There used to be a time whenOnePluswas known for its “flagship killer” smartphones with powerful specs and low pricing. It’s crazy to think about, but the company introduced its first phone, theOnePlus One, a whopping nine years ago. Since then, it has branched out — you could argue it betrayed its principles by switching from those flagship killers and making proper flagships, but it has not left the cheap device market unattended, as it now makes budget and midrange phones as well. Its latest entry in this segment comes in the form of the OnePlus Nord 3 — and thanks to new leaks, we know pretty much everything there is to know about that phone now.
First off, we have renders of the device coming fromWinFuture’s Roland Quandt. The design looks fairly in line with what we’ve seen on other cheaper OnePlus entries, with two rear circle-shaped camera modules. One of them holds the main sensor, which is 50MP, and the other one holds an 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP macro lens.
There are two flash modules on the otherwise-clean back, and flipping it over, we can see its flat sides, with the left side hosting your usual volume buttons and the right side holding the power button and, surprisingly, an alert slider. Finally, flipping it over to the front, we can gaze at its 6.74-inch display, with a strange 2772x1240 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
Its rumored specifications, mentioned in that original report and further corroborated bySnoopyTech, also look enticing. We should be getting a MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC here, as well as up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (with the base model going down to 8/128).
It’s certainly an interesting phone, and one that we should get to know more about sooner than later. We’re not sure how much it’ll cost, when it’ll go on sale, or exactly which markets we’ll see it in. A US release is unlikely given that its predecessor never made its way stateside, but a European launch seems probable — just don’t expect to see the phone in Germany amidst thetroubles OnePlus and sister company Oppo are experiencing there.
