Viewer discretion advised: OnePlus Nord bends and breaks bare-handed in painful durability test, highlighting potential cut corners

JerryRigEverything subjected the OnePlus Nord to a durability test and the results were not pretty. During the seven minute test, a Blue Marble OnePlus Nord was subjected to boxcutter scratches and an open lighter flame before the frame was bent and then broken.

The initial scratch test highlighted a OnePlus Nord design issue early on. While the anodised metal rim makes it appear as if the phone is built with a metal chassis, it actually makes do with a plastic frame. The anodised material came off after just a few scratches with the box cutter. The OnePlus Nord uses Gorilla Glass 5, meaning it offers industry-standard scratch protection on the display itself. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to prevent the box cutter from getting a few scratches in. JerryRigEverything then took an open lighter flame to the OnePlus Nord’s display, permanently discolouring part of the AMOLED panel. 

The coup de grace, though, was the bend test. While aluminium and steel-backed phones like the iPhone 11 series require hundreds of pounds of pressure to bend, JerryRigEverything managed to bend and break the OnePlus Nord’s plastic frame with his bare hands. After bending a bit, the frame made an awful noise as it broke, taking the display out. 

While the test, of course, goes well beyond would be considered ordinary abuse, the outcomes raise questions about the OnePlus Nord’s long-term durability. As the YouTuber asked, did OnePlus cut corners in terms of build quality to hit the Nord’s affordable midrange price-point while keeping that Snapdragon 765G?