Is the OnePlus Nord 4 the best-looking Nord phone yet? It’s certainly the boldest and the first to do something really intriguing with the materials, too. The Nord 4 has an all-metal unibody, a way of manufacturing smartphones that has fallen by the wayside over the years after phones made using a blend of metal and glass became more popular.
What does having a metal unibody mean? It refers to a single piece of metal being machined so it’s the entire chassis of the phone rather than sandwiched between the screen and another material like glass on the back. The first thing you notice is the phone feels great in your hand. Because the curve of the chassis is uninterrupted by a switch between materials, it’s completely smooth and avoids any sharpness or uncomfortable ridges. Even the tiny antenna bands — the plastic inserts that assist with cellular and Wi-Fi reception — are flush with the surface, and you won’t notice them just through touch.
The back of the OnePlus Nord 4 isn’t entirely made of metal though, and the top camera module is glass and contains two cameras and two flash units. The model in our photos is in a color called Mercurial Silver, and it also comes in a black version called Obsidian Midnight. The aluminum metal has a cool two-tone look on the back and a very subtly ridged texture, too. It’s a reflective thing, but it still looks great, and so far, it has not picked up fingerprints or marks.
The always-welcome Alert Slider, a OnePlus institution, is located at the top of the phone’s left-hand side. It’s slightly awkward because it’s set so high up on the body and, therefore, isn’t as pleasing to absentmindedly fiddle with, but at least it’s there. On the other side is a power key and a volume rocker, while the base of the phone has a SIM tray, USB-C charging port, and a speaker outlet.
The OnePlus Nord 4 follows the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite, announced just last month, and the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R as devices launched in a busy 2024 by the company. OnePlus has announced a launch event for July 16, where it will reveal everything else about the OnePlus Nord 4.