The OnePlus Nord series has been around for a while and the Nord 4 is the latest phone from the manufacturer in the mid-range segment, starting at ₹29,999 for the 8+128 GB variant, going up to ₹35,999 for the 12+256GB variant. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 processor and the Adreno 732 GPU. The phone is available in three colours – Mercurial Silver, Obsidian Midnight, Oasis Green. 

We’ve got our hands on the Mercurial Silver version with the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and we’re excited to see how this is going to perform in this price-sensitive, highly competitive segment. We’re going to put this phone through our usual tests to assess its camera performance, overall usability, and how worthy it is as a successor to the Nord 3. 

Camera Setup

This phone comes with two cameras at the back

• 50 MP Sony LYT600 sensor, which gives a 13.9 MP output, and
• and an 8 MP ultrawide camera featuring the Sony IMX355 sensor, which gives an output of 8.9 MP
• The front camera has a 16 MP Sony IMX471 sensor. 

Daylight Main

In daylight the cameras performance is average. The images look slightly desaturated and lack contrast and details. And because of this the shadows also seem to be lifted up and hence, have visible noise in them when looked closely.

Against a backlit scenario as well the images look slightly overexposed, burning the details out. The overall performance in this case could’ve been better. 

Daylight Wide

Usually the wide cameras always deliver an average performance in most cases and in a budget phone with a 8.9 MP camera we can’t expect much. With the Nord 4 as well, the images are average like most cameras and they don’t deliver an exceptional performance. However, what the phone has going for itself is that the image details, dynamic range and saturation are good. There is a little bit of distortion as expected in an ultrawide camera and the performance of the wide camera is better than the main camera we felt.

Daylight Telephoto

There is no dedicated telephoto camera and lens in this phone. The main camera is used to shoot tele photos and they are processed in the background. The max focal range is 20x for the Nord 4. However, even at 2x we can see desaturation and muddiness set in the images. Details are lost on the subject and as you increase the focal range the images loose sharpness.

Lowlight Images

In the lowlight category the images overall are decent. The phone renders images with good detail and colour reproduction with the main camera. In the wide category the images do display some flaring, but it still compensates and controls the output well. The images also seem brighter than the main camera. 

As expected the phones struggles in the telephoto category and the images beyond 2x are barely usable.

Portraits

The Nord 4 allows you to shoot portraits at 1x and 2x lenses and the preview looks different than what the images it shoots. So this can be confusing. The shallow DoF effect looks unnatural sometimes and even though you can tweak how much DoF you want later, the bokeh still looks unnatural.

Now this is something that can be fixed in an update and we are sure that OP will do this. The edge detection is decent and the sharpness also on zooming in is decent.

In lowlight, the Nord 4 renders excellent results with beautiful bokeh. And in this case the edge detection is a bit of a hit and miss. But when it hits, the images look good. 

Front Camera

With a 16 MP front camera, the images look ok. The output is natural, however the images are slightly hazy sometimes. The images are decently saturated and I would say that in this case the camera is decent.

Front Camera Video

The camera in this case only at 1080p at 30fps. The output is also decent. Although we would’ve liked for the phone to give the option to shoot 4k as well, since the sensor is capable enough.  

Video Performance

On the Nord 4, you can shoot up to 4k upto 60fps on the rear camera, where you can choose to shoot at 1x and 2x. But you can also shoot video using the ultrawide camera at 0.6x, but only at 1080p. 

The rear camera has OIS, and it works like magic, lending you super stable footage at 1x. At 2x there is a tiny amount of shake and warping is prominent. The output is natural looking with acceptable dynamic range, and no visible signs of over-processing, which is a plus.

In lowlight, the Nord 4 has good detail in the shadow, and because of the image stabilization, it looks better overall at 1x. At 2x there is a shake prominent even with the OIS engaged (you can’t disengage this) and there is a little bit of flaring.  

Conclusion

OnePlus Nord 4 is overall a decent camera, but at this price we expected a little bit more than just decent. The 50MP LYT-600 sensor delivers decent performance in daylight and lowlight, although we feel like it could do better if it didn’t overexpose the images most of the time.

In the video department, the 4K60 footage from the main camera had decent dynamic range, but it was still a little bit more overexposed than necessary, leading to visible noise. Overall, the cameras of the Nord 4 can deliver more, especially considering what the Nord 3 has delivered in the past, which the consumers might have come to expect. But this performance isn’t something that can’t be fixed in a software update, at least some of it.