Mid-range power play
The Nova 3 is a solid performer. The 3i is just its trimmeddown, more affordable version, writes Khalid Anzar
Chines eb rand Huawei has become more active in India’ s smartphone market, especially with its recent launch of models across price segments. Looking beyond the cost effective Honor-branded smart phones, it has come up with premium products such as the Huawei P20 Pro. The recently launc he d Huawei Nova 3- series completes the company’ s smartphone portfolio for 2018.
The mid-range fl ag ship Hua wei Nova 3 and the Nova 3 i have identical design, but differ in specifications and features. Placed in different price segments, both cater to the same audience of casual gamers and camera enthusiasts.
Design and display
Both smart phones feature a glass-metal-glass sandwich design with a multi- coloured reflective glass back, similar to that in the Huawei P20 Pro. However, the reflective glass properties are available only in blue-purple. Like the premium offering, the Hua wei Nova 3- series dazzle from the sides but require regular cleaning to maintain the lust re.
On the front, both phones have a 6.3inch in-planes witch LCD screen of full
HD+ resolution stretched in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen features a notch, accommodating duals elfie camera lenses, ear piece and sensors. Due to dual front cameras, the notch is bigger than in other notch based smart phones, so the screen area around it for notifications is crunched.
In terms of display legibility and colour rendition, the screens are colourful, with ample brightness. However, auto brightness requires manual tweaking to set it right. The screen also shows as light shift in colour when viewed from angles, which diminishes its overall utility, especially while watching multimedia content.
Software, hardware and performance
This is one area where the Nova 3 and Nova 3i differ. The former is powered by Huawei flagship Kirin 970, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The Kirin 970 has been around for a while. However, for a mid-range flagship, it still has enough power to keep going without any trouble. The latter is powered by Huawei’s mid-range Kirin 710 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Like the Kirin 970, the Kirin 710 is an Octa-core processor with four powerful cortex A73 cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and four power-efficient A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz.
Both smartphones boot Google Android Oreo 8.1 out of the box covered under Huawei’s proprietary EMUI 8.2 operating system. The OS is heavily customised. Though the user interface is sleek and has a lot of scope to customise, it is far from stock Android and might not impress everyone.
In terms of usability, both phones offer topnotch performance. They are smooth and swift and do not slow down over time. They also manage background apps without hiccups. However, the Nova 3’s superiority comes to notice with graphic-intensive applications like games, photo editor, video editor, etc. The Huawei Nova 3 shows no signs of lag or stutter, but warms a bit at times. The Nova 3i shows some weakness while taking heavy-duty loads of graphic-intensive games and processor intensive applications. Interestingly, the phone shows no heating issues.
The Nova 3 also features the GP U Turbo technology. Though it is still fresh and requires developers’ support to make it work better across user interfaces and apps, it does show some improvements in gaming titles it supports, such as the Player Unknown’ s Battle ground. With just one gaming title on board, the GPU Turbo technology does not add much value to the smartphone. However, with a promised future update to enable interface level enhancements, besides audio and vibration feedback improvements, there are chances the GP U Turbo technology will actually become useful.
Camera
This is another area where th e Hua wei Nova 3 and Nova 3 ia re different. Both bear dual camera setup son the front and back. The Nova 3 sports a 16- megapixel primary R GB sensor with 24 MP secondary mono chrome lens on the back and 24 MP +2 MP dual camera module on the front. The Nova 3i h asa 16 MP +2 MP dual camera module on the back and a 24 MP +2 MP one on the front. There ar camera ont he Hua wei Nova 3 is of the flag ship breed and takes detailed photographs in all lighting conditions. Focus is quick and low-light photography is satisfactory. The AI mode allows the phone to re cog ni se most scenes automatically and adjust the camera settings accordingly. However, most other camera modes— PRO, HDR, monochrome— are hidden inside “more options”. The front camera is good and features an i Phone-inspired portrait mode with different lighting support. There ar camera in the Nova 3 ii snot as refined as that in the Nova 3, but it is better than those of most other mid-range flag ships like Oppo F7 and Vivo V9. Unlike the Nova 3, the secondary rear camera in the Nova 3 i is meant strictly to sense depth. Therefore, the picture quality relies mostly on the primary sensor, which takes satisfactory shots in daylight but struggle sin low light. Ditto forth es elfie camera. One thing in common between these devices is a sharp over saturated output. Though such images look good on a phone’ s display, they miss detail and look unnatural when viewed on bigger screens. However, if you know how to play around the PRO mode, these things can be moderated to get optimal results.
Verdict
The Hua wei Nova 3 and Nova 3 ia re priced at ~34,999and~20,999, respectively. Though both smart phones are meant for gaming, with a focus on imaging, it is true only of the Nova 3. The Nova 3 i struggles to find a balance between features and performance.