OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: The best budget 5G phone

Our Verdict

At just $240, the OnePlus Nord N200 is the budget 5G phone to vanquish. Performance and cameras won't wow y'all, just for the money, it's an incredible phone. Information technology also has a good brandish with a 90Hz refresh rate, something that's not too common in this price range.

For

Excellent value
Nice brandish with a 90Hz refresh rate
Good battery life

Confronting

Mediocre functioning
Subpar cameras
Bad software update policy

Tom'south Guide Verdict

At just $240, the OnePlus Nord N200 is the budget 5G telephone to beat. Performance and cameras won't wow you lot, just for the money, it'south an incredible telephone. It also has a skilful brandish with a 90Hz refresh charge per unit, something that'due south not as well common in this price range.

Pros

+
Excellent value
+
Nice display with a 90Hz refresh rate
+
Practiced battery life

Cons

-
Mediocre performance
-
Subpar cameras
-
Bad software update policy

OnePlus Nord N200 5G: Specs

OS: Android 11 / OxygenOS eleven
Brandish: half-dozen.49-inch IPS LCD (2400 ten 1080)
Refresh rate: 90Hz
CPU: Snapdragon 480 5G
RAM: 4GB
Storage / Expandable: 64GB / Yes
Rear cameras: 13MP (f/2.2), 2MP (f/2.4) macro. 2MP (f/2.4) depth
Front end camera: 16MP (f/2.1)
Video: Up to 1080p at xxx fps
Battery: 5,000 mAh
Battery life (Hrs:mins): 10:28 (90Hz), 10:36 (60Hz)
Charging: 18W
Colors: Bluish Quantum
Size: 6.42 x 2.95 10 0.33 inches
Weight: 6.67 ounces

OnePlus decided to get into the budget phone space terminal year with the launch of the Nord serial. Nosotros got the Nord N10 and the Nord N100 here in the US, but OnePlus decided that 2021 required the Nord N200 5G. All effectually, this is the all-time phone for less than $300 and one of the best 5G phones under $400.

Despite some shortcomings when it comes to both performance and camera output, the Nord N200 is a good phone. Information technology features a nice IPS LCD with a 90Hz refresh rate, a headphone jack, a big 5,000 mAh battery, and the excellent OxygenOS based on Android 11. However, OnePlus has merely promised a single OS upgrade for this phone, meaning that information technology'll only see Android 12 which comes out in a couple of months.

Budget-conscious customers will desire to give the Nord N200 serious consideration for their adjacent phone if updates don't thing to yous. Seeing 5G and 90Hz on a phone this cheap is quite impressive, and it does nigh of what y'all'd want a phone to do. Withal, y'all can get better cameras with the $349 Pixel 4a and much more than powerful hardware in the $399 iPhone SE (2020).

Read on for our total review of the OnePlus Nord N200 5G.

Editor's note: Nosotros crowned our picks in the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for phones. The OnePlus Nord N200 5G won a highly recommended honor.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Price and availability

The OnePlus Nord N200 5G comes in one variant, 64GB/4GB for $239.99. You can buy information technology unlocked from OnePlus. It will also exist bachelor from T-Mobile and Metro past T-Mobile.

If you prefer a different retailer, Amazon, B&H, and Best Purchase will too stock the Nord N200 for the same starting price of $239.99.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Design

The Nord N200 looks and feels similar a more expensive phone. It'due south got this soft-bear on plastic dorsum in a beautiful blue-ish, dark aquamarine color. The triple camera array hangs out in the top left corner, looking a bit similar the module from the OnePlus 9 series. It's nice to see some blueprint linguistic communication parity between the ii product lines.

Around front is the 6.49-inch LCD with the selfie cam in the top left corner. The bezels on the OnePlus Nord N200 5G are incredibly slim. The whole phone, in fact, feels quite graceful despite the large 5,000 mAh battery tucked inside.

On the bottom of the phone is the USB-C port, speaker, and headphone jack. If you're even so rocking 3.5mm wired headphones or aux cables for your car, you're in luck hither. The Nord N200 comes with dual-SIM functionality, plus a micro SD card on tiptop. I'1000 glad to see expandable storage here, since this phone just comes with 64GB of on-lath capacity.

The power push along the right side of the N200 also houses the fingerprint sensor, which is quite responsive in my feel. Some of you might prefer this to an in-display sensor found on more expensive phones since you won't have to touch your screen to unlock your telephone.

For $240, I expected much less of the Nord N200, only the build quality is height-notch.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Brandish

The Nord N200 sports an IPS LCD panel with FHD+ resolution. It'southward definitely a nice display, especially for the price, and it'south piece of cake to use in a dark room or out in the sunday. While the N200's LCD screen lacks the true blacks of an OLED panel, most people volition enjoy information technology when they're looking at photos, watching videos, or playing games.

Ane of the standout features of the Nord N200 has to exist the 90Hz refresh charge per unit on the brandish. There are phones that cost quite a chip more than the Nord and are stuck at 60Hz. That's quite impressive and in real life, it makes Android buttery smoothen. Scrolling on webpages or in Google Discover is a cakewalk and you tin enjoy content at higher framerates where supported and applicative.

Genshin Touch on looked great on the Nord N200'due south brandish, and other games that support loftier refresh rates (like Dead Cells) played well, too. The FHD+ resolution helps make text super crisp and wide color reproduction helped make some of my films popular — most notably the heavy orange scenes toward the end of Blade Runner 2049.

We tested the Nord N200'southward brandish and found that it reproduced 160.vii% of the sRGB spectrum. That's extremely skilful, especially with a Delta-East color accuracy rating of 0.26 (where 0 is perfect). Compare that to the $349 Pixel 4a's OLED screen, which managed 105.viii% of the sRGB spectrum with a Delta-E of 0.29.

For a $240 telephone, the Nord N200's display is first-class. You lose out on some of the finer intricacies of an OLED panel, but I doubt many people volition care.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Cameras

The Nord N200 features a triple camera setup, with a 13MP main shooter leading the charge. Forth with that camera comes a 2MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor, neither of which proved useful in testing. Around forepart, y'all get a 16MP selfie cam.

Although OnePlus has upped its photography game for its flagship phones, specially the OnePlus 9 Pro, here at the low stop, it's not pretty. Compared to the Pixel 4a, which uses a single lens, the Nord N200 flounders in practically every setting. From outdoors to portrait manner, the photographic camera operation hither did not impress.

Starting off exterior, this photograph of a bush tested both phones' employ of depth and foreground focus. They each had to capture the details of the bush-league while keeping everything in perspective without flattening out over overexposing the prototype. The Nord N200 struggled with overexposure, blowing out the final image. The Pixel 4a kept things reined in. The light levels are more even in the Pixel's shot, and the bush is clearly in focus. At least the Nord N200 handled that part well, too.

In this second outdoor paradigm, the Nord N200 once again struggled with controlling for the bright sunlight. The flag looks washed out compared to the Pixel 4a'southward more than controlled tone. The flag's colors are richer on the Pixel's shot, and the flowers in the groundwork pop. Looking at the Nord N200'south photo practically sears the optics.

Inside, both phones performed more alike 1 another. The just noticeable difference is that the Nord N200's image is slightly warmer, giving a very slight xanthous tint. The Pixel 4a's shot of Merida is plenty bright enough, despite it feeling subdued. The Nord N200 kept upward quite well in this prototype.

Immediately, you lot tin can see a large departure in the portrait shots from either phone. The Pixel 4a takes a zoomed-in, artistic arroyo to portraits and it oftentimes works well. The Nord N200 does the reverse and I recollect the end upshot suffers overall. Not only is the blur radius weak, just the image is likewise warm and the focus on me is also soft. I don't like the Pixel'south much better, but it has the qualities of a decent portrait. As well, the Nord N200 seems to have done some kind of smoothing to my face, whereas the Pixel captured more facial details.

Perchance the virtually damning comparison even so, the Nord N200 didn't fifty-fifty attempt to shoot a proper night fourth dimension photo. The Pixel 4a's Dark Sight created a clear picture where you can brand out the details of the smoker and it frankly looks like at that place'southward a lot more lighting in the lawn than there really was. The Nord N200, meanwhile, couldn't even muster an attempt. It's similar OnePlus forgot to include a proper dark mode, though fifty-fifty Nightscape on its college cease phones struggles to lucifer Google's Night Sight. Even so, this photo comparison startled me with the stark difference between the two phones.

So the rear cameras on the Nord N200 are a bit of a bust, but what near the front end photographic camera? Again, the differences stand out immediately.

I may be a pale private, merely the Nord N200'due south photo makes me look like a ghost. There is very niggling detail in my face, my natural ruddiness is merely obliterated past the aggressive face smoothing, and the image is, once once more, too bright. The Pixel 4a, meanwhile, captured my pare tone and fine details, even showing off the green of my shirt better. In my opinion, in that location'south no contest hither — the Pixel 4a wins easily-down.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Video

The OnePlus Nord N200 5G supports up to 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second. Those aren't exactly stellar specs, but at to the lowest degree you lot can record FHD video on a $240 phone.

In practice, the video quality produced past the N200 is just alright. The stabilization needs some work, since the final footage shows noticeable bouncing while I'thousand walking. The Pixel 4a, which I used in the other manus simultaneously, produced a much more stable video.

Mic quality on the Nord N200 is okay, though non great. The phone's two mics seemed to struggle to choice upwards my natural voice volume at half an arm'southward length away. The Pixel 4a did much better and it balanced out the surrounding noises similar cars and cicadas better, too.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Performance

While we don't expect heed-boggling camera performance from a $240 phone, the OnePlus Nord N200's truthful disappointment comes down to its overall performance. The Snapdragon 480 5G that powers this new Nord is a practiced bit for its affordability, but it struggles to keep up with more than intensive tasks, like gaming. And with 4GB of RAM, I found that several apps got kicked from memory, like Spotify while I was actively listening to music.

This isn't the start phone with the Snapdragon 480 5G. I just reviewed the Moto G Stylus 5G, which was similarly disappointing in terms of performance, but it costs $160 more than the Nord N200. That said, Motorola's midrange 5G phone also has that extra 2GB of RAM, which can make a small difference in day-to-day, existent-world use.

Gaming on the Nord N200 requires you to drop many settings down to low or medium at best. Genshin Impact, i of the about taxing games on the Play Store, struggled to hitting a reasonable frame rate. Information technology's not the stop of the world, simply don't look the Nord N200 to exist a mobile gaming powerhouse. It's not built for that.

Of course, when it comes to operation in the sub-$500 category, we can't forget about the iPhone SE (2020). It packs the A13 Bionic processor which absolutely stomps whatsoever Snapdragon in this price range — hell, it can go toe-to-toe with Qualcomm'southward best system-on-chips. If you lot're platform-agnostic, then the iPhone SE is the best option if you want the all-time functioning for the to the lowest degree amount of money.

In benchmarks, the Nord N200 scored one,602 in multicore in Geekbench v. The pricier Pixel 4a with its Snapdragon 730G scored 1,647 in multicore, while the iPhone SE managed a whopping iii,226. The SE also handily beat the Nord N200 in the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited exam, where the Nord N200 managed just 5.viii frames per second. Compare that to the iPhone SE's 47.nine fps.

It'southward the aforementioned story we've been telling since Apple surprised everyone with the iPhone SE last yr. While there are comparable experiences at or below $400 in Android land, people wanting the virtually out of their phones ought to look to the SE. That said, phones like the Nord N200 handle most daily tasks. Other than games, the phone only actually struggled with rapid photography, where I noticed lag when clicking the shutter push multiple times in quick succession.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Battery life and charging

With a 5,000 mAh battery, the OnePlus Nord N200 ought to terminal for a long fourth dimension on a accuse. That'due south truthful, though it falls short of the devices on our best phone bombardment life list. The 90Hz display impacts the longevity a petty bit, though not every bit much every bit you might think.

In the Tom's Guide battery test, where a phone is left to reload web pages endlessly over a cellular connexion until it runs out of power, the Nord N200 managed ten hours and 28 minutes in its default 90 Hz fashion. Setting the display to 60Hz improved that fourth dimension to ten hours and 36 minutes. With that in listen, yous'll get more enjoyment out of the phone if you leave it at 90Hz since it makes a negligible difference in overall battery life.

Existence a budget-friendly device, the Nord N200 does not characteristic OnePlus' hallmark Warp Charge technology, which charges your phone blazingly fast. Instead, you get support for 18W wired charging, which got a drained N200 back to 32% subsequently 30 minutes of charging.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Software

The Nord N200 comes with Android 11 out of the box, with OnePlus' pop OxygenOS 11 software on meridian of Google'due south Bone. With OxygenOS, you become access to several customization options, a great default launcher, and an indescribable level of refinement. It's basically the same software feel as the much more expensive OnePlus 9 Pro.

OnePlus has said that the Nord N200 will receive a single Bone upgrade, which means that this telephone won't encounter Android 13 and beyond. I railed confronting Motorola for this in the Moto Thousand Stylus 5G review and I won't give OnePlus a pass, either. Simply put, express software support for cheaper Android phones is bad and these companies should be ashamed.

While the Nord N200 is an excellent value overall, the Pixel 4a or iPhone SE enjoy longer support (especially in the iPhone's instance). Because that the Nord N200 will just see Android 12 later this year (plus 3 years of security patches, apparently), I struggle to restrain my distaste for seeing what is otherwise an excellent telephone go less than a yr of platform support.

OnePlus hasn't even committed to three years of platform and four years of security updates for the flagship nine series, unlike like Google and Samsung. I suppose that I can't that I'm surprised that OnePlus has called such a lazy update policy for the Nord N200.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: Verdict

For $240, the OnePlus Nord N200 delivers a lot of telephone — information technology's as well the best 5G value available in the The states. That said, OnePlus' latest has noticeable flaws, especially with its cameras. The secondary and tertiary lenses are borderline useless and the Nord N200's main shooter struggles to not accident its photos out. The selfie cam is also only not practiced and video recording quality is mediocre.

Performance is underwhelming and OnePlus has decided on a shoddy update schedule. Still, for $240, this phone exceeded many of my expectations going in. Information technology looks nice, it'due south built well, and information technology has a skillful display. You get sub-6GHz 5G, likewise.

Obviously, the N200 won't perform to the aforementioned level equally more expensive phones, and so I would strongly encourage you to save up the actress cash for a Pixel 4a or iPhone SE (or a Pixel 5a if that phone arrives in a few months as expected). Both phones are superior in most ways, especially the cameras, and they'll both be supported for a while, far longer than the Nord N200 will be. The only things they lack are 5G and a 90Hz brandish, neither of which seem like compelling advantages for the Nord N200 in comparison.

Then again, those phones cost at least $110 more than than the Nord N200, so if budget is your chief concern, the Nord N200 5G is your best bet. Information technology delivers a lot of higher-class features for less than $300 and nosotros should applaud OnePlus for that accomplishment.

Jordan is the Phones Editor for Tom's Guide, covering all things telephone-related. He's written near phones for over five years and plans to continue for a long while to come. He loves nix more relaxing in his home with a book, game, or his latest personal writing project. Jordan likes finding new things to dive into, from books and games to new mechanical keyboard switches and fun keycap sets. Jordan tends to lurk on social media, but you can best reach him on Twitter.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/oneplus-nord-n200-5g

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