Huawei brings in its new Nova series smartphone to cater to the price-conscious buyers. Can this affordable device stand up against the competition? We find out in our review.
Design & Display
the Huawei Nova 3i opts in for a premium look by having a glass back and metal frame. On the front, the Nova 3i has a 6.3-inch FullView Display 2.0 with FHD+ (2340 x 1080) resolution and goes again for a notch design which houses the 24MP + 2MP front cameras, sensor, the earpiece and LED notifications.
Users can change the resolution to HD+ (1560 x 720) or even use the Smart resolution option to automatically help save power. Color modes are also adjustable from Normal to Vivid, as well as color temperature from Default to Warm to Cold. Overall, the quality of the display is great, images and text are clear, sharp and colors strikeout with great viewing angles.
The dual / hybrid SIM tray resides on the left, while the metallic volume and power buttons sit on the right side. The 3.5mm headphone jack (it still lives), main microphone, loudspeaker, and micro USB port sit at the bottom, and no, there’s no USB Type-C port on this one.
On the all glass back, we have a dual-rear cameras, and LED flash, and a fingerprint scanner. The Nova 3i has a dual camera setup on both the front and back. A 16-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor on the back, and a front facing 24-megapixel primary camera and 2-megapixel depth sensor for selfies.
Internals, performance and battery
The HUAWEI nova 3i runs on the Kirin 710 SoC with 4GB RAM, packing a dedicated ISP (image signal processor) and DSP (digital signal processor). The Kirin 710 SoC has an octacore processor with four ARM Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz. Storage wise, the the Nova 3i has 128GB of storage and can be expanded using a microSD card in the hybrid SIM slot. In terms of software, the Huawei Nova 3i runs Android 8.1 Oreo with Huawei’s custom EMUI 8.2 on top. The Nova 3i it performed great under everyday usage and tasks like launching and switching apps, browsing, watching videos and multitasking. When it comes to juice, the Nova 3i has a 3,340mAh battery, enough to last a full day. A 1080p Video test we did resulted in around 10 hours and 20 minutes of continuous playback.
Gaming on this device was impressive for its range. In addition to the Kirin 710 SoC and 4GB RAM, HUAWEI nova 3i also uses GPU Turbo to optimize its graphics processing prowess. GPU Turbo is a graphics processing accelerator technology the re-architects how graphics are processed on the system level.
Camera
As previously stated, the Nova 3i comes with a A 16-megapixel primary rear camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a front facing 24-megapixel primary camera and 2-megapixel depth sensor for selfies.
The AI features on this smartphone are quite robust, identifying different sceneries like food, and others. The AR lens mode allows users to play around with 3D Qmojis (animated emojis), effects, skins and 3D objects. The mode can detect multiple features of your face and recognize a user’s gender and skin tone to adjust for the optimal selfie. Huawei’s beautification algorithm is good, allowing the subject’s facial details, skin tone and texture to remain clear and natural even when the photo is taken in low-light or backlit environments.
The rear setup with its f/1.8 aperture for the primary lens comes out with impressive photos in daylight. At night, the AI mode will pull in more colours, light and details to balance the images. A side from the AI, the Nova 3i also has the usual camera modes like the HDR, panorama, 3D panorama, portrait mode, different filters, and pro mode. Overall, this is one of the better shooters in its range.
Verdict
The Huawei Nova 3 is a great device, worthy of being titled a flagship mid-ranger delivering great results across the board.
