Huawei unveiled the Nova 9 Series in Europe today, its first new phone launched in 2021. I had the opportunity to get my hands on the Huawei Nova 9, a high-midrange phone with a handsome, slim and light body, with an OLED screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, but also with very fast charging and a 50 MP camera in the back.
You can see the first impressions and its unboxing below. The phone costs 2,499 lei and between October 21-31 his pre-order from huaweistore.ro or from partners brings you Huawei FreeBuds 4 gift headphones, headphones that are sold separately for about 600 lei.
Historic
The Huawei Nova series debuted at IFA 2016 and has always relied on bringing top features in the midrange area, on phones with a cool and youthful design. Then Nova and Nova Plus appeared, and I personally still have people asking me about the Nova 5T, which was very attractive in price and look on the purple version with letters under the back panel. It was an excellent vlogging phone. And now comes the news 9.
Unboxing
In the phone case is the 66W charger with USB-A connector, the manual, the USB-C to USB-A cable, but also the key that provides access to the slots.
Design
The phone is very thin and light, at 7.8 mm and 175 grams. Perfectly maneuverable with one hand and impresses with the purple-blue gradient of the back, covered with a kind of discreet glitter and a "Nova" logo stylized in 3D. Its camera has a special, unique design, slightly reminiscent of the Huawei P50. I like how its metal frame deviates from the straight path to better define the side buttons.
It's a solid, built-in phone with a plastic back and curved screen on the edges with factory-fitted plastic protection. The terminal is available in black and blue with us. It seems to me to be one of the thinnest and lightest phones with such a 6.57-inch diagonal in 2021. Its curved screen on the side reminds me of the Mate 30 Pro and Mate 40 Pro, only with a softer curve at an angle.
Hardware
The screen is a 6.57 inch OLED with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. It integrates both the optical fingerprint reader and the selfie camera cropped at the top. It is a dual SIM smartphone with a 6 nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 4G processor, a 4G version of the Snapdragon 778G found on the Moto Edge 20, Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE and Galaxy A52s 5G.
We also get 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, but we don't have a microSD slot or audio jack. The 4300 mAh battery charges at 66W and promises on paper that it reaches zero to 100% in 38 minutes. I was a little surprised to see that the phone can also act as a powerbank, powering other devices.
On the acoustics side, we get a single speaker, located down next to the USB-C port, and on the connectivity side we have only 4G, Huawei still not having access to 5G components. There is also Wi-Fi 6, USB-C 2.0 port, but also GPS, Glonass, BDS, Galileo, QZSS and Navic. More importantly, I think we have NFC for contactless payments and it really works. But about that in another article.
The room
As for the camera, the selfie has 32 MP and is cut into a hole in the screen. It stands out by shooting 4K at 30 FPS, but also by bringing features like Slow Mo and Time Lapse. At the back is a quad camera with a "8" -shaped module design, similar to the Huawei P50. The main 50 MP sensor with a ring around it stands out and here we have a quality Sony sensor with RYYB pixels, with an extra yellow pixel to capture more light.
It has F / 1.9 and PDAF aperture, but also AI input for properly calibrated captures in terms of exposure, colors and mode / scene. Then comes an 8 MP ultrawide camera and we have a 2 MP Macro and a 2 MP Bokeh. Completed with an LED flash. The camera offers 4K shooting at 30 FPS, but also features like Super Macro, Slow Mo at 900+ FPS, Documents, Story Creator and multiple VLOG captures.
They combine the cameras together and you can capture the split screen with the front and rear camera simultaneously, but also with two rear: ultrawide and main at the same time. We also have Pro mode, Bokeh filter for filming and stickers, but also Night Mode , which I can't wait to get to work.
Software
The phone runs on EMUI 12 based on Android 11. It seems to rely even more on minimalism and separates it from the notifications of the Control Center, triggered by a swipe down on the screen at the top right. Here you will find Quick Settings, but also a hub where you will connect all Huawei devices in the house, from headphones, to laptop, tablet, TV, smart speaker and others. See all battery level and status.
We also have AppGallery, with over 2500 Romanian applications and tens of thousands of international applications, but also Petal Search, with the role of search engine, shopping and news resource, but also the source of applications. The leftmost homescreen aggregates widgets, weather, news, useful apps, news and suggestions. We also have many screen collaboration features with Huawei tablets and laptops, but we also get classic features today like Dark Mode or wireless screen mirroring.
Navigation is done with swipe gestures, and the phone comes with proprietary Huawei Video, Music and Books applications. I made contactless payments via NFC through Curve, which I installed from AppGallery. The OS is moving very well from what I see and seems to have left the beta state, it is as stable and reliable as possible.
First impressions
Huawei continues with the idea of a phone for young people, compact and light, with the arrival of this nova 9. It brings a back in gradient and embossed logo that will attract looks and touches. The ring camera around it has a good pedigree sensor, and the 120 Hz OLED screen promises to be great for gamers.
Fast charging is a welcome bonus. The appetite for advanced selfie capture and vlogging is also maintained, I would say, and we also have a generous curved screen on which to consume videos and games. We come back with a review!
Huawei nova 9, updated prices: