OnePlus Nord CE6 hands-on review
Display
The Nord CE6 has a 6.78-inch, 2772 x 1272 resolution 'Sunburst' AMOLED display. On paper, this display seems identical to that of the Nord 6, especially since it also hits the same 3600 nits peak brightness figure. Only the refresh rate has been artificially limited to 144Hz here instead of 165Hz on the Nord 6.
As such, the Nord CE6 display behaves identically to the Nord 6 display. It's still a very good quality panel, with good color reproduction, and it can also get very bright. The bezels are also reasonably thin all around.
The refresh rate being limited to 144Hz is not much of a problem. In reality, you can only access 120Hz in most apps and games, and many are actually set to 90Hz or even 60Hz out of the box. You need to enter the display settings and manually set them to 120Hz if you want more fluidity. Only a handful of games can access the full 144Hz refresh rate of the panel.
Like the Nord 6, the Nord CE6 supports HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG standards for HDR playback. As with other OnePlus phones, the Nord CE6 still adjusts HDR brightness based on ambient lighting - which creates a dimmer and less impactful viewing experience in darker environments - instead of just following the luminance metadata embedded in the content.
The Nord CE6 has an always-on display mode, but this may as well be renamed to something else, as it doesn't do the one thing it's supposed to, which is to keep the screen always-on. The screen only stays on for about five seconds and then turns back off.
Finally, the Nord CE6 has an embedded optical fingerprint scanner in the display. The scanner performance felt a tad slower than on the Nord 6, which we commended for being pretty quick for an optical unit.
Battery and charging
The Nord CE6 has an 8000mAh Si/C battery. It supports 80W of SUPERVOOC fast charging, as well as 13.5W PD and 55W PPS. The phone also has a reverse charging feature that can provide up to 27W of power to a connected device. You also get bypass charging, which powers the phone directly instead of charging the battery, so it does not heat the device while gaming or other demanding activities.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
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Despite the massive battery, the Nord CE6 charges in a respectable amount of time. The 15-minute and 30-minute marks provide better numbers compared to the Nord 6 with its bigger 9000mAh battery, but the difference isn't large. Similarly, the two phones end up being neck and neck to a full 100% charge.
As usual, these numbers were obtained with the Smart rapid charging feature enabled in the battery settings. However, as with other OnePlus devices, this option comes disabled out of the box and needs to be manually switched on. Without it, you won't get the full charging speeds as seen here.
While we haven't conducted a formal battery life test, the actual longevity of the battery during our usage was phenomenal. The phone has incredible stamina and should last most people two full days, with a third day achievable with moderate use. It truly feels like we are at the end of battery anxiety, especially when you know you can get another day of use after about a fifteen-minute charge.
Speakers
The Nord CE6 has a set of stereo speakers. The audio quality isn't great, and the sound is quite tinny. There is no real bass to speak of, so it just comes across as very mid-forward. This is fine for vocal content, but not much else.
The speakers maintain their overall tonality till about 80, after which it gets even tinnier. There is a 300% boost mode that kicks in when you press the volume up button after reaching 100%. This does make the sound meaningfully louder if the source is on the quieter side, but not so much if the source is already loud. Moreover, it is only concerned with loudness and not quality, so the speakers are more or less just shrieking at you at this point.
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