Samsung Galaxy M51 vs OnePlus Nord Full Review - Which one should you get? By TecworkZ

Hey guys it’s Sagar from Tecworkz, and in this video I am going to compare the Samsung Galaxy M51 with the OnePlus Nord. Since both these phones come at a similar starting price, many of you are confused that which one would be right for you. In this video we are going to look at all everything from the price, to design, displays, internals, overall performance, cameras and everything in between, and hopefully by the end if the video, you will have a much better idea that which of these 2 smartphones is the right one for you. Before we move ahead, if you guys want to watch my videos in Hindi, click on the card that appears on the top corner of your screen, or on the link in the description section. Many of you have been requesting me, so I finally started a new Hindi channel. So if you guys understand Hindi, click on the link in the description, and come and show your love and support by hitting the subscribe button on that channel.

Now before we start, you should know that both these phones are really good. So if you or I like one of these, that doesn’t make the other one bad. Its just that one of them might fit your needs better than the other, so be considerate about this fact while leaving your comments. Let us start with the price. Most of you watching this video already know this, that both these phones start at the same price point.

The base variant of the Samsung Galaxy M51 which comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage is price at Rs.24,999. And the 8GB RAM ans 128GB storage variant is priced at Rs.26,999. Both these variants get a Dedicated MicroSD card expansion slot. Base variant of the OnePlus Nord which comes with 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage also starts at Rs.24,999.8GB RAM and 128GB Storage variant of the Nord is priced at Rs.27,999. And the 12GB RAM and 256GB Storage variant of the OnePlus Nord comes at Rs.29,999. If you are looking to get the base variant of either of these phones, keep in mind, that with the Samsung Galaxy M51, you get twice the storage and ability to expand it further via a microSD card.

Now what do you get at this price? Samsun Galaxy M51 come with a Snapdragon 730G Processor which is built on 8 nanometer architecture, This processor has been around for some time. While the OnePlus Nord comes with a newer Snapdragon 765G processor. It is built on 7 nanometer architecture, so it is more efficient than the one on the Galaxy M51. Nord’s processor is also 5G capable, so if you get it now, you will be able to enjoy faster internet speeds when the 5G network will be available. M51 gets Adreno 618GPU against the Adreno 620GPU on the Nord.

M51 gets 6 or 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB of internal storage and a MicroSD card expansion slot. Nord gets 6/8 or 12GB of LPDDR4x RAM with 64/128 or 256GB of internal storage respectively. There is no way to expand the storage via microSD card on the OnePlus Nord. OnePlus Nord gets slightly faster internals, but does that make a huge difference in the real life performance? Not really. Few days back, I posted a speed test comparison between the OnePlus Nord and the Samsung Galaxy M51, and while Nord was faster at opening some apps, Galaxy M51 was not too far behind.

And if you don’t compare the 2 side by side, it is unlikely that you will even notice this difference in their speeds. Bottom line is, both can run most of the apps that you can through at them without any issues or major stutters. For gaming, I think the OnePlus Nord is a step ahead of the galaxy M51. SO if you play a lot of heavy games, out of these 2, go with the OnePlus Nord. After the price, we went straight inside these phones, but let us come out for a few moments and take a look at the design and build quality on both of them.

With a 6.44 inch display, Nord is not exactly a compact phone, but it is defiantly the smaller one of the 2. With a 6.7 inch Display, Samsung Galaxy M51 is an absolute mammoth of a device. For most people it is a 2 handed device, Unlike the OnePlus Nord, which I think could be managed with a single hand to some extent. Due to its size, and the subtle curve to its back, OnePlus Nord fits and feels much better in my hand compared to the Galaxy M51. Samsung is also a good 30 grams heavier than the Nord, and you feel the extra weight if you hold these phone in both your hands.

But if you just hold the M51, considering the size of the phone, you won’t feel that it is very heavy. So kudos to Samsung for that. The back of the Galaxy M51 gets a new glastic material (which is a combination of glass and plastic) and its display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, while the OnePlus Nord gets Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and back. This makes the Nord look and feel much premium compared to the galaxy M51. Not only that, the glass back of the Nord doesn’t get scratched as easily as the glossy back of the Samsung Galaxy M51.

Now I have been using this phone with the case all the time, and whenever I take it out of the case for these video shots, I make sure to clean it with a microfibre cloth. Between all this, I just don’t understand when it gather so many micro scratches. This might easily be the least durable back on any phone that I have ever used. On top of that, Samsung doesn’t even gives us a case in the box to protect the back, nor do they apply any screen protector to the display. I think these are Samsung’s ways of cutting some corners with this phone.

Taking a look around these devices. Nord gets a power button and an alert slider on its right. M51 has the power button and a physical fingerprint sensor under it, and the volume buttons on this side. Both get a secondary noise cancelling microphone at the top. On the left side Nord gets its volume buttons, and M51 has its SIM tray on this side.

At the bottom, Nord gets the SIM Tray on the left, followed by a microphone, USB type C port for charging and data transfer and a speaker grill on the right. M51 gets a 3.5m headphone jack, USB type C portrait for charging and data transfer, Microphone and a speaker grill at the bottom. Yes M51 gets a 3.5mm headphone jack, which the OnePlus Nord doesn’t. If this is important to you, you already know which one you should get. M51’s SIM tray can hold 2 nano SIM cards and a MicroSD card.

Nords SIM tray can only hold 2 nano SIM cards, it doesn’t have a dedicated or a hybrid slot for expanding the storage. The bigger body of the Samsung Galaxy M51 houses a bigger 6.7 inch Super AMOLED Plus display, with a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels. OnePlus Nord gets a 6.44inch Fluid AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and HDR 10+ playback support. Nords display offers a bit more features but the even without higher refresh rate, Galaxy M51’s display is also really good. Specially if you are use to consuming a lot of content on your smartphone.

Both can get pretty bright, and show amazing contrast levels thanks to being AMOLED. You can also calibrate the colours and colour temperature of the displays on both these phones. Viewing angels are excellent on both, so even if you have the phone placed on the table while watching videos, you won’t notice any major shift in colour. Now for some reason M51 only supports HDR content while on YouTube, and not while watching videos on Netflix. Nord has no such issue.

I know tech enthusiasts love higher refresh rate displays. But most average users just can’t tell the difference between 60 or 90Hz. I know, even I found this interesting. I showed the Nord to a few of my friends who are not too tech savvy, and even after switching between 60 and 90Hz in front of them, they just couldn’t spot the difference. Now I can spot the difference, and I am sure many of you can too, but the truth is, most average users just can’t, so for them it doesn’t really matter if the display has a 60 or 90Hz refresh rate.

Galaxy M51 gets a punch hole style camera cutout for the selfie camera at the centre of the screen, while the Nord gets a dual punch hole style camera cutout on the top left of the screen. I prefer the ones on the M51, because it doesn’t hide or rearrange any of the information that we are use to seeing on either corners of the phone. We saw that the fingerprint sensor on the Samsung Galaxy M51 is placed on the right side under its power button. Well on the OnePlus Nord, it is placed under the display and I think it is just as fast and accurate as the physical one on the Galaxy M51. Normally I prefer physical fingerprint sensors, but for some reason I am not too satisfied with the one on the Samsung Galaxy M51.

We took a look at the internals earlier, but Software is what ties all the internals on any smartphone together. Samsung galaxy M51 is running OneUI 2.1 Core version built on top of Android 10. And OnePlus Nord is running the latest version of Oxygen OS 10 which is built on top of Android 10. Samsung’s phone comes with a lot of bloatware preinstalled, but now you can remove most of it, and over the years Samsung’s OneUI has matured enough, that I actually enjoy using it. That being said, OnePlus’s Oxygen UI is by far my favourite non stock android skin of choice.

It is minimal and at the same time filed with features. OnePlus is also normally quicker at pushing out major software updates, and also more regular at pushing out security patches to their phones. But lately Samsung is also keeping up with OnePlus, by pushing out timely updates to their phones. All that being said, next version of the Oxygen OS which is being built on Android 11, is said to borrow a few of its design elements from the Samsung’s OneUI. So while we all might be looking up to the OxygenOS, it turned out OnePlus is looking up to Samsung’s OneUI for inspiration.

Anyways, which of these 2 android skins you like, let me know in the comments. And if you don’t like either of them, you can just slap Nova launcher on these phones, and make them look however you like. Thats the beauty of Android. Alright now coming to one of the most important deciding factor, the camera. Both of them gets a quad camera module on their back.

OnePlus Nord comes with a 48 Megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor, with F/1.75 aperture and OIS as its primary camera. M51 ditches the in house sensor and come with a 64 megapixel Sony IMX682 sensor, with F/1.8 aperture and 26m lens. For the wide cameras, Nord gets an 8 megapixel sensor with F/2.3 aperture, while the M51 gets a 12 megapixel sensor with F/2.2 aperture. Nord gets a 2 megapixel macro camera, while the M51 gets a 5 megapixel one. And both of them get a 5 megapixel depth sensor.

Looking at the on paper specs, camera on the Samsung Galaxy M51 look stronger. At the front, both of them come with a 32 megapixel primary camera. Nord gets F/2.5 aperture, while the M51 gets a much wider F/2.0 aperture. Nord gets an 8 megapixel secondary front facing camera, with F/2.5 aperture and an ultra wide lens. Now I have compared the camera on these phones in a separate detailed video.

I will leave a card to that video if you want to check it out, and also link it in the description section. As you might expect, M51’s main camera capture more details, and it also gets a much better wide and macro camera. But even with lower resolution sensors, the processor on the OnePlus Nord also makes its images look good. In some of the shots galaxy M51 did better, while in other Nord came on top. I actually prefer the colours from the Nord, but for the dynamic range I would say the galaxy M51 is doing much better.

For a much deeper insight and lot of image and video samples, make sure to watch my camera comparison video of these phones. If you want a jest of that video. For daytime images I would pick the Samsung Galaxy M51 and for low light night mode shots I will go with OnePlus Nord, for taking videos, I will again go with the OnePlus Nord. Now while taking look at the internals, I left out 1 key area, and that is the battery. OnePlus Nord comes with a 4115 mAh battery inside its smaller thinner body.

But the bigger body of the Samsung Galaxy M51 comes with mammoth 7000 mAh battery. yes 7000 mAh. This huge battery, means with average to moderate usage, you can easily make it last for 2 full days. But with heavy usage, it is more like a day and half, which if I am being honest is not that much more than the OnePlus Nord. You get close to 10 or 10 and half hours of screen on time on the M51, and Nord can give you 7+ hours of screen on time.

Now this is because the processor on the Nord is more power efficient. Don’t get me wrong, the battery on the Samsung Galaxy m51 will definitely outlast the one on the OnePlus Nord, but it just won’t last for as long as you would expect a 7000 mAh battery to last. All in all, both phones will give you a very good battery backup. When it’s time to charge them up, M51 come with a 25 watt faster charger, and the Nord comes with a 30T warp charger. Since the battery is smaller and the charger is a bit faster, Nord is the one who juices up first, which should been surprise.

But even with the massive battery, M51 doesn’t take all that long to get to 100%. I think those were all the points that we had to compare. OnePlus Nord gives you a bit more in terms of the faster internals, 5G support, much better build quality, faster software support and a much comfortable feel in your hand and pocket. Samsung galaxy M51 on the other hand gives you more storage at the starting price, expandable storage, just as good performance, slightly better cameras, bigger display for consuming media, headphone jack, bigger battery, and bigger brand name. So you have all these things in front of you.

Look at which of these are more important to you, weigh up all the pro’s and con’s and then make your decision. If I was going to choose between these 2, I would go with the OnePlus Nord, because of its size, build quality, and OnePlus’s track record of software support. Which one of these would you choose, and why? Let me know in the comments. And when you make your decision, I will really appreciate if you get either of these phones, from the affiliate link in the description section. That is it for this video guys.

Please hit the like button if this video helped you. And subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like this. You can also check out some of the other videos on this channel. This has been Sagar, and I will catch you guys in the next video. Take care.

Source : TecworkZ