Earlier this year OnePlus forayed into the mid-range segment with its Nord lineup which triggered other smartphone manufacturers to enter the competition and several other brands have been launching some smartphones to counter the popularity of Nord but one of the most exciting launches was the Samsung’s Galaxy M51 which comes at a time when Indian consumers are not that happy with the Chinese products and looking for some non-Chinese alternatives and Samsung could cash in on the same opportunity since both Galaxy M51 and Nord are quite same and are alternative to each other.
If you are that hateful towards the Chinese products then you might face some hardships while choosing between OnePlus Nord and Samsung M51 and for that, we have done a quick comparison below to help you select the best one between both of them.
Design
One of the main differences between the Nord and M51 is it’s built, the Nord is having a glass back and a plastic frame which isn’t one of the durable options but still glass back makes it look a premium device whereas on the other hand Samsung M51 is having a plastic body and frame just like other affordable Samsung smartphones which does not sound good for a smartphone worth that much but it is supposed to be much durable than the Nord’s glass back but both of them might fail bend tests if you are planning to do one so it’s totally up to you to decide.
As far as the front is concerned OnePlus Nord is having a pill-shaped cutout that houses Nord’s dual front-facing cameras while the Samsung M51 has an infinity o display which has a tiny circular cutout at the top.
Display
These day’s display is quite important if you are paying quite a premium price for a smartphone because nowadays people consume more content on their smartphones than their laptops or televisions and every brand out there knows that that’s why they are not leaving a chance to impress consumers and OnePlus and Samsung is no different.
Samsung Galaxy M51 sports an AMOLED display of 6.7-inch with FHD+ resolution as usual while the Nord also offers the AMOLED panel but it measures 6.44-inch and offers a refresh rate of 90Hz which surely is an added benefit over the M51’s display since Nord is offering higher resolution and refresh rate over the M51 for the same price.
Performance
OnePlus has been always the champion in terms of performance while Samsung midranges have never been that great when it comes to performance and there are several factors comprising the performance of a smartphone and one of that is hardware.
OnePlus Nord is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G which is a pioneer midrange chipset which even comes with support for 5G which means Nord is a 5G capable smartphone whereas Galaxy M51 is powered by Snapdragon 730G which is more than enough for your day to day tasks and it could also handle gaming so that’s not a problem at all but the main benefit of Snapdragon 765G is the 5G capability which gives it a hand over the Snapdragon 730G powered Galaxy M51.
The main benefit of OnePlus Nord over the Galaxy M51 is the 5G compatibility which makes it future proof as 5G is not coming for a while but whenever it comes you will be able to experience the high-speed internet if you buy Nord so Nord has an up in case of 5G cellular connectivity.
Both the smartphones have multiple storage variants but the maximum storage in Nord is 256GB coupled with 12GB of RAM whereas the highest variant of Galaxy M51 offers 128GB which half of what Nord offers coupled with 8GB of RAM. So it is up to you to select how much storage is enough for you and if you need as much storage possible under INR 30,000 then you should consider Nord over the Galaxy M51.
The second thing which affects the performance the most is the operating system well both the phones runs on the latest Android 10 but Nord is running on OnePlus’ much cleaner version of Android dubbed as OxygenOS which is one of the key highlights of the Nord while the Galaxy M51 is running on OneUI 2.1 on the top of Android 10 which is not snappy as OxygenOS but has a bunch of nifty features that could be used the time to time. So if you want a cleaner and snappier phone then you should go with the Oneplus Nord and if the software is not your concern then you can also lookout for the M51.
The main highlight of Galaxy M51 is its 7000mAH battery which is the largest in any smartphone and Samsung claims that M51 can survive up to two days on a single charge and the humongous 7000mAH battery can be charged using the 25W provided in the box while the OnePlus Nord comes with a pretty standard 4115mAH battery which can be charged using a much faster Warp Charge 30T so if you want a phone which lasts long and if you have patience while it charges then you can go for the M51 as it would at least survive for a day and a half in the real world usage and if you don’t care much about a longer survival and you are a person who just charges your device for some time and uses it for half a day and then again charge it then Oneplus Nord would be a great option for you.
Camera
Both Oneplus Nord and Samsung Galaxy M51 offer a quad-camera setup at the back but sensors are quite different in both the setups. OnePlus Nord has a 48MP Sony IMX 586 primary sensor along with an 8MP ultra camera with 119 field-of-view, a 5MP macro shooter, and a 2MP depth sensor while Galaxy M51 has a 64MP Sony IMX 682 sensor, an. 12MP secondary ultra-wide camera with a 123-degree field of view, 5MP portrait shooter, and 5MP macro shooter.
Both the camera will be able to perform well in each scenario but Galaxy M51 has more pixels and a much better macro, depth sensor, and wide-angle camera on the paper that is also supposed to translate to real-world usage. So, Samsung Galaxy M51 is a clear achiever here.
In the front, OnePlus Nord offers a dual-camera array consisting of a 32MP Sony IMX616 sensor coupled with an 8MP ultrawide shooter whereas the Galaxy M51 just has a single 32MP shooter which is as same as Nord’s.
Conclusion
At a starting price of INR 24,999, Samsung Galaxy M51 offers a lot than the base variant of Oneplus Nord which is also retailing for INR 24,999 but offers 64GB of internal storage and 6GB of RAM whereas the base variant of Galaxy M51 has 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM.
But OnePlus Nord’s top-end variant offers 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage so if you’re someone who wants a maxed-out phone below INR 30,000 then you can also go for the OnePlus Nord.
Also if you are buying a phone with an intention to use it for a longer time period like for the next 2-3 years at least then opt for the Nord as it has 5G compatibility so you won’t have to switch your phone in case if you want to experience 5G internet and OnePlus phones age very well because of the OxygenOS so nothing will be happening to your phone for at least next few years.
Below are some pointers which might help you make your decision.
Pros of OnePlus Nord
- Snapdragon 765G is faster than Snapdragon 730G
- 90Hz display
- Support for 5G network which makes it futureproof
- OxygenOS
Pros of Samsung Galaxy M51
- Better battery experience
- More internal storage for the base variant
- Better camera system
- Audio jack and SD card slot
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Thank you for creating such content.
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Thanks for the wonderful comparison… I’m going to buy Nord since I need to use it for a long term basis