The OnePlus Nord 4 offers a more premium and durable design than the CE 4 Lite, as well as a more powerful chipset and a better display. However, it costs a lot more.
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite performs well on price, software, and battery, but the more expensive Nord 4 beats it in almost everything else.
OnePlus has a habit of releasing several similarly titled phones each year, so you'd be forgiven for losing track of which models fall into which price bracket.
Released in July 2024, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is vying for a spot in our guide to the best cheap phones, while the more expensive OnePlus Nord 4 can be considered one of the best Android phones for a mid-range budget.
We've put both devices through their paces (check out our OnePlus Nord 4 review and OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite review for our full verdicts), but in this guide, we've compared the two phones head-to-head in a spec-by-spec showdown.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: specifications
Here's how the key specifications of the OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite compare:
| OnePlus Nord 4 | OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions: | 162.6 x 75 x 8 mm | 162.9 x 75.6 x 8.1 mm |
| Weight: | 199.5 grams | 191 grams |
| Screen: | 6.74-inch FHD AMOLED display, 20:9 (1240 x 2772), 120 Hz | 6.67-inch FHD AMOLED display, 20:9 (1080 x 2400), 120 Hz |
| Chipset: | Snapdragon 7 Plus 3rd Gen | Snapdragon 695 |
| RAM: | 12 GB / 16 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage: | 256 GB / 512 GB | 256 GB |
| Operating system: | Android 14, OxygenOS 14.1 | Android 14, OxygenOS 14.1 |
| Rear cameras: | 50 MP, f/1.8 + 8 MP f/2.2 112 degrees | 50 MP, f/1.8 + 2 MP, f/2.4 |
| Front camera: | 16 MP, f/2.0 | 16 MP, f/2.4 |
| Audio: | Stereo speakers | Stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack |
| Battery: | 5,500 mAh | 5.110 mAh |
| Charging: | 100W wired | 80W wired |
| Flag: | Midnight Obsidian, Mercury Silver, Oasis Green | Super Silver, Mega Blue |
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Price and availability
Of the two phones, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is cheaper – in most regions, it's OnePlus' cheapest offering right now. However, it's also worth noting that, at the time of writing, those “regions” don't include Australia or the US.
The Nord CE 4 Lite costs £299 (about $380, AU$580). There's only one version (8GB/256GB), so you don't have to worry about storage or RAM options.
The Nord 4 starts at a higher £429 (about $550, AU$820), and that’s just for its base version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For £529 (about $680, AU$1,000) you can increase that amount to 16GB and 512GB respectively.
So there are no two ways to look at it: the CE 4 Lite is definitely the more affordable phone, and the Nord 4 is the more premium option.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Design
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Both OnePlus phones use a candy-bar-like Android design with flat edges, and the two main points of differentiation between the two are the orientation of the camera bump (vertical on the CE 4 Lite, horizontal on the Nord 4) and the color options. The Nord 4 also has a dual-tone rear panel, while the CE 4 Lite has a single color across its entire rear panel.
Those colors are silver, black, and green for the OnePlus Nord 4, and silver or blue for its cousin.
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is the larger phone, but by such a tiny margin that it’s barely noticeable. Measuring 162.9 x 75.6 x 8.1mm, compared to the Nord 4’s 162.6 x 75 x 8mm, the CE is actually 8.5g lighter, weighing 191g.
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That lighter weight is probably partly due to its material: the CE 4 Lite has a plastic frame and body, which is well protected against bumps, but doesn't feel as premium in the hand. With its metal body and frame, the Nord 4 feels much more “special.”
However, the Nord 4 is better protected against dust and water, as its IP65 rating ensures it's more resistant to fine particles and liquids compared to the CE 4 Lite's IP54 rating.
Both phones have the volume rocker and power button on the right edge, and the USB-C port on the bottom edge. On the CE 4 Lite, that port is accompanied by a 3.5mm headphone jack, which the Nord 4 lacks. However, that phone does have an alerts slider right at the top of the left edge, which the Lite lacks.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: display
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The OnePlus Nord 4 wins the display race, with a larger, higher-resolution screen. It has a 6.74-inch display with a 2.5K resolution (1240 x 2772 pixels), which beats the Nord CE 4 Lite’s 6.67-inch display with an FHD+ resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels).
Both phones have AMOLED displays, but the Nord 4 has what OnePlus calls Fluid AMOLED, and I thought it looked more vibrant and colorful.
However, both phones do have a few things in common: they both offer 120Hz refresh rates, similar peak brightness levels, and holes to house their respective front-facing cameras. Plus, they both use Aqua Touch, a display feature that ensures their respective screens respond to touch even when your fingers are wet.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Software
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Software-wise, both phones come out of the box; there are no significant differences between the two on a functional level. Both the OnePlus Nord 4 and Nord CE 4 Lite come with Android 14 pre-installed and the company's OxygenOS 14.1 on top.
The Nord 4 does have one slight advantage over its cousin, though: you'll get at least four years of software updates, while OnePlus has only promised two years of updates for the Nord CE 4 Lite.
OxygenOS has a distinctive look with its own font and color scheme, and I love how its icons are easy to understand at a glance.
That said, I did notice that both Nord phones come with a heavy dose of bloatware or pre-installed apps that took me a while to remove when I first turned them on.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: cameras
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You probably aren't considering either of these OnePlus Nord phones if you're a big fan of smartphone photography, but for what it's worth, the Nord 4 edges out the CE 4 Lite by a slight margin.
Both phones offer the same 50MP main camera, but while the CE 4 Lite only has a 2MP depth sensor, the Nord 4 also has an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, allowing you to capture photos with a wider field of view.
On the front, both phones have the same 16MP camera, and both options delivered similar results in my tests.
One advantage of the Nord 4 is that it has a smarter processor, and I found its AI scene optimization technology to be a bit smarter at automatically identifying and adjusting certain scenes.
Beyond that, though, you get the usual stuff in terms of camera features: panorama, slow-motion video, time-lapse, portrait mode, etc.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Performance
You'll get a lot more processing power with the OnePlus Nord 4, but the Nord CE 4 Lite has an extra edge when it comes to audio.
Performance-wise, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is powered by the Snapdragon 695 chipset, while the Nord 4 is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. Qualcomm’s 7-series chips are generally better than the 6-series chips, and the performance of these two phones backs that up. Benchmark tests suggest that the Nord 4 is around 33% more powerful than the CE 4 Lite.
When playing games on the Nord 4 and the Nord CE 4 Lite, you can notice this difference: the CE 4 Lite sometimes stutters, lags, or lags a bit in online titles.
That assessment makes sense when you consider the two phones’ respective RAM credentials. The CE 4 Lite has 8GB, while the Nord 4 has either 12GB or 16GB. Similarly, when it comes to storage, the Lite’s 128GB is less than the Nord 4’s 256GB or 512GB.
In the audio department, however, the Nord CE 4 Lite has one advantage over its cousin: it has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Fans of wired audio can use this phone, and not the Nord 4, to connect headphones or a speaker.
Other audio options include the phones' stereo speakers (none of which are anything to write home about), their respective USB-C ports if you have an adapter, or streaming via Bluetooth.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Battery life
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People who follow the mid-range and budget phone segment will know what to expect here: both Nords feature massive batteries that allow them to easily last more than a day of use.
The Nord CE 4 Lite has a 5110mAh battery, while the Nord 4 packs even more juice thanks to a 5500mAh one. Considering the larger display and more powerful internals of the latter, that larger size is necessary, so both phones last roughly the same amount of time.
Charging is faster on the Nord 4, though – its 100W wired power gets the phone from empty to full in just under half an hour, which is fast. Charging on the Nord CE 4 Lite is only slightly slower, with its 80W wired power taking around 20 minutes longer to fully charge (remember, its battery is smaller!).
Neither phone has wireless charging, but the Lite offers reverse wired charging, so you can use it as a power bank to charge other devices.
OnePlus Nord 4 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: verdict
In almost every section of this article, you've read that the OnePlus Nord 4 matches or outperforms the Nord CE 4 Lite, and that's really the story of this comparison.
The Nord 4 is a more powerful phone that offers better photography potential, a more attractive display, and significantly more storage space.
The only thing that the CE 4 Lite has going for it is its price, which is significantly lower than the Nord 4. The CE 4 Lite performs just as well as the Nord 4 in terms of software and battery, but in every other aspect, the Nord 4 is simply better.
