Which is the better mid-ranger? OnePlus Nord CE or iQOO Z3?
The OnePlus Nord series has been popular since 2020 where OnePlus came up with the OnePlus Nord (Review) and this year they went ahead and bought the OnePlus Nord CE (Review) which is the cheapest OnePlus smartphone to date. Certain things are going for it as it has all the basics of a typical OnePlus smartphone but does have certain compromises.
The iQOO, a sub-brand of Vivo is targeting consumers who are more oriented towards camera and gaming which we saw with the iQOO 7 series that made a huge success in the premium mid-range and budget flagship segment. So now iQOO Z3 made its move into the mid-range segment and packs in some very good internals for the price at which it is offered while being also cheaper compared to the OnePlus Nord CE.
So will the versatility of OnePlus Nord CE make it a better choice and should you pay extra for it or else settle with the iQOO Z3 that aims at consumers for performance and all other priorities, well compromising in some areas. Which is the better of the two? Let’s find out in the full comparison.
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Design:
Both the OnePlus Nord CE and iQOO Z3 have a polycarbonate back and do not sport glass backs. The back of the OnePlus Nord CE has a matte finish which does provide a better grip compared to the glossy finish on the iQOO Z3 which has a glossy finish and especially if you choose the Cyber Blue color variant, you can see different patterns of colors when you tilt the smartphone in different angles.
The OnePlus Nord CE has a P2i coating at the back whereas iQOO Z3 gets an IP52 rating which can survive water at the back. The OnePlus Nord CE has a vertical camera module housing triple cameras whereas the iQOO Z3 has a rectangular camera module that has triple cameras. To the sides, both have a plastic frame that houses the power button with volume buttons and also SIM card slots.
The OnePlus Nord CE has a dual SIM card slot with no microSD card slot for storage expansion whereas the iQOO Z3 has a hybrid SIM card slot that accepts two SIM cards or one SIM card with a microSD card. However, do note that the OnePlus Nord CE misses out on the alert slider which is a sort of a letdown if you have used a OnePlus smartphone in the past.
At the bottom, both have a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The top on both has a secondary noise-canceling microphone. On the front, the OnePlus Nord CE has a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels to the sides whereas the iQOO Z3 gets a dewdrop notch display with minimum bezels to the sides but slightly thicker at the bottom.
In terms of weight, the OnePlus Nord CE is the lighter one at 172 grams compared to 187 grams on the iQOO Z3. So overall, the build and design are not the best on both smartphones as the similarly priced Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max (Review) has a glass back but here if you want a compact smartphone then OnePlus Nord CE is the better of the two.
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Display:
The difference does come in here between both smartphones as the OnePlus Nord CE has a smaller 6.43-inches Full HD+(1080×2400 pixels) Fluid AMOLED display whereas the iQOO Z3 gets a slightly larger 6.58-inches Full HD+(1080×2400 pixels) IPS LCD display. The OnePlus Nord CE has a 90Hz refresh rate whereas the iQOO Z3 has support for a 120Hz refresh rate.
Both these displays feel responsive and here definitely the iQOO Z3 feels slightly better with the 120Hz refresh rate and there are three different options to choose refresh rates – 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and also a Smart Switch which switches to different refresh rates depending on the application running in the background. The OnePlus Nord CE has only two options either to switch between 120Hz or 60Hz only.
The touch sampling rate is also higher on the iQOO Z3 at 240Hz compared to 180Hz on the OnePlus Nord CE. In terms of color reproduction and viewing angles, both these displays are good but the one on the OnePlus Nord CE is slightly better with deeper blacks and blues. The brightness levels are better on the OnePlus Nord CE with a peak brightness of 1000nits compared to 460nits on the iQOO Z3.
Under direct sunlight, the display legibility is better on the OnePlus Nord CE compared to the iQOO Z3 which does tend to reflect in certain situations. Both these displays are HDR10 certified and have support for Widevine L1 but in Netflix, you can stream HDR on the OnePlus Nord CE whereas, on the iQOO Z3, you can stream HD content only.
The display on the OnePlus Nord CE has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner compared to the side-mounted fingerprint scanner embedded into the power button of the iQOO Z3 which is slightly faster also. Overall, if you want a display for media consumption, the OnePlus Nord CE is better and if gaming is your highest concern, then the smoothness of the iQOO Z3 display is better.
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Performance:
The OnePlus Nord CE is powered by the Snapdragon 750G chipset which has been one of the best mid-range chipsets and has been powering many smartphones like the Xiaomi Mi 10i, Samsung Galaxy M42, etc. The iQOO Z3 is powered by the Snapdragon 768G chipset which is a slightly overclocked version of Snapdragon 765G used on the OnePlus Nord.
In terms of daily workload, both smartphones were able to handle all the tasks smoothly but in some heavy applications, the OnePlus Nord CE did stutter a bit which was not the case with the iQOO Z3. Other tasks like video rendering, playing games, and also app opening were slightly faster on the iQOO Z3. The iQOO Z3 also has better thermal throttling compared to the OnePlus Nord CE.
In CPU throttling tests, the iQOO Z3 maintained better and sustained performance with very less up and down in graph whereas, on the OnePlus Nord CE, the thermal throttling was more and even in terms of gaming, all games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI ran well on both smartphones but on the OnePlus Nord CE, there were a lot of stutters while playing at high graphics.
In BGMI, the iQOO Z3 can run at Ultra frame rate at HDR graphics whereas, on the OnePlus Nord CE, you cannot achieve Ultra frame rate as you are restricted to High frame rate and HD graphics only. So the iQOO Z3 can run 60fps in Smooth graphics and 40fps in HDR settings whereas the OnePlus Nord CE can run at 30fps at HDR settings in BGMI.
Both these smartphones are available in three different variants where the OnePlus Nord CE is available in 6GB RAM with 128GB storage, 8GB RAM with 128GB storage, and another 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The iQOO Z3 is also available in 6GB RAM with 128GB storage, 8GB RAM with 128GBstorage, and another 8GB RAM with 256GB storage.
Both of these have LPDD4RX RAM but the iQOO Z3 has slightly faster USF 2.2 speeds for reads and writes compared to UFS 2.1 on the OnePlus Nord CE. The iQOO Z3 also gets Virtual RAM where you can use the unnecessary storage which will be converted into RAM and can be extended up to 3GB which would result in a total of 9GB or 11GB depending on the variant you choose.
After long hours of gaming, the temperature on the iQOO Z3 did not rise much especially due to 5 layer cooling system whereas the temperature was slightly higher on the OnePlus Nord CE. In terms of benchmarks, the iQOO Z3 scores higher in both Antutu v8 and Geekbench 5.1 compared to the OnePlus Nord CE. So clearly in terms of performance and gaming, the iQOO Z3 is the better one.
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Software:
The OnePlus Nord CE runs on OxygenOS 11 whereas iQOO Z3 runs FuntouchOS 11 and both have Android 11 out of the box. As we all know, OxygenOS is the cleanest user interface out there with no unnecessary bloatware and there is only one third-party application Netflix present. The iQOO Z3 has a bunch of bloatware present and the V-App store throws in a lot of notifications and necessary recommendations.
However, FuntouchOS has improved to a larger margin compared to its previous versions as the look and feel is almost like Stock Android. The iQOO Z3 with FuntouchOS is feature-packed and provides a lot of customizations but there are certain bugs noticed in it, for example, installing any application does ask for certain permissions that are unnecessary and this is not the case with the OnePlus Nord CE.
However, you can uninstall all third-party applications. Both provide a lot of customizations to the icon shape and size, layout, and Always-On display. With the OnePlus Nord CE, there were some stutters noticed in the user interface with the display being set to 90Hz. In terms of software updates, both smartphones receive two years of OS updates and three years of security updates.
So clearly, OxygenOS is way superior compared to FuntouchOS.
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Cameras:
The iQOO Z3 sports a 64MP f/1.8 Samsung GW3 sensor with an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. The OnePlus Nord CE, on the other hand, has a 64MP f/1.8 Omnivision OV4B sensor, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, both have a similar 16MP selfie camera.
The images from the iQOO Z3 have better details and dynamic range compared to the OnePlus Nord CE and the noise is also lower on the iQOO Z3. The colors look slightly muted on the OnePlus Nord CE whereas, on the iQOO Z3, they look more natural. In HDR images also, the colors look more natural on the iQOO Z3.
Similarly, at night the Samsung GW3 sensor on the iQOO Z3 outshines the Omnivision sensor on the OnePlus Nord CE and provides much better low-light images with sharper details and good dynamic range. With the dedicated Night Mode on both, the images came out better in terms of dynamic range and less noise on the iQOO Z3 compared to the OnePlus Nord CE.
The 8MP ultrawide camera is equally good on both smartphones with a 119-degree field of view that ensures good dynamic range on both and the level of details is good enough. However, both do suffer from edge distortion around the sides but definitely, the iQOO Z3 has the better color saturation of the two.
At night, the images from the ultrawide camera come out with a decent dynamic range on both and also suffer from noise. The color saturation is good on the iQOO Z3 compared to the OnePlus Nord CE. The iQOO Z3 also gets a dedicated Night Mode which improves the dynamic range and reduces noise in the images.
The third camera on the OnePlus Nord CE is a 2MP monochrome sensor that helps in portraits and also it takes black and white images. The iQOO Z3 has a 2MP macro camera that takes close-up images with decent dynamic range and the colors look washed out. The OnePlus Nord CE uses the main camera for a close-up image and that takes much better details.
In terms of portraits, the iQOO Z3 performs better compared to the OnePlus Nord CE both in terms of dynamic range and contrast. The background blur issue is present in the images of the iQOO Z3 whereas the OnePlus Nord CE maintains consistency in applying the background blur. The human subjects have a natural tone on the iQOO Z3.
On the front, both have a 16MP camera that takes selfies with good dynamic range and both have a natural skin tone. The noise is slightly more prominent on the OnePlus Nord CE compared to the iQOO Z3 and also the iQOO Z3 has a larger field of view compared to the OnePlus Nord CE. The dynamic range and contrast are also better on the iQOO Z3.
In selfie portraits, there is a lot of overexposure in the background of the OnePlus Nord CE and noise is also more prominent compared to the iQOO Z3. The dynamic range and color saturation are better on the iQOO Z3. In videos, the iQOO Z3 can record 4K videos at 60fps from the main camera whereas the OnePlus Nord CE can record only at 4K at 30fps.
The videos on the iQOO Z3 have a much better dynamic range and color saturation is also natural compared to the OnePlus Nord CE. Both do implement EIS in the videos and also switching to 1080p videos on both, the details are still better on the iQOO Z3 compared to the OnePlus Nord CE and this clearly shows that OnePlus needs to improve on the camera side.
The ultrawide camera videos come out better on the iQOO Z3 both in terms of details and dynamic range compared to the OnePlus Nord CE. On the front, the iQOO Z3 can record 1080p videos at 30fps whereas the OnePlus Nord CE can record videos at 1080p at 60fps, and also EIS is present on the OnePlus Nord CE which helps in stabilized videos compared to the iQOO Z3 which has a lot of noise.
In terms of portrait videos from the front camera, the iQOO Z3 does have better details and low noise but still the OnePlus Nord CE has better skin tones and edge detection. So overall, definitely the cameras are better on the iQOO Z3 compared to the OnePlus Nord CE.
For more in-depth camera comparison video click here: Techdope
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Battery Life:
The OnePlus Nord CE has a 4500mAh battery compared to a 4400mAh battery on the iQOO Z3. The battery life is equally good on both smartphones with both of them lasting around two days with normal usage and the display is set to 120Hz. With heavy usage, the smartphones easily lasted for one single day but still, the OnePlus Nord CE was slightly better.
The standard screen-on time was hovering around 6.5-7 hours for the iQOO Z3 whereas on the OnePlus Nord it was close to 7.5 hours so the difference is not huge and this is because OxygenOS is very well optimized for battery life compared to FuntouchOS and since the OnePlus Nord CE has an AMOLED panel, it consumes lesser power than the IPS LCD panel on the iQOO Z3.
However, when it comes to charging, the iQOO Z3 takes the lead as it ships with a 55W fast charger whereas on the other hand, the OnePlus Nord CE ships with a 30W fast charger. The iQOO Z3 takes around 55minutes to charge completely from 0 to 100 percent whereas the OnePlus Nord CE takes around 1 hour 15minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 percent.
So overall the battery life is good on both but with the faster charging, iQOO Z3 is the better choice.
OnePlus Nord CE vs iQOO Z3 Audio Quality:
Both the smartphones have a single speaker at the bottom which is adequately loud on both but here the iQOO Z3 has a better bass level and the loudness levels are better on the OnePlus Nord CE. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack on both and the audio output through it is better on the iQOO Z3 as it gets Dolby Atmos also.
Verdict:
To conclude, both are very good smartphones where OnePlus Nord CE focuses on being a typical mid-range smartphone with a good display, good performance, and having decent cameras. The OxygenOS is what makes it a unique proposition that provides a clean and bloatware-free software experience. The iQOO Z3, on the other hand, has made a very strong statement in the mid-range segment.
It has a good 120Hz display but still, it is IPS LCD, not AMOLED, but other things like performance, gaming, cameras, and audio quality have made it a compelling buy. It has an IP52 rating, great performance and gaming, a great camera setup compared to the OnePlus Nord CE, and also provides a good experience but the software experience and lack of an AMOLED display let it down.
So if AMOLED display and software experience are your biggest concerns, then the OnePlus Nord CE is better or else in all other aspects, the iQOO Z3 is the better choice and wins this comparison.