OnePlus Nord 6 hands-on review

Design

The Nord 6 continues the design language OnePlus introduced with the OnePlus 13T/13s last year, which includes things like larger corner radii and a squared-off aluminum camera bump on the back.

In the opinion of this reviewer, the new design language has always been a bit dull, and it's especially bland on the Nord 6. OnePlus calls it "minimalist", a word that probably has done more harm than good to the world of design, but that's a discussion for another day. The Nord 6 almost looks unfinished from the back, like you're looking at a prototype that is still in stages of development. This is true for both the Fresh Mint (pictured here) and the Pitch Black variants, with only the Quick Silver model showing some personality in the form of a double-lined border around the back.

Last year's Nord 5 pulled off the minimalist aesthetic much better without looking like a work-in-progress. The unique marbled finish on one of the variants was also extremely eye-catching, but nothing of that sort is available for the Nord 6.

But it's not until you pull out the Nord 4 that you realize just how much worse OnePlus designs have gotten over the years. The Nord 4 is up there with some of the best designs OnePlus has ever made, and side by side with the Nord 6, it's hard to tell which phone came out today and which came out two years ago. The difference in materials and construction also makes one look like it came from a Swarovski catalog and the other from Hamleys.

Still, OnePlus has made some advancements over the years in terms of the build quality of its phones. The all-plastic construction of the Nord 6 is built to be very durable, with the company claiming MIL-STD-810H U.S. military standard compliance as well as all the IP ratings you've heard of (and some you haven't). The company has also developed its own glass for the display, which it calls Crystal Guard Glass, and claims is as strong as the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

All of that is fine, but by far the most impressive thing about the Nord 6 design is just how exceedingly normal its dimensions are. To reiterate, this phone has a 9000mAh battery, something most tablets would be just fine with and in the not-so-distant past would come in a massive power bank that could be used as a battering ram, and yet nothing about the phone's size would give that fact away. There are phones, many of which are flagship, that are on sale today that are either bigger or heavier and have a battery that is only about half as big as the Nord 6. This is an absolutely incredible achievement and only made possible due to silicon-carbon technology.

Some additional notes regarding the design of the Nord 6. The bezels around the display are almost uniform, but not quite there yet, as the bottom bezel is ever so slightly thicker than the other three sides, and the corner radius of the display still doesn't fully match that of the phone's body. The SIM tray is on the bottom, but oddly, the hole to eject it is not on the tray itself but rather on the side, and we would not be surprised if some people struggle to differentiate it from the microphone port on the other side. The IR blaster is once again placed on the back of the phone inside the camera bump and is located in the bottom right black circle.

Display

The Nord 6 has a 6.78-inch, 2772 x 1272 resolution AMOLED display. It's the same display used on the OnePlus 15, which OnePlus now calls Sunburst AMOLED. The display is capable of refreshing up to 165Hz and has a peak brightness of 3600 nits.

The display on the Nord 6 looks great and also gets very bright outdoors under the sun. It can also get very dim, which is great for using the phone at night.

We wish OnePlus's auto brightness algorithm learned from user inputs instead of just doing whatever it wanted every time; we have seen other phones picking up on what the user manually sets the auto brightness level to in particular lighting and recreate that next time but the OnePlus system stubbornly chooses to follow its default programming, which is usually to just set the display to a conservatively low value every time. HDR brightness also follows ambient lighting instead of encoded values in the content, which isn't ideal.

The Nord 6 display is capable of refreshing up to 165Hz, but as we have seen on previous OnePlus/Realme/Oppo devices, these values can only be hit in games, that too, a select few. This means that unless you download those games, there is no way to achieve the claimed maximum refresh rate on the phone in its out-of-the-box state in any of the pre-installed apps. This has always felt incredibly sketchy, and it gets worse every year as these companies advertise higher and higher numbers without putting the giant asterisks that should go with them. If you think you can get anything above 120Hz in regular apps or even most games, then you are sorely mistaken.

Finally, the display has a built-in optical fingerprint sensor. These have come a long way and work really well now, to the point where you almost don't miss an ultrasonic sensor. The only issue, once again, is that it has been placed too low on the screen, which requires precariously readjusting your grip on what is somewhat of a slippery phone.

Charging speed

The Nord 6 supports 80W fast charging, and a compatible charger and cable are provided in the box. The phone also supports 55W PPS charging, but for the best results, you should stick to the charger provided in the box.

Despite the enormous battery on board, the Nord 6 still manages to charge reasonably quickly. You can get just over 50% charge in 30 minutes, and the full charge takes an hour and fifteen minutes. That's not too far off from the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, which only has a 5080mAh battery.

With a battery that big, the Nord 6 easily managed about three days of light usage, and just over two days with moderate use. It's genuinely incredible how far you can stretch this phone's battery, and this despite not having to compromise much on performance.

Unfortunately, the Nord 6 does not support wireless charging. As such, it also does not have an array of magnets on the back for attaching accessories like a car mount, but you can get first-party cases from OnePlus that do include built-in magnets.

Speakers

The Nord 6 has a set of stereo speakers. The speakers are unimpressive, as the sound is a bit reedy and the speakers don't get especially loud. However, voices come across clearly, so the speakers are fine for most YouTube content.