ONEPLUS Nord N20 5G | Android Smart Phone | 6.43″ AMOLED Display| 6+128GB | U.S. Unlocked | 4500 mAh Battery | 33W Fast Charging

10 reviews for ONEPLUS Nord N20 5G | Android Smart Phone | 6.43″ AMOLED Display| 6+128GB | U.S. Unlocked | 4500 mAh Battery | 33W Fast Charging

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Five – August 21, 2023

   
   For a low to midrange phone, it’s a great buy. Nice screen. Nice build quality. More than fast enough. Lots of storage. Audio ain’t great. Not very loud on headphones. I know this depends on the headphones, but my free Samsung A-20 pushed my Sennheiser earbuds better. Find an EQ app to boost the volume. Streaming audio and video has always worked great. And downloaded video is perfect. Gotta love those Pug videos. And Free Clarence!Oxygen 12 OS is okay. What it does, it does well enough. Unfortunately, they won’t update to OxygenOS 13, since it originally shipped under 11. So I guess my one update was done in the box. Settings menus are kind of a mess. I often have to go online to figure out how to make an adjustment. It took 15 minutes to find out how to change the image on my lock screen (it’s under wallpapers, not home & lock screen, not security, not display). Can’t comment on the UI, since I run a shell (Windows Metro, believe it or not), but it runs that without any problems or slowdown.Not so good is the fingerprint scanner. At least half the time I end up on the password screen. I’ve reset it a couple times and it doesn’t get better. Really annoying is that it never actually closes any apps, and it has a bunch of apps it always opens, whether you want them to open or not. Especially Google apps, which they also won’t let you delete or even “park.” So you’ll need to download an app killer and run it regularly. Right now there are 35 open apps. About 5 of which I didn’t use. That may be Android, but it’s on their phone.Big plus is battery and charging. This thing is a beast. Two full days of power, even with Zoom meetings, texting, and browsing. Recharges in minutes, not hours. About 75% in less than an hour. Maybe 90 for a full charge. I almost wish it wasn’t so nicely built and good looking. I don’t dare risk not using a gel case, in case I might hurt it!I had to torture myself to spend $230 on this – and I’m glad I did. If I were willing to spend $900+ on a phone, I’d buy a OnePlus in a minute. I’m not, but if OnePlus would like me to review their latest model…

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   ZAMIRA – August 30, 2023

   
   I have always been another brand fan (Xiaomi), this is my first OnePLUS phone, I am very fluent with android phones and also like to get my bang for the buck, I do not like overpaying for a phone that just is pricey because it has some name on it.. no way… Also, I hate being locked in contracts, so my current T-mobile plan is month to month basis and cheap!Pros: 5G, clear vivid screen, large display ( but not too large where your wrist gets tired holding it before bed while you read or browse social sites) , fast processing, no lagging, WiFi calling ( my house is in the bad reception area and now finally I get all calls through), call quality is superb, clear, pictures are fast and high quality, Amoled display and (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 3.5 mm headphone jack!!!!Cons: none.I have downloaded about 18 different apps on my phone and all of them operate without any hiccups. So I am very upset my husband just got another brand for $$$ from best buy and wish he’d waited for this one. Overall: I am now official fan of ONE PLUS.

3. 

   Rated 2 out of 5

   D T – May 28, 2023

   
   Pros:- micro SD slot- 3.5mm headphone jack- Easily unlockable bootloader- Easily rootable- Still receiving security updates- Generally decent hardware all around- Camera takes decent quality photos & videos- Works well with T-Mobile’s networks, including 5G- Pretty responsive for the most part, with occasional minor lag Cons:- Overly aggressive task killer, and it’s a *major* con- Software in general, is subpar- Price – $150 would be more reasonable, unless the software is improved- Fingerprint scanner is under screen – in my experience, these aren’t as responsive as ones on a power button, or other dedicated hardware location- Front camera location could be better. I like to cover my camera with tape when I’m not using it, and it’s more difficult to do that when the camera is inside the screen – as in, the screen is displaying stuff around the camera lens. I’d prefer a camera that’s under the screen, and but is not displaying anything above it, so it’s easier to tape up.Review:I’ve always avoided OnePlus, because despite their motto of “Never Settle”, their major lineup has always seemed exactly like settling to me – no microSD slot, nor 3.5mm headphone jack, nor NFC, and other missing basic features, even before the industry sadly started killing some those features off in most phones. Unfortunately, it’s been harder to find phones that meet some of my basic criteria that I just mentioned. So while I was looking for a new phone, I was pretty interested in trying a OnePlus phone that finally had those things. For the most part, the phone works great. Rooting was easy enough. The phone is still getting security updates. Calls are clear. Camera quality is not great, but not terrible. The phone does run a little slow at times, but is pretty responsive for the most part. HOWEVER, there’s a major problem, in my opinion, with the software. It is the sole reason for me knocking 2 of the stars off. The phone’s task killer is stupidly aggressive. If you don’t know, this is the thing on Android that usually manages what apps you have running on your phone, in the foreground and in the background. Whatever app you’re looking at & using, is likely in the foreground. Whatever apps are running, but you’re not actively using, such as a music or video player, is likely in the background. On this phone, that thing is so aggressive, that I can seldom have one app running in the background, let alone more than that. Trying to play music from a music player, while trying to browse the internet? Expect your music player in the background to get slaughtered within a few minutes, because the phone’s task killer won’t allow it. Switching between 2-3 apps while multi-tasking? 1 or 2 of them will likely get killed, probably resetting whatever you were doing in them. As you might guess from my comment about rooting, I’m a power user. I know my way around Android probably way better than the average user. Before I even rooted, I was suffering from this issue. I’ve tried setting every option in the phone that I could find, to not kill certain apps in the background. Yet none of them seem to have any effect on disabling this “feature”. There are root-only solutions for this type of issue, but they also don’t fix the problem on this phone. From hours of researching online, I’m not the only one with this complaint. It seems like whatever is causing this aggressive task killer behavior, is ingrained deep in OnePlus’s badly designed operating system. From what I’ve read, this aggressive task killing behavior is also oddly normal for OnePlus’s operating systems on most of their phones, which I wish I would’ve known before buying this phone. Also, the music player is just one example. There are various other apps that I like to setup to run in the background and do certain things. And they keep closing & failing, because of the overly aggressive task killer. I think maybe it’s OnePlus’s way of hiding the phone’s slow performance, by not allowing anything in the background to slow it down. It is such a massive shame, because this one major issue, absolutely ruins the phone for me. $300 for a phone with an issue like this, is an absurd price. I think $150 is more reasonable, until this issue is fixed. I’ve used plenty of $100 phones, that work better, without the need to kill apps so aggressively. Some of the customizability options in the OnePlus system’s settings are also more limited than the average Android phone that I’ve used, so the software just seems to be poorly designed in general.I really want to support companies that continue producing phones with micro SD cards, 3.5mm headphone jacks, easy rootability, heck, removable batteries, if we could get those back. Those features are becoming harder & harder to find, and I consider them essential, far more than some gimmick on other phones, like a 100MP camera, or having 4 camera lens. But unfortunately, despite the decent hardware on the OnePlus Nord, the software still very much feels like settling.

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   RapidGeek – June 26, 2023

   
   Overall, I like this budget phone. It is a good price for a modern phone. I have been using it since April 2023.I have a few gripes however. The camera has no ability to zoom and take pictures which are not blurry, which I knew about before buying but it was still disappointing. Speakers is fairly quiet even turned up all the way, which leads to me complaining about connectivity issues. The connectivity issues is actually why I am writing a review. I have trouble getting it to connect to my Camry’s Bluetooth and getting it to Chromecast is a miracle. I wasn’t even suspecting that such an issue would be a concern. I figured all modern devices should be able to work. I have to use the phone in speaker phone mode to listen to music as it will not connect to my Camry consistently or in the last few weeks at all.

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   AGMezins – February 15, 2023

   
   I was surprised when I found out that this had an in-screen fingerprint reader. All my previous phones had one on the back. Andi it works fine FOR ME, I don’t know how good it is at preventing others from trying to open it with their prints. Try asking someone on the street: “Hey, could you put your thumb on my phone here, please?” I’d get locked up in no time, right?This is my first time owning a 5G capable phone and I’m impressed so far. I use Mint and it seems more responsive, and on my last 4G phone, it couldn’t get non-wifi internet access, but with this one I can. I don’t know why (don’t bother asking Mint that since Reynolds is too cheap to have even off-shore support). I’m not a “smart phone” person and don’t do any of the social stuff, but the phone is handy.It runs it own flavor of Android 12, with “private” tweaks much like the others, especially Samsung. It’s done two updates so far, one right after turning it on for the first time, then another a few weeks or so ago. I’ve had no operational issues. It does a better job of not draining the battery when I leave it in standby overnight, so I suspect that some of my apps on the other phone were “running in the background” and eating up the battery. This phone has a monitor that checks apps to see if they are eating the battery, and I got notifications about that. I was surprised when I started seeing my text messages on my PC screen (my 65″ Samsung living room TV) after “bonding” by phone to the PC via Microsoft’s latest effort to be more responsive to people’s needs to integrate their phones and PCs. Nice.This also has way faster Bluetooth download speeds than any other phone I’ve had yet. They all claim to be 5.0, and my PC is the same (e.g. no upgrades in the WiFi/Bluetooth area), but it’s faster. I mostly use that interface to download phone pics or videos for emailing that I do on my PC.The camera is OK. It often find out that my focus was off, once I download a pic to the PC. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always struggled with phone cams. It sucks that you get really hires pics and they’re not in focus. The phone also doesn’t compress the image much (e.g. original is 10MB or so and when I use Irfanview to “save” an image without cropping, it’s less than 2MB).

6. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Ricky – September 29, 2022

   
   I have had a Moto Z Play on Republic Wireless for five years. In 2022, it was still supporting the basic stuff (calls, messages, music, navigation, videos, and browsing), and the battery was in good shape. But, they ended support for WiFi calling on this device. Now I am running the Nord N20 5G on Mint Mobile.It’s similar in size, has the same near-stock android interface, exceptional battery life, crisp AMOLED display, lag-free Snapdragon 6 Series Platform, adequate camera, and limited OS upgrade support. Obviously, the processor is faster (Geekbench score of 2000 vs 500), the screen is larger (6.4″ vs 5.5″) and slightly brighter (461-647 nits vs 371-526 nits), the camera is sharper (64 MP vs 16 MP), the connectivity is better (faster WiFi, more 4G bands, and even a few 5G bands), and the OS is more recent (android 11 and 12 vs android 7 and 8). It was also 35% less expensive than the old phone ($275 with tax vs $435). And the new MVNO carrier is less expensive.The phone comes with a 33 watt charger and a USB-A to USB-C connector. It does not includes a case or screen protector. There is a tiny bit of bloatware, but it’s easy to remove. The OxygenOS is easy to setup so that it feels like stock android. The finger print sensor and face unlock work very well. My only grip is that the WiFi sometimes connects to my slower 2.4 GHz channels instead of my 5 GHz channels. I actually have three 2.4 GHz channels and four 5 GHz channels in my house, and they all have the same SSID. Unlike my other phones, the OnePlus seems to only show a preference for the strongest signal. I may have to rename my 2.4 GHz SSIDs to prevent this.The most stressful thing I did on this phone was to install Google Home and cast the screen to a Chromecast connected to my computer monitor. The Chromecast is hard wired to my network and my phone was connected to a 5 GHz WiFi channel with a bandwidth of about 300 Mbs. The phone performed very well. While playing a youtube video via the Chrome browser, the video and audio were in sync on the monitor. While scrolling through my Google feed, there was hardly any lag on either the phone or monitor.I have been testing this phone, on and off, for over 12 hours with about 4 hours of screen on time. The battery is at 67%. This is consistent with a battery endurance rating of 129 hrs on gsmarena, which is better than all of the iPhones and Galaxy S Series phones. For reference, the iPhone 13 max pro is rated for 121 hrs, and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G comes in at 114 hrs. Of course those phone are twice as fast, have a brighter 120Hz display, and much nicer cameras. But they also cost four times as much, and are running a bunch of extra processes that support all kinds of extraordinary features.If you want a mid-range phone, I would highly recommend this phone over the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G or Google Pixel 6a, both of which are about 30% more expensive. The A53 has descent battery life and better cameras, but is laggy and loaded with bloatware. The Pixel 6a has better cameras and a faster processor, but has poor battery life, is buggy, and even overheats. These other two phones will get more android upgrades, but these upgrades will most likely result in future issues with the phones. The only alternative that I would recommend to this phone is the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, but only if you can get it new for $400.

   
7. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Blue – May 9, 2023

   
   This is my first OnePlus phone (used LG before) & it’s outstanding feature is battery longevity. Sadly this is accomplished by the phone temporarily ceasing to function numerous times a day while its mysterious “battery optimization program” is running. I am not an advanced user, but several times a day the whole phone freezes for a few seconds, then a system advice appears stating my battery has been optimized, so I assume something about the optimization process is to blame. This is INCREDIBLY INCONVENIENT if a clock alarm is sounding at the same time. This happens frequently for me now since I have at least 6 daily alarms set for regular activities (reminders to give a dog heart meds) I do each day; some days there are more. Surely the fix is easy: just have the optimization process temporarily suspended if clock alarms are sounding. This could even be an option for the user.Otherwise I am happy with my purchase.

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   imran – September 2, 2023

   
   Best phone ever..bettery life long and best camera results good speed fast charging.

9. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   PFG – June 5, 2023

   
   So I got this phone back in 11/2022 for $230 on sale for Black Friday sale.It’s been 6+ months and I’ll say that this is a great phone for what I do with it.What I do: calls, texts, emails, messaging apps, browsing webpages, Instagram, Google Maps, Waze, Spotify, and occasional pictures.What I don’t do: play video games, take high end pictures or videos, and watch Netflix or other video streaming.Not to say this phone can’t do those things, it’s just that I usually don’t do those things.With that said for a $230 phone on sale being able to do everything I do with it while having battery last 3-4 days with battery saving mode on full time this phone is great.The only reason why I would go with a higher end phone, (for me it would probably be a Google Pixel of latest gen), would be higher quality camera that can take HD pics and videos close to what you can with a dedicated camera.Note: I would say that he fingerprint reader can be better though, but for the price this phone is great and it’s not too bad of an issue.

10. 

    Rated 4 out of 5

    golferdude – July 13, 2023

    
    Does everything my old Samsung did at a very reasonable price.