Apple and Samsung lied: The only metal phone in the world is the only phone built to last

Recently released, the CMF Phone 1 tries to make a case for being unique by offering a removable back cover, which lets you change the look of your phone (after undoing a few screws.)

And there’s the Nothing Phone, which has LED lights over a transparent back. Of course, both the CMF Phone 1 and Nothing Phone are made by the same company.

However, I’d argue both takes on what’s supposed to be a unique design are somewhat gimmicky.

For one, the Nothing Phone’s LED lights don’t add a whole lot of functionality to the phone (if at all), and the clear glass back is just a clear glass back – it looks cool, and that’s about it.

In the case of the CMF Phone 1, offering a removable back without a user-replaceable battery seems like a more expensive, more time-consuming way of putting a case on your phone – which gives you an identical result.

Ironically, there’s another company Carl Pei used to call the shots at, which has chosen to go above and beyond the gimmicks, and that’s OnePlus.

The phone? The OnePlus Nord 4. What makes it unique? Not much… Just making the “impossible” possible.

OnePlus Nord 4: The only metal phone in the world is the only “unique” phone you should care about in 2024

I can’t tell you which was the last metal phone prior to the Nord 4 but I can tell you metal phones went out of fashion 9 years ago, when Apple launched the all-glass iPhone X.

I’ve said it many times before – all smartphones should be metal smartphones.

However, even if I wished phone-makers went back to making metal phones, I’d be lying if I said I believed this would happen. At least not in 2024, when breaking your phone and getting it repaired is “money in the bank” for the likes of Apple, Samsung, etc.

But believe it or not, OnePlus has gone and made one of my wildest smartphone dreams come true. How? Well, apparently, by rearranging the whole body of the OnePlus Nord 3 to manage to fit 5G antennas (and a 5,500 mAh battery) into the nearly all-metal chassis of what is the OnePlus Nord 4 – the only metal phone you can buy in 2024. Period.

And it’s not just that it’s metal – the Nord 4 looks stunning too. OnePlus didn’t spare time or resources when making its latest mid-ranger.

We’re talking a unibody metal casing, while all three color variants of the Nord 4 have a unique texture, with my favorite being the Mercurial Silver, which has laser-cut ridges all over the metal back.

Trading in my 128GB iPhone 13 mini gets me €265 off the €550 special-offer price of the OnePlus Nord 4. This makes the only metal phone in the world a €285 upgrade.

Of course, having to fit 5G antennas and a far more powerful SoC (than the ones found in metal phones from 2016) into a metal phone in 2024, apparently, means this device can’t be 100% metal.

Which is why the top 1/4 of the Nord 4’s back is made out of glass – that’s also where the flagship-grade Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chip is located.

Speaking of specs, here’s what the €500 Nord 4 gives you:

• Flagship-grade 120Hz, 6.8-inch display with super-thin display borders
• Flagship-grade Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chip, which is as powerful as last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• Reliable dust and water-resistance (IP65) – as long as you don’t submerge it under water
• Large 5,500 mAh battery with super-fast charging – probably the star of the show
• Good dual-camera system for all but the biggest camera phone enthusiast
• 4/6 years of Android/security updates – a first for a OnePlus phone

Apart from the stunning metal design, the OnePlus Nord 4’s real superpower is that it lasts forever, and charges fully in under 30 minutes

The OnePlus Nord 4’s 5,500 mAh battery and 100W charging speeds are no joke. They might even make you forget about the lack of wireless charging. Image courtesy of LoverOfTech.

The only obvious drawbacks here are the lack of wireless charging and a dedicated zoom camera. However, OnePlus “makes up” for this with 2x lossless zoom, and industry-leading battery life and wired charging speeds.

Although we haven’t conducted our own battery test just yet, some people who’ve compared the Nord 4’s battery endurance with that of the Galaxy S24+ and iPhone 15 Pro Max, were left extremely impressed.

In LoverOfTech’s non-scientific battery drain test, the OnePlus Nord 4 outlasted Apple and Samsung’s more expensive flagships by nearly 3 hours, which is bonkers.

On top of that, the Nord 4 can charge from 0-100% in under 30 minutes. For reference, my iPhone 15 Pro Max takes 2 hours to do the same.

OnePlus Nord 4 is the first globally-available (non-Google) mid-range phone with greater focus on useful AI features

AI Summary on the OnePlus Nord 4.

Save for the Google Pixel 8a (which looks ancient next to the OnePlus Nord 4 – but that’s a story for another day), there’s something else that makes the OnePlus Nord 4 unique, and that’s the fact that it becomes the first non-flagship phone (not made by Google), which comes with useful AI features. I mean… even Apple’s $800 iPhone 15 doesn’t do that.

AI Summary on the €500 OnePlus Nord 4 will summarize web pages and emails for you – an extremely helpful feature I love using on my $1,300 Galaxy S24 Ultra, my $1,000 Pixel 8 Pro, and certainly not on my iPhone 13 (which doesn’t have any AI).

• AI message translator should automatically translate your chats – just like Samsung’s version of the feature
• Clear Face is OnePlus’ version of Google’s “Best take”
• AI Eraser is the equivalent of Magic Eraser from the Pixel
• Smart Cutout lets you select and cut out parts of an image, and overlay them on top of a different photo – going a step farther than Apple and Google’s version of the same feature
• AI Writer should help your writing with different writing styles
• You get something called Audio Summary and AI-powered voice notes transcriber

Don’t listen to Apple and Samsung! Making a metal phone is possible – OnePlus Nord 4 might be the only phone built to last

If you want a phone that feels somewhat reminiscent of the 2013 HTC One, the OnePlus Nord 4 is literally the only One you can get right now.

In the end, I won’t surprise anyone by saying that all phones should be metal phones. Why? Because, contrary to what some phone-makers would like you to believe, it’s possible.

In fact, I haven’t come across reports of overheating issues with the Nord 4, nor any reports of lost signal. In fact, OnePlus claims that, in tricky situations, the Nord 4 gets better reception than the Galaxy S24.

Sure, there’s the “wireless charging” challenge but, for one, I believe a phone like the Nord 4 more than makes up for this by giving you crazy good battery life, and super-fast wired charging speeds.

OnePlus’ competition in the $500 price range is the ancient-looking $500 Pixel 8a. And I don’t need to wait for our OnePlus Nord 4 review to tell you the Pixel 8a is likely to lose to the Nord 4 in the areas of design, battery life, display and performance.