Virtually everything about the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is now officially confirmed
OnePlus is certainly no stranger to unconventional marketing, making life awfully difficult for "professional" leakers from time to time by "spoiling" the company's own surprises ahead of formal product launch events.
The upcoming Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is no exception to this weird rule, hiding in plain sight on the OnePlus website with a bunch of details to its name while President and COO Kinder Liu seems adamant to reveal pretty much everything else on his newly created Twitter account and in an exclusive discussion with TechRadar.
How low can it go?
Basically the only possible surprise (pun intended) left undisclosed by Kinder Liu is the recommended price point of the 6.72-inch Nord CE 3 Lite, which can however be fairly easy to guess based on recent history.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the many upgrades of this next-gen Nord mid-ranger will result in a price hike over the 6.59-inch CE 2 Lite, which normally costs €319 on the old continent with 128GB storage space and a 6GB RAM count.
Aside from a larger screen, which is predictably confirmed to retain its predecessor's 120Hz refresh rate capabilities, probably the most important upgrade of the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is a "really big" 108MP camera.
That's expected to be joined by two undoubtedly modest 2MP shooters on the handset's familiar-looking back, while around the front the single 16MP selfie cam housed in a discreet top left corner-positioned hole punch is likely to go unchanged.
Moving on under the hood of the biggest ever Nord phone with the "biggest" ever primary rear-facing camera, it is certainly a little surprising (and not in a good way) to hear that last year's Snapdragon 695 processor is not going anywhere.
Also, the 5,000mAh battery is not getting a capacity bump in line with the screen size increase, but on the decidedly bright side of things, the charging speeds will jump from a decent 33W to an absolutely breathtaking 67W.
That's obviously (slightly) slower than what the state-of-the-art OnePlus 11 offers, for instance, in the US but also faster than what the extravagant Galaxy S23 Ultra is (theoretically) capable of. Yes, this future contender for the title of best budget 5G phone will incredibly trump probably the greatest Android handset in the world in at least one department.
Save the date!
Even better, it's already etched in stone that the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite will actually include a blazing fast 67W SuperVOOC charger and USB Type-C cable in its retail box as standard.
So, yeah, even if the price were to jump to, say, €349 or €369 in Europe, the value for money will still be just right, especially when you also consider the "standard" 8GB RAM provision supporting an extra 8 gigs of "virtual" memory allotment for heavy multitasking situations.
Our Nord CE series is back with a refreshing color design that really pops! Launching April 4. #LargerThanLife#OnePlusNordCE3Lite 5G
— OnePlus (@oneplus) March 24, 2023
April 4, 19:00 IST | 14:30 BSThttps://t.co/w9ID21iyEmpic.twitter.com/MSFVnpKljv
Intriguingly, this thing is set to be the very first OnePlus device to run OxygenOS 13.1 as well, further highlighting just how important the mid-range market segment has become for the China-based brand.
That's an as-yet-unannounced version of the company's proprietary skin built on top of Android 13 billed by OnePlus as "hyper-intuitive" and focused on "fast and smooth experiences" for the masses.
We'll admit, we're even more curious now to see how the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G will perform out in the real world after its proper April 4 announcement.
By the way, even the above images showing off the impending affordable smartphone from all angles in Pastel Lime and Chromatic Gray paint jobs are official, further confirming the presence of a good old fashioned headphone jack and a relatively thin profile.
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