Huawei Nova and Nova Plus bring Android power at an affordable price

There are hints of the Huawei P9 and iPhone 6S about it, from the front at least, thanks to the Nova’s glossy finish and rounded corners.

The wave of news phones from IFA 2016 continues with Huawei, who today took the wraps off of two new Android handsets. Huawei says the 3,020 mAh battery – which gets 5V2A fast-charge – should last for 48 hours of “normal” use (or 14hrs of HD video or 16hrs of browsing over 4G). Huawei Nova also features a rear fingerprint scanner like Nexus 6P with 360 degree support.

Huawei has also improved its knuckled-based gesture recognition in its Android 6.0 based EMUI.

The Nova Plus is a bigger version of the Nova and confusingly appears to be a re-branded, global version of the G9 Plus.

The all new Nova come with a 5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixels with 441 ppi. Otherwise, it’s exactly the same.

The main thing that comes across when using the Huawei Nova is that you’re holding a very refined phone.

The Nova is the smaller and more modest of the duo, featuring a 5-inch 1080p screen, 3,024mAh battery, 12-megapixel primary camera and 8-megapixel front-facing “selfie cam”.

The version we have been sent for review is “Moonlight Silver” while it is also available in what Huawei calls “Luxurious Gold”.

Criticism of the UI is partly a matter of taste, said Ho, and partly a problem to which Huawei is dedicating more resources, especially to satisfy the needs of Western European customers. The Nova Plus has a somewhat more distinctive design with the camera placed right above the fingerprint sensor. The Huawei nova plus, with 32GB ROM and 3GB RAM, will initially be available in October in over 50 markets, including Spain, Italy and Canada, before being offered in additional markets.

The Huawei Nova is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts two Micro-SIM. You’ll have no issues with storage either as there will be a microSD card slot and two storage options with 32GB or 64GB.

After launching the impressive P9 earlier in the year, Huawei are back with a new line of devices, the Nova and Nova+. That’s exactly what you get, as the new Nova handsets offer full metal unibody design, challenging some of the top manufacturers in terms of build.

Huawei advertizes the Nova as a lifestyle device, and that requires a great camera. Huawei added a bit of its own software tweaking to the mix; one feature that stands out is the tablet’s automatic choice of the best sound settings, depending on whether you’re listening to music or watching video.