OnePlus has a major launch on the horizon, with the company confirming not only new phones but also a new watch, a new tablet, and new earbuds at its blockbuster launch in early July – but we don’t know much about the products themselves. Or at least we didn’t, until now.
I had the opportunity to speak exclusively with Celina Shi, the Chief Marketing Officer at OnePlus Europe, about the upcoming Nord 5 – and it’s safe to say that it’ll offer a significant upgrade in terms of camera technology.
It’s all about the selfie camera
The focus, according to Shi, isn’t the rear cameras – though those have also been improved. Instead, it’s the selfie camera that gets much of the attention this year.
“We’ve made some very significant hardware upgrades on the camera side on this generation of the OnePlus Nord 5, but the single biggest upgrade is the front-facing camera,” Shi explained. “We’ve gone from an 18MP sensor on the OnePlus Nord 4 to a 50MP sensor on the OnePlus Nord 5.”
That sounds great on paper, but it’s more than just a megapixel bump. After all, there’s more to a great camera than its megapixel count. “The front sensor,” Shi explained, is “found in the rear camera assembly of flagship devices from other brands” – but that’s not all.
The selfie snapper also features an ISP (Image Signal Processor) and a Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (VTG) for noise reduction. Shi claims that this “will create a noticeable improvement, especially in low-light photography and HDR performance.”
In terms of spec, the front-facing camera offers a 21mm equivalent lens with a 1/2.75-inch 50MP ISOCELL JN5 sensor with a pixel size of 0.64μm and an f/2.2 aperture. That’s paired with hardware-powered autofocus tech to “help with clarity, particularly with selfies and groufies where subjects may be positioned in different depth”, Shi explained.
“We also have hardware multi-focusing, which helps keep everyone sharp when taking selfies – especially if everyone isn’t lined up perfectly, as is often the case.”
Of course, there’s more to a great camera than hardware, and Shi is confident that the software upgrades will have an equally significant impact on performance. “We have also given it a lot of boosts on the software side,” Shi remarked, “especially in low-light performance”.
“We’ve spent a lot of energy getting the visuals for video calls and selfies right in those dark, incandescent light moments.”
It’s also now capable of full 4K@60fps video capture, a first for a smartphone in its price category.
A familiar primary camera – for all the right reasons
While it’s all about the selfie camera in the case of the Nord 5, there has also been a notable upgrade to the rear cameras, particularly the primary camera.
That’s because the Nord 5 uses the same primary sensor as the flagship OnePlus 13, sporting a 24mm equivalent 50MP 1/1.56-inch Sony LYT-700 sensor with OIS and an f/1.88 aperture.
Shi claims that this is a “significant upgrade” from what we saw with last year’s Nord 4. “The rear-facing camera then was a Sony IMX 882, which specs-wise is roughly comparable to the Sony Lytia 600 series today – in other words, we’ve gone up a category since last time.”
That’s paired with a 116-degree ultrawide – a 15mm equivalent – with hardware-enabled autofocus on both lenses.
Again, that’s not something you see very often at the price point, especially where the secondary ultrawide lens is concerned. This should allow the ultrawide to double up as a fairly decent macro lens – but we’ll have to wait and see for now.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2025 launch without any kind of AI features, and OnePlus has delivered on this front too.
“We have introduced some shooting-related features, including the ability to pull out single frames from Live Photos, upscale and re-create HDR features on them, and then let them stand on their own.”
There are more features headed to the Nord 5, Shi teased, but “we’re keeping those a surprise for a little while longer”.
Considering we’re only weeks away from the big debut on 8 July, we don’t have long to see what else OnePlus has planned for the Nord 5 – and from what we’ve seen so far, it certainly looks promising.
