Huawei is part of that elite of phone manufacturers who know what to eat a smartphone with in 2021. In Vienna, the company launched three new products from the Huawei repertoire: the Nova 9 smartphone, moreover the headliner of this hands-on, a new series of watches and a pair of wireless headphones.
Today we will focus more on the Huawei Nova 9, a model oriented more towards the middle segment, but equipped with impressive capabilities. In the versions for Europe, the Nova 9 has only two color variants, black and this blue with reflections, officially named starry blue. From the first glance, the phone brings an elegant look that you wouldn't even think is reserved for a mid-range, but let's also take a look at the things "hidden" in these luxurious clothes.
Huawei Nova 9 – Specifications
Construction, design and screen
Let's start with the back, which is made of extremely light and well-finished, matte and scratch-resistant glass fingerprints, light but robust enough not to add to the weight of only 175 grams of the phone. The whole assembly feels light and compact, and you can use it easily with one hand. I'm glad that the back is grippy and doesn't slide, and the camera module is also elegantly integrated. It brings a bit of the vertically placed twin-eye design on the P50 Pro, with a large silver ring framing and delimiting the main camera and a second module below it that combines the ultrawide, depth and macro cameras.
Turning it to the front, we notice a superb OLED screen with balanced dimensions, at 6.57 inches, with 120Hz refresh rate and 1 billion colors, i.e. 10 bit, HDR10, at a resolution of 2340 by 1080 pixels. The display is bright, superfluid thanks to the frequency and can be set to 120Hz if you care more about rich transitions than battery. The interesting part is that it doesn't come from the factory with just that adaptive frequency. Of course, you also have this in the settings, i.e. Dynamic Mode, but you can also manually set the frequency to 60Hz or 120Hz. The fingerprint sensor is, of course, under the display, being extremely fast and responsive, and this combination completes the picture of Huawei Nova 9.
This front-back glass assembly is held together by a plastic frame. This is probably why the phone feels so light, but overall it feels extremely sturdy and well put together. Both the back and the front retain a slight curve towards the edges, in the style of previous models, but not too steep or disturbing, but enough to make a discordant note pleasant and elegant compared to the crowded landscape of phones available on the market at the moment . Due to the fact that the phone tapers to the sides from the height, the volume and power buttons located on the right are a bit anemic, but they are easily accessible and responsive.
However, despite the solid construction, it seems that the Huawei Nova 9 does not have any IP standard, and that is a bit disappointing. That's why it would be ideal to have a good case on hand to protect your phone from possible accidents.
Huawei Nova 9 – Under the hood
Going further inside, we have 8GB of RAM, an amount of memory that Huawei has always considered to be sufficient and which was also found on their Ps or Mates. As storage, we have 128GB and 256GB variants.
And we got to the processor. The chosen Qualcomm is a 778G on 6nm which gave a good score of 2848 points! It's an impressive result if you think that Huawei had the engineering mastery to squeeze almost 3000 points out of this mid-range processor! And as good as synthetics look they also move in games and apps.
However, the major disadvantage is the lack of 5G. Okay, I guess we all know what the deal is with the more… sensitive stuff on this one, but it doesn't seem like giving away a 4G phone in 2021, does it? But let's take a close and fair look at the good stuff too. A 4G, especially on such a strong processor is more than enough in the torrent of tasks in everyday life. At least for the very, very, very near future.
Even so, the Huawei Nova 9 enjoys NFC and, thanks to the same Snapdragon 778, we have WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2. All this assembly is powered by a 4300mAh battery with fast charging on 66W, which Huawei says brings the phone to 100% in under 40min.
Operating system
Contrary to expectations to meet again with HarmonyOS, here is the Huawei Nova 9 hiding in its circuits an Android with EMUI 12.01. That would be because models running HarmonyOS are only available in China, unlike tablets. So my test unit, the one we're dissecting here, appears to be running EMUI 12.01 over Android 11.
But don't get me wrong, as with all their other devices, there's no Google Services on the Nova 9 either, just HMS, meaning Huawei Mobile Services and AppGallery. EMUI 12 was quietly released a while ago and seems to borrow almost the same functionalities that we noticed on the Harmony on the MatePad 11
.
So we have rounded edges and gradients, refined animations, various widgets and very practical capabilities like that Device+ that allows you to connect your phone to all kinds of other Huawei devices: headphones, speakers, laptops for set- many screen ups, cast TVs, etc. In the latter case, of televisions, the function is called Vision and it not only allows casting, but we also have extended possibilities of multi-display arrangements or distributed file system which, on Huawei laptops, allows you to see the phone as a storage of the laptop and so you can easily edit or transfer files from one side to another.
Anyway, all in all, software-wise, the phone is Android 11, also without GMS, with EMUI 12 interface and many features and capabilities borrowed from HarmonyOS.
Play as a photographer
A first observation would be related to the design of the camera module. Like it or not, this is very similar to the one found on the Huawei P50 Pro. The performance also seems to be borrowed from the P50 Pro, and the most eloquent example of this is those skin tones that are in great demand by vloggers and social media "devourers". Admittedly, I took the Nova to the air for a diverse range of shots, and here's what it came out with.
The main wide camera has a generous 50MP sensor with pixel binning, so it takes pictures at 12.5, a bright lens with f1.9. Be careful, because the sensor is not RGB, but RYYB. It's a physically much smaller sensor, 1/1.56 inch. And this is especially felt when filming, which, especially in 4K (at 30 frames per second), seemed quite noisy in dark areas. The camera set also contains an 8MP ultrawide, a regular addition and two more 2MP cameras, one for macro and one for depth.
More interesting, however, was the 32MP selfie camera, also capable of 4K, and I think this choice to integrate such a powerful selfie sensor is smart, and the Pro model, currently only available in China, has even two lenses, a wide and an ultrawide. So, we can deduce quite easily which category of users the Huawei Nova 9 is targeting. I took a lot of selfies and videos with this camera and the results are good. The stabilization also works flawlessly, the results are impressive when tested, including in 4K resolution, a weak point of most competitors, but a satisfying advantage for the Nova 9.
Short recap, price and conclusion
So, on the camera side, the phone looks good and you can feel the experience of Huawei on this slice. But let's address the other aspects, shall we? Finally, the Huawei Nova 9 is a sum of intriguing features. It has a Qualcomm processor and still Snapdragon 778, in a paradoxical position with the sanctions story, but without 5G. It has EMUI 12 as its interface, with all kinds of Harmony features, but without HarmonyOS. So it has an Android 11 but without Google Mobile Services.
It has a very robust front-back glass construction... But no IP, i.e. no water and dust resistance. But regardless of the limitations and shortcomings, the phone rises to the rank of a gem. It is extremely beautiful and carefully finished, well built and versatile, it has a brilliant 10-bit OLED screen at 120Hz, it has a modern and fast processor that scored close to 3000 points and runs any application without problems , a 4300mAh battery with 66W fast charging, and an undeniably very good 50MP camera.
And the sky-high price for this package is 500 euros, that is, the phone will be available in Romania for 2500 lei, but you can pre-order it between October 21 and 31. As a bonus, you will also receive a pair of Huawei FreeBuds 4 headphones as a gift. It is not an easy decision, and it depends on how you approach the problem. If what you're looking for is an overall good phone and your decision comes from the area of design and performance, meaning build quality, fast hardware, fluidity and good display, then the Nova 9 is a very good choice for the money.
However, if you are looking for Google and Car Play, Maps, Gmail and the Play Store, then you could turn to better and definitely more complete options and without limitations, also in this budget. But the simple presence of the Nova 9 at this moment on the market signifies more than the appearance of a simple phone: it shows that Huawei is guaranteed to remain in the game and that it will continue to be active in this sector, not only in the universe of their legendary phones.
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