The OnePlus Nord 4 is currently on pre-order, with sales starting on August 16th (next Friday). This phone features a metal unibody, which was once the pinnacle of high-end design and is now virtually non-existent.
This mid-ranger features a flat 6.74” OLED display (1240 x 2772px) with a 120Hz refresh rate and 10-bit color (HDR10+). The phone has an IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. The metal back blocks wireless charging, but the large 5500mAh battery can rely on 100W wired charging (100% in 28 minutes). The camera system consists of a 50MP main camera (1/1.95”, OIS) and an 8MP ultra-wide angle camera (112°) on the back, while the selfie camera has a 16MP sensor.
The Nord 4 is powered by the speedy Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset. OnePlus promises a reasonably long support period – 4 major OS updates and 6 years of security patches.
Alternatively, you could grab the Motorola Edge 50 Pro . It has a 6.7-inch curved OLED display (1220 x 2712px) with 10-bit color (HDR10+) and a 144Hz refresh rate. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, which seems close but is actually a lot slower than the 7+. Motorola promises 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches.
The Edge 50 Pro’s leatherette back enables fast wireless charging (50W) and there’s even faster wired charging (125W), but its battery is comparatively small at 4,500mAh. The Nord 4 has a decisive edge in active use score – 14:41 hours versus 11:59 hours. The Moto has a telephoto lens, a 3x 10MP module, alongside a 50MP main lens (1/1.55”, OIS) and 13MP ultra-wide lens. It also boasts a 50MP selfie camera with a wide-angle 21mm lens. And it has better water resistance, with an IP68 rating.
Looking at cheaper members of the Nord family, Amazon has both the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and CE 4 Lite. Both use the aging Snapdragon 695 chipset with UFS 2.2 storage. The older model, however, has a 6.72” IPS LCD (FHD+, 120Hz) with Gorilla Glass.
The newer Nord CE 4 Lite switches to a 6.67” OLED panel (FHD+, 120Hz, much higher peak brightness) with no mention of tempered glass. It does, however, get a dust and water resistance rating, IP54. Note that the old CE 3 Lite had a 108MP main camera (no OIS) with a 1/1.67” sensor, while the newer model goes back to a 50MP camera with a 1/1.95” sensor, but it does get OIS.
The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion has a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, which is fairly slow but still beats the SD 695 by a wide margin. Storage is still UFS 2.2, and unlike the Nords, there’s no microSD expansion slot.
Anyway, this model has a curved 6.7” OLED (FHD+, 120Hz) with Gorilla Glass 5 and full IP68 protection. It doesn’t have wireless charging like the Pro, but the 5,000mAh battery can be charged at up to 68W. The camera has a 50MP main sensor (1.0µm pixels vs. 0.8µm on the CE 4 Lite) and a 13MP ultra-wide (120°). The 32MP selfie snapper on the front can record 4K@30fps video, while the Nords maxes out at 1080p.
There’s also the Samsung Galaxy A35 with a flat 6.6″ OLED (FHD+, 120Hz). This one has the newer Gorilla Glass Victus+ and is almost as water resistant (IP67). The storage is expandable and you get the familiar One UI (which we expect get AI features such as the S-series phones).
There’s a 50MP (1/1.96”, OIS) main and 8MP ultra-wide (123°) camera on the rear, plus a 13MP selfie snapper (which can capture 4K@30fps video). The 5,000mAh battery offers decent longevity (12:26h Active Use score), but charging at 25W feels sluggish (it took almost an hour and a half to fully charge).
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