Huawei today presented new hardware for the American market, including the two mid-range smartphones nova 9 and nova 8i. Both smartphones come with Android 12 – and not with Harmony OS. The camera and the display of the nova 9 should be particularly exciting for the price range.
- Huawei nova 9 offers Android 12, 50 megapixel camera, 120Hz display and Snapdragon 778G
- The market launch is at the beginning of November for 499 euros, there is an interesting pre-order campaign
- The smaller nova 8i cuts back on the SoC, display and camera, but costs 150 euros less
In addition to the Mate series and the P series, the nova smartphones are Huawei’s third important series of mobile phones. The nova devices are primarily aimed at a young target group. First the obvious: Yes, Huawei’s smartphones are still suffering from the political infighting.
Smartphone duo: Huawei nova 9 and nova 8i
The nova 9 and nova 8i run Android 12 with the well-known EMUI interface – but without the Google Play services. That means there is no Play Store, and Huawei’s own AppGallery is still missing a few apps. After all, according to Huawei, over 90 percent of the top 400 apps from the Play Store are now also available in their own app store.
A second, albeit smaller, effect of the embargo: Huawei is not allowed to buy 5G chips, and so the nova 9 contains the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, which offers a maximum of 4G. At least as of today, this should still be manageable in US. At least in terms of performance, the Snapdragon SoC should be sufficient for most purposes.
Huawei designed the camera for the nova 9 around a new, larger 50-megapixel sensor. There is also an ultra wide-angle camera and the two fix chips for portrait and macro, which primarily beautify the data sheet. The battery has a capacity of 4300 mAh and can be fully charged in 38 minutes thanks to 66 watt quick charging. Finally, the 6.57-inch display has a Full HD+ resolution and offers a refresh rate of 120 Hertz.
The Huawei nova 9 is available for pre-order now and will go on sale from November 2nd. With 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, the device costs 499 euros according to the RRP, and those who pre-order receive the Freebuds Pro worth 179 euros free of charge. We will definitely test the nova 9 extensively – the big question mark here is of course the software. Because building hardware, Huawei was always really good at that.
The little sister, the nova 8i, went on sale just a few days ago. The main drawbacks are the display (only 60 Hz), the camera (smaller sensor) and the SoC (Snapdragon 662). The version with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage costs “only” 349 euros according to the RRP.
