Huawei nova plus review
Introduction
The Huawei nova plus is one half of the nova pair that debuted at IFA just weeks ago. It's a new generation of an Android smartphone by Huawei, mixing midrange with flagship, premium with everyday, trying to deliver a fresh experience in an increasingly busy market.
The nova and nova plus handsets take a step back from the P-lineup, but offer the same attention to detail and user experience. These could easily replace the Honor devices, which are sort of stand-alone brand that's not available everywhere where Huawei is.
A camera-centric phablet with a pinch of Mate in it is what the Huawei nova plus represents. The regular Huawei nova is slightly more compact, but still a 5-incher.
The Huawei nova plus clearly takes after the Mate series and comes with a 5.5" 1080p screen enhanced by a beautiful 2.5D black glass. It's powered by a capable 14nm Snapdragon 625 core with 3GB of RAM, but it's the camera that stands out, a 16MP bright sensor with optical image stabilization and 4K video recording.
In case you were wondering, the Huawei nova plus is the global version of the Huawei G9 Plus launched rather quietly in China last month. The company has the habit of releasing some of its phones in its home market first under a different name so nothing out of the ordinary.
Huawei Nova Plus key features
- 5.5" IPS LCD display of 1920x1080 pixels resolution, 411ppi
- Airplane-grade full aluminum unibody design
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, octa-core 2.0GHz Cortex-A53 CPU; Adreno 506 GPU
- 3GB of RAM, 32GB storage
- Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Emotion UI 4.1, featuring Knuckle gestures
- 16MP camera with dual-color LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization, hybrid autofocus, PDAF+ contrast detection; 4K video recording
- 8MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, 1080p video
- 3340mAh Li-Po battery with rapid charging
- Hybrid DualSIM/microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
- Cat. 7 LTE (300/150Mbps); dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.1 LE; NFC; GPS/GLONASS; FM radio; USB Type-C
- Available in Prestige Gold, Titanium Gray and Moonlight Silver
Main disadvantages
- No scratch-resistant screen coating
- Non-removable battery
- Hybrid DualSIM/microSD card slot limits options on the dual-SIM model
- No 4GB (64GB) model outside of China
- Only single-band Wi-Fi support
- No IR blaster
- A bit pricey
While the list of features Huawei packs in each new device is steadily growing, the shortcomings are pretty consistent as well. The lack of a proper screen protection was perhaps a more blatant omission in the flagship Huawei P9 as its screen could easily scratch if you are not careful.
Other than that though, there are no major gaps in the spec sheet. On the contrary, the Nova plus is among the first company devices to offer 4K video recording, and it's not even a flagship. There is an FM radio too, which is a rare catch these days.
Let's see what else the Huawei nova plus has in store for us. We continue on the next page with the usual unboxing and hardware checkup.
Unboxing the Huawei nova plus
The Huawei nova plus comes in a big flat black box pointing to the premium nature of its inhabitant. The nova plus comes accompanied by a 2A charger plus, a USB Type-C cable, and a pair of EarPods-inspired headphones with a mic and remote. These are all packed in separate black paper boxes inside the big one.
Unboxing the Huawei nova plus
Huawei nova plus 360-degree view
The Huawei nova plus measures 151.8 x 75.7 x 7.3mm, about the same as the Huawei P9 Plus and about right for a 5.5-incher. It weighs 162g, the same as the P9 Plus again. Not too hefty after all considering the all-metal design.
Design and build quality
While the smaller Huawei nova we also got for a review is sharing lots of DNA with the P9, it seems the nova plus is more akin to the Mate lineup. Opting for a bigger screen and a high-end camera resulted in a bigger footprint and a small hump at the rear to accommodate the optics, but overall Huawei did a good job.
If you're after a good-looking phablet, the Mate series have long earned Huawei a spot on the shortlist and the nova plus doesn't disappoint either. It is mostly made of airplane grade aluminum which is very lightweight yet durable.
There are two tiny plastic strips around the back for the antennas, but that's pretty common. And Huawei is proud with the nova plus antenna setup, which reportedly features gold-plating for enhanced performance.
Huawei nova plus next to the Huawei nova
The beautiful 2.5D glass on the front covering the 5.5" IPS screen serves the phablet right, while the almost flat back is great to the touch thanks to the nice matte finish. Finally, the frame that goes all around the sides is tastefully done in silver, looking sturdy and allowing a reasonable grip.
The fingerprint scanner on the back of the nova plus is, and we know we are repeating ourselves, one of the best solutions in the market: always-on, blazing-fast, and with great sensitivity. It's the opposite of tiny, and Huawei has its ways to use it beyond its primary function. Its frame goes well with the overall design.
Huawei nova plus at the back
The camera hump is really nothing to worry about as it doesn't make the phone wobble. We are not fond of its patterned texture, but that's a personal thing.
Overall, the nova plus feels and handles like a Huawei flagship. Even though it's not targeting the high end, Huawei did its very best to deliver a great phablet with strong grip and excellent build quality.
Handling the Huawei nova plus
Controls
Above the 5.5" display is the earpiece with a subtle metal accent. The 8MP selfie camera and a couple of sensors are on the side. There is also a tiny status LED hidden close to the earpiece that flashes notifications.
There is nothing below the screen but the Huawei logo.
A look above the screen
The hybrid SIM/memory slot is on the left which can either take two nano-SIM cards or you can swap one of those for a microSD card.
The volume rocker and the power/lock key are on the right side.
The left side • the hybrid slot • the right side • the power key
The top of the nova plus houses the audio jack and the secondary mic. The USB-Type C port is at the bottom, in between a couple of grilles, one for the primary mic and another one for the speaker. We guess the big microphone grille is there for symmetry and we appreciate the effort.
The top • the audio jack • the bottom • there is nice symmetry down there
Finally, the 16MP optically stabilized camera is humping at the back, complemented by a dual-tone flash. The always-on fingerprint sensor enjoys the space below.
What's on the back
Display
The Huawei nova plus has a very promising 5.5" IPS display. Arguably, 1080p is a bit outdated, but the 401ppi is more than enough for a mid-ranger and achieving an excellent mark in pixel density. The 2.5D screen glass looks nice, but we'd have really appreciated an adequate glass protection to keep the scratches away from the display. Once again, there is no protective glass mentioned anywhere in the Huawei's promo materials and official specs.
Huawei promises 450 nits of maximum brightness. The 400 nits max brightness we measured is close enough to their claim. The minimum brightness is great though at 3.5nits and should be quite comfortable for reading in the dark.
Thanks to the deep blacks the contrast is excellent at 1281:1, and it's even better than the P9 and Honor 8's.
Regarding color reproduction accuracy, the Huawei nova plus screen is an average performer. It came out less than stellar with an average deviation (DeltaE) of 6.2 - a bit higher than what we would ideally like. Fortunately, opting for the warm colors calibration option fixes all colors that were off and achieves a stellar average deviation (DeltaE) of 3.8.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.31 | 397 | 1281 | |
| 0.46 | 500 | 1094 | |
| 0.00 | 400 | ∞ | |
| 0.37 | 460 | 1243 | |
| 0.50 | 531 | 1071 | |
| 0.00 | 422 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 433 | ∞ | |
| 0.30 | 426 | 1444 | |
| 0.42 | 403 | 953 | |
The Huawei nova plus did an uninspiring job in our sunlight legibility test. A score of 2.239 means you'll barely see what's happening on the display in bright sunlight.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Battery life
The Huawei nova plus is powered by a hefty 3,340mAh battery. The battery is non-removable but combined with the 14nm midrange Snapdragon processor we expect it to go a long way.
We ran our battery test and the Huawei nova plus scored a 79h rating, which means you can count on the battery to last north of 3 full days on a single charge if you do an hour each of calling, browsing the web and video playback a day. The phone posted consistently good scores on all tests, including standby.
Oddly the dual-SIM standby turned out very close to the single-SIM one and thus it didn't affect the overall endurance rating.
Standby battery life was gauged in the Performance mode, which does not put any limits on the hardware. The Standard mode will add a couple of hours to the rating, while the Ultra Power Saving will keep your phone alive for some extra time.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Connectivity
The Huawei nova plus is properly equipped in terms of connectivity. The radio support includes up to four 2G bands, five 3G bands, and eight 4G bands. The LTE connectivity is Cat.7 which means up to 300Mbps downlink and up to 150Mbps uplink.
Our variant comes with a hybrid nano-SIM/microSD slot. Its second card can only hook to 2G networks while the first gets the full set of cellular connectivity.
The Huawei nova plus oddly supports single-band 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, with Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi+ and hotspot capabilities. Bluetooth is v4.1 and NFC are available too.
The GPS support includes A-GPS and GLONASS. There is an FM radio as well.
A 3.5mm jack provides the standard audio connectivity option. There is the new USB Type-C connector for charging and data connections. Mind you, it defaults to charge-only every single time you connect it to a PC, and you have to manually switch the mode from the notification area if you want to do something else.
Marshmallow + EMUI = Love
The Huawei nova plus runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, skinned with Huawei's Emotion UI, in its v.4.1 iteration. Emotion UI has been pretty consistent between versions and recurring Huawei users should feel right at home if upgrading to the nova plus.
There's plenty of stuff going on the lockscreen, starting with the alternating cover images - every time you wake up the device, you're greeted by a different wallpaper. That's if you opt for some of the Magazine unlock styles. You can also go old-school and pick a single image to be shown on the lockscreen. Whatever you choose, you likely won't be seeing much of it, as the fingerprint unlock takes you straight to the homescreen instantaneously.
If you do decide to wake up the nova plus via the power button, you get a large clock with a date, and a shortcut to the camera. You can also quickly start the camera by a double press of the Volume Down button.
Back to the lockscreen, you can pull up an iOS-style menu from the bottom, where you get yet another camera shortcut, but also quick access to the flashlight, calculator and voice recorder. If you've chosen the magazine style lockscreen, the pull-up menu will give you eight more options for control over the changing covers.
The Lockscreen
After unlocking you see a fairly standard Android homescreen with between 0 and 5 customizable shortcuts docked at the bottom and visible on all panes. There are eighteen homescreen panes at most, more than enough to house all of your apps since there is no app drawer.
Default homescreen • apps-only homescreen • folders • settings • options
A pinch on the homescreen triggers the familiar Overview mode to let you check out and organize the homescreen panes currently in use, remove or add panes as you please. Widgets are available too - it's mostly the stock Android ones, but Huawei has thrown in some of its own as well. If you like your homescreens neatly organized, you can enable the Shake feature, which will arrange scattered apps starting from the top left.
Theme options are available in the Emotion 4.1 UX. They can swap your wallpapers, icon pack, and lockscreen style.
Themes • applying a new theme • another theme
The notification area has two panes - one that holds all notifications sorted in a timeline, and another for all of your quick toggles.
The nova plus task switcher lets you swipe up and away unwanted apps. A downward swipe locks the app so that when you hit the Kill all button, it remains open. That's nifty if you are trying to free some RAM for a particular app or game.
Notifications • quick settings • toggles rearrangement • pull down to keep • swipe up to kill
For certain scenarios, like in-car use, you can enable a Simple homescreen mode, which features large tiles for easy tapping. It's not particularly consistent, though, offering simple version of some menus, but not others - the dialer is the same size as in regular mode (in all fairness it's fairly oversized to begin with).
Simple homescreen with a tiled interface
Huawei had granular control over app permissions before it was cool, and there's no reason to change that, now that the feature comes as a part of latest Android Marshmallow.
The nova plus features a notification center, courtesy of the Phone Manager app, from which you can control which apps can send you the three types of available notifications - the shade notifications, the lockscreen notifications and the banner style notifications.
This level of control is also employed when it comes to the app access to network data. The user can control the rights of each application to access either WiFi or mobile data. This can save a lot of traffic and help you optimize your data plan and consumption in an easy and convenient way.
The Phone Manager also features harassment filter, battery manager with power-saving modes, and options to choose which apps to run in the background and which not (protected apps).
Phone Manager • Notification permissions • Notification permissions
As part of the extensive Smart assistance package, you can customize the bottom navigation bar - you can swap the task-switcher and back keys, or even add a shortcut for the notification area. There is also a one-handed UI mode, for easier menu surfing on the go, although it's hardly essential on a 5.5" screen like the one on the Huawei nova plus.
The fingerprint sensor on the back is also a clickable key (Smart key), on which you can assign up to three quick actions invoked on single press, double press, and press&hold. You can assign app shortcuts, as well as actions such as torch or screenshot.
You can enable the so-called Floating dock - it's a virtual key you can move anywhere on the screen, allowing you to expand it to the primary Android keys - Back, Home, Task Switcher, Lock and Close all running apps. It will help you control your phone with just one hand.
Motion control also plays a significant role on the nova plus. There are flip gestures, as well as picking up, tilting and even things like knuckle detection and drawing. All of those are extensively customizable to your liking as well.
Smart assistance • navigation bar options • floating dock • motion control • motion control
Scheduled power on and off is also available. The Smart Assistance package also offers Glove mode, and an option to prevent accidental unlocks while the nova plus is in your pocket.
And finally, we've saved the best for the end. There are a couple of super useful gestures you can perform on the fingerprint sensor below the rear camera. Note that you can do those with any finger, there is no need of print recognition.
You can answer a call with touch and hold. Alarms can be turned off the same way. Snap a photo or capture a video with tap&hold too. Then you can swipe down and up for showing/hiding the notification panel. We found all of those really cool and useful, so we recommend opting for these gestures. Those can be performed by any finger, not just the one(s) saved within the secure memory.
Scheduled power on and off • Fingerprint sensor gestures
Performance
The Huawei nova plus is powered by the mid-range Snapdragon 625 chip, which is the sole reason not to put the nova plus among the top-end smartphones. The SoC offers a total of eight Cortex-A53 cores, running at 2.0 GHz, and a rather new Adreno 506 GPU. There are 3GB of RAM available on the nova plus, and unlike the G9 Plus there is no 4GB RAM (64GB) option.
The highlight of the chip is that it is manufactured using a 14nm process. It is the same fabrication process Qualcomm uses for its top-tier chips like the Snapdragon 820 and is still quite uncommon in mid-range chips. This should allow for less power consumption and lower running temperature than any other mid-range solution to date.
As usual, we kick off our routine with some CPU torture. In the single core test, it is not hard to see how any Cortex-A72 or Kryo unit performs a lot better than an isolated Cortex-A53.
GeekBench 3 (single-core)
Higher is better
But, when you put enough of them together on a multi-threaded load, the higher clock rate starts to add up and lowers the gap between the latest Kirin (P9 Plus) and Snapdragon (OnePlus 3). Sure, the difference is still big, but we are talking mid-range here, so the score is perfectly fine.
GeekBench 3 (multi-core)
Higher is better
Looking at the all-round benchmarks, we clearly see the Huawei nova plus holds its ground among mid-rangers such as Galaxy C7 and Xperia X, both similarly priced and positioned. Of course, it is not exactly a fair performance fight when we pit it against flagships like the OnePlus 3, the Honor 8 or the Galaxy S7 edge. However, the nova plus costs the same as those, so they need to be here.
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
Moving on to graphics, the Adreno 506 bundled with the Snapdragon 625 provides an adequate match to CPU performance. That said, we definitely can't expect it to stand up to something like the Adreno 530 in the Snapdragon 820, but it is still more than adequate for almost every current Android game title in the Play Store.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
Basemark X provides an even better overview of where the Huawei nova plus fits graphics-wise among its competitors.
Basemark X
Higher is better
The Huawei nova plus may not have the top-tier specs to impress, but it won't let down even power users. The eight 2.0 GHz cores are snappy, and the 3GB of RAM are still perfectly adequate for as much multitasking as you desire. Modern games run smooth, there is no lag in Android OS, and the phone stays cool even when its hardware is 100% busy for a long time. And that's more than enough for a great mid-ranger by our books.
Post a Comment