isn’t much to say about that. The LYT-600 has in-sensor 2x zoom, but the 108MP sensor of the previous phone advertised 3x (the results were quite poor, though). You can check out our Nord CE4 hands-on review for a peek at how this camera module performs.

The front-facing camera is a 16MP unit, similar to the other Nords. Video recording was not upgraded, so 1080p @ 30fps is what you get.

The phone is available in three colors - Super Silver and Mega Blue, plus an exclusive color for India called Ultra Orange.

Pre-orders for the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite start today in Europe. The phone is available in one configuration (8/256GB) and costs €330. Make that €280 if you get the early bird deal, which also includes a free pair of OnePlus Nord Buds 2 (valued at €70). Open sales begin on July 1, so you have a week to grab the early bird offer.

The situation in India is slightly different and the Nord CE4 Lite goes directly to open sales starting on June 27 (Thursday). The base 8/128GB model has an MSRP of ₹21,000 and the 8/256GB upgrade is ₹24,000. However, for a limited time these models will be available at ₹20,000 and ₹23,000, respectively with instant discount from ICICI Bank and OneCard credit cards. Note that the Ultra Orange colorway (exclusive to India) will be available at a later date.