The much-awaited mid-ranger from OnePlus finally made its debut earlier this month. The OnePlus Nord marks the Chinese giant’s return to the mid-range segment after 5 years. It’s a premium and feature-packed smartphone that’s powered by a 5G chipset, 48MP quad-cameras, dual punch-hole selfie camera, and 30W fast-charging. It’s been priced starting at Rs. 24,999 in India and rivals its sister company  – Realme’s budget flagship – Realme X3 and Realme X3 SuperZoom in the same price bracket.

  • Design – Twinning FTW?

As the title should already tell you, the OnePlus Nord and Realme X3 SuperZoom are very similar-looking phones. Both of them have a similar-sized display with a dual-camera punch-hole at the top left. The vertical quad-camera array (yeah, both have four cameras) on the rear is also placed at the same location – the left edge. Even the speaker, SIM tray, and USB Type-C port placement at the bottom are also the same.

Design – Twinning FTW?

  • Display – 90Hz AMOLED vs 120Hz IPS LCD

This is one department that may spark a debate among enthusiasts but since both the phones are offering a high refresh rate, the deciding factor will obviously be the panel type, as well as quality.

Display – 90Hz AMOLED vs 120Hz IPS LCD

Internals – Snapdragon 765G vs Snapdragon 855+

The biggest difference between the OnePlus Nord and Realme X3 Superzoom lies under the hood. The former is powered by the latest 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765G chipset whereas the latter has last year’s flagship Snapdragon 855+ chipset running the show. This means Nord supports 5G connectivity (not even available in India) while the Realme X3 Superzoom does not.

The base variant of the Realme X3 SuperZoom comes with 6GB RAM and goes up to 8GB while the OnePlus Nord’s base variant offers 8GB RAM for the same price. The higher-end Nord variant includes 12GB of RAM. Both are equipped with LPDDR4x RAM, which is okay at this price point. OnePlus Nord cuts corners on the storage front though. It offers up to 256GB UFS 2.1 storage while Realme X3 SuperZoom includes up to 256GB UFS 3.0 storage.

Software – OxygenOS vs Realme UI

This is ultimately going to boil down to preference but we believe there’s a lot of stock Android enthusiasts out there. OnePlus’ own OxygenOS offers a clean and minimal UI that’s closer to the stock experience. You also get the goodness of add-on features, like Zen mode, screen recording, parallel apps, and more. The biggest benefit, however, is the fluid and bloat-free experience. The company has now even swapped out its stock dialer and messages app for Google’s apps.

Dual Selfie and Quad Rear Cameras

Moving on to the cameras, both the OnePlus Nord and Realme X3 Superzoom boast a quad-rear and dual-selfie camera setup. On the front, the dual-cam punch-hole selfie camera is the same aboard both phones. You get a primary 32MP camera and a secondary 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 105-degree FOV. It makes it really easy to click group selfies.

On the rear, OnePlus Nord sports a 48MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with a 119-degree FOV, a 5MP depth sensor, and 2MP macro lens. Realme X3 SuperZoom, on the other hand, includes a 64MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with a 115-degree FOV, an 8MP periscope camera with 2x optical zoom and 60x digital zoom, and a 2MP macro lens. You can check out the camera comparison right here:

The higher megapixels count is okay but the thing that makes the biggest difference here is that Realme X3 is capable of recording 4K videos @ 60FPS. Snapdragon 765G aboard the OnePlus Nord limits video capture to 4K @ 30FPS but it does have OIS + EIS support. The Realme X3 SuperZoom only supports EIS. You can choose to save a couple of thousand bucks with the standard Realme X3 with a simple telephoto lens and 2x optical zoom.

Battery & Fast-charging

There isn’t really a lot to talk on the battery front here. OnePlus Nord comes packed with a slightly smaller 4,115mAh battery as compared to the 4,200mAh battery pack aboard the Realme X4. Both of these phones support 30W fast-charging — just under different names. Overall, I would say there should not be a huge difference in the battery usage of these phones.

OnePlus Nord vs Realme X3 SuperZoom: Specs Sheet

Which Phone Would You Buy?

The answer to this question is not that simple. If you purely go by the specs sheet and are looking for raw performance, then the Snapdragon 855+ aboard the Realme X3 SuperZoom will surely deliver on this promise. You get a similar quad-camera, dual selfie camera, and 30W fast-charging experience as the OnePlus Nord.