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[The Lab] OnePlus Nord 2T - Unboxing and 24 Hour Impressions May 27, 2022

  1. TechJamoYoutube
    Froyo May 27, 2022

    TechJamoYoutube , May 27, 2022 :
    1653894274697.jpg


    Yo Guys!

    It's been a while since I've had a little dabble with a OnePlus device! In fact, I think my last OnePlus device was the Original OnePlus Nord - Rip the sexy Blue flavour 😞

    Anyway the Nord 2T...


    Unboxing

    Yeah this was solid and simple. Got the phone, a little condom case, some paper work and... An 80W CHARGING BRICK WITH A CABLE. I absolutely HATE when companies tell you a device has fast charging, yet the fast charger is sold separately - well done to OnePlus for including everything needed in the box.

    [​IMG]


    Design & Feel

    I know absolutely nothing about materials - I'm terrible at Minecraft too! That being said, upon Unboxing this phone and holding it in my hand for the first time it felt solid. There's this kinda metallic chrome around the edges of the phone and this soft touch 'glastic' (I think?) on the back - regardless of what it is, it feels solid in the hand and it is also quite grippy - unlike other phones I've held in the past which are literally dying to slip out from your grip and land on the floor face first. 🤣

    [​IMG]


    BUTTONS & PORTS

    The buttons feel tactile and click as to be expected. The ALERT Slider is Here?! I thought OnePlus didn't include the alert slider on its budget devices?? We love to see it. That just leaves us with the usb c port and sim card tray access on the bottom of the device. No headphone jack here unfortunately guys - I don't actually use wired headphones BUT I would have liked a headphone port to plug in an external microphone when using the device for vlogging. The vibration motor haptics feel extremely solid for a phone in this price bracket too! I typed up this whole review on the handset itself to get a feel for the typing and it was quite decent - mild spelling mistakes and my dyslexia aside.


    SCREEN

    Yeaah this is decent too! The 6.43” amoled gives you the deepest blacks and high contrast ratios which look brilliant for gaming and consuming content. 90hz is cool too but I would have preferred 120hz! To be honest, there's not much difference between 90hz and 120hz to my eye - but it's nice to show off your spec sheet and tell people you have 120hz LOL. It gets decently bright too! So for the 10 - 20 days of sunshine we get in the UK, we don't have to worry about not being able to see our phones clearly in directly sunlight. I think FHD+ is a brilliant resolution sweet spot for quality picture and battery longevity.

    [​IMG]


    SOUND

    Stereo speakers are here! They get loud too! They're okay for watching a bit of content I suppose. Definitely not the best speakers I've ever heard on a device (that award still goes to the quad speaker setup on the Galaxy Tab S7 Tablets). However I'm not mad at the sound quality from the Nord 2T. Bluetooth audio seems decently loud enough. I connected my NURATRUE Earbuds as well as my JBL Flip 6 portable speaker and both Bluetooth devices performed admirably.


    PERFORMANCE

    Now this is the big one for me. Before OnePlus, the only time I heard of the MediaTek processors were in these cheap Amazon Phone brands which performed horribly! If it wasn't snapdragon - I didn't want to know. HOWEVER, I've been swayed! This phone speeds through my social media scrolling and is able to dash back to recent tasks without stuttering at all. The camera opens up quickly when summoned and it is pretty much been a lagless experience overall. Of course this is only Day 2 of me having the phone so it's still got that new phone speed which phones have when they've been newly set-up so time will tell.

    E1001220.JPG


    GAMING

    I'm going to make a video on this later, but so far I've tried out the new Apex Mobile game, and it runs SMOOOOOOOTH. I don't think there will be any issues here - I only played for 15 mins so I can't comment on heating or throttling yet. As soon as I know about the extended gaming session performance, I'll let you guys know.


    CAMERA

    Ahh yes! "does it have a good camera?". Let's break this down into stills and video.


    STILLS

    In broad daylight you won't have a problem as with most phones. Focusing is relatively quick. Shutter lag is quite decent from the time you press the shutter button to the point at which the image is snapped. Portrait mode tries its best to cut you out and give some deep BOKEH - although I find it works a lot better during the day. Night Mode is pretty much respectable if you have the patience to stand still long enough LOL. It performs relatively well during general low light situations too, I’m quite impressed at this price point.

    E1001212.JPG


    SELFIES

    The Selfie camera is okay, not the best I’ve seen but certainly not the worst. It is a 32mp Fixed focus lens.


    VIDEO

    You get up to 4k30 on the main sensor and 1080p 30fps on the ultrawide lens and selfie lens. I can't lie, as a vlogger I would have liked to at least have 4K available across all lenses - I’m sure I remember the original OnePlus Nord having 4K60 video on the selfie camera?

    The Video quality is decent enough for social media and YouTube though - as long as you're shooting with enough light. Video stabilisation seems quite decent too. One of my favourite features is that Portrait Video mode has made it's way onto the device! Also, due to the size and weight of the handset, it fits perfectly into a gimbal, so if you do want to get that super smooth video footage, you’ve just got to slap the phone into a DJI OSMO Mobile or equivalent Gimbal to get going. Now for those looking to upgrade their audio quality whilst vlogging, you will have to use a 3rd party camera app as the stock OnePlus Camera app STILL does not allow external microphones… C’mon Guys !!!

    E1001213.JPG


    CONCLUSION

    Well this is not really a full conclusion but more of a round up of my first impressions. There are many things I’ve not been able to deep dive into yet such as battery life and call quality in remote areas. However, based on what I've seen so far, I’m having a hard time finding new devices which compete with the OnePlus Nord 2T at this price point. The closest competitor I can think of is the Poco F3 and that certainly does not charge up to 100% within 30 Mins 😂

    YouTube Video Unboxing:

    E1001204.JPG



    ​
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2022
    #1
    L1641243630723, X1653828229461, @Bilo1982 and 79 others like this.

  2. TechJamoYoutube
    Froyo Jun 10, 2022

    Stickied Post
    TechJamoYoutube , Jun 10, 2022 :
    E1001264-02.jpeg

    ONE WEEK LATER with the OnePlus Nord 2T

    … This one is going to be a DEEP DIVE, so you better grab some popcorn. I’m going to have every section headed in this one so you can skip to whatever you care about.


    Now starting off with the most relevant question people have been asking me:


    BATTERY LIFE​

    In one sentence, the battery life is SOLID. With every 100% charge I’m getting 8.6+ Hours of battery life. That’s enough to get me through 2 whole days of ‘normal usage’ with the phone. According to the Digital Wellbeing Tools, my ‘normal usage’ looks like this:
    • Up to 60 mins of Instagram

    • Up to 60 mins of Twitter

    • Up to 90 mins of Google Maps

    • Up to 60 mins of Gmail

    • Up to 60 mins of Youtube

    • Up to 30 mins of Camera

    • Up to 120 mins of Phone Calls

    Now in terms of heavy usage, I have never seen less than 6 hours of on screen time which actually makes this decent for power tasks such as binging netflix series and using the camera for vlogging. I used the Nord 2T to vlog my whole day at the MCM Comic Con LDN and I finished the expo with 18% battery and 6hours 37mins of screen-on-time.


    There’s no doubt this phone is a Battery Champion - especially considering the recharge rate !! My Nord 2T recharges from 0-100% in 34mins flat (Screen on or off). Which means no matter whether you’re using the phone or not, the recharge rate is super quick. (Nord 2T Charging test below)



    Now, as you know, you’ve come here for a REAL review and I have to say… there was ONE time where the battery and the charger started acting FUNKY! I had discharged the phone to 0% for the second time. The first time I completely drained the phone, the last 1% took 45mins before the Nord 2T powered down. The second time I completely drained the phone, the Nord 2T powered down within 5mins of reaching 1% - weird. Furthermore, when I tried to charge the phone, it would automatically turn on after being plugged in and would then automatically turn off within 2mins as if it wasn’t charging. When I eventually got the phone to charge, it was charging at an extremely slow rate - I think I got around 16% battery in 25 minutes. SUPER STRANGE. However, when I plugged the charger out and in again, everything seemed back to normal and I haven’t had that issue again since!

    E1001260.JPG

    CAMERA​

    For the price you are getting an extremely capable shooter which will only potentially have problems in low lit or completely dark environments. I won’t go too much into the specs as I already did that during my initial impressions review of the phone. However just for summary:

    • 50mp main sensor w/OIS

    • 8mp Ultrawide

    • 2mp monochrome lens? (I’m not sure what this is supposed to do LOL)

    • 32mp selfie camera

    Now in terms of video, you get a maximum of 4K 30 fps on the Main sensor and you get a maximum of 1080p 30 fps on all other cameras. Portrait video does look really good in bright conditions and dual-view video and timelapse make great additions too. There’s also a ‘Movie’ mode too which allows you to lock in your shutter speed, colour temp, focus and ISO for that cinematic look. Still a shame that the stock camera app does not recognise EXTERNAL MICROPHONES. (PLEASE ONE PLUS)

    IMG20220528084410.jpg
    As I said before, I used this to Vlog the Comic Con in LDN and I feel it performed extremely well. The day was an extremely sunny day and the video footage and photos looked extremely good when outside in the bright sunlight. However, when I was inside the Comic Con, due to the dimly lit conditions, the video became slightly noisier but still very good quality. This is typical of most smartphones due to the size of the sensor - no surprises here really. I definitely would not be embarrassed to upload pictures from the Nord 2T on my social media. Please see below link for Samples of Nord 2T camera.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/rBYgLFvApAZaer9M9

    The cameras are not bad - definitely overkill for social media - However content creators may find they want more in terms of Ultrawide/Selfie camera video resolution and the ability to use an external microphone in the stock OnePlus Camera app.

    E1001256.JPG

    PERFORMANCE​

    The performance of this little guy right here is OUTSTANDING. It’s definitely worthy of the seal of reliability. No slow downs. No stutters, No force Crashing applications… it’s been a trusty device.


    Throughout using the camera, photo editing apps, playing video games I have to say, the MediaTek Dimensity 1300 has shocked me! Together with the 12GB of ram, the apps you choose can stay open for longer even when in the background which means as soon as you open them again, they are ready to go without any hesitation.


    Even smaller tasks such as scrolling through emails and social media can be made so much more tedious when there are constant stutters throughout the device, however the Nord 2T handles all of these tasks very well and that’s without switching to performance mode.


    Consistent Performance for me, is the most important aspect of a smartphone and I have to say, that is exactly what you get here - if that changes I WILL UPDATE YOU GUYS FOR SURE!!

    E1001265.JPG

    SCREEN​

    The screen on the phone is more than fit for purpose. The brightness is perfect for using outside in direct sunlight! I used the Emirates cable cars which travel from London Emirates Greenwich Peninsula to Emirates Royal Docks and believe me when I tell you the sun was shining hard when I was way up there in the sky - I had no issues viewing the screen on the Nord 2T at all!


    Youtube allows you to view in 2160p which is basically oversampling and it looks decent - however I would suggest to just save data and battery and watch 1080p.


    Brightness aside, the amoled screen looks brilliant and is super saturated - if you don’t like the super saturated look, you can always change the colour mode to natural to make things on screen appear more true-to-life in terms of colour. There’s also eye comfort mode which aims to cancel out blue light when it gets late and you’ve got the option for an additional video colour boost mode which apparently, makes videos more colourful… I'll be honest, I didn’t really see any difference in the colour of videos I was watching so I just turned the option off to save battery lol.


    Now you may have noticed I have not really mentioned anything about the 90Hz refresh rate… Honestly it looks good - it really does. However, for the first time, I’m not that bothered about the refresh rate. I’m not sure why, but regardless of the screen being in 90Hz or 60Hz the transitions are always so smooth that I feel it doesn’t matter that much to me. Very few games are designed to be pushed past 90Hz and even if they could be, the Nord 2T may not be able to even power the game at that resolution and framerate. I still feel that 120Hz would have ‘felt’ better than 90Hz but that’s just me personally.

    E1001254.JPG

    CONNECTIVITY​

    Connectivity has been generally great all over:

    • 5G / 4G connectivity has been quite decent in some areas, however it’s hard to comment on this as when I have problems, my friends who are on other networks DON’T have any problems.

    • Bluetooth has no issues at all. I was able to simultaneously connect my Tic Watch 3 Pro Ultra, my Nura True Earbuds and my Wireless Android Auto without any issues at all.

    • The device seems compatible with my Wifi 6e router and I’m able to get speeds of 800mbs and higher over WIFI!!!

    • NFC contactless payments seem to work very well and there’s hardly any issues finding the sweet spot when making a payment.

    • GPS seems pretty decent on the road too - no signal drop outs going from MAIDSTONE, UK to Nottingham, UK.

    All good!



    SOUND​

    Stereo Speakers will always be a win for me. What’s even better is that these speakers actually sound good too. They don’t have the full range sound that I’ve heard from larger devices but they do the job they're required to do. You won’t be angry at them, nor will you be holding your phone to your ear when you are using loudspeaker mode during a telephone call lol. Telephone calls sound really good by the way, and the person on the other end can hear everything you’re trying to say to them. However, whilst I was at Comic Con, it was extremely loud and my partner found it very hard to make out what I was saying from the noise in the background so bare that in mind too.

    E1001269.JPG

    GAMING​

    Honestly, they could have slapped some RGB on the back of the phone and called it a gaming phone. The performance is up there with some of the best! It’s been a while since I’ve gamed on a OnePlus and I could not believe how advanced the gaming suite of applications were. There were quick toggles for discord, screen recording, performance modes and even whatsapp. Very impressed with these gaming tools actually. Performance was Ace! However, I have sold my soul to my Steam Deck for now, so that’s where you can usually find me Lol.

    E1001264.JPG

    OTHER MENTIONS​

    Still loving the feel of the device. It’s nice to have a compact device that can do a lot of power moves. The buttons still feel very tactile as does the alert slider. Very happy with the combination of the two there. The fingerprint sensor is very responsive and seems to work very well - as does the face unlock. I still don’t like the look of the ultrawide lens with the monochrome lens - they just look weird and out of place.

    I think this phone is definitely a strong contender in the midrange smartphone market. Together with the fact that we know OnePlus is quite a reputable brand, it gives you a feeling of security when buying one of their devices. Starting at £369, I think this is quite a steal - the only issue is the fact that OnePlus has made WICKED Flagships in the past that can be found at some competitive prices now - the OnePlus 9/ 9 Pro and the OnePlus 8T just to name a few which all have 120Hz displays. Of course, as the Nord 2T is newer, it will have software updates for longer than the aforementioned phones so there is always a trade off.



    FINAL THOUGHTS​

    It’s up to you, but unless you’re a videography fanatic - which if you are you should probably invest in the OnePlus 9 Pro / OnePlus 10 Pro or an actual dedicated camera - you’ll definitely be more than happy with the Nord 2T.
     

    Attached Files:

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    Cupcake May 28, 2022

    Voici , May 28, 2022 :
    Unable to find a flip case for this from Oneplus or third party sellers.
     
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