The OnePlus Nord 4 is currently up for pre-order, with sales starting on August 16 (next Friday). This phone features a metal unibody shell, which was once the pinnacle of premium design and is now almost non-existent.
This mid-ranger is equipped with a 6.74-inch flat OLED display (1,240 x 2,772 px) with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 10-bit colors (HDR10+). The phone is rated IP65 for dust and water resistance. Its metal back blocks wireless charging, but the large 5,500 mAh battery can count on 100 W wired charging (100% in 28 minutes). The camera system has a 50 MP main sensor (1/1.95”, OIS) and an 8 MP ultra wide (112 °) on the back, the selfie camera has a 16 MP sensor.
The Nord 4 is powered by the fast Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset. OnePlus promises a fairly long support window – 4 major OS updates and 6 years of security patches.
You can also get the Motorola Edge 50 Pro. It features a 6.7-inch (1220 x 2712 px) curved OLED display with 10-bit colors (HDR10+) and a 144Hz refresh rate. This one is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, which sounds close, but is actually much slower than the 7+. Motorola promises 3 OS updates and 4 years of security patches.
The Edge 50 Pro’s leatherette back allows for fast wireless charging (50W) and even faster wired charging (125W), but the battery is relatively small at 4,500mAh. The Nord 4 has a decisive lead in active usage score – 14:41h versus 11:59h. The Moto has a telephoto lens, a 3x 10MP module, in addition to the main 50MP (1/1.55″, OIS) and the 13MP ultrawide angle. It also stands out with a 50MP selfie camera with a 21mm wide lens. And it has better water resistance with an IP68 rating.
As for the cheaper members of the Nord family, Amazon offers both the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite and CE 4 Lite. Both use the aging Snapdragon 695 chipset with UFS 2.2 storage. However, the older model has a 6.72-inch IPS LCD display (FHD+, 120Hz) with Gorilla Glass.
The new Nord CE 4 Lite upgrades to a 6.67-inch OLED display (FHD+, 120Hz, much higher max brightness) with no mention of tempered glass. It does, however, have a dust and water resistance rating of IP54. Note that the older CE 3 Lite had a 108MP main camera (no OIS) with a 1/1.67″ sensor, while the new model drops to a 50MP camera with a 1/1.95″ sensor, but gains OIS.
The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is powered by a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, which is quite slow, but still beats the SD 695 by a comfortable margin. Storage is still UFS 2.2, though, and unlike the Nords, there's no microSD expansion port.
Anyway, this model has a 6.7-inch curved OLED display (FHD+, 120Hz) with Gorilla Glass 5 and full IP68 protection. It doesn't have wireless charging like the Pro, but the 5,000mAh battery can be topped up with up to 68W. The camera has a 50MP main sensor (1.0µm pixels compared to 0.8µm on the CE 4 Lite) and a 13MP ultra-wide angle (120°). The 32MP selfie shooter on the front can record 4K video at 30fps, while the Nords tops out at 1080p.
There's also the Samsung Galaxy A35 with a flat 6.6-inch OLED display (FHD+, 120Hz). This one features the new Gorilla Glass Victus+ and almost as good water resistance (IP67). Storage is expandable and you get the familiar One UI user interface (which should get AI features like the S series phones).
There's a 50MP main camera (1/1.96″, OIS) and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle (123°) on the back, along with a 13MP selfie sensor (which can capture 4K video at 30fps). The 5,000mAh battery offers decent endurance (active usage score of 12:26h), but the 25W charging feels glacial (it took us almost an hour and a half to get a full charge).
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