In-depth Huawei Nova 2i Review – Philippines

Right now, China is now considered to be the largest telecom infrastructure maker in the world of course with the help of various partnerships. Since it’s rise, the country has been making great excitement to subscribers by manufacturing mid-range Android devices.

Huawei is one of China’s best bets; they’ve been creating flagship models with extraordinary outcome since the day it was launched. The introduction of Huawei’s Nova 2i is quite appealing and out of the ordinary. It’s been creating popularity with other smartphones with its large, near bezel-less displays which puts more room for a bigger screen for better experience. A few of its competitors would be the LG Q6, the Vivo V7+ and OPPO F5. Huawei’s Nova 2i is nevertheless an additional hard competitor with its price ranging around Php15k.

This article will focus on reviews of the Huawei Nova 2i  as we come across all features and characteristics of the phone. We would also be tackling its design and how it is good; In addition, we will also include its battery life and most particularly the quad-camera setup which is said to be the first of its kind.

Design, Quality, and Construction

Nova 2i’s main advantage is its quality; aside from being a good-looking device, it is a unibody, which means it doesn’t have any bezels; an all metal design with no plastic material. It has a tall and slim profile despite the humongous 5.9-inch display. It’s only 7.5mm thin and 164 grams in weight which is excellent for the display size. The power button and volume controls are on the right side.

The size of the phone is still convenient to hold with its smooth, rounded corners and edges; it’s finished up with a hint of matte design. It is comfortable actually, can be easily gripped considering the size of the display. The antenna band at the back just forms a straight line, which also encompasses the LED flash.

It also comes in various colors – Graphite, Aurora Blue, and Prestige Gold.

The Nova 2i has a hybrid dual-SIM tray — the first one carries a nano SIM card and support 4G LTE while the second one can accommodate a micro SD card that goes up to 256GB or a nano SIM card. However, it can only accommodate 2G in terms of connectivity.

The fingerprint sensor at the back where it is normally found in almost every Huawei devices is just below the rear cameras. To add to that, this scanner works as quick as lightning; it’s easy to access and unlock the phone and it can accommodate up to 5 unique fingerprints. Other than unlocking the device, it can also be used to toggle different shortcuts which you can then toggle or modify.

Display and Multimedia

What’s noticeable about the Nova 2i is its gorgeous looking screen. It is called FHD+ FullView 18:9 aspect ratio screen. 5.9 inches of display squeezed into a 5.5-inch form factor; this is still not fully common even on flagships models. The sharp, FHD screen offers forceful and to some extent, saturated colors. The screen brightness is a little low when viewing in direct sunlight. The display is clear, with 2160-x 1080 pixel resolution perfect for those who love watching videos or live. The 409ppi gives it more than enough pixel density to produce accurate, noticeable, and sharp images.

The Nova 2i has a single speaker at the bottom, just on the left side of the USB port. The quality of the sound is excellent and maximum volume is loud. However, putting it on the maximum might cause damage so keep it to a minimum.

Camera

The Nova 2i is the first smartphone from Huawei to gain quad-camera setup. It features dual lens cameras both front and back so that’s two rear cameras and two front-facing cameras.

The main 16-megapixel camera can shoot at full resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio and the supported resolution is at 11MP. Both cameras are supplemented by a smaller 2-megapixel unit. The second rear camera is there to provide in depth-of-field and simulate very good aperture which can be as wide as f/0.95 to f/16.

In terms of camera quality, I can be a witness that it’s out-of-the-ordinary in daylight. With an aperture of f2.2, it’s a bit hard to get a not-so-blurry shot when shooting in low light, so it’s quite difficult to maintain a great photo in the dark. Video recording maxes at full HD1080 at 30fps. There’s no 4K support but fancy features such as slow motion (480p), time-lapse and light painting are present. The front-facing camera also comes with LED soft light for better selfies.

Battery Life 

For typical average to heavy usage,  Huawei Nova 2i with 3340mAh of battery power can make it throughout a day. This is relatively good and can be used for 24 hours if you maintain the brightness low and cut on gaming and GPS. The battery is non-removable for better conduction and security, of course.

It can last for  a dy with standard calls, messaging, an hour of YouTube video, an hour of social media, and an hour of gaming. On the downside, there’s no fast-charging available and the use of a regular USB port rather than a type-C is kind of a letdown.

If you want a slight comment on how powerful its battery is, being idle for 6 straight hours consumes about 4-5% of the battery.

Overall Performance

An excellent display should be partnered with good performance, and the Nova 2i has persuading specifications as far as performance is concern. The phone is powered by Huawei’s latest home-baked Octa-core High Silicon Kirin 659 processor with Mali-T830 MP2 graphics. It has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which is expandable via micro SD.

If you’re wondering about gaming, yes the Nova 2i won’t disappoint you in gaming. Given the fact that it can accommodate heavy RAM usage, you can be carefree that no lag will remain even if applications are open.

Sources: Yugatech, Noypigeeks