OnePlus Nord N20 5G review: a better budget phone

The N20 5G is the best of the bunch. The company hasn't mastered the flagship, but it has a good recipe for a budget phone.

The N20 feels like you are getting away with something. If you are on T-Mobile, it is easy to recommend it because of its excellent balance of price and features.

It is difficult to recommend the N20 5G to anyone looking for a budget phone. The N20 5G will only be sold through T-Mobile in the US. Spenser Blank, a company spokesman, wouldn't say if the company will seek 5G certification on AT&T or if it will sell unlocked.

There is also the fact that the N20 5G has a triple rear camera array. There are technically three image sensors back there, but only one is worth keeping an eye on.

There are some minor trade-offs to be aware of, like the fact that the phone doesn't shoot 4K video and has a low-grade built-in speaker. Overall phone performance is a strength, along with a good screen in a category with mediocre panels. The N20 does a good job of getting those things right.

One of the N20 5G's highlights is its 6.43-inchOLED with a 60Hz refresh rate. A budget phone can't have both the faster refresh rates and contrast-rich OLEDs that more expensive phones have. The N20 was the only phone that didn't offer a fast refresh rate and instead had a lower-contrast display.

If you're coming from a phone with a fast refresh rate screen, you'll notice the difference in refresh speeds. The smooth motion of a 90 or 120Hz display will make the animation look choppier. This panel is better to look at than a mediocre one. Watching video is more enjoyable when it is something with a lot of dimly lit scenes, like The Batman. A lot of people can appreciate this trade-off.

The screen's resolution is higher than average since it is more common in the budget class. You need a higher resolution to keep the images sharp. This isn't as bright as I've used, but it's bright enough to be usable in the sun.

A good in-display fingerprint sensor is one of the N20's best features. Even with wet fingers, it is quick and reliable. A good in-display sensor in a phone under $300 is very rare, and a flaky fingerprint reader is an annoying thing to have to deal with a hundred times per day.

The Nord N20 5G uses a low-cost, mid-range Snapdragon 695 5G chip, which is a cut above the budget-level 400 and 700 series chips found in this class. It has 6GB of RAM, which is an improvement over the 4GB more typical of budget phones.

The N20's performance reflects that, and is great for a $300 phone. It runs graphics intensive games like Genshin Impact, with some noticeable stuttering, but nothing that impacted the experience. In day-to-day use, jumping from app to app is quick, and I am rarely left waiting for the phone to catch up as I switch from scrolling to typing or taking a picture. I don't notice apps closing in the background, but it's not good. It seems to help a bit, but it doesn't solve the problem.

The N20 5G has a built-in speaker that is easy to cover with your finger. It is not a good speaker. It seems like a reasonable trade-off to have everything on a budget phone.

The N20 can be expanded by using the microSD card slot. The phone has a real, live headphone jack, and it ships with a fast charge in the box. The budget class still has some of the same features as the flagship and mid-range phones.

Fast charging is included in the N20 5G, and it is one of the highlights of the under $300 class. The phone supports wired charging, but not wireless charging. The phone charged up to 30 percent in 20 minutes when it was powered off. In my testing, the phone charged from flat to 100 percent in an hour and 15 minutes, at least 15 minutes faster than the typical budget phone. Most of the time, you can get to a very usable 90 percent much sooner, as charging slows down considerably for the last 10 percent of battery.

The N20's battery isn't the biggest in the class, but it does power the phone through a full day of use. With the always-on display and high- performance mode enabled, I have gotten close to 3.5 hours of screen-on. It's fair to say that the N20 5G will be easy to use for a light or moderate user.

The N20 5G is still back on the phone, even though it is no longer in the public. It can't give an estimated time for the update, but it says it will get it. In the meantime, the version of the phone that's available from the company is a little more minimalist than the ones from the other companies. It's easy to navigate and there are few pre-downloaded T-Mobile apps.

The N20 will be the only OS platform upgrade, and it will get three years of security updates, which is a shame since the next OS version is right around the corner. Three years of support isn't the worst policy among device makers, but it's not the best, and it would go to SAMSUNG with four or five years of support depending on the phone. I would love to see the company commit to more years of software support, but three years is enough for a lot of people.

When the unlocked version of the N20 is introduced, the story of which 5G bands it supports will get more complicated. The n77 C-band frequency is not on the spec sheet. If it gets 5G certification on those carriers, it may be for the slower variety. The N20 5G supports T-Mobile 5G. T-Mobile got a big head start when it bought Sprint, and they're hurrying to build out their mid-band 5G networks. It is good now and not in a year or two.

I haven't used a 5G phone in a while, but I am very impressed by the speeds I saw in my neighborhood around T-Mobile's corporate backyard of Seattle. I have been able to pick up T-Mobile's Ultra Capacity 5G signal fairly often, and I get download speeds of 300 and 500Mbps when I do. On a good day, my home wi-fi is around 100Mbps. If you happen to live in a place with good T-Mobile 5G coverage, the N20 is in great shape to take advantage of it.

There are two large camera modules on the back of the N20 5G, which might make you think that there are two important cameras on this phone. There are not. The module below the top camera is a small, low-grade macro camera, the same kind of camera found on many other budget phones. Its large housing is just window dressing. The only thing more pointless than a tiny macro camera is the third, smaller lens.

The main camera has a 64-megapixel resolution. Images taken outdoors in good lighting are pleasant; exposures are balanced, and colors look a little warmer than on the devices of the other companies. It is a nice spot. I like the 2x digital zoom on this camera. The details are very sharp in good lighting. It's not a lot of reach, but it's good enough that I'd use it in a pinch when I'm not close to my subject.

Images taken indoors can look artificially bright, as is common with other OnePlus phones. Night mode tends to take this a step further, with color saturation that looks artificial. I would take any night mode over no night mode at all.

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• 2x digital zoom
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• Selfie camera
• Macro camera
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• Night mode

The macro camera is very low resolution and not very useful. To enable it, you need to tap on the "more" option in the camera app and pick it out of a grid of options. I would like this camera to be an ultrawide.

The monochrome sensor is still in the budget class, despite the fact that it was phased out of the flagship phones. When you shoot in the black-and-white filter mode, it gives you additional image information. When I cover the sensor with my finger, it looks the same as when it's not. The phone's third rear camera is not counted as a sensor.

Video is limited to a maximum resolution. Since 4K has become the standard for high-resolution video, it's too bad. If a little noisy in low light, the clips are good. There is an aggressive crop, but as a trade-off you get some good electronic image stabilization.

It feels like the N20 5G could do a better job than the $300 phone. I would have liked to swap out the macro and monochrome sensors for an ultrawide one. The main camera works well in the right lighting conditions. It's a shame that it's doing all of the research on the N20.

If you're on T-Mobile and the camera quality isn't your top priority, the N20 5G is an excellent deal. It is a pleasure to use if that is the case. The screen is rich and detailed, the performance is good, and the charging is fast.

The default recommendation in this price range is the SAMSUNG GALAXY A32 5G. The N20 is a very worthwhile alternative. If image quality is a priority, the A32 is a better choice because it shoots 4K video and has an ultrawide camera. It is almost a year old, but it is still scheduled to get three more years of security updates. It's a step ahead on the software side because it's already getting the new version of the phone.

The N20 is a better choice if you are looking for a more sophisticated software experience. You will get double the built-in storage and more RAM than the version of the A32 5G that is sold in the US. We interact with our phones roughly a million times per day, so it's worth making sure the device you pick is one that you enjoy using. I would find a way to live without an ultrawide camera and pick the N20 over the A32 based on its enjoyability factor. It feels like it cost more than it actually did, and that's what the experience is like with OnePlus.

Allison Johnson is a photographer.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it. It is impossible for us to read and analyze all of these agreements. We started counting how many times you have to agree to use devices when we review them.

You need to agree to use the N20 5G.

• OnePlus’ End User License Agreement and Privacy Policy
• Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service
• Google Play Terms of Service
• Install updates and apps: “You agree this device may also automatically download and install updates and apps from Google, your carrier, and your device’s manufacturer, possibly using cellular data. Some of these apps may offer in-app purchases.”

You need to get past several optional agreements during setup.

• Participation in Co-Creation User Programs, which includes built-in app updates, push notifications for surveys and product updates, and system stability reporting
• Assistant Voice Match
• Back up to Google Drive: “Your backup includes apps, app data, all history, contacts, device settings (including Wi-Fi passwords and permissions), and SMS.”
• Use location: “Google may collect location data periodically and use this data in an anonymous way to improve location accuracy and location-based services.”
• Allow scanning: “Allow apps and services to scan for Wi-Fi networks and nearby devices at any time, even when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is off.”
• Send usage and diagnostic data: “Help improve your Android device experience by automatically sending diagnostic, device and app usage data to Google.”

There are three more optional agreements from T-Mobile on this carrier-locked device.

• Help improve your experience by sharing device performance, app and network usage data
• Help improve your local network experience by including your device’s location
• Use diagnostics data for personalized ads

There are at least seven optional agreements.