OnePlus today shared a first look at the OnePlus Nord N20 5G, its upcoming budget phone. The company confirmed renders that had found their way online last year, as well as confirmed plans to use an AMOLED display on the budget phone in an interview with tech publication PCMag.
With the Nord N10 and N100, OnePlus prioritized high-refresh rates, offering a smoother scrolling experience while using the phone. As a sacrifice, it used LCD instead of AMOLED. AMOLED displays are preferred due to offering richer contrast, deeper blacks, and power savings, hence why they are almost universally adopted on premium smartphones. OnePlus will be offering a 60Hz display with the Nord N20 this time. You’ll get a nice-looking display, but it just won’t feel as fast.
The company also shared renders that showed us our first look at the device. It’s a modern-looking phone with squared-off edges, two cameras, and a capacious screen with only a single hole punch in lieu of a notch or more obtrusive cutouts.
“Our 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED display offers low power consumption as well as better contrast, more vivid colors, and a wider color gamut than what is currently on sale in the North America affordable device market,” OnePlus’s COO Kinder Liu told PcMag, further adding: “Our OnePlus Nord devices for North America, Europe, and India deliver our signature software experience, great performance, and more for their respective price points. We are confident that all the devices in our OnePlus Nord series are competitive in their respective markets at their respective price point.”
Aside from what OnePlus has confirmed, other rumored specs for the Nord N20 include a snapdragon 695 chip, a 48megapixel main camera, a pair of 2MP secondary cameras, a 16MP front-facing camera, and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
The OnePlus Nord series has been praised for taking OnePlus back to its roots as an affordable alternative to increasingly expensive rivals. The Nord N-series, in particular, is OnePlus’s attempt to move away from strictly being a phone for enthusiasts to be one that can be purchased by people who just want a decently specced smartphone for little cost. It’s more of a rival to Samsung’s lower-end A-Series phones where the Nord 2 and Nord CE 2 take on the A52 and A53.
The OnePlus Nord N20 is expected to launch towards the end of this month. It’ll likely be priced at around the same $300 mark as the Nord N10.
