Huawei Nova 3

The Chinese smartphone giant, Huawei, brings phone experience to a whole new level with its new flagship, Nova 3. Priced at Rs. 20,990 for the 4GB RAM and 128GB storage capacity variant, this model is all set to tackle the increasing competition in the flagship smartphone market.

Equipped with an original processor and four cameras and partnered by a reliable battery and a new EMUI which is more fluid than many competing Android smartphones, Huawei is looking to score on all levels. But it seriously lags behind Snapdragon 845, and so only has its AI-powered camera to keep us impressed.

Nova 3 retains much of the design features of Nova 3e, with the thin metal frame and glass back. It looks like a modern phone with minimal side bezels and a sleek chin. It comes with a fast fingerprint scanner at the back which is easy to reach and quite snappy. The glass design makes it look premium but more susceptible to capture fingerprints. However, there is a big notch which is an eye-sore.

Nova 3 comes with a 6.3-inch IPS display with full HD+ 2340×1080 resolution that produces sharp colours with outstanding accuracy. You can expect a pleasant cinematic experience. Surprisingly, the screen does not have Gorilla Glass. So be careful not to drop it!

Powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 970 processor – this flagship installation is FAST. Nova 3 can tackle anything that you throw at it. Even under strenuous conditions, it won’t stutter, freeze or overheat. Heavy gaming doesn’t falter. Like the Honor View 10, which uses the same processor, you can rely on this phone. However, the Snapdragon 845 beats it when it comes to raw GPU and CPU power. Benchmarks tests put Kirin 970 at 200,950 for CPU and 31,354 for graphics testing which is way behind 271,861 and 64,593 points respectively of Snapdragon 845. It’s not as good as OnePlus 6, which makes the price quite steep.

The flagship introduction of four cameras – two rear cameras and two front camera is an exciting innovation. The rear pair is of 24MP + 16MP configuration with AI enhancement for an immersive camera experience. In broad daylight, Nova 3 produces crisp images capturing enough details that can easily compete with other flagship cameras. The bokeh capture is satisfactory.

The portrait mode of Nova 3 is not the best, but it is good and can be recommended for use. Plus, it gives you the ability to changing lighting in portrait mode and tweak it a bit, like iPhone X. However, Nova 3 does not come with OIS. It means low-light photography will suffer a blow. The images at night are blurry and not as detailed.

The AI steps in to recognise more than 200 different scenarios and place under eight unique categories. It works well, but it might produce artificial effects. Disabling the AI can oversaturate colours.

In the front, Nova 3 offer you two cameras: one with a 24MP sensor with a f/2.0 aperture coupled with a 2MP broad-spectrum colour sensor. It analyses the depth of the image and captures enough visual information to give you good bokeh effects. AI-assistance can help produce quality images. HDR Pro mode helps to improve images further and makes you look more natural than many other smartphones.

Nova 3 comes with a 3750mAh battery which is reasonable enough for this set. It lasts for a day on a single charge. Quick charging is a plus. However, the quick charging did not charge as rapidly as OnePlus 6. It does not have wireless charging, which is becoming a staple among current flagship phones.

Huawei has incredible potential when it comes to great design, accurate display and juiced-up battery. The Kirin 970 processor performs well but falls behind Snapdragon 845. It makes Asus Zenfone 5Z and OnePlus 6 a better performer in the similar price range. However, Huawei beats many of its competitors with AI-powered cameras which works great. It is a good phone, but it doesn’t introduce any feature that cuts above the rest. It is recommended to go for better options in this price range.