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The OnePlus Nord N200.
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Cheap phones now look almost as good as expensive phones.
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The back.
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I see a fingerprint reader on the side.
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The best I could do for a bottom shot is a still image from the OnePlus commercial. It has a USB-C port and a headphone jack.
OnePlus
OnePlus’ latest budget phone to launch in North America is the “OnePlus Nord N200 5G.” The phone is a follow-up to last year’s $180 Nord N100, and with OnePlus’ usual annual price increases, the N200 is down to a still dirt-cheap $240.
Considering the $240 price, it sounds like you’re getting a pretty capable entry-level phone. The phone has a 6.49-inch, 90 Hz 1080p display; 4 GB RAM; 128 GB storage space; and a 5000 mAh battery with 18 W charging. The images show a fingerprint reader on the side, a USB-C port and a headphone jack. The SoC is a Snapdragon 480, an 8nm, eight-core SoC with four ARM Cortex A76 cores and four A55 cores.
The phone (and those specs) are official today, but for some reason OnePlus isn’t releasing a full list of specs. Before that, leak Evan Blass fill in the blanks. Blass says the phone will have a 2400×1080 LCD display, NFC, a microSD slot and sub-6GHz 5G support (no mmWave), which is expected at this price point. Blass specs also fill in the details of the rear camera setup, which includes a 13MP main camera and two 2MP “Macro” and “Monochrome” cameras that we’re going to call “purely decorative”. Phone manufacturers think that multiple cameras are a major selling point for phones, even if the extra cameras do next to nothing.
The leaked specs put the phone on Android 11. The Nord N100’s update policy was pretty bad; the device received one major OS update and two years of semi-regular (not monthly) updates. OnePlus hasn’t said anything about improving that scheme for the N200, so we’re probably getting the same policy here.
Competitively speaking, the cut-off point for any cheap phone is $350, since that’s the price of the excellent Pixel 4a with three years of updates. Underneath that, there’s room for a good $240 device, but you get one lot more for $110 more.
The Nord N200 5G goes on sale June 25 in the US and Canada. In addition to availability on OnePlus.com, T-Mobile is the exclusive wireless partner for the core service and the “Metro” prepaid plans. Best Buy, Amazon and B&H will also carry the phone.