In brief: OnePlus will soon expand its mid-range smartphone lineup with a new entry, the Nord CE 2 5G. As the Core Edition of the Nord 2, OnePlus' new phone will be a more affordable option, with some sacrifices to reduce its price. Some believe it may even be a rebrand of an existing Oppo handset.

The OnePlus Nord series has featured models like the original Nord, Nord N10 and Nord 2, so it's only reasonable to expect good things from its latest entry. OnePlus is sharing some of the phone specifications as the announcement date approaches via a dedicated website, so we should learn more about it in the coming days.

For now, we know the new Nord will feature 65W SuperVOOC fast charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack and support for microSD cards with up to 1TB of storage. The teasers posted by OnePlus also give us a glimpse at the design, including a punch-hole selfie camera on the top left of the screen, the rear cameras module, and what seems to be a light blue color variant.

Despite the four holes in the rear camera module, we don't expect this phone will actually feature four cameras. Instead, one of the smaller holes is most likely for the flash. We also have to consider that early leaks pointed to a triple rear camera configuration, as well as a 6.43-inch AMOLED FHD+ display and a MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G processor.

According to the leaks, the Nord 2 CE will run Android 12 (OxygenOS 12) and support Bluetooth 5.2 and reverse charging. The rear camera configuration should consist of a 64MP shooter, paired with an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro, while the front has a single 16MP selfie cam. Moreover, this phone is expected to come in three different storage and RAM configurations: 128GB+8GB, 256GB+8GB, 256GB+12GB.

Considering its aesthetics and internal configuration, some claimed it could be a rebranded Oppo Reno7 SE with a better charging system, superior cameras and an audio jack. That's a reasonable assumption, considering Oppo is the parent company of OnePlus.

We expect to learn more about the new OnePlus Nord 2 CE between now and the official announcement, set for February 17 at 5:30 a.m. Pacific.