Bravo to OnePlus for dropping the gimmicky macro camera. | Image: OnePlus
OnePlus is bringing its signature fast charging feature to a lower price bracket in the Nord N300 5G. It includes 33W wired charging (with a charger in the box!) and will sell for $228 — an appealing proposition since most flagship phones don’t even include charging that fast. The N300 also bears a striking resemblance to parent company Oppo’s K10 5G, released in India earlier this year. It makes a few tradeoffs to hit its low price point, and we’ll be curious to see how they pan out.
The Nord N300 uses a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset with 4GB of RAM, which is a shift from the Snapdragon processors used in its previous Nord devices sold in North America. The N300 also breaks away from previous budget OnePlus devices by opting for just two rear-facing cameras: a 48-megapixel main and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The company has dropped the low-res macro camera this time — good riddance.
There’s a big 6.56-inch display on the N300 with a fast-ish 90Hz refresh rate, but its resolution is 720p — a step down from the 1080p screen on last year’s Nord N200. There’s also just 64GB of built-in storage, which was the case with the N200, so a microSD card might be a necessary add-on purchase.
The bottom line, though, is that this is a very affordable phone with very fast charging. The Nord N20 5G also includes 33W charging, and in my testing, it added about 30 percent charge in just 20 minutes. The N300’s 5,000mAh battery is a bit bigger than the N20’s 4,500mAh cell, so speeds might not be quite as good, but that’s still faster than just about any other phone in this class.
The N300 goes on sale November 3rd at T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile in midnight or jade color options.