Something to look forward to: With the Nord series, OnePlus has made a much-needed return to its roots of offering mid-range features at a budget price. Although there are no official numbers to quantify its success, the original Nord is getting a successor in the form of the Nord 2 5G, possibly as soon as this month.
When OnePlus revealed the original Nord phone last year, it signaled that it wanted to get serious about the mid-range segment (again). The $460 OnePlus Nord looked good on paper, even if a little boring and generic from a design perspective, as well as quite fragile in most common durability tests.
Despite being restricted to Europe and India distribution at first, it eventually arrived to the US this past January as part of a wave of wallet-friendly Nord models starting at just $180.
Today, the company confirmed rumors that a successor to the Nord is on the way. The OnePlus Nord 2 5G is official, although the company didn't give away all the details about upcoming new device.
OnePlus says the Nord 2 will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC, so we're looking at a departure from Qualcomm's mobile platform in favor of a solution from the new largest phone chipset vendor by volume.
That said, OnePlus won't be using the standard Dimensity 1200 chipset. The company worked with MediaTek to add AI-focused enhancements that are supposed to offer improved mobile photography, better gaming performance, and even some display enhancements. The resulting chipset is called the Dimensity 1200-AI, but we'll have to wait until the Nord 2 5G lands to learn more about how this variant differs from the original.
The rumor mill says the new Nord 2 5G will also come with a high refresh rate display capable of 90 Hz, or even as high as 168 Hz. The Dimensity 1200-AI will be paired with up to 12 GB of RAM, and the battery could see a small bump in capacity to 4,500 mAh. There's even a possibility the main rear shooter will be equipped with Sony's 50-megapixel IMX766 sensor, same as the OnePlus 9 Pro.
There's no official release date yet, but according to one tipster it could happen by the end of this month. If you're excited for the Nord 2 5G, it's worth pointing out that OnePlus could be getting close to revealing its very first Android tablet as well.