OnePlus Announces Nord 2 with Dimensity 1200 SoC
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 22, 2021 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- OnePlus
- Dimensity 1200
- OnePlus Nord 2
Today OnePlus is announcing the 2021 successor to the OnePlus Nord – the company mid-range line-up phone. The new phone takes the hardware platform from the OPPO Reno 5 Pro in that it is now powered by the new MediaTek Dimensity 1200. What’s unusual here is that it appears that OnePlus is going exclusively MediaTek for the device, and maybe correlated to this fact is that the device isn’t currently being announced for the US.
| OnePlus Nord 2 | |||
| OnePlus Nord 2 | |||
| SoC | MediaTek Dimensity 1200 1x Cortex A78 @ 3.0GHz 3x Cortex A78 @ 2.6GHz 4x Cortex A55 @ 2.0GHz Mali-G77MP9 @ ? MHz |
||
| DRAM | 8/12 GB LPDDR4X | ||
| Storage | 128/256GB UFS 3.1 | ||
| Display | 6.43" AMOLED 2400 x 1080 (20:9) 90Hz |
||
| Size | Height | 159.12mm | |
| Width | 73.31mm | ||
| Depth | 8.25mm | ||
| Weight | 189grams | ||
| Battery Capacity | 4500mAh (2x 2250mAh) 65W charging |
||
| Wireless Charging | - | ||
| Rear Cameras | |||
| Wide | 50MP IMX766 1.0µm pixels (2.0µm 4:1 12MP) f/1.88 w/OIS 26 mm eq. |
||
| Ultra-wide | 8MP f/2.25 13mm eq. |
||
| Telephoto | - | ||
| Extra | 2MP (Macro) | ||
| Front Camera | 32MP IMX615 0.8µm f/2.45 |
||
| I/O | USB-C 2.0 | ||
| Wireless (local) | 802.11ax WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 LE + NFC |
||
| Other Features | Under-screen optical fingerprint sensor | ||
| Dual-SIM | Dual nanoSIM | ||
| Launch Price | 8GB+128GB: £399 / €399 12GB+256GB: £469 / €499 |
||
Starting with the SoC, the Nord 2 is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 1200, which is a 6nm SoC upgrade to the Dimensity 1000 generation from last gen, featuring new a Cortex-A78 core that clock up to 3GHz, three A78’s at 2.6GHz, and four A55’s at 2.0GHz. The GPU is an older Mali-G77MP9 at an undisclosed frequency. OnePlus claims they have an exclusive “AI” variant of the chip that seemingly has higher clock speeds in the NPU and DSP blocks.
The phone comes in either 8 or 12GB RAM variants with LPDDR4X and 128 or 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage.
Connectivity wise there’s naturally the 5G capabilities of the SoC (sub-6GHz), but there’s also a new WiFi 6 compatible combo chip and an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.2.
The display specifications appear identical to the original OnePlus Nord, however with smaller diagonal at 6.43” vs 6.44”. It’s still an AMOLED display at 2400 x 1080 resolution and 90Hz refresh rate.
What’s different here design wise is that OnePlus has dropped the ultra-wide module, so instead of two front cameras in a pill-shaped cut-out you only remain with the same 32MP main unit, though this time it’s advertised as an IMX615 versus IMX616 last generation – the differences between the two are unclear as the fundamental specifications are the same.
The rear of the phone has a camera island design that looks similar to that of the OnePlus 9 Pro but also takes queues from the Reno 5 Pro series. It’s essentially a dual-camera phone, with the main module being an IMX766 at 50MP which we also saw on the Find X3 Pro, it’s generally a large 1.0µm pixel unit and sensor size at 1/1.56” which is somewhat unique and rare for the mid-range, and features f/1.88 26mm equivalent optics with OIS.
The secondary camera is an 8MP unit with an ultra-wide diagonal field of view of 119° and f/2.25 aperture optics – no further details were supplied on this module, so it’s probably quite basic. There’s also a 2MP macro camera but these generally are unusable and are there just for marketing purposes.
The phone weighs in at 189g which is generally in line with the industry as it has a 4500mAh battery in two cells for serial high-voltage charging at up to 65W power. It will be interesting to see the phone’s power efficiency as this was one aspect that wasn’t convincing on the 9 Pro.
The design appears very ergonomic and is reasonably thin at 8.25mm. There’s a rounded frame and back cover curvature while the screen only appears to have a smaller 2.5D edge.
The phone features dual stereo speakers (one being the earpiece), and a simply USB-C with 2.0 connectivity. Dual nanoSIM slots serves for more flexible connectivity for target markets.
Starting at €/£399
In the 8/128GB configuration, the phone is starting at £399 and 399€, with pre-orders starting now, and salves going live on July 28th. OnePlus wasn’t clear what markets will get the Nord 2 – but at time of writing the product pages are only available for European countries and India.
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sara-windowdeco - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
Any word about the number of years of support for security and Android updates?Pahan5 - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
2 major updates and 3 years of security updates are guaranteed by OnePlus.RaduR - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
The thing is that the only area where you need an improvement vs 2020 or 2019 flagships is camera module. And his phone ticks some boxes like : AMOLED (always on that for me is mandatory), OIS but the problem is that with only one decent camera it will be hard to compete with 3/4 camera setups.I still feed that my old 2019 Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Pro with 5 cameras and 108 mp sensor was a beast and it was way cheaper 3 years ago...strange that with the same monye you just buy average camera setups today.
Wereweeb - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
1) This isn't a flagship, but an upper mid-range phone ("Flagship killer").2) The Xiaomi you mentioned has a processor that today is in the same performance range as the Snapdragon 480 (2xA76, 8nm Samsung) which is in a couple 250 euro 5G phones, like the Motorola G50, as well as the Dimensity 700, which is in some 200 euro 5G phones. The Nord 2's CPU performance challenges that of SD 888 phones.
3) Xiaomi often offers better hardware to compensate for their software, and they generally offer better hardware than the competition at each price point. In your case, the camera. However, if you have shaky-shaky hands like me, OIS makes more of a difference for picture quality than a bigger sensor, and especially more than "moar megapixels". The OIS is actually the only thing that makes me consider OnePlus' phones.
wr3zzz - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
OnePlus doesn't do "flagship killer" anymore now its namesake phones are at flagship prices. Nord is just their typical mid-range phones to fill in the price segments OnePlus left behind.Wereweeb - Friday, July 23, 2021 - link
I say "flagship killer" in quotes because that's what people have been calling upper-mid-range phones with near-flagship SoC's. This phone is carried by the Dimensity 1200 (Near-SD888 CPU perf., gaming perf. close to SD870).R0H1T - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
The presentation clearly mentioned UFS 3.1 Andrei 🧐DanNeely - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
CDMA is close enough to dead that it shouldn't be a blocker for US sales anymore. Does Mediatek's radio just not support enough RF bands to work well on any major US networks?abufrejoval - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
Has me wonder if I should have held back on a OnePlus 8 I just got for €380 (including VAT)...I'm glad OP is back to offering really attractive value deals, that and good LineageOS support has always been their main appeal to me.
Still yearning for a plastic back cover with replaceable batteries... One of the LeEco Le Max 2 in the family got busted out of its "beautifully manufactured" metal case by a dying battery two weeks ago, leaving a rather ugly wreck of a phone I struggled to back up through a shattered display (Bluetooth mouse did the job). It was running LinageOS 18.1 and there were no complaints about it being slow...
Never worn a phone without a nice dull black silicon cover and the only surface that's ever interested me in a phone was the display.
Wereweeb - Friday, July 23, 2021 - link
Same. Glass backs are the scam of the XXIth century.Waiting until some pro-repair company makes an, idk, silicone coated glass-fiber back material that you can just peel out with a hot metal spudger to reveal the battery. Boom, IP68, grippy, no melting plastic, no shattered glass.