I hate to admit it, but I completely overlooked the OnePlus Nord CE 5 initially. After all, the Nord 5 was the more compelling phone with flagship features in sight. While I tested the Nord 5, the more affordable option mostly sat on my desk, waiting for some attention and validation.
When I finally decided to pick it up, something hit me like a brick in the face. Even after a week of standby, the battery had only drained about 40%. A drop of jaw followed. Too many extreme emotions flowed through my body.
I had slept on the fact that the Nord CE5 had a 7,100mAh battery. I had used some Chinese rugged phones with even larger batteries, but none of them sustained so long when not used.
The standby drain on those no-name brands inspired me to put the CE5 through its paces, though I had just one mission in mind: ensure the battery drains out as soon as possible.
The phone was already at about 60% when I picked it up, and I didn't bother to charge it. I looped a 4K video on YouTube, set the phone to roughly 100 nits of brightness (as measured with a lux meter), and waited for the battery to drain.
I didn't expect it to last more than six to seven hours. Not so excited about the results, I deployed apps (Accubattery and BatteryLog) to record the decline of battery and went off to sleep.
When I woke up, I almost skipped the need for my morning espresso. The phone was still running, coasting at around 35% battery — after almost eight hours while I was away.
It took a total of 12.5 hours to go from 60% to 10% battery, the remainder of which could have lasted for another couple of hours.
Despite the initial defeat, I was determined to drain the CE5's battery more rapidly this time, and therefore, I set up a tougher mission for the phone: brightness cranked up to full, volume to an annoyingly loud level, and run the 4K video loop again.
After starting the test at 100%, the phone ran for over 14 hours of screen-on-time. Even with this, the remaining battery was still hovering above the 30% mark. I became a real-world embodiment of the mind-blown-out emoji 🤯.
I was determined to discharge the OnePlus Nord CE5 quickly. Looking back, I realise I was sooo wrong!
I realised I was dealt a spread that had returning odds of loss. But I didn't accept my defeat until one last battle.
Charging a battery that lasts for days should take really long, I thought to myself. I plugged in the phone's 80W charger and stepped away, hoping to return in about two hours and catch the phone crawling towards its final few increments of battery values.
The charging began at 8%.
When I returned after two hours, I saw the phone had already gone from 8% to 100% in about 1 hour and 35 minutes. The phone wasn't warm to the touch, despite its speedy rate.
I caved in. I was impressed. I was also disappointed. Not in the phone. But my about my own abilities to correctly predict a phone's battery life.
Besides the large 7,100mAh cell, features that help the OnePlus Nord CE5 to sustain through a long period of backup are a non-demanding processor, a power-efficient AMOLED, and excellent software optimization (which unfortunately also means aggressive background app killing).
That said, this is one of the most compelling packages at ₹22,999 of starting price. The Dimensity 8350, despite the strictly mid-range pricing, can run games such COD: Mobile and PUBG: Mobile at high frame rates up to 120fps
The AMOLED supports HDR10+, which means you're sorted for watching content on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Apple TV, among other OTT platforms.
There are a few limitations: no NFC, mono speaker, a plastic build, and not-so-stunning cameras — but all of these can be swallowed with ease, considering its promise of four-year-long software support and the exceptional battery I spoke of above.