OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite: 5 things you need to know

A decade ago, millions fell in love with OnePlus for its combo of high-end features and deliciously affordable pricing. That spirit is alive and well in the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite.

It’s one of OnePlus’s more affordable phones, landing at £299.

If you’re on the hunt for your next mobile, it’s worth putting on your contenders list, for a whole host of reasons. Here are our favourite five.

1. It's incredibly bright

For a long time, affordable phones didn’t have particularly bright screens. It was one of the better reasons to spend a bit more.

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite isn’t just bright. It’s a bunch brighter than some recent flagship phones. Just max out the brightness slider and you’ll get around 600 nits, which is about twice as bright as the average laptop.

OnePlus takes things into the stratosphere when you head outside on a bright day, though. The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite can reach 1200 nits, with peaks of 2100 nits. That’s even brighter than an iPhone 15.

As well as that awesome brightness, this is a super-contrasty and colourful OLED screen. It’s a good size too, 6.67 inches.

2. We get super-fast charging and a plus-size battery

One of the slightly dodgy habits of phone-makers: using fast charging to make up for a piddly battery. The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite has both a larger-than-average battery and fast charging.

Capacity of 5110mAh is a small but welcome cut above the 5000mAh norm. Some countries get an even higher 5500mAh version.

Charging of 80W is even snappier than the old OnePlus 67W gold standard too. According to OnePlus’s own testing the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite can last a smidge over two days of average use, or a mammoth 18 hours and 40 minutes of YouTube streaming. And a full charge takes 50 minutes. Not bad.

3. You can use it when wet

At the beginning of 2024 OnePlus announced a feature called Aqua Touch, seen in the OnePlus 12. It tries to solve one of the longest-standing annoyances of smartphones, and it’s present in the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite too.

Noticed how your phone’s touchscreen goes haywire whenever it gets the slight bit wet? Aqua Touch tries to remedy this by recognising when water droplets are on-screen and compensating for the effect they cause.

Why does water have such an effect on phone screens? They use capacitive touch tech, which looks for the electrically conductive properties of your finger for input. But water causes a similar reaction from the touch layer, making it much harder for the phone to work out where your finger is.

4. We get more advanced camera tech

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite has a totally different camera array to its predecessor the Nord CE3 Lite. At at first glance it might sound like a downgrade. We get a 50MP camera, not the 108MP of the old model.

However, let’s look a little closer. This camera is based around the Sony LYT-600 sensor, and it has optical image stabilisation (OIS), which we didn’t get last time around. OIS compensates for hand movement, making it much easier to take super-sharp images.

OnePlus also says this came has “2x In-sensor zoom.” Sure, this is digital zoom, but this same camera hardware has produced great 2x zoom results in phones like the Realme 12+. That kind of framing is perfect for portraits, and the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite has a 2MP depth sensor to help out when you want that blurry background “bokeh” look for pics of friends and family.

5. Freebies, ahoy!

If you get a OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite early doors direct from OnePlus, you can also claim a couple of bonuses. If you buy before August 2, you can get £50 off.

Even better, those ordering on July 1 or before can also get a freebie. You can choose from a pair of OnePlus Nord Buds 2 (worth £69), a phone case or a power adapter. We imagine the earphones may sell out quick, so don’t hang about on that one.

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite is available to order in Super Silver and Mega Blue. Phones will start shipping from July 1.