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  The front, featuring a beautiful 90Hz display. [credit:
  Ron Amadeo ]

OnePlus is coming back to the budget smartphone market in a big way with the “OnePlus Nord,” a device with an odd name but a pretty spectacular feature set for the ~$450 price tag. We’ve had the phone for almost two weeks now and can say it’s easily one of the best Android phones on the market.

Let’s talk about what OnePlus is offering. With Snapdragon 865 phones often topping $1,000, this is the first phone we’ve tried with the cheaper Snapdragon 765G; at just one step down in Qualcomm’s lineup, this is what most manufacturers seem to be going with to bring smartphone prices back down to Earth. The phone still has a minimum of 8GB of RAM, and while it’s only using UFS 2.1 storage, the phone still feels plenty fast. The headline feature is probably the 90Hz display, which is sneaking out of the flagship realm and into less-expensive phones.

The biggest downside to this phone is the distribution; for now, it is not for sale in the US. OnePlus is sending a lot of mixed messages as to future US availability of the Nord. First, the official quote from CEO Pete Lau doesn’t totally close the door on the idea, saying, “We are going to start relatively small with this new product line by first introducing it in Europe and India. But don’t worry, we’re also looking to bring more affordable smartphones to North America in the near future as well.”