The mid-range smartphone market is a thriving market segment. There should be no surprises there, since smartphones priced between the MYR 1,500 to MYR 2,500 range are not just affordable today. Today, mid-range smartphones perform nearly just as good if not as good as most flagship smartphones out there. Sure, you get less powerful System on a Chip (SoC) most of the time. That is just about the most compromise you get from mid-rangers though.
While it looks as though you are paying less because you are getting more compromises, in some cases, a mid-range smartphone can have its advantages over flagships. For one, mid-range smartphones sometimes offer extended battery life that most flagships with powerful chips in the world cannot offer. They are also rather good looking most of the time, better looking that some flagships sometimes.
Enter the HUAWEI nova line-up. The HUAWEI nova line-up is the Chinese giant’s most successful mid-range smartphones that sits not too far off from the HUAWEI P series flagships. The nova series usually packs a more powerful camera and large enough battery to keep the device running for days at a time. That is what you also get in the latest HUAWEI nova device, the nova 9 SE.
HUAWEI nova 9 SE
Source: HUAWEI
First up, is the compromise on the HUAWEI nova 9 SE. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SoC. The SoC packs eight ARM architecture cores; four powerful Cortex-A73 cores clocking 2.4GHz and four efficiency Cortex-A53 clocking 1.8GHz.
Everything else after that compromise is a match to most flagships. It packs 8GB of RAM alongside the SoC. The combination should allow you to game smoothly while allowing smooth sailing multitasking all-around. With 128GB of storage, all your personal data can be stored away safely in one place.
Then there is the ultra-powerful camera. Instead of a measly 50-Megapixel, or even a 64-Megapixel shooter, HUAWEI decided on pushing a large 108-Megapixel sensor as its main shooter, more megapixels than any HUAWEI device ever had. The powerful camera is flanked by an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide camera, 2-Megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-Megapixel macro camera. Out front is a 16-Megapixel shooter with up to Full HD video recording capabilities.
Speaking of front, the Super Device capable devices offers EMUI 12 beauty on a Full HD+ 6.78-inch IPS panel. The panel also offers 90Hz in refresh rate for the smooth feel. For the snappy instant response feel is the panel offering 270Hz in touch sampling rate.
Keeping the device running all day and more is a large 4,000mAh built in battery. It is charged by USB Type-C when it runs out. At that, it charges at HUAWEI SuperCharge speeds (66W) to get it charged from empty to full in less than 40 minutes.
Price and Availability
Source: HUAWEI
The HUAWEI nova 9 SE is now available for pre-order until the 18th of March 2022. You can get your pre-orders in via HUAWEI’s official web store, Experience Stores, and official online stores on Shopee and Lazada. As mentioned in the title, the device will set you back MYR 1,099. Every pre-order of the device will come with a HUAWEI FreeLace and a bunch of HMS (HUAWEI Mobile Services) packages worth up to MYR 560 while stocks last. For more information on the HUAWEI nova 9 SE you can visit HUAWEI’s website.
HUAWEI has now spent more than 3 years outside the Google ecosystem. Since 2019, HUAWEI has launched the HUAWEI Mate 30 series without Google’s Play Store installed. They have also launched the HUAWEI P40 series, Mate 40 series, and P50 series.
Ever since HUAWEI stopped sporting Google’s Play Store too, they have been developing their own App Gallery to fill the gap left by Google’s app marketspace. The App Gallery is not exactly new for HUAWEI devices though, even before 2019. The HUAWEI App Gallery, while has been running alongside the Google Play Store for a while, was not a fully matured platform just yet.
This was 3 years ago. HUAWEI’s App Gallery has grown quite a lot since then. HUAWEI has done everything it can to push and even attract new developers for their platform. They have collaborated with anyone willing to develop on their platform. This means that HUAWEI’s App Gallery is now the third-largest app marketplace in the world.
Does that mean that HUAWEI devices are now worth a look? Should you consider running a HUAWEI secondary driver, or even a primary one? We attempt to answer all of that with the HUAWEI Nova 8.
Design
The HUAWEI Nova 8 is built of similar materials you find on any modern smartphones. You have two pieces of glass that sandwiches an aluminium frame. The top and bottom of the device features a flat taper. The flat sections are flat enough for you to stand your Nova 8 on its own – we tried.
The glass back is nothing special in terms of materials too. The device looks rather pretty though. The Blush Gold on this Nova 8 makes it feel a little more special than it is though.
At the same time, the device is built to a premium standard. The way the metallic side of the device tappers seamlessly to the display helps the illusion of a single solid piece. Even the milled holes on the device looks precise albeit some alignment issues. The only indication that this is still a mid-range device would be its NOVA branding at the glass.
The oval camera housing is a nod to the older HUAWEI devices like the P30 series. While the main camera takes up nearly half the module, it does not look imposing. They arranged the three other smaller lenses in a way that complements main camera.
Hardware
As mentioned, the HUAWEI Nova 8 is a Kirin device. You have HUAWEI’s own Kirin 820E System on a Chip (SoC) powering the HUAWEI Nova 8. It is still a highly respectable ARM Cortex-A76 and Cortex-55 blend in today’s smartphone standard.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 does not come with HUAWEI’s Harmony OS 2. Instead, it is the trusty EMUI 12 based on Android. This is also their third iteration of EMUI since losing Google Play Store.
While the iterations of EMUI have not changed a lot in terms of look and feel between the HUAWEI devices, there are differences between 11 and 12. If you look closely, HUAWEI Nova 8’s EMUI 12 does not feature an “Android Version” category anymore in the About Phone submenu. That does not mean that the HUAWEI EMUI 12 is a completely different breed of Operating System (OS) though, they are still Android based, as far as we can tell anyway.
HUAWEI App Gallery
You still do not have access to Google’s curated apps. HUAWEI’s App gallery has grown tremendously though. With HUAWEI’s Petal Search integration, the App Gallery now searches the web for alternatives or APK files of your searched app. Either that, or you access a web version of apps like Google Drive.
You can use apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and even Instagram. They are not natively supported by HUAWEI App Gallery though. The only good news from that is that because HUAWEI’s EMUI 12 is essentially still Android, APK files works. The bad news is that you cannot transfer WhatsApp data between devices via cloud.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 does not have Google’s Mobile Services Framework, which also means it will not be able to unlock the use of Google’s suite of apps like Google Maps, for example. We tried installing Google Maps as an APK file, but it refuses to launch after.
The good news is that Malaysia is a big supporter of HUAWEI’s App Gallery. That also means that plenty of the local banking and e-wallet apps are available from HUAWEI App Gallery. You even have the MySejahtera COVID tracking app on HUAWEI’s AppGallery.
Always-On Display
Always-on display can find its roots in Samsung’s implementation of Android in TouchWiz. But because it is a function loved by users, Google made always-on display a feature on their own smartphones and eventually the function makes its way into other Android devices.
On the HUAWEI Nova 8, the always-on display is a clever system that keeps your battery life optimised when not in use. That also means that the always-on display is not constantly on. It only turns on when you interact with the device by tapping its display once.
Other than showing just time, we configured the always-on display to show date, battery percentage and other notifications. The time, date, and battery percentage show up nicely. Notifications will show up too, provided you have not seen any of it yet.
The only customisation you get is choosing how your clock looks in the always-on display menu. The always-on also displays a snippet of your notifications, including snippets of your WhatsApp, Telegram, or messages, just before you unlock your device and access the apps.
Separating Notifications and Quick Settings Access
HUAWEI EMUI 12 system, while still an Android overlay, feels a little different. HUAWEI now divides the notification bar into two sections. On the left side is the notification center, where all the latest updates to your apps, missed calls, messages gets displayed. When you swipe down from the right side, you get all your quick settings toggles. You also access the settings menu from here now.
It takes some getting used to, admittedly. Once you get used to it though, you start wondering why other Android devices do not implement similar features. It makes accessing the quick settings menu one gesture quicker.
We do have to say though that the quick settings menu does feel and look very much like what you get on an iOS. While it may not be a carbon copy of one, it still feels very much like it especially with the media player, WiFi, and Bluetooth widgets being standalone toggles.
No App Tray – Business as Usual
HUAWEI’s famous overlay of Android comes with no app tray like all of the EMUI that came before it. All its apps are organised on its home screen. You can hide apps you do not use very often, but you cannot find an app tray to access it later.
You can still add widgets and folders to the homescreens though. With EMUI 12 you simply pinch on the display and a menu will pop out at the bottom for you to add widgets, homepages, and even a folder. You can also group apps together now in enlarged folders for quicker access to the apps you want and to keep things tidy.
Performance
Modern mid-range devices like the HUAWEI Nova 8 are more than capable at running apps as smoothly and as fast as flagship device. Modern hardware has improved so much that performance differences between two classes of device are not quite apparent these days.
Call Quality and Connectivity
We solely relied on Yes 4G for the HUAWEI Nova 8 throughout our tests. On Yes 4G’s network the HUAWEI Nova 8 can make and receive VoLTE calls, which helps with call fidelity and quality of conversations. Of course, your call quality depends on the network strength as well.
There have not been any major dropped calls with the device. Even when the network is a little on the weak side, calls have come through and gone without hiccups until you lose the network completely. Data speeds may vary though in these instances. On the subject of data speeds, that is more a network provider issue than anything else.
Gaming
While the device has less power on paper than a flagship device, it does not necessarily mean it is that much worse. In fact, the HUAWEI Nova 8’s Kirin 820E is capable of running Mobile Legends: Bang Bang at its highest graphics settings without breaking too much of a sweat. The heat build up is never anywhere near uncomfortable in our time of use too.
Of course, a fast display helps very much in terms of immersion and experience in games. The games load smoothly and quickly when on the HUAWEI Nova 8. They even look pretty good thanks to the vivid colours of the OLED panel.
Multitasking and Productivity
Modern smartphones have been optimised to cope with multitasking instances on any given device. We had more than 20 tabs open in the HUAWEI Nova 8’s native browser and still keep do other things on the device without too much of an inconvenient lag.
Opening apps never felt sluggish or slow as well in our tests. At some point we were installing multiple apps from HUAWEI’s App Gallery at the same time, and still scrolling through the App Gallery without any issues. We also left multiple apps running at the same time without having to close any of the apps when we need to jump to another app.
Battery Life
HUAWEI’s legendary battery life status is down to their clever battery management system. The battery management system in the latest EMUI on the HUAWEI Nova 8 is cleverer and more sophisticated than the old system. It does not turn off selective apps anymore, but it still somehow ekes out as much life out of the 3,800 mAh battery as possible.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 on standby can last up to four days on a single charge. On a typical usage, with the device jumping between relying on WiFi and 4G networks, the device still lasts up to two days. A typical use in our case consists of some light WhatsApp texting, watching videos on YouTube (web), playing quick games of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, taking and making a few calls, and taking a few photos as well.
It also comes with a charger in the box. It charges up to 66W with the provided charger and USB Type-C cable. Most of the time, we charge the device when the battery hits 20%. In those cases, we get a full charge in just below two hours.
Display
The HUAWEI Nova 8 features a Full HD+ 6.7-inch OLED panel with up to 90Hz refresh rate. They did not mention its response rate, but do you really care? We do not, in this case at least.
OLED is known for its vivid colours that translates well on the HUAWEI Nova 8. The display is really bright, which also means you get to see some extra details when working with the device. The brightness also helps with visibility when you are outdoors.
While it produces very vivid colours, it does not match the colour standards of the newer flagship devices like the HUAWEI P50 series and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. Unless you use your smartphone to colour grade your videos, edit your photos, or any other work with accurate colour requirements, you hardly notice that much in difference.
90Hz Smoothness
The HUAWEI Nova 8 shows that you do not need a display that refreshes at 120Hz. A display that refreshes at 90Hz is more than enough to make the smartphone feel snappy and smooth. While 90Hz is nothing to shout about, it is a reminder that high refresh rate displays could be overrated.
If you are a casual mobile gamer, you really are not missing out on a lot between 90Hz to 120Hz. You see as much as the next gamer with 120Hz in games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, or even Garena’s Free Fire. The differences are so marginal that in most cases, you hardly notice it.
Camera
The HUAWEI Nova 8 is a testament to how good the modern smartphone camera technology is. While it may not be representative and does not offer the best that the smartphone camera technology has to offer, it is not that far off.
You get a 64-Megapixel shooter that is capable of shooting RAW photos in Pro mode. In Pro Mode you get more granular controls to your ISO, shutter speed, AutoFocus metering, exposure, and manual focus.
In regular photo mode, the camera only takes 16-Megapixel photos instead of the full 64-Megapixel it is capable of. You only access all 64-Megapixel that your device can offer in Pro mode with RAW settings, or the high-res mode. You lose the AI function in either modes though.
You have more than enough for social media purposes though. At the same time, with AI on, the camera captures great looking photos with a lot of details and amazing looking colours.
We find that the most stunning camera feature from the HUAWEI Nova 8 is the Night Mode. Photos that look dark and grainy in regular mode looks bright and properly detailed. Of course, you can see that the details are softer once you zoom in.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 – Another Great HUAWEI Device, still a HUAWEI Though
The HUAWEI Nova 8 is a pretty device. As expected from a HUAWEI device, the build quality of the device is premium. At MYR 1,899, the HUAWEI Nova 8 is a compelling device too.
There is not much wrong with EMUI 12. It feels smooth, intuitive, and still works like other Android devices with HUAWEI’s usual tweaks. It feels so smooth and snappy on the 6.7-inch 90Hz display it feels like a flagship device.
It is not a 5G ready device. There are devices at lower price points that will sport 5G, which makes the HUAWEI Nova 8 a little of an anomaly in the sea of smartphones in the market. That is a relatively minor issue though.
The big issue is that it does not come with Google’s Play Store. You will not be able to work with Google Apps at all. You can use WhatsApp but you cannot transfer your chats via cloud. You do not get access to Netflix app as well.
At MYR 1,899, the HUAWEI Nova 8 is a worthy contender in the mid-range smartphone segment. Although, you must remember you cannot access and run Google’s suite of apps. Otherwise, you are getting a great mid-range smartphone that is more than capable as your daily driver, play any of your mobile games, and perform like any modern flagships.
Last night we saw a big fan fare of a smartphone launch. It was the very anticipated HUAWEI photography flagship, the HUAWEI P40 series. The ones we are going to see earlier is the HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro. There is a third model, the P40 Pro+ which will be coming way later. Still, HUAWEI finally announced their first 2020 flagship.
The HUAWEI P40 is really everything that you might want in a
HUAWEI flagship photography king. If you owned the P20, it is really the
smartphone that you naturally want to upgrade to. There is one thing that it
does not come with though: Google.
This means that the HUAWEI P40 series will not have Google’s very handy Play Store and is stuck to the ways of HUAWEI’s own proprietary Mobile Services (HMS) and its AppGallery. We are not saying that it is a terrible thing though. It may sound bad, but you never know until you try right?
The Test Bed – The HUAWEI Nova 7i
Our test bed is a HUAWEI Nova 7i. In some markets, they know
it as the HUAWEI P40 Lite. We do not understand that half the time, so we will
just stick to Malaysia’s official name for it, we guess; the HUAWEI Nova 7i.
If you really have to know the specs of this MYR 1,099
device, it is is a mid-range smartphone that packs a relatively punchy
HiSilicon Kirin 810 system on a chip (SoC) and supported by 8GB of RAM and you
get 128GB of storage with that. The internals push EMUI 10.0.1.108 that is also
based on Android 10. So, when we say that it comes completely devoid of Google
stuff, I did not forget that this is still an Android device. We just mean that
the HUAWEI Nova 7i comes devoid of Google’s important frameworks that includes
the Google Play Store.
We are not focusing on the hardware capabilities of the
device, though. So, it does not really matter if the HUAWEI Nova 7i comes with
a 48-Megapixel camera and a Full HD display. What matters is that it represents
the collective of modern HUAWEI devices that are in the market right now,
starting with the era of the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. They all have one thing in
common, and that is HMS and AppGallery.
The focus of this write-up then, is what we can do with HMS
and what AppGallery can offer us. On paper, it does not look too good for the
write-up. The HUAWEI AppGallery is the third largest app marketplace behind
Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Which may not sound like much,
because there are not many major app marketplaces in the market. Since there
are two major camps of smartphone Operating Systems (OS) in the market, the two
largest ones are quite a given.
Starting-up HUAWEI’s EMUI 10.0.1
Let us still give this a chance though. We fire up the device
and everything feels just like a regular Android smartphone at first. It is an Android
10 based system after all, so it starts up very similar to any Android. Except,
you do not sign in with your Google account. You sign in with or sign up for a
HUAWEI ID account. We had one, so that was simple.
If you are familiar with an EMUI device that has Google Play
Store installed on it, like the HUAWEI P30 series, navigating the smartphone should
be nothing new really. It is still a very familiar EMUI to the EMUI’s of the past;
in that, there is no difference in experience at all. You cannot see Google’s Play
Store on the home screen though. So far, so good; familiarity with the
interface saves the face.
First set-up
No Play Store, no problem. There the HUAWEI AppGallery. First
thing I usually do with a new smartphone is download all the essential apps I
need. Those apps are Whatsapp, Telegram, Slack, Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter. Out of all those apps listed, I only found two – Facebook and Whatsapp.
They are not loaded into the AppGallery though.
What happens is that the HUAWEI AppGallery will lead you to a
third-party site to download the apk files of Facebook and Whatsapp. These are
the only two I found so far. Not looking good now. When we checked in, HUAWEI
says that these two sideloaded apps are safe because the AppGallery is the one
that leads us to the site.
That is not to say that you cannot sideload the rest of the
apps that I listed down though. You can still download the apk files from other
sites, no problem. Just be wary of the sources though.
Still, we worked with the two apps that we just downloaded.
They both work just like the Android version app should work. They look the
same too. The only question now is whether we can keep up with the most current
update packages or not.
Day 0 Wrap-up
We wrap the test up with that for now. We got our smartphone
running with the most essential WhatsApp up. Even Facebook is there, so far
that is the entertainment we are getting for the night.
Still, we are going to try to live through the HMS and
AppGallery as long as we can and go in-depth. The HMS is available on every new
HUAWEI smartphone you buy today. Yes, they are all running on EMUI 10 now too.
Still, the HUAWEI P40 that was announced last night is not
just that. When you buy a new HUAWEI smartphone today, you get a free 50GB
HUAWEI Cloud Storage subscription for the next year. If you already own a
HUAWEI smartphone device, you already have 5GB of HUAWEI Cloud Storage for free
anyway.
We will be looking to more apps next week with the HUAWEI Nova
7i. Until then, stay safe during this whole Movement Control Order period. To
the ones outside of Malaysia, you stay safe too.
HUAWEI’s nova series has always been a strong contender in the mid-range space with compelling specifications. The main draw of the series has always been its flagship class camera with a price point that makes it one of the most accessible offerings that’s worth your money on the market.
That said, the company recently announced the availability of their nova 6 series in China. It looks like the 6 isn’t making its way to Malaysia. Instead, HUAWEI is teasing a new entry: the nova 7i which will be available in Malaysia from 14 February 2020!
The new HUAWEI nova 7i looks to be coming with a HiSilicon Kirin 810 which was featured in the HONOR 9X and 9X Pro. That said, the new chipset promises power savings thanks to the 7nm fabrication process which allows the chip to have more performance while keeping the battery life. The processor is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. If 128GB isn’t enough, you’ll be able to add up to 256GB of extra memory with a nano memory card (NM card).
The display on the nova 7i is a 6.4-inch LTPS IPS LCD capable of reproducing 16 million colours. It’s a Full HD+ display with a resolution of 1080×2310 pixels. Unlike its flagship brethren, the new mid-ranger comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. HUAWEI included a large, 4,200mAh battery for all-day battery life. It also supports 40W supercharge charging which can provide 70% of battery with 30 minutes of charging.
More Cameras, More Better Pictures?
The camera setup on the smartphone is a quad camera array with a 48-megapixel main sensor. It is also capable of ultrawide and macro shots. HUAWEI hasn’t clarified if the ultrawide and macro features are due to individual sensors on the camera array. That said, the main sensor is a wide sensor with an f/1.8 aperture for better low light performance.
HUAWEI is touting the front camera’s enhanced selfie features. This is powered by a dual selfie camera setup. HUAWEI hasn’t divulged the exact sensors used in the setup. That said, the company has touted that the new setup will enable users to get “golden selfies”. In addition, it looks like the nova 7i comes with enhanced software that will allow users to get better performance on video calls and even when posting to social media such as TikTok and Instagram.
We don’t have any information on the price. However, given the previous price point of the nova 5T, we expect the nova 7i to be about MYR1,599. It is likely the smartphone may be priced higher due to the HUAWEI Y9s released last year.
