Can the Galaxy M51 beat the OnePlus Nord?
Samsung recently launched the Galaxy M51 which has the most powerful specifications to date on the M-series. It comes with a Snapdragon 730G chipset, a larger 6.67 inches display, and a massive 7000mAh battery never seen in the smartphone industry ever making it the best M-series smartphone from Samsung.
Currently, the OnePlus Nord is one of the best mid-range smartphones which has a lot going for it. This budget smartphone has a powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset, a 90Hz display, and a stronger set of cameras. The OxygenOS has always been the defacto of OnePlus smartphones.
Can this new flagship M-series smartphone from Samsung take on the well-established OnePlus Nord and we will also find which is the better one to consider?
OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Design:
When it comes to design, both the Galaxy M51 and the OnePlus Nord look premium. On the front, both have punch hole displays, where OnePlus has gone for dual cameras in the front to the top left corner on the Nord, the Galaxy M51 on the other hand has a single punch hole camera in the middle.
There are almost no bezels on both the smartphones but at the lower, the Galaxy M51 has a slightly thicker bezel compared to the OnePlus Nord. Coming to the sides, both have a power button and volume buttons but OnePlus gets one more extra button which is the alert slider to control notifications on the smartphone.
The Galaxy M51 gets a side-mounted fingerprint scanner just under the power button. The sides of the OnePlus Nord feel premium slightly. At the back, the OnePlus Nord gets a glass back whereas the Galaxy M51 gets a polycarbonate back which we have seen on many A-series smartphones from Samsung.
The camera array is different on both the smartphones, where the OnePlus Nord has a vertical setup of quad cameras, the Galaxy M51 has the rectangular setup housing the quad cameras, and an LED flash.
At the bottom, both get a USB 2.0 Type-C port that supports fast charging, a loudspeaker grill, and a primary microphone. The OnePlus Nord has a dual SIM card slot below whereas the Galaxy M51 gets a triple card slot that includes two dual SIM card slots and an additional microSD card slot for storage expansion.
The Galaxy M51 gets a 3.5mm headphone jack which the OnePlus Nord lacks. Both of them lack an IP rating but are splash resistant.
The Galaxy M51 is slightly heavier weighing around 213 grams compared to 184 grams on the OnePlus Nord this is because of the massive 7000mAh battery that the Galaxy M51 packs. So here when it comes to in-hand feel, the OnePlus Nord feels lighter and easier to hold.
Overall, when it comes to build and design, the glass sandwich design and the presence of an alert slider give the OnePlus Nord an edge over the Galaxy M51.
OnePlus Nord Vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Display:
The Galaxy M51 gets a 6.7 inches display which is larger than the 6.44 inches display on the OnePlus Nord. Both have Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels) and come with AMOLED tech. The Galaxy M51 has a Super AMOLED display whereas the OnePlus Nord has a Fluid AMOLED display.
On the front, the OnePlus Nord gets the superior Gorilla Glass 5 compared to Gorilla Glass 3 on the Galaxy M51. Since both the displays are AMOLED, you get inky blacks and blues and good viewing angles but the color reproduction is better on the OnePlus Nord.
The display on the OnePlus Nord has a 90Hz refresh rate which gives an edge over the Galaxy M51’s standard 60Hz refresh rate when it comes to scrolling or playing games. The multitasking (switching between applications) feels much smoother on the OnePlus Nord.
The OnePlus Nord gets an in-display fingerprint scanner which is quite fast and accurate but slower when compared to the side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy M51. But when it comes to face unlock, the OnePlus Nord is a tad bit faster to unlock than the Galaxy M51.
Coming to the display, both have support for Widevine L1 using which you can stream HD contents from third-party applications like Netflix, Prime, etc. But the OnePlus Nord goes one step ahead by providing HDR support for Youtube and Netflix over the Galaxy M51 which supports only HD content for Netflix.
In terms of brightness, the OnePlus Nord display is brighter than that of the Galaxy M51. The sunlight legibility of the OnePlus Nord is better than the Galaxy M51 as the OnePlus Nord has 700nits of brightness which is better than the 420nits on the Galaxy M51.
OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Performance:
When it comes to performance, both pack the Snapdragon 7 series chipset. The OnePlus Nord comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G which is the topmost chipset in the Snapdragon 7 series chipset.
The Galaxy M51 on the other hand runs on the Snapdragon 730G which we have seen earlier on the POCO X2. The move from Exynos 9611 found in the Galaxy M31s to the Snapdragon 730G on the Galaxy M51 makes it more powerful.
Comparing both the chipsets, both the chipsets have a hexacore setup but the architecture is a bit different. The Snapdragon 765G has 1×2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime Core and 1×2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold core, both are based on ARM Cortex A76 architecture and there is another set of 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver cores based on the Cortex A55 architecture.
The Snapdragon 730G has 2×2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold cores (Cortex A76) and another 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver cores (Cortex A55). The Snapdragon 765G has a slightly powerful Adreno 620 GPU compared to the Adreno 618 on the Snapdragon 730G.
When it comes to day-to-day performance, both the smartphones ran smoothly without breaking a sweat. Whether it was the video rendering or multitasking between applications, there was minimal difference between both.
All heavy games ran smoothly on both the smartphones like Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 with the graphics set to HD. The back of the Galaxy M51 felt less warm after extended gaming due to plastic back over the glass back on the OnePlus Nord.
But overall, gaming on the OnePlus Nord was better than the Galaxy M51 by a small margin as it has a slightly better chipset and also has a 90Hz refresh rate that makes control in games smoother and easier.
In terms of storage, the Galaxy M51 ships with 6/8GB RAM and 128GB storage whereas the OnePlus Nord has options for 64GB and 256GB storage variants. Both smartphones have UFS 2.1 speeds and have LPDDR4X RAM.
In terms of benchmarks, the OnePlus Nord is the clear winner whether it is the Antutuv8 or Geekbench 5.1. In Geekbench 5.1, the OnePlus Nord scores 611 and 1927 in Single and multicore tests which are better than the 519 and 1456 on the Galaxy M51.
In graphics-intensive benchmarks like Antutu v8, the OnePlus Nord scores 324881 which is better than the 278958 on the Galaxy M51.
So with the higher refresh rate, more storage options, and the powerful Snapdragon 765G, the OnePlus Nord has a clear edge over the Galaxy M51 when it comes to performance and gaming.
OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Software:
In terms of user experience, both the smartphones run their respective custom skins where OnePlus Nord runs on the OxygenOS 10.5.2 and Galaxy M51 runs on OneUI 2.1 Core, and both run on Android 10. So here there is not much to differentiate between the two custom skins.
The OxygenOS is almost close to Stock Android and comes with a tone of customizations and also comes with less bloatware when compared to OneUI. Both have a system-wide dark mode, Android 10 based navigation gestures, and both support Google’s Trebble project and have customizations to the icons.
The OneUI comes with some Galaxy applications pre-installed and all Samsung A-series features like Edge lighting, screen recorder, Always-On display, etc. but you do miss out on Samsung Pay which is a full-fledged application for using debit/credit cards.
The OxygenOS also provides customizations to the icons, different animation of fingerprints, a Fnatic Mode for gameplay, and the 90Hz refresh rate just makes scrolling smoother and multi-tasking faster. There is also a Zen Mode which makes you a bit different from a regular lifestyle.
Coming to software updates, OxygenOS gets a whole lot of updates when compared to OneUI, so clearly you can see it is a very close call between the two when it comes to software but still here the OxygenOS holds a slight edge over the OneUI 2.1 Core in the Galaxy M51.
OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Cameras:
In terms of cameras, both the OnePlus Nord and the Galaxy M51 sport quad cameras at the back. Both sport a similar set of cameras that includes the main camera, an ultrawide, depth, and a macro camera. The OnePlus Nord comes with a main 48MP Sony IMX586 f/1.75 sensor, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 5MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera.
The Galaxy M51 has the newer 64MP Sony IMX682 sensor for the main camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera, 5MP depth, and a macro camera. These are almost the same cameras that we found on the Galaxy M31s.
Coming to the daylight images, both take good images with plenty of detail. But the one on the Galaxy M51 has better details and a better dynamic range over the OnePlus Nord images. That does not mean that the images on Nord are bad, the details come out good, but there is some over sharpness, and the noise quite seen in most of the images.
In low-light or at night, things change completely. Here the OnePlus Nord outshines the Galaxy M51 as it has better details, dynamic range, and the noise also very less. The Galaxy M51 also takes some good images at night, but there is quite an amount of noise present and the shutter speed is not so good.
The images from both using full resolution, the 64MP images have much better detail on the OnePlus Nord and it also handles dynamic range much better than the Galaxy M51 which has more noise in the images and the colors do not look punchier.
This is because OnePlus Nord has OIS which helps in faster long exposure shots and better dynamic range. Both also get a dedicated Night Mode, and here also the OnePlus Nord has better details and good dynamic range.
The Galaxy M51 with its night mode takes good images, but the presence of OIS on the OnePlus Nord makes it the better of the two.
Switching to the ultrawide camera, both take good images with a wider aperture and a good amount of detail. But clearly, here, we can see that the 12MP ultrawide camera on the Galaxy M51 has better details and dynamic range than the 8MP ultrawide camera on the OnePlus Nord.
When you zoom into the wide images, you can see that the colors look punchier on the Galaxy M51, and the highlights and exposure well maintained whereas the OnePlus Nord has a lot of noise and the details are not so good. When you zoom also, the Galaxy M51 has more natural-looking colors of the two.
Similarly, at night, the Galaxy M51 with or without the Night Mode brings in better highlights in shadows, has lesser noise, and better contrast than the OnePlus Nord. In terms of ultrawide camera, the Galaxy M51 holds the edge.
Moving to the third camera, which is similar in both the smartphones, the 5MP depth camera, here also the Galaxy M51 has retained better colors and the human skin tones look natural. The portraits come out better on the Galaxy M51 has it has good edge detection and retains better details.
When zooming into the images, the details are equally good on both but Samsung tries to enhance the color tones a bit whereas OnePlus Nord provides good contrast and background blur. In terms of portraits, there is a very close call between the two.
The fourth camera on both smartphones is a macro camera. The Galaxy M51 gets a 5MP macro camera that has better details and dynamic range than the 2MP macro camera. The macro camera on the OnePlus Nord feels like an afterthought as focusing is not so good and the colors look washed out. Instead, you can use the main camera and do a closeup on the OnePlus Nord.
On the front, the Galaxy M51 gets a single 32MP camera with a Sony IMX616 sensor whereas the OnePlus Nord gets dual front-facing cameras that are the 32MP main camera and an 8MP ultrawide camera.
The selfies come out good on both of them and the level of detail is equally good on both. The dynamic range is good and the skin tones have a natural look to it. The OnePlus Nord provides an additional 8MP ultrawide camera for those wider selfies that is useful especially when clicking selfies in a group.
In terms of videos, both the OnePlus Nord and the Galaxy M51 both can shoot videos up to 4K at 30fps. The videos come out good on both but the level of detail is better on the Galaxy M51 and the colors have a warmer tone.
The OnePlus Nord, on the other hand, has a better dynamic range, and the presence of OIS gives the videos more stability and masks away the noise in the videos. The 1080p videos also come out good on both these smartphones, but here also the OnePlus Nord holds a slight edge due to the presence of OIS.
The videos from the ultrawide camera come out better from the Galaxy M51 than the OnePlus Nord as the level of details and the dynamic range is better on the Galaxy M51. Both use different modes for stabilization, OnePlus Nord uses Ultra Stable and Galaxy M51 uses the Ultra Steady Mode.
On the front, the OnePlus Nord can shoot 4K videos at 60fps whereas the Galaxy M51 can shoot videos at 1080p at 30fps. The videos have a better dynamic range on the OnePlus Nord and it also provides an additional ultrawide camera for those wider videos.
To conclude, when it comes to the rear cameras, the Galaxy M51 has better details and dynamic range in terms of the main camera, ultrawide and macro camera. But when it comes to low-light images, OnePlus Nord holds the edge. In terms of videos, both on the front as well as back, the OnePlus Nord holds the edge.
Still, on an overall basis, the Galaxy M51 has the edge over the OnePlus Nord when it comes to cameras.
OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Battery Life:
This is one area where the Galaxy M51 outshines all the smartphones in the industry as it has a magnanimous 7000mAh battery which is the highest battery capacity for a smartphone to date. The OnePlus Nord has a 4115mAh battery.
In terms of normal usage, with the OnePlus Nord display set to 90Hz, it lasted for one single day easily but when the display was set to 60Hz, it lasted for one and a half-day.
With moderate to heavy usage that includes playing games like Call of Duty, Asphalt 9, and streaming videos and browsing, the OnePlus Nord lasted for a single day and at night needs a quick charge.
The Galaxy M51 with normal usage lasted for three continuous days with around 10-15 percent left in the tank with normal usage. With heavy usage also, the Galaxy M51 could easily last for two and a half days and with extremely heavy usage, it lasts one and a half-day.
In terms of the screen on time, the Galaxy M51 provides 9-10 hours which is much ahead of the 4-5 hours on the OnePlus Nord. Both get dedicated power-saving modes, but Galaxy M51 provides some extra power-saving modes to enhance battery efficiency also.
In terms of charging, the Galaxy M51 gets the 25W fast charger which carries out unchanged from the Galaxy M31s, whereas the OnePlus Nord gets a 30W Warp Charger which charges the OnePlus Nord from 0 to 100 percent in 55 minutes.
The Galaxy M51, on the other hand, charges from 0 to 100 percent in 2 hours and 15 minutes which is more time-consuming but here you are charging a massive 7000mAh battery. The Galaxy M51 also acts as a power bank and can reverse charge many smartphones in the market.
In terms of battery life, the Galaxy M51 holds an edge over the OnePlus Nord.
OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy M51 Audio Quality:
Both the OnePlus Nord and the Galaxy M51 get a single bottom-firing speaker and the sound is adequately loud on both. The Galaxy M51 has slightly lower loudness levels when compared to the OnePlus Nord.
Both get Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound quality. The Galaxy M51 gets a 3.5mm headphone jack and the output is very good. The OnePlus Nord lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack but can be used with wireless earphones in the market.
So when it comes to audio, both are equally good but the OnePlus Nord is better than the Galaxy M51 by a hair’s breadth.
Verdict:
The Galaxy M51 is the best M-series smartphone till date as it brings in a couple of new things like a Snapdragon 730G chipset (this is a huge departure from the Exynos 9611) and a massive 7000mAh battery and a good set of cameras.
The OnePlus Nord brings in support for 5G in the mid-range segment, has a powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset, a good set of cameras, and the best of all is the software experience on it as it runs OxygenOS which provides experience almost close to Stock Android.
It was a very close call between the two smartphones. When it comes to the display, both sport AMOLED panels, have quad cameras, and are bundled with fast chargers. In terms of build and design, the OnePlus Nord has a glass back which looks premium compared to the Galaxy M51’s plastic back.
The display on the OnePlus Nord has support for 90Hz refresh rate, then the performance and gaming is better with that Snapdragon 765G chipset over the Snapdragon 730G chipset on the Galaxy M51. The videos come out better on the OnePlus Nord due to the presence of OIS.
The Galaxy M51 has the best battery life than the OnePlus Nord and even all smartphones in the market. The rear cameras are one of the best and better when compared to the OnePlus Nord and you get a good software experience.
To sum it all up, the Galaxy M51 is for those masses who need that more battery life, is more into cameras, and a Samsung smartphone only. The OnePlus Nord has a better display, better performance, and gaming and the presence of OxygenOS gives it a slight edge over the Galaxy M51.
Check out the prices, visit here: Samsung Galaxy M51 Price