OnePlus Nord N10 5G

OnePlus is selling the phone for $300 in the US, which is an awkward spot. For $50 more, I think the Pixel 4a is a much better phone — we gave it our Editors' Choice award, after all. For $50 less, the TCL 10L offers much of the same experience (and drawbacks). In the EU, you can get the OG Nord for just €50 more, and it's also better in every possible way. OnePlus either needs to drop the phone's price a little or extend the window of updates for the N10 5G to get an unreserved recommendation from us.

If you want a very inexpensive 5G phone that doesn’t have any deal-breaking flaws, the N10 5G is it. Even if you’re not interested in 5G, which most people probably aren’t, this $300 device still delivers in important ways: a good screen, acceptable performance, a good enough camera, and decent battery life. Not a bad deal at all.

The Nord N10 5G does cut a few corners. For instance, it has an LCD display instead of OLED, it doesn't have an in-screen fingerprint sensor, it's powered by a slower processor than any 2020 OnePlus phone, it isn't IP rated for water resistance and it runs the older Android 10 OS. But it still has some premium features, such as 5G, a 90Hz display and a robust 4,300-mAh battery, as well as a few retro surprises that no new OnePlus phones have, like expandable memory and a headphone jack.

This phone is missing the special sauce that makes OnePlus stand out. Perhaps if it had a standout feature (besides 5G), it would have been more in line with the OnePlus philosophy to "Never Settle." If it wasn't for the logo and OnePlus branding, the N10 5G would be just another slab in a crowd of slabs.

The OnePlus N10 5G is a solid mid-range phone without much edge on the competition aside from a 90Hz refresh rate display, some high-megapixel cameras, and fast 30W charging. It's a great lower-cost version of the OnePlus experience, though it's not the fastest, nor does it have the most battery, nor does it take the best photos of its mid-range contingent. Rather, it's a good all-around phone – and one of the cheapest 5G-capable handsets on the market.