OnePlus Nord vs Realme X7 Pro: Will the flagship specifications of Realme outclass the best mid-ranger from OnePlus?

The mid-range and the premium mid-range segment has been one of the most anticipated segments where consumers buy smartphones that provide the blend of some flagship features at lower prices. The premium mid-range segment has seen many competitors like the OnePlus Nord which has been the undisputed best smartphone around.

OnePlus Nord continues to be the best premium mid-range smartphone as it provides the right balance of hardware as well as software at a perfect price. The Realme X7 Pro is a great offering from the Realme X7 series as it packs in some flagship specifications which was seen hardly on any smartphone in the mid-range segment.

The OnePlus Nord (Review) packs in powerful hardware that includes a Snapdragon 765G chipset, 48MP camera with OIS, good battery life with faster charging, and excellent software experience. The Realme X7 Pro (Review) packs in the powerful Mediatek Dimensity 1000 Plus chipset, a capable set of cameras, a 120Hz display, and 65W fast charging.

There are some very common things between both smartphones. So will Realme X7 Pro disrupt the position of the OnePlus Nord or will the OnePlus Nord beat the Realme X7 Pro and still remain the top smartphone in the premium mid-range segment? Let’s find out in the full comparison.

In terms of design, both smartphones have a lot in common. Both sport a glass sandwich design with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 both at the front as well as on the back for protection. When it comes to looks, the OnePlus Nord looks simpler as there is no reflective finish or any combination of any colors. The Realme X7 Pro, on the other hand especially the Fantasy color exudes different colors.

You can consider the Mystic Black which looks much better and the back does reflect when light strikes at different angles. Both have glossy backs which catch a lot of fingerprints and are slightly curved at the back. The OnePlus Nord has a vertical stack of quad cameras whereas the Realme X7 Pro has a rectangular housing for the quad cameras.

To the sides, both have the power and volume buttons but OnePlus Nord has an additional alert slider to control notifications. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port on both with a primary microphone and a loudspeaker grille. Both do miss out on a 3.5mm headphone jack and on the top there is only a secondary noise-canceling microphone.

In terms of weight, both smartphones weigh 184grams which does not make them heavier and easier to hold. The P2i coating at the back does give it some resistance against water on both smartphones. On the front, both have punch-hole cameras at the top where the Realme X7 Pro gets a single one whereas the OnePlus Nord gets dual punch-hole cameras.

Both have good design and build quality and it all depends on personal preference whether the flashy back of the Realme X7 Pro is better or the plain vanilla look of the OnePlus Nord appeals more.

Both the OnePlus Nord and the Realme X7 Pro get a Full HD+ (1080×2400 pixels) AMOLED display, the only difference is that OnePlus Nord has Fluid AMOLED compared to Super AMOLED one on the Realme X7 Pro. The OnePlus Nord has a smaller 6.44 inches display compared to 6.55 inches one on the Realme X7 Pro.

Both have very good color reproduction with good viewing angles. The difference is slightly there in the color temperature where the Realme X7 Pro has a cooler tone compared to a slightly warmer tone on the OnePlus Nord. The Realme X7 Pro has a 120Hz refresh rate compared to 90Hz on the OnePlus Nord which will not make a difference.

In terms of brightness, both the AMOLED panels are equally bright, but the one on the Realme X7 Pro has better visibility under direct sunlight, and in low-light or dark conditions, the display of the Realme X7 Pro can much lower and provides better visibility in dark compared to the OnePlus Nord.

Both have DC dimming to reduce flickering of the screen in dark and have an Always-On Display which can be customizable. Both have support for Widevine L1 and HDR10 support so streaming HD videos from Netflix, Prime, or even Youtube will be fine. Both do also get an in-display optical fingerprint scanner and here the one on the OnePlus Nord is faster.

So for media consumption, both displays are excellent but still with a slightly larger display and a 120Hz display, the Realme X7 Pro is the better option but the difference is marginal.

The Realme X7 Pro has the powerful Mediatek Dimensity 1000 Plus chipset which is one of the most powerful chipsets in the premium mid-range segment. The OnePlus Nord, on the other hand, has the Snapdragon 765G chipset which is quite a powerful chipset for performance and gaming. 

The Mediatek Dimensity chipset has the powerful Cortex A77 cores compared to Cortex A76 cores on the Snapdragon 765G on the OnePlus Nord. The Mediatek chipset has 4×2.6 GHz Cortex A77 cores and 4×2.0 GHz Cortex A55 cores with Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. 

The Snapdragon 765G has 1×2.4 GHz Kryo 475 cores with 1×2.2 GHz Kryo 475 cores (Cortex-A76) and another 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver cores (Cortex-A55) with Adreno 619 GPU. Here clearly, the Mediatek Dimensity chipset has better performance and gaming but the difference is not much as both have 120Hz touch response and higher refresh rate displays.

So all the games like Call Of Duty, Asphalt 9 Legends, etc. played smoothly but if you compare side by side, the gameplay was much better on the Realme X7 Pro compared to the OnePlus Nord when played at the highest graphics settings and maximum frame rate. On the OnePlus Nord, there were some minor frame drops noticed and the back also feels slightly warmer. 

In terms of general day-to-day performance, there is not much difference in opening and closing of applications, scrolling through webpages, and also streaming videos on social media or OTT platforms. But the RAM management on the Realme X7 Pro is slightly better compared to the OnePlus Nord.

When it comes to benchmarks, the Realme X7 Pro scored 525244 which is better compared to 319979 on the OnePlus Nord in Antutu v8 and in Geekbench 5.1, the Realme X7 Prom scored 733 and 2435 in single and multi-core tests compared to 617 and 1929 on the OnePlus Nord. So clearly, in terms of benchmarks, the Realme X7 Pro is better.

So the performance and gaming feel much better on the Realme X7 Pro compared to the OnePlus Nord but the difference is marginal.

The Realme X7 Pro runs on the RealmeUI 1.0 with Android 10 out of the box. The OnePlus Nord has OxygenOS 11 built on top of Android 11 out of the box. OnePlus just released the software update for the upgrade from Android 10 to 11. RealmeUI 2.0 based on the top of Android 11 will be soon present for the Realme X7 Pro.

Both have a system-wide dark mode, navigation gestures, Digital Wellbeing, etc and the OnePlus Nord like all other Android 11 smartphones gets Device Controls, Location privacy settings, etc. In terms of features and customizations, the OxygenOS is feature-rich compared to the RealmeUI.

OxygenOS 11 looks almost similar to OneUI on Samsung smartphones providing features like a Zen Mode, GameSpace, and a lot of themes and customizations. The RealmeUI, on the other hand, also provides a lot of themes and customizations but there is a lot of bloatware present which clutters the UI.

There are two applications like Facebook and Netflix pre-installed on the OnePlus Nord whereas the Realme X7 Pro has a lot of pre-installed applications and also Realme specific applications that do consume memory. There are some similarities like both get Google stock applications like a dialler, messaging, and calendar and you do get Always-On Display which is customizable on both.

While swiping to the left of the home screen, the Google Discover is present on both smartphones. There are a lot of notifications and ads present on the RealmeUI which does clutter and affect the software experience. But still, the higher refresh rate displays make the software experience much better on both.

The software experience is good on both but if you want a cleaner and refined software experience, the OnePlus Nord is the better option.

Cameras have been one of the most deciding factors for buying a smartphone in the mid-range segment. The OnePlus Nord provides a capable set of cameras and now the Realme X7 Pro also does the same but a bit better. 

So coming to cameras, the OnePlus Nord sports a quad-camera setup that includes the 48MP f/1.7 Sony IMX586 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 5MP f/2.4 macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. The Realme X7 Pro has the 64MP f/1.8 Sony IMX686 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 2MP macro, and a depth camera.

The images from both come out with good details and the dynamic range is good on both. The colors look more natural on the Realme X7 Pro compared to the OnePlus Nord which tends to oversaturate the color in the background. There is some noise present in the images taken by the Realme X7 Pro whereas the OnePlus Nord has OIS and reduces noise.

 

From the 64MP resolution mode, the Realme X7 Pro produces good color reproduction and has lesser noise compared to the 48MP resolution mode images from the OnePlus Nord. As a result, the images shot at full resolution come out with softer details on the OnePlus Nord and the dynamic range is not as good as the Realme X7 Pro.

At night, the images from both smartphones have a good dynamic range and accurate colors. However, the OnePlus Nord shines here due to the presence of OIS where it reduces a lot of noise in the background and also the colors look more pleasing on the OnePlus Nord. The 64MP camera on the Realme X7 Pro also does a good job in details but the highlights in shadows are totally crushed.

Turning on the Night Mode on both, things change a bit as here the Realme X7 Pro has better dynamic range compared to the OnePlus Nord which instead turns the background slightly yellowish which does not look so good but it does have lesser noise compared to the Realme X7 Pro due to the presence of OIS.

The 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera is similar on both but there are some noticeable differences like color temperature where the images on the Realme X7 Pro have a warmer tone whereas the OnePlus Nord has a cooler tone. Both have an average dynamic range with good colors but not as good as the main cameras. The noise is pretty much present and when zooming, the details look softer on both slightly.

At night, the images from both smartphones have average dynamic range and more noise as the color temperature is good on both but when you look closely, the images have softer details, there are areas of underexposure and things do change when turning on the Night Mode.

The presence of Night Mode does a much better job on the Realme X7 Pro as it restores the highlights in very dark areas, improves the dynamic range, and also handles noise better compared to the OnePlus Nord but still, the OnePlus Nord has better contrast and dynamic range.

The third and the fourth camera are just extras and not needed but still, the macro camera on both smartphones does an average job. The 5MP macro camera takes images with slightly better details and average dynamic range compared to the 2MP macro camera on Realme X7 Pro which results in images with washed-out colors and a lot of noise present.

The 2MP depth camera on both smartphones do a good job though. The portraits on both come out with good dynamic range and edge detection. The skin tones look natural on the Realme X7 Pro compared to the OnePlus Nord which tends to do a lot of oversharpening. 

When you zoom into the portraits, the dynamic range and edge detection are better on the Realme X7 Pro but the noise is lesser on the OnePlus Nord. Even the Realme X7 Pro has better background blur compared to the OnePlus Nord. 

On the front, the OnePlus Nord has dual cameras that include 32MP and an 8MP ultrawide camera compared to a single 32MP camera on the Realme X7 Pro. Though both have the Sony IMX616 sensor, the images on the OnePlus Nord have better details and dynamic range. The skin tones look more natural here compared to the Realme X7 Pro which applies skin smoothening by default.

The selfies come out better on the OnePlus Nord as it has a better dynamic range and the skin tones also look natural. The Realme X7 Pro also takes good selfies but there is some skin smoothening applied by default and a lot of noise is present with some areas of oversharpening. The selfie portraits come out better on the OnePlus Nord with better edge detection compared to the Realme X7 Pro.

On the video front, both smartphones support 4K video recording at 30fps. The Realme X7 Pro can record up to 4K at 60fps. The videos from the Realme X7 Pro have better color reproduction and the dynamic range is also better compared to the OnePlus Nord. The OnePlus Nord has less noise and better stabilized video footage due to the presence of OIS.

The ultrawide camera on the OnePlus Nord can also record at 4K at 30fps. The Realme X7 Pro is only restricted to 1080p at 60fps on its ultrawide camera. Here the videos on the OnePlus Nord have better dynamic range and less noise with better stabilization compared to the Realme X7 Pro. Both do have Super Stable and Ultra-Stable modes for stabilized 1080p videos.

On the front, the OnePlus Nord holds an advantage as it can record 4K videos at 60fps. The Realme X7 Pro is restricted only to 1080p resolution at 30fps. The videos from the OnePlus Nord have a better dynamic range and the colors look more natural on the OnePlus Nord. The presence of EIS helps in better stabilization on the OnePlus Nord.

The Realme X7 Pro does a decent job in terms of videos as there is a lot of shakiness and the dynamic range is just average. In the night both get Night Mode on the front cameras thus resulting in better images and videos also.

Overall, the cameras are better on the OnePlus Nord when it comes to front camera and videos but the rear cameras are better on the Realme X7 Pro though.

The Realme X7 Pro sports a 4500mAh battery which is slightly larger than the 4115mAh battery on the OnePlus Nord. With normal usage, both smartphones can easily last for one to two days without a single charge with the display being set to standard 60Hz. Switching to a high refresh rate on both gives a full day of usage with some battery left.

With heavy usage like playing games, watching content from Netflix, and also scrolling through webpages, both smartphones can easily last for a day, and here the standard screen on time on both smartphones was around 6-7 hours.

Both smartphones have different power-saving modes and also come with battery optimizations. So by numbers, clearly the Realme X7 Pro has an advantage with the slightly larger battery and it also impresses when it comes to charging. The Realme X7 Pro ships with a 65W SuperDart charger which charges the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent in 35 minutes.

This is halfway faster compared to the OnePlus Nord which ships with a 30W Warp Charger inside the box which charges it from 0 to 100 percent just under an hour which is also pretty good. But considering the larger battery and faster charging, the Realme X7 Pro wins in battery life.

In the audio department, the Realme X7 Pro has a clear edge over the OnePlus Nord as it sports a stereo speaker setup where the earpiece and the loudspeaker together produce a sound that is really good and also at the loudest level, there is no distortion as such. The OnePlus Nord only has a single speaker at the bottom that sounds average.

Both lack a 3.5mm headphone jack and with other wireless earphones in the market, the sound output is good on both, and on the Realme X7 Pro, there is Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound effect.

Overall, it was a very close comparison between the two. There are certain similarities between both as they both have high refresh rate AMOLED displays, powerful chipsets for performance and gaming, and a capable set of cameras. However, it all depends on your personal requirements.

If you want the best performance and gaming, then the Realme X7 Pro is the one to go for as it has the powerful Mediatek Dimensity 1000 Plus chipset that provides flagship-level performance, and with the Realme X7 Pro, you are getting a good set of rear cameras, a larger 120Hz display, better battery life, and faster charging at 65W.

However, the Realme X7 Pro is available only in one variant which is the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, then the RealmeUI though providing a good software experience has a lot of bloatware and some minor ads present and the lack of OIS means the video quality is not so good.

This is where the OnePlus Nord comes into the picture as it comes with OIS though having a year old Sony IMX586 sensor which results in better video quality and the front cameras are also better on the OnePlus Nord. It also provides more storage options that include 6/8GB RAM and 128GB storage and a 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant.

The OxygenOS is one of the best custom skins of Android thus providing a smooth software experience with no ads and bloatware and though you have a sizeable battery, the 30W faster charging does help it.

The performance is not as good as the Realme X7 Pro but if you see the daily performance, then you would not notice any such difference and the difference only come during gaming. 

So considering the overall scenario, both are very good smartphones and it all depends on personal preference which one would suit you better.