OnePlus Nord N30 5G | Unlocked Dual-SIM Android Smart Phone | 6.7″ LCD Display | 8 +128GB | 5000 mAh Battery | 50W Fast Charging | 108MP Camera | Chromatic Gray

I have this phone for a few months now and for the price, this is a great phone. I was looking for something that wasn’t one of the mainstream brands like Samsung, Apple, etc. I like the features (decent storage, can use external storage, large screen, comes unlocked, good battery life with quick charging, various widgets, so many settings, and more) and the lack of “bloatware” that comes with the phone.

There are 2 things that I don’t like about the phone compared to my last one (Google Pixel 3).

1, that I was aware of from other reviews, is the camera is not the best. Sometime you need some really good light for the picture to come out decent, otherwise pictures can be rather dark. I find myself editing them often to brighten them up. That and it lacks the crispness that you can get with phones like the Google Pixel and others. Besides that, it has some cool camera options, like professional mode (which if I learned how to use that I’m sure my images would come out a bit brighter), macro, others, and some of the editing tools are pretty cool.

And 2, something that bugs me enough to note it here, is the responsiveness of the screen. I don’t think it is an app issue as it has happened with multiple apps, but sometimes while swiping in a direction, it doesn’t always respond the way I want it to. For example, I use Spotify very frequently, and it’s where I get annoyed at this issue the most. In Spotify, when you are viewing a song you can swipe from right to left to change a song, or swipe down to get out of the song view, taking you back to a menu screen. So many times, it does not register my swipe to the left, instead it registers it as a downswipe, exiting the screen I was on. And like I said, this happens with other apps too, where I’m trying to swipe across, but instead it registers as a downswipe exiting the screen I was on.

Other than the 2 issues I have with this phone, it’s honestly great for the price. I’m disappointed with the camera sometimes, but that is coming from my previous phone’s camera being so crisp and bright, and I also knew about it based on the other reviews I read. And the swiping issue can be annoying, but it is tolerable.

Overall decent phone.

I’m conflicted even writing this but here goes…. This thing is impressive for the price paid.

I am a HUGE Samsung fan. I HATE Apple. I always spend the most money for the newest phone with as much memory as offered. My thought being it will last until the next time I need a phone. It will remain relevant, the tech won’t be obsolete, and presumably I’m buying a quality product.

That mentality has served me well… Until it didn’t. My S22 Ultra is having connectivity problems. We’ll it really isn’t that old and I owe $700+ on it still. So I was in a tough spot, fixing it means a bill probably North of $300(maybe more) and then I would still owe the money on top of it. I didn’t thi k either option was right. Paying it off seemed too expensive. Fixing it seemed silly, and ultimately too expensive.

So in the short term I went and found the cheapest phone I could stomach. A Motorola something or other for $150. It had 4G of RAM which caused Microsoft Teams to not even start on my phone. It just instantly crashed. So for awhile I just used that as my Hotspot for my Samsung (which had its drawbacks for sure).

That isn’t working. Alright I can still return this Motorola. What else for a little more money might be better? A refurb? Nope… Still $300+ in anything I would accept. I read. I researched. I finally come to the One Plus. Lots of nice things are said about the phone and fresh of my recent “cheap phone” experience, let’s just say I was dubious.

It goes on sale for $230. Alright for $230 I’ll bite.

I got to tell you… For a $230 it’s hard to gripe. Is it perfect? NOPE. is it a flagship Samsung phone. NOPE. For $230,I give it some grace. RAM 8G which is so so, it supports virtual RAM up to 16G. Not as good as real RAM but MORE than serviceable. 128G of memory alright that’s not great but guess what… It supports an SD card. Boom. Doesn’t matter. The OS is largely free of anything I hate. It’s functional. Some quirks here and there… But I adjusted pretty darn quick. The quick charge battery may be worth it alone. This thing just amazes me how quickly it charges. Is it good for the batteries longevity? I doubt it. However at $230, I don’t really care. I am a POWER USER, a 5,000ma battery is good. Still not good enough for me. I figure I’d need a 10,000ma battery maybe a little more to meet my demands. The fast charge though, it gets lower than I like, blast it with the supercharger, 20 minutes later and I’m back in the game. The finger print scanner, I didn’t think that it would be natural or useful where it is on the side. Not true. Dang thing works flawlessly always.

True downsides. The camera… It surely isn’t a Samsung. Now, I’ll give it props, in full light and still photos it’s adequate. Not great, but it does the job. In the dark though… Oi oi oi…. Hot garbage. The screen gets bright, it really does, but it needs to be brighter, by… Shoot I don’t know: 25-35%. It’s manageable though. I honestly think those are my only gripes.

Its responsive and plenty fast at running the things I need it to do. I’m kind of shaken up about it because I’m not sure at this point I’ll maintain my same theory about phone ownership. At $230 for…. 70% of the goodness let’s say, I have a hard time thinking that $1400 for a new phone makes a lot of sense. Bravo One Plus. This is impressive.