A brand new series on the Vikings' blog is coming!
As an introduction – you won't find phones in the Viking offer (because instead of making deals with manufacturers and pushing selected models at you at a higher price, like other operators, we leave you complete freedom), but a SIM card needs a home. Preferably in a stylish smartphone! That's why, starting today, you'll be able to read a phone review once a month.
But that's not all the surprises! This series will be co-created by our special guest, who is a Viking! Yes, we're lucky that our community has many talents You're asking about qualifications? Our Viking creates on YouTube under the pseudonym Michał Pisarski Tech. His defining characteristics are: a sense of humor, thorough reviews, and almost 100,000 subscribers. If you haven't met him yet, hop on over to his channel!
Without further ado, we hand over the migh... keyboard to our guest.
For a long time, OnePlus smartphones were associated with Mobile Vikings for me. Firstly, they were a great option "for the initiated," and buying a OnePlus made you feel like a member of some exclusive club. And importantly – without spending excessively exclusive amounts of money.
Secondly, last year the Chinese introduced a new brand called OnePlus Nord, and "Nord" in Norwegian (but also in Old High German) means "north." North, in turn, means Vikings, which also fit these phones quite well, as they were meant to wreak havoc on the mid-range smartphone market and plunder users' hearts.
Only, it didn't quite work out. To put it mildly, if the first representative of the Nord family were truly a Viking, he could at best rob himself of an eye, because he would have poked it out with the horns of his own helmet. Fortunately, apart from that eye, OnePlus also learned from the failure, and the Nord 2 is already one of the definitely best phones you can buy for around 2000 PLN.
Precisely – 2000 PLN. If you spend that much on a smartphone, you probably care about the essentials. You can expect a lot, but you're not looking for amazing aesthetic experiences or groundbreaking features implemented so that once every six months a friend can look at you with envy. If a phone for 2000 PLN were a meal, it should be a proper steak, not sprouts at Atelier Amaro. It has to be solid!
And the Nord 2 fits these criteria perfectly. The casing finish might not have been "inspired by the view of fjords under a full moon" or some other all-inclusive designer trip that added a few hundred to the price of each unit, but it's pleasant to look at – and not just for the first two seconds after taking it out of the box, because the Nord doesn't get dirty at all.
It easily lasts a full intensive day on a single charge, and even if our definitions of "intensive" differ (for me, it includes leaving the house), you shouldn't complain, because you can charge it to full in half an hour! If, on the other hand, your phone's charge level magically drops to 10% before every outing (because it's impossible you forgot, right?), fifteen minutes on the cable is enough for it to last until the end of the day without an outlet.
Do you use your phone primarily for extremely important tasks like "videos on the internet"? OnePlus perfectly understands how serious that is. The Nord's screen is a pretty good and bright AMOLED with fast refresh rates and vibrant colors.
You'll also find a pretty interesting feature for improving the quality of videos played. Yes, sure, Vikings don't complain about lack of internet, but if, somewhere at the end of the world, in a place where dogs bark with their horns, the signal fails, it's nice to see that 240p quality allows you to tell whether you're looking at a funny cat or a fragment of a theoretical physics lecture. I mean, one doesn't exclude the other, Schrödinger's cat and all that, but you know what I mean.
Pleasant viewing sessions are also enhanced by two speakers. Are they outstanding? NO, BUT THERE ARE TWO, WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? 😉 At this price point, it's still a rarity, and if I remember my own theoretical physics lectures correctly, two is more than one.
Besides, the Nord runs very smoothly, I haven't encountered any bugs in the system, and the photos – from the main camera, wide-angle, and selfie – are really impressive for a phone at 2000 PLN. As I said – they took care of the essentials!
In fact, everything that's actually in this phone is great, and we can mainly complain about what's missing. And there's no wireless charging, no water resistance certification, no optical zoom lens... But hey, I don't know if you've heard, but a Ford Fiesta is missing a built-in refrigerator to cool champagne... I understand the outrage, because we can find such a feature in the most expensive Rolls Royces, but let's remember the price class 😉
Alright, there's also no microSD card slot (but there's 128 GB of built-in, fast storage) and no wired headphone jack (but there is... a jack for... wireless headphones? I wanted to comfort you), but you can't have everything.
Overall, I really like to complain about smartphones, and I can't wait to pour some malice on the new iPhone next month – if it provokes me – but in this first review, I wanted to introduce you to a smartphone that I truly consider ideal for a Viking. Because yes, the Nord has finally earned its name. And it has proven its warrior origin.
Oh, and actually, it currently costs 1899 PLN, so if you've already prepared exactly 2000, you can buy yourself something nice with the remaining 101 🙂 You're welcome and talk to you in the next post!
PS And maybe you, the reader, also want to create something for our blog? Write to us!
