OnePlus Nord design revealed ahead of launch in a YouTube video

The OnePlus Nord is being hyped like no other phone and if you had enough of the teasers, the midranger was revealed in full in a video recently.

YouTuber Marques Brownlee was interested in knowing more about different costs associated with a handset and OnePlus reached out to him. The result? An informative video where we not only get to see the OnePlus Nord in flesh but also a background on its design process.

Co-fonder Carl Pei could also be seen wearing the OnePlus Buds in the video in the color light blue and they will likely be made official on July 21, the same day the phone will be announced. 

The video doesn’t really give away anything we don’t already know about the OnePlus Nord. Pei has confirmed that the budget handset will not be IP rated, as this would have driven up the cost of the device. The phone will still offer some degree of water protection though, but it has not been designed for extreme use cases. Pei explains that it’s not so much the components associated with waterproofing a phone that increases the cost, but other things such as machinery and manpower. 

He also talks about AMOLED panels being up to twice as expensive as LCD screens and how the cost of 90Hz displays has relatively decreased as more manufacturers are opting for a higher refresh rate. Per rumors, the OnePlus Nord will sport a 90Hz 6.44-inch OLED screen.

Pei also says that although it doesn’t cost a lot to add a headphone jack to a phone, it results in trade-offs such as increased dimensions and decreased battery capacity, which is perhaps why the Nord doesn’t have one. He also adds that the price of wireless earphones has gone down in recent times, so the missing audio port shouldn’t be much of an issue. 

We can also see the selfie camera system housed in a double hole punch in the clip, which will supposedly consist of a 32MP main sensor and an 8MP wide-angle module.

Speaking of the camera, OnePlus was previously thinking about an L-shaped setup for the rear cameras but then decided against it to ensure consistency with OnePlus 8’s design. The decision led to a one month delay in the launch of the smartphone. The vertically aligned camera apparently has four sensors including a 48MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle snapper, a 5MP depth unit, and a 2MP macro sensor. 

Looks-wise, the OnePlus Nord looks a lot like the OnePlus 8, save for the placement of the camera array. We already know that unlike the company’s flagship phones, it will be powered by the midrange Snapdragon 765G chip that guarantees 5G connectivity. It will likely be paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. 

The phone’s tear down by none other than Zack Nelson of the YouTube channel JerryRigEverything (yes, it has been done too!) has also confirmed that it will be equipped with a 4,115mAh battery. Pei also says that its 30W Warp Charge technology, which we hear will be compatible with the phone, is another pricey component. Rest assured, this wouldn’t translate into a pricey phone, as the company has confirmed that OnePlus Nord is a sub-$500 device.