Huawei Nova 9 mid-range cell phone with a camera at P40 level?

Even without a US embargo, the bottom line is that there are still too many shortcomings

The competition in the field of mid-range smartphones is tough, and the Huawei Nova 9 is also feeling the effects. The bottom line is that the cell phone is decent, but has too many shortcomings compared to the competition. In addition to the restrictions imposed by the US embargo (Google services, updates, 5G), there is also the lack of water protection, a memory card slot, and an optical image stabilizer on the camera compared to the competition.

design and processing

The Huawei cell phone looks quite classy for this. With its display curved towards the aluminum edges, the front of the Nova 9 reminds us a little of the Huawei P30 Pro. Probably also because it has almost identical dimensions at 160 x 73.7 x 7.8 millimeters. Unlike the P30 Pro, Huawei places the front camera in a modern punch hole and not in a notch.

On the other hand, Huawei has based the rear on the P50 design. In the top left corner of the cell phone, you will find two large circles in which the manufacturer places the cell phone’s camera system. Both protrude slightly from the back. But you will hardly notice this in everyday life; the Nova 9 doesn’t wobble uncomfortably when you put it on the table.

Huawei Nova 9 in pictures

Images of the Huawei Nova 9.

By the way, the back itself is made of plastic and has a matte surface. Fingerprints and dirt are not as easy to see on it as on a glass back, and the “plastic back” gives the Nova 9 significantly more grip. From our point of view, a protective cover is not absolutely mandatory for use, but it is thankfully included with the mobile phone.

In the hand, the Huawei Nova 9 makes a good overall impression. It doesn’t look cheap and despite its dimensions, it doesn’t look bulky either. For the advertised price, however, we clearly miss an IP certification, such as that offered by Samsung’s Galaxy A52s 5G.

The Huawei Nova 9 is available in two colors: “Starry Blue”, a light shade of blue with a slight gradient on the back, and “Black”, a dark, matte black.

equipment and performance

So much for the external values ​​of the Huawei Nova 9. Below we will take a look at the hardware of the cell phone together with you. Let’s start with the display.

screen

The display of the Huawei Nova 9 is appropriate with a diagonal of 6.57 inches. The built-in panel is an OLED, so you can look forward to crisp colors and rich black tones. A refresh rate of up to 120 Hertz also ensures buttery smooth animations.

processor and memory

Huawei does not rely on its own Kirin chip for the processor, but on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778. In terms of performance, the Nova 9 is in the upper middle field in this price range and is on a par with the iPhone SE or the aforementioned Samsung Galaxy A52s .

A major drawback: due to the US embargo, Huawei is only allowed to use the 4G version of the Qualcomm chip. So you are denied the new 5G mobile communications standard, which may still be bearable at the moment. Anyone who wants to use their cell phone for more than the usual two years should go straight to a 5G cell phone.

Huawei officially offers the Nova 9 in this country only with 8 gigabytes of working memory and 128 gigabytes of device memory. It is also available abroad with 256 gigabytes of memory. Unfortunately, the memory cannot be expanded afterwards.

The other equipment, on the other hand, leaves little to be desired. Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi 6 and an NFC chip are on board. This can now also be used for payments. This is made possible by an app called “Curve”, but you have to do without Google Pay. The reason here is once again the US trade embargo, which continues to deny Huawei access to Google services.

Incidentally, the operating system used is Android 11 with Huawei’s own EMUI 12 user interface, but it remains unclear how updates or a change to the in-house operating system HarmonyOS will look like.

battery life

The Huawei Nova 9 offers a 4,300 mAh battery. Although 5,000 mAh batteries are already common in this price range, the capacity should be enough to get most of you through the day. Once it’s empty, it can be charged at the socket with a record-breaking 66 watts for this price range.

camera

The camera has been a flagship for Huawei cell phones for years. Of course, this also raises expectations of the Nova 9 – even if its camera was not developed in cooperation with Leica. Nevertheless, there is a lot of know-how from the top smartphones of the P series, such as the Huawei P40, at least in the main camera. For example, Huawei relies on a so-called Ultra Vision sensor with a resolution of 50 megapixels.

Due to the RYYB color filter used here instead of the Bayer filter, it is particularly translucent, which should come in handy when taking photos in the dark. Unfortunately, the Nova 9 is still not a cheap Huawei P40, as the following photo comparison shows.

In addition, Honor uses a 108-megapixel camera instead of the 50-megapixel Ultra Vision camera. However, the manufacturer does not give you an update guarantee.

Huawei Nova 9: ​​data sheet

Here you will find the technical data for the Huawei Nova 9. You can easily compare the size, weight and other properties with other products.