Huawei nova 2i: overview of characteristics and capabilities

Without going into too much detail, it won’t be easy to find something special in the Huawei Nova 2i that would give it an edge over its competitors. We are offered a device with up-to-date hardware and decent performance, which gives it a confident position in the mid-price category. The thin frames running along the perimeter of the display are also attractive. They are so tiny that you simply don’t pay attention to them. Once you get to know the device even more closely, you no longer want to let it go out of your hands. What is most surprising is the presence of four cameras at once - two main and two front ones. Let's review the Huawei Nova 2i and figure out why it needs so many lenses and what to expect after purchase.

Technical characteristics of Huawei Nova 2i:

• Screen: TFT IPS, 5.9″, 2160×1080, 407 ppi
• Processor: Octa-core Huawei Kirin 659, 2.4 GHz
• Graphics accelerator: ARM Mali-T830 MP2
• Operating system: Android 7.0 Nougat
• RAM: 4 GB
• Built-in memory: 64 GB
• Memory card support: microSDXC, up to 128 GB
• Communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz || UMTS 850/900/2100 MHz || LTE 1,3,7,8,20
• SIM: nano-SIM + nano-SIM (combined slot), Dual SIM Dual Standby
• Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, FM radio
• Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BDS
• Cameras: main – 16 MP + 2 MP (flash, autofocus), front – 13 MP + 2 MP
• Sensors: proximity, light, accelerometer, digital compass, fingerprint sensor
• Battery: 3340 mAh
• Dimensions: 156.2x75.2x7.5 mm
• Weight: 164 grams

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Review of the Huawei Nova 2 smartphone: a medium-sized mid-level model with high-quality cameras

Content

• Specifications
• Equipment
• Appearance and ease of use
• Screen
• Camera
• Telephone and communications
• Software and multimedia
• Performance
• Thermal photographs
• Playing video
• Battery life
• Bottom line

At the end of July, Huawei Consumer Business Group introduced new smartphones of its Nova series, which appeared just a year ago, for the Russian market: they were the Huawei Nova 2 and Nova 2 Plus models. The smartphones received three body color options and a rich set of additional features, including a unique front camera and a new audio system. The dual main camera of both models, assembled from 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel modules, has a professional portrait mode, and the 20-megapixel front camera provides high-quality self-portraits, expanding the creative possibilities of users. Today we present a detailed review of the simplest and at the same time the most balanced of these two models - Huawei Nova 2.

Main characteristics of Huawei Nova 2 (model PIC-LX9)

• SoC HiSilicon Kirin 659, 8 cores Cortex-A53 ( [email protected] .4 GHz + [email protected] .7 GHz)
• GPU Mali-T830 (MP2)
• Operating system Android 7.0, EMUI 5.1
• Touch display IPS 5″, 1920×1080, 443 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 4 GB, internal memory 64 GB
• Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• MicroSD support up to 128 GB
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• WCDMA/HSPA+ networks (850/900/1900/2100 MHz)
• Networks LTE Cat.6 FDD (B1/3/4/7/8/20), TD (B38)
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
• Bluetooth 4.2
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• USB Type-C, USB OTG
• 12 MP main camera, f/1.8 wide-angle lens, autofocus, 1080p video
• Additional camera 8 MP, f/2.4 telephoto lens
• Front camera 20 MP, f/2.0, fixed. focus
• Proximity sensor, lighting sensor, magnetic field sensor, fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, step counter
• Battery 2950 mAh
• Dimensions 142×69×6.9 mm
• Weight 142 g

Appearance and ease of use

In design, the latest Huawei smartphones differ little from each other: they all have the same iPhone-like, sleek style of an all-metal body that is streamlined on all sides with strongly rounded corners. The developers do not hide the fact that the entire line of small, but technically worthy equipped Nova smartphones is designed primarily for a female audience.

Huawei Nova 2 has an aluminum-magnesium body that is durable, thin and quite light. There are no plastic inserts in the metal case; external antennas are usually placed in external grooves covered with composite material. The surface of anodized aluminum is matte, slightly rough, and there are practically no fingerprints on it.

The smartphone is not large in size, it fits comfortably in the hand, does not slip out, and does not weigh on your pockets. By modern standards, such a device can be called elegant.

The rear panel houses a dual camera module with flash. The flash is single, consists of one LED, but shines quite brightly.

The fingerprint sensor area is only slightly recessed (depth is only 0.1 mm). The fingerprint scanner is protected from dirt and dust and fits well into the overall appearance of the device. There are no complaints about the scanner's operation; you can place your finger at any angle.

The front panel is completely covered with 2.5D glass with sloping edges. In the upper part above the screen there are usually sensors, a front camera eye, and an LED event indicator. Its small, barely noticeable dot shines almost in the middle above the speaker grille.

There are no hardware control buttons under the screen, but you can customize the set of buttons in the panel on the screen.

The side keys are larger than you might expect, and they are quite hard. The buttons have different surface textures, but they feel the same to the touch.

The side card slot is hybrid: a Nano-SIM card is inserted into one of the slots, a microSD memory card or, in the case of a Dual SIM modification, a second Nano-SIM format SIM card is inserted into the other. The slides are not metal, but plastic; they hold the cards and do not fall out.

The bottom end is given over to a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a microphone hole, a main speaker output and a USB Type-C connector. Thus, there is nothing on the top end except the auxiliary microphone hole. There is also no infrared transmitter used for smartphones from this manufacturer to emulate a remote control.

Huawei Nova 2 is available in black (“Graphite Black”), gold (“Prestige Gold”) and blue colors. Unlike many manufacturers, Huawei designers decided not to paint the front panel of Nova 2 to match the overall color of the body - it comes only in black or white.

Screen

Huawei Nova 2 is equipped with an IPS display with 2.5D protective glass. The screen dimensions are approximately 62x110 mm with a diagonal of 5 inches. The resolution is 1920×1080, the pixel density is about 443 ppi.

You can adjust the display brightness manually or use automatic settings based on the ambient light sensor. Multi-touch tests diagnose support for 6-9 simultaneous touches, but not a single test showed all 10. The screen supports operation with gloves, but this mode should be looked for not in the section about the screen, but in the button control settings.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev

. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Huawei Nova 2, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Huawei Nova 2 is noticeably darker (brightness according to photographs is 104 versus 118 for the Nexus 7). The ghosting of reflected objects in the Huawei Nova 2 screen is very weak, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS - One Glass Solution type screen). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen, there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, which is better in efficiency than that of the Nexus 7. Therefore, fingerprints are removed much easier here and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When manually controlling the brightness and displaying the white field in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 500 cd/m², the minimum was 2 cd/m². The maximum brightness is high, and given the excellent anti-glare properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at an acceptable level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider; the user can use it to try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. We increased the brightness to the desired level in complete darkness and found that in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 12 cd/m², in an artificially lit office (approximately 550 lux) it sets it to 180 cd/m², in a very bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 500 cd/m². We were quite pleased with the result. It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to adjust their work to individual requirements. At any brightness level, there is no significant backlight modulation, so there is no screen flicker.

This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The microphotographs show a typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Huawei Nova 2 and Nexus 7, while the screen brightness is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera is forced to switch to 6500 K.

There is a white field perpendicular to the screens:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

And a test picture:

The colors on the Huawei Nova 2's screen are a bit oversaturated (note the bananas, tomatoes, napkin and skin tone) and the color balance is slightly off.

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens, but on the Huawei Nova 2 the contrast has decreased to a greater extent due to the strong highlighting of black.

And a white field:

The brightness of the screens at an angle decreased (by at least 5 times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but in the case of Huawei Nova 2 the drop in brightness is slightly greater. When deviated diagonally, the black field brightens greatly and acquires a slight reddish tint. The photographs below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same!):

And from another angle:

When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is excellent:

The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1100:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 24 ms (13 ms on + 11 ms off). The transition between halftones of gray 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 46 ms. The gamma curve, constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, did not reveal any blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.42, which is higher than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve deviates little from the power-law dependence:

This device has some kind of dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) may not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen. For this reason, we carried out a number of tests - determining contrast and response time, comparing black illumination at angles - (however, as always) when displaying special templates with a constant average brightness, and not monochromatic fields in the entire screen. It should be noted that in this case, the brightness correction is weakly expressed and has a not entirely obvious dependence on the image, but it would be better not to have it at all.

Color gamut is slightly wider than sRGB:

The spectra show that the matrix filters moderately mix the components with each other:

As a result, visually the colors on this screen are somewhat different from natural ones, since almost all images are designed for display on display devices with sRGB coverage. The balance of shades on the gray scale is average, since the color temperature is significantly higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is below 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature changes little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This device has the ability to adjust the color balance by adjusting the hue on the color wheel.

In the graphs above, the curves are Without corr.

correspond to the results without any color balance correction, and the curves
Corr.
— data obtained after shifting the point to the position indicated in the image above. It can be seen that the change in balance corresponds to the expected result, since the color temperature has approached the standard value and ΔE has decreased on average. However, it doesn’t make much sense to make the correction. Note that this function is implemented more for show, since there is no numerical reflection of the correction, there is no field for measuring color balance and the adjustment range is insufficient, since even at the edge of the circle one has to find a compromise between a color temperature close to 6500 K and the minimum value of ΔE .

To summarize: the screen has a high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems, even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. It is also possible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, the absence of air gaps in the layers of the screen and flickering, as well as high contrast and excellent uniformity of the black field. The disadvantages are the low stability of black to the deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane, excessive color saturation, as well as the non-disabled dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness. Nevertheless, taking into account the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the quality of the screen can be considered high.

Camera

The front camera module is one of the main points of pride for the creators of Huawei Nova 2. The fact is that the smartphone has a sensor with a very high resolution for a selfie camera of 20 megapixels, as well as a lens with an f/2.0 aperture - although without its own flash and autofocus. The camera features 3D technology for accurate face recognition. The quality of the images is not bad: the image sensor has good photosensitivity, color rendition is normal. The photos look very good on a smartphone screen, but when viewed on a computer, the level of detail is not amazing.

By default, this camera has a background blur mode enabled, although selfies are probably more often taken to capture a specific background and then show it off to viewers. Of course, this effect can be disabled in the settings, but by default it is turned on, apparently to immediately impress new users with technology.

The main camera uses the now familiar set of two modules, one of which has a wide-angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture and a 12 MP sensor, and the second is equipped with a telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture and an 8 MP sensor. Thanks to this, the camera provides the ability to double optical zoom, as well as blur the background with a bokeh effect.

The menu has manual settings for photo and video shooting: shutter speed (from 1/4000 to 30 s), photosensitivity (up to ISO 3200), exposure compensation, white balance, and focusing options. You can reach them by sliding out the panel from below, that is, manual mode is always at hand here. It also becomes possible to save pictures in RAW. The camera offers a large number of scene modes (from HDR to shooting light or food), some of them can be downloaded yourself.

The camera can shoot video in a maximum resolution of Full HD (1920×1080) at a speed of 30 fps; there are no 4K and 60 fps modes. The camera copes well with video shooting, but not perfectly: sharpness and color rendition are ok, but detail is not maximum, greens sometimes merge into mush. Brightness is also not always enough. There are no complaints about sound recording: the sensitivity of the microphones is high, the sound is clear and loud, the noise reduction system adequately copes with wind noise without adding noticeable distortion in the form of an echo.

• Video No. 1 (20 MB, 1920× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)
• Video No. 2 (28 MB, 1920× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)

Below are examples of photographs with our comments on quality. Our specialist Anton Soloviev

.

RAW won't allow you to increase detail, but it's easy to expand dynamic range.

The camera turned out to be quite interesting. She works well, without noticeable flaws, in detailing the field of the frame and the plans. The noise is almost unnoticeable, but the noise reduction works very moderately. Shooting in RAW, of course, does not open up many possibilities, but it cannot be called useless either: if desired, you can tighten the exposure and light/shadow in the photographs taken, and this will be much more effective than when working with JPEG. As a result, the Huawei Nova 2 camera will cope well with many scenarios when shooting documentary or art.

Telephone and communications

The communication capabilities of Huawei Nova 2 include support for data transmission at speeds of up to 300 Mbps in LTE Cat.6 networks. In the urban areas of the Moscow region, the device behaves confidently, does not lose connection in places where reception is uncertain, and quickly restores the connection. The remaining features are not so rich: Bluetooth has version 4.2, only one Wi-Fi band is supported (2.4 GHz), and there is no NFC module at all.

The navigation module works with GPS (with A-GPS), with the domestic Glonass and the Chinese Beidou. During a cold start, the first satellites are detected within tens of seconds, and the positioning accuracy is high. There is a built-in magnetic field sensor for compass operation.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts. Methods for sorting and displaying contacts are standard for the Android interface.

In conversational dynamics, the voice of a familiar interlocutor is clearly recognizable, there is no extraneous noise, the sound is natural, clear, and the volume margin is sufficient. The vibration alert is extremely powerful, you definitely won’t miss it.

The platform does not support active standby of both SIM cards in 3G/4G at the same time. That is, if one card is assigned to transmit data in 3G/4G, the other may be actively waiting on the network only in 2G. The interface in Huawei smartphones traditionally does not offer to pre-select a specific card for sending SMS; this can only be done for voice calls and data transfers. The cards operate in Dual SIM Dual Standby mode, there is only one radio modem.

Software and multimedia

The software platform used is Android OS, not the latest version 7.0, and its own shell, the latest version EMUI 5.1 - everything is the same as in other modern devices from the manufacturer. Naturally, there is the possibility of updating over the air (OTA).

The interface is designed in its own well-recognized corporate style. It is possible to enable the standard Android version of the launcher, which is more familiar to Europeans, with a separate program menu. There are many pre-installed applications, including Sberbank’s mobile bank, new Yandex programs and several of Huawei’s own utilities. There is a comprehensive Phone Manager responsible for system monitoring, memory cleaning, virus scanning and protection, spam blocking, etc.

To listen to music, instead of the standard Google Music player, you use your own audio player with a familiar interface. All settings become available only with connected headphones, including equalizer presets. Thanks to the dedicated AK4376A audio chip, the sound has a very high maximum volume, the sound is bright, thick and rich, even at the maximum level the speaker does not start to wheeze. With headphones the quality is even better, the sound is bright, rich and also very loud. The 3D surround sound effect is available for the headphones—Huawei Histen proprietary features.

Performance

The Huawei Nova 2 hardware platform is based on the HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC. The chip configuration includes eight ARM Cortex-A53 processor cores in two clusters with a maximum frequency of 2.36 and 1.7 GHz. Essentially, this is an overclocked version of the Kirin 655 SoC. Kirin 659 is also made using a 16nm process technology. The ARM Mali-T830 (MP2) video accelerator with support for the OpenGL ES 3.2 graphics API is responsible for graphics processing. The amount of RAM is 4 GB, built-in flash memory is 64 GB. Of this, 1.9 GB of RAM and about 51.4 GB of total memory are free.

It is possible to expand the memory by installing microSD cards, but applications are not installed on the memory card. You can also connect external flash drives in USB OTG mode.

SoC HiSilicon Kirin 659 is a relatively new solution designed for mid-range smartphones and tablets. The SoC is quite productive, at the level of Qualcomm Snapdragon 625; in the AnTuTu test, the hero of the review demonstrates a quite decent 60K-plus points, this is a confident average level.

Kirin 659 provides the system with reliable performance and in real scenarios allows the smartphone to cope with any modern tasks. There are no problems with games either; all the games we tested, including Modern Combat 5 and Mortal Kombat X, run smoothly.

Testing in comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

AndroBench memory speed test results:

Thermal photographs

Below is a thermal image of the rear surface obtained after 10 minutes of running the battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:

Heating is more localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 37 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), which is not very much.

Playing video

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a table.

Further testing of video playback was performed by Alexey Kudryavtsev

.

We could not check the theoretically possible support for adapters for outputting images to an external device, due to the lack of an adapter option that connects to the USB Type C port, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In the tests we used the MX Player video player in the “Hardware” mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

Note: If both columns have Uniformity

and
Skips
are given green ratings, this means that, most likely, when watching films, artifacts caused by uneven alternation and skipping of frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect the viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with playback of the corresponding files.

According to the frame output criterion, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since in most cases frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. The screen refresh rate is 59 Hz, so in the case of 60 fps files, one frame per second is skipped. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, one to one in pixels, that is, in the original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: all gradations of shades are displayed in shadows and highlights.

Battery life

The non-removable battery installed in Huawei Nova 2 has a capacity of 2950 mAh - this is the average for today. With such a battery, the hero of the review also demonstrates average results in autonomy tests. The smartphone did not last long in gaming mode surprisingly, but when playing a video from YouTube, the result, on the contrary, was quite satisfactory.

In real life, the device behaves the same way as most modern smartphones: it confidently survives until the evening charge, but you can’t count on more.

Testing has traditionally been done at normal power consumption levels without using power-saving features.

Continuous reading in the Moon+ Reader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) with auto-scrolling lasted 13 hours until the battery was completely discharged, and when continuously watching videos in high quality (720p) with At the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device operates for about 10.5 hours. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone can work for no more than 4 hours.

Huawei Nova 2 supports fast charging, but the test sample arrived to us without its own charger, and from a regular network adapter (2 A 5 V) the smartphone was charged for 2 hours with a current of 1 A at a voltage of 5 V. The smartphone does not support wireless charging.

Bottom line

The model has already gone on official sale in Russia; in the Huawei branded online store, Nova 2 is asking 24 thousand rubles. This is not the lowest price for a mid-range smartphone, but it still doesn’t cause a shock; it looks acceptable for a balanced solution with a neat and attractive all-metal body, good cameras, good sound and screen. As for communication capabilities, one can only regret the absence of a second Wi-Fi band (5 GHz) and an NFC module - support for LTE Cat.6 does not seem to be equivalent compensation. But in any case, this model clearly has more advantages than disadvantages, and the opportunity to get a well-equipped device in a small body can attract the attention of those who do not like large pocket devices - Huawei Nova 2 was created specifically for them.

Huawei Nova 2i design

The manufacturer offers three body color options: black, gold and dark blue. The gold version has a white front panel, otherwise it is black. We conducted a detailed review of Huawei Nova 2i on the dark blue version.

The case is all-metal, only on the back side there are small plastic inserts for hidden antenna placement. A dual camera unit is also installed, occupying the central space of the upper part of the back. Above it we see a single-section round flash, and below it there is a fingerprint scanner. At first, when you try to feel it, you inadvertently come across the camera sensor; the location is not the most convenient. The lenses rise a millimeter above the body, so to avoid scratching them, it is better to start wearing a case from the first days. Fortunately, it is included in the package and does not spoil the appearance of the device at all.

The Huawei Nova 2i review showed that a standard set of sensors, an event light indicator, a speaker grid and, most importantly, two front cameras were installed above the screen.

In Huawei Nova 2i, it was decided to use on-screen keys to make the bottom indentation more miniature. It is occupied only by the brand logo.

A tray has been placed on the left side of the case, in which you can place two SIM cards or one along with microSDXC.

On the right is the power button and the traditional volume rocker.

Only an additional microphone is installed on top; it was decided to group the remaining functional elements at the bottom.

On the bottom edge we see a 3.5 mm jack, a microphone, a multimedia speaker and a microUSB port occupying the central space.

As shown, Huawei Nova 2i review in Russian, the large diagonal does not harm the ergonomics of the case at all. In terms of size, the smartphone is more comparable to 5-5.5 inch devices, although it has a 6-inch diagonal. This is thanks to the narrow frames, both on the sides and below and above the display.

Whether with or without a case, it is convenient to operate the smartphone with one hand, it does not cause any inconvenience. But if you have a small hand and it’s hard to reach the top notification curtain, then you can go to the settings and activate the one-handed control mode. It offers several options for trimming the working area of ​​the screen. The Huawei Nova 2i smartphone review demonstrates that the build quality is at the highest level - the parts sit tightly in their places, nothing creaks or plays.

Design and appearance

Of the 10 people I interviewed, everyone liked the appearance of the smartphone without exception. iPhone owners noted that the new product very much reminded them of the iPhone 6/6s Plus and iPhone 7 Plus. This is largely due to the similarity of the body shape and finishing materials. Thus, in the Huawei device, the back is made of a sheet of magnesium-aluminum alloy, which has plastic inserts on the top and bottom. It is in these inserts that the antennas of the mobile network and Wi-Fi are located. GPS/GLONASS, Bluetooth.

The use of sandblasting technology made it possible to create a surface that is pleasant to the touch and gives the body a stylish matte appearance. This coating is very resistant to mechanical stress. Abrasions do not appear on the paint if you carry your smartphone with keys in your pocket.

The rounded edges of the screen are made using 2.5D technology and allow the smartphone to fit perfectly in the hand. In general, in the hands of the device, the device is perceived as a very good and expensive device.

Almost the entire front part is occupied by a 5.93-inch touch screen. Taking into account the thin edges on the sides, it seems as if the gadget has no frames at all. In addition, the top and bottom edges are also small. It looks very impressive. The protective glass of the display has an oleophobic coating; fingerprints remain, but are erased quickly and easily.

A speaker for telephone calls is located above the screen. Its volume is enough to communicate in a noisy room or on the road. There is a built-in LED indicator to the left of the speaker. It blinks when there are incoming messages, phone calls, or low battery. It can be disabled or reconfigured in the corresponding menu item. Here you can also see proximity and lighting sensors. The front camera in Huawei nova 2i is dual. Both cameras are on the right side.

There are no buttons or other elements under the screen. Instead of them is the Huawei logo. Function keys are fully integrated into the screen shell.

On the bottom edge on the right there are speaker holes for external calls and music, and on the left there is a microphone. Here you can also see a hole for connecting headphones with a 3.5 mm jack. In the center there is a USB Type C port for connecting the phone to a computer and charging.

I would rate the performance of the main speaker as a strong four. The sound is quite powerful and loud, although the detail is not of the highest quality. However, the melodies do not wheeze or hiss. If you cover the speaker with your hand or finger, the volume drops by 90%. It’s worth knowing about this fact when you put the device in a handbag or winter clothes. This way you might miss an important call.

On the top edge you can see a second microphone for noise reduction. On the right side there are volume buttons and a power/lock screen key. The keys are pressed firmly, but very clearly. No false positives were detected during testing.

A tray for two nanoSIM-sized SIM cards is located on the left side surface. You can open it using the clip included in the kit, or using a regular paper clip. One of the SIM card slots is combined with a microSD memory card slot. This configuration does not allow you to use two SIM cards and a memory card at once. We'll have to choose.

On the back side you can see two camera lenses: 16 megapixels and 2 megapixels. The cameras take pictures with autofocus and have an LED flash. The cameras protrude 2 mm relative to the surface of the body.

A little lower in the center is a fingerprint scanner, which has a round shape. With it, you can not only unlock the device, but also answer calls, turn off the alarm, view the list of open applications (to do this, you need to swipe up on the sensor), open the notification panel (swipe down) and erase notifications (double tap on the sensor). Moreover, the user can create a secure area to store confidential information and classified applications, which can be accessed using a fingerprint.

The fingerprint sensor works quite quickly and, most importantly, accurately. The official Huawei website says 0.3 seconds for recognition, and this seems to be true. During testing, it accurately recognized my fingerprints and did not react to strangers. In total, you can save up to five prints in the device memory.

Display Huawei Nova 2i

The smartphone uses a large display, the diagonal of which reaches 5.9 inches. On top of that, it has a non-standard 18:9 aspect ratio and FullHD+ resolution, which gives 409 pixels per inch. It is built on a high-quality IPS panel with wide viewing angles and natural color reproduction. Already out of the box, a protective film is glued to it, although for greater reliability it is better to install glass. A review of the Huawei Nova 2i introduces you to the fact that multi-touch supports up to 10 simultaneous touches.

The Huawei Nova 2i review showed that the screen displays a rich and highly detailed image on which it will be impossible to see the pixel grid. The brightness reserve is sufficient for comfortable use in any conditions.

The manufacturer takes care of the eyesight of consumers of its products, offering to use a special mode in which yellow tones predominate on the screen. This reduces eye strain. During the review of Huawei Nova 2i, we were able to find out that you can set it to turn on on a schedule and adjust the intensity. The settings provide several color rendering profiles, among which everyone can easily find the best option for themselves.

Another, no less useful feature that the Huawei Nova 2i review revealed is a mode in which the sensor becomes more sensitive to pressure. In our country, this is more useful than ever, because you can use your smartphone without taking off your gloves.

Display

A film is glued to the screen of Huawei nova 2i. The coating is quite smooth, but does not cover the entire screen area and cannot boast of an oleophobic coating. Such protection would be worth maintaining, but it is much more pleasant to use the screen without film. The protective glass is easier to clean from fingerprints and is more pleasant to the touch thanks to its rounded edges.

The frames surrounding the screen are narrow, including the margins at the top and bottom. The IPS screen is elongated in height and has a diagonal of 5.93″ and a resolution of 2160×1080, which gives a total of 407 dpi. The indicator is sufficient to not notice the pixels during everyday use of the smartphone.

The image quality of Huawei nova 2i will satisfy most smartphone owners. Color shades are stable and do not change depending on the viewing angle, but the contrast of the image at a large angle drops noticeably.

The backlight brightness reserve is sufficient. The white and black fields are equal. No flickering of the backlight was detected. Automatic adjustment works correctly. The screen sensor recognizes 10 simultaneous touches and is able to distinguish between gloved fingers. Huawei is not lowering the bar and continues to use high-quality screens in mid-range smartphones.

Huawei Nova 2i performance

Huawei Nova 2i specifications are built on its own Kirin 659 chip with 8 Cortex-A53 cores. 4 of them operate at frequencies up to 2.36 GHz, and the remaining ones are energy efficient - 1.7 GHz. In addition to them, there is a Mali-T830 MP2 graphics accelerator, which is increasingly found in devices in the mid-price category.

Internal memory is 64 GB, of which about 48 GB remains for the user’s needs. RAM – 4 GB according to the LPDDR3 standard. If you feel a shortage of free space, you can install a microSDXC card up to 256 GB in size. The only thing is that in this case you will have to forget about the second SIM card; the choice is not an easy one. The Huawei Nova 2i prestige 64 GB smartphone review leads to the conclusion that we are offered optimal characteristics for its price.

Huawei Nova 2i synthetic test results

The technical characteristics of the Huawei Nova 2i 64 GB do not let us down in games either - Tanks, Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 run smoothly even at maximum graphics.

The fingerprint scanner works quickly, from touching its surface to removing the screen from the lock takes no more than ½ second. It works flawlessly and has expanded functionality. In addition to its main purpose, it can be used for quick access to applications specified in the settings. It also supports gesture control. So, by swiping down, the top curtain opens, and by swiping to the right you can scroll through photos in the Gallery.

Design

The smartphone looks typically “Huawei”. It doesn't sound very good to the Russian ear, but it's actually a compliment. The design, although not super-duper, is pleasant. Nova 2i is made of metal, thin (7.5 millimeters) and painted in a beautiful blue color

Devices with 18:9 screens are called frameless, but this is not even close to that, of course. The frames are indeed thin, but not minimal - for example, the Huawei logo even fits on the chin.

But the fingerprint scanner didn’t fit, so it’s on the back. For me, this is one of the main disadvantages of a smartphone. If you're used to a scanner on the front, you probably won't like it either. Fingerprints are recognized accurately, but if the device is lying on the table with the screen facing up, you have to unlock it with a password. Or pick up the phone.

Sound and wireless communications

As the Huawei Nova 2i review showed, the external speaker is quite loud and of high quality. It is suitable for listening to your favorite music in the comfort of your home.

SIM cards operate in alternating mode, LTE support is declared for each of the slots. In the settings you can set which SIM card will be responsible for calls, SMS and mobile Internet by default. Surprisingly, Huawei Nova 2i does not receive 5 GHz Wi-Fi support; it only works on 802.11b/g/n networks in the 2.4 GHz band. There is Bluetooth 4.2, a radio that only works when a headset is connected. GLONASS, GPS and BDS services are available for navigation. A cold start takes no more than 10 seconds. All subsequent activations occur instantly.

Autonomy Huawei Nova 2i

Huawei Nova 2i lte 64 GB review showed that the smartphone has a built-in 3340 mAh battery, which, combined with other characteristics, allows us to expect an average battery life. With active use, the charge confidently lasts until the evening with 4-5 hours of screen activity. With a more gentle mode of use, you can count on 1.5-2 days of autonomy. When tested, it lasted 5.5 hours in games at 50% brightness and the same amount when playing FullHD video at maximum brightness. Overnight it takes about 4-5% of the charge.

Interface

The review of the Huawei Nova 2i smartphone showed that it uses the proprietary EMUI 5.1 shell, which begins to surprise even on the lock screen. By swiping from the bottom of the display you can go to the quick menu, which is very convenient. Screensavers are automatically downloaded from the network and updated regularly so that you don't get bored. If desired, each interface element can be customized and set a wide variety of gestures. The shell is as simple as possible, beautiful and easy to use.

Software

The EMUI shell, based on Android 7.0 Nougat, has a motley, colorful design with many visual effects, changing wallpapers, themes and custom animations. The operating system is designed in the same style, but the black notification panel with blue accents stands out from the general style. The design is still far from the minimalism of bare Android, but that seems to be what fans value it for.

The second significant advantage of the shell is its numerous additional functions, which allow you to do without many third-party applications and comfortably use the device out of the box. Huawei nova 2i fully supports all the features of EMUI 5.1, including password protection of applications, additional on-screen controls and application cloning. In addition, the OS is equipped with Huawei's proprietary Histen set of music enhancements.

Cameras Huawei Nova 2i

The Huawei Nova 2i camera review is really surprising, because we have never seen a smartphone with 4 cameras at once. Each pair has a main and an additional module. In the case of the rear side, the main module received a resolution of 16 megapixels, and the auxiliary one - 2 megapixels. The front camera has a similar second sensor, and the first one is 13 megapixels. An additional module is needed to expand the aperture and take beautiful pictures with a background blur effect.

Example photo on Huawei Nova 2i

I was pleased with the presence of the “live photos” mode, which creates short videos lasting about 3 seconds. The intensity of the background blur and the focus area can be changed not only during shooting, but also on the finished image if the variable aperture mode was active.

While reviewing the Huawei Nova 2i graphite black smartphone, we noticed that the Huawei Nova 2i cameras do an excellent job of taking pictures even in cloudy autumn weather. Indoors, in the presence of good lighting, you get clear pictures with excellent detail even of small objects.

The quality of night photos largely depends on the illumination of the object entering the frame. If it is illuminated brightly, then even a non-professional photographer can get a good shot. But if it is not backlit, then a lot of noise appears and in general the picture turns out blurry.

Huawei Nova 2i prestige gold review in Russian showed that when shooting nearby objects with flash, details located in the shadows are highlighted, but it is important not to make mistakes with focusing. In some cases, it gets lost when the flash fires.

The smartphone can shoot panoramas in a resolution of 21 megapixels, which are stitched together very neatly.

A review of Huawei Nova 2i showed that the maximum resolution for recording video on the main camera is FullHD at 30 frames per second. The video is well detailed and smooth, the sound is recorded in stereo.

The key feature of the front-facing camera is the ability to shoot in portrait mode, which competitors cannot yet boast of. The pictures are taken in high resolution and look no worse than with the main camera.

Conclusion

The Huawei Nova 2i smartphone has become an exception to the rule, because for an affordable price we get almost all the advantages that flagships can boast of. A complete surprise was that there were four cameras at once, which is not a useless solution - you can get beautiful pictures with the bokeh effect, which applies not only to the main module, but also to the front camera. There is reason to believe that in the future their functionality will only expand, for example, it will be possible to save live photos in gif format.

The other characteristics also did not disappoint: a large, and most importantly high-quality display with an aspect ratio of 18:9, powerful hardware that can handle any modern games. If you need a smartphone that is affordable at its price, but at the same time with decent battery life, cameras and hardware, then this is the ideal choice. Among the shortcomings is the lack of an NFC chip and a 5 GHz Wi-Fi standard.

Where can I buy?

Following the links you can buy a smartphone at the best prices:

Aliexpress

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Camera

Cameras are what sets Huawei nova 2i apart from its closest competitors. As many as four sensors, two in front and two in back are still rare. They are combined as follows: a 16 MP main camera and a 13 MP front camera are paired with 2 MP lenses.

It is impossible to take a photo from a paired sensor, the resolution is very modest. The second lens is designed solely for calculating depth of field and creating a blur effect in photographs taken with a high-resolution camera. The implementation of this function was successful. The blur is soft and in most cases covers the areas needed. In addition, the second camera allows you to take shots with an adjustable focal length; you can change the focus later on the finished photo.

You can evaluate the results of the main camera below. Daytime footage is detailed, with correct white balance, natural colors and decent sharpness. The crops are unclear, but this is not critical. Shots at dusk naturally lose detail, but if enough light gets into the lens, the photo will turn out great. But in low light conditions the camera quickly loses ground. Coarse grain appears, autofocus errors, and a few light sources look blurry.

The digital zoom used by the main camera rarely preserves image quality, but this is a case of “so bad it’s good.” At maximum zoom, the picture is distorted, but it looks beautiful. The result can be passed off as the work of an artistic filter.

Finally, we can say that the front camera takes pictures with all its megapixels. “Semyashki” are only slightly inferior in resolution to pictures from the main camera, but otherwise are comparable in quality.

Huawei nova 2i is great for daylight selfies. A soft flash is quite capable of illuminating the face even in complete darkness, but here the sensor fails, so it is more useful for eliminating shadows and emphasizing the face. The skin enhancement mode works correctly. The effect is not for everyone. It seems like it lacks a range of adjustment. The default slider set to the middle of the scale already makes the skin unnaturally waxy.