OnePlus Nord 2 may debut as the company’s first phone without carrying a Qualcomm chipset.
OnePlus Nord series started with the original OnePlus Nord that debuted in July last year
OnePlus Nord 2 — or what we can simply call the OnePlus Nord successor — is in the works and is set to launch in the second quarter of 2021, according to a report. The new OnePlus Nord phone is rumoured to come with MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC. This is unlike the original OnePlus Nord and all the earlier OnePlus phones that came with Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. OnePlus Nord 2, if it debuts officially, will be the fourth model in the company's Nord series that comprises OnePlus Nord as well as OnePlus Nord N10 5G and OnePlus Nord N100.
Citing people familiar with the development, Android Central reported the launch plans of the OnePlus Nord 2. The presence of MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC on the new OnePlus Nord phone is believed to be a considerable hardware upgrade over the original OnePlus Nord that had Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G.
MediaTek launched the Dimensity 1200 SoC as its new 5G-supporting chipset in January. It comes with eight processing cores, including an ultra core of ARM Cortex-A78 at a maximum clock speed of 3GHz. The chipset also includes nine cores of ARM Mali-G77 MC9 GPU and supports a maximum of 16GB LPDDR4x RAM. Further, it supports UFS 3.1 storage.
OnePlus sibling Realme, that is also owned by the same parent company BBK Electronics, was named as one of the first smartphone manufacturers to bring a flagship model with the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC. The model is expected to be a part of the rumoured Realme X9 series.
However, OnePlus' move with the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 seems interesting, given the fact that the company has used Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips on its smartphones since its inception back in December 2013.
OnePlus brought the original Nord smartphone in July 2020 after some anticipation and a series of teasers. That model debuted specifically in India and Europe and competed against the likes of Samsung Galaxy M31s and Google Pixel 4a.
In October, OnePlus expanded the Nord series with the launch of OnePlus Nord N10 5G and OnePlus Nord N100 that came to the US market.
Alongside OnePlus Nord 2, OnePlus is in the news for working on the OnePlus Nord SE. It could come with an AMOLED display and include 65W fast charging. The OnePlus Nord SE is said to debut sometime in the first quarter — making some space for the OnePlus Nord 2.
OnePlus didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the plans around OnePlus Nord 2.
Is Mi 10i a OnePlus Nord killer? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.