The original Huawei Nova was a great smartphone, but nothing to remember. In the next generation, the bet was on a selfie camera and sound capabilities. At a cost of around $ 360, the Nova 2 is cheaper than the Honor 9, but inferior in performance to the Nokia 8. Packed in a white box, which is very similar to the Honor 8 package, the smartphone comes with a quick charger, USB Type C cable and a headset along with a guide for quick start. Like other Huawei models, the Nova 2 comes with a translucent protective case. Users like this concern of the Chinese company.
Design
Smartphone Huawei Nova 2 Owners' reviews are called a cheaper version of P10 - another model of the same manufacturer. They have almost the same size and beautiful design. Instead of a glass strip at the top of the P10 with the Leica brand, the Nova 2 has a smooth all-metal surface. The Huawei Nova 2 phone is praised for its good zen style, achieved by shifting the antenna lines up and down. The device lies comfortably in your hand and weighs 143 grams no heavier than other smartphones of a similar size. The model is available in blue, green, golden, pink-golden and black.
Security
The manufacturer equipped the phone with a fingerprint sensor, which is located on its rear panel. Although the scanner Huawei Nova 2, according to user reviews, should be in front, its position is well thought out. It is located under the rear cameras and in the center, which provides access to the index finger. Like the Huawei P10, the sensor fires and unlocks the phone very quickly. It also allows you to use gestures such as pulling the notification curtain or viewing photos. Touching the scanner, you can answer calls and take pictures.
Display
The 5-inch screen of Huawei Nova 2 has a Full HD resolution, which is quite expected for the device at this price. It is made using LED technology, has excellent viewing angles and bright enough to be used outdoors, although in a place like Dubai, the sun will have to increase the brightness level. The manufacturer did a great job on color rendering, which is especially noticeable when using one of the predefined themes, which demonstrates all the features of the screen. Owner reviews are more critical about the image quality of Huawei Nova 2 Plus - at the same resolution of 1080p, the smaller display has a higher pixel density.
Design
Although the Huawei Nova 2 (PIC-LX9) is praised for its elegant design, it will not delight others. It is definitely better than the level at which you can count on the phone in this price range, but among other models it can not stand out anything special. With a thickness of 6.9 mm, the smartphone fits comfortably in your hand and is easier to use than other models with the same screen size. Although there are frames at the top and bottom, they do not seem oversized.
On the left is a tray that can accept one NanoSIM and one micro-SIM card or micro-SD card. On the right is a textured power button, as well as an easily accessible volume key. Below is a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the back is a dual camera with a flash above it and a fingerprint scanner underneath in the center. The front of the phone is standard - it's a large glass panel with visible frames on top and bottom.
Interface
Huawei Nova 2 is running Android 7.0 Nougat with its own user interface Emotion UI (EMUI) 5.1. Owners would like to see if not Android 8 Oreo, then at least version 7.1, which is equipped with most new phones. At the same time, the smartphone received the latest modification of EMUI, released with Huawei P10 in early 2017. This add-on is quite far from standard Android, which allows the phone to stand out from the crowd.
Although previous versions of EMUI (4.x and below) were not always successful, Huawei significantly improved the EMUI 5.0 interface installed on Mate 9 in 2016, and then improved it with the launch of P10. In a sense, the add-on resembles iOS, which may appeal to some owners who have used the iPhone in the past. However, this is how the phone looks only by default - Huawei allows a lot of settings. For example, you can choose between displaying all applications on the main screen or placing them in a separate folder with only some of the most popular widgets on the home panel. You can also change themes and icons using the Huawei themes program. In general, the user interface is convenient. You can easily switch between applications or scroll through long lists and web pages without a hitch. This is greatly facilitated by 4 GB of RAM.
The interface provides the user with many additional functions, including the quick launch of the camera from sleep mode by double-pressing the volume down button, the memory optimization utility and, like iOS, the list of programs when swiping to the right from the main screen. The camera app offers slightly more features than the standard version for Android, such as tracking objects. However, the main point is the self-optimization system, which prevents Android from slowing down over time, regardless of the number of installed applications or the degree of storage capacity.
The real problem in Huawei devices is the update, or rather, their absence. Although in some parts of the world new assemblies appear regularly, in others their release is greatly delayed.
Multimedia
The smartphone has a pre-installed video player for watching videos downloaded or shot using the camera. This is a simple and functional application that also offers the ability to view video in a window located on the main screen, which allows you to navigate and open applications in the background.
One of the key aspects of Nova 2 is the manufacturer’s decision to use AK4376a HiFi chips and the unique Huawei Histen algorithm. These technologies minimize distortion and other noise in sound processing, making music clear, crisp and reliable. Nova 2 also supports aptX Bluetooth wireless technology, which reduces latency. In addition, Huawei collaborated with Grammy award-winning musician Rainer Mayar to mix the main sounds of the device. It goes without saying that in order to fully enjoy the music, you need a good pair of headphones. The only lower speaker to the right of the USB-C port is quite loud and provides better sound than many phones, but is not able to demonstrate the full potential of the Huawei Nova 2 (PIC-LX9) smartphone. According to user reviews, the same applies to the complete headset.
Audio player
Huawei has its own music player, which allows you to play songs stored on the device. However, he is not able to replace applications such as Anghami, Google Play Music or Apple Music, which allow you to listen to music broadcasts. Users are surprised at the lack of cooperation of the manufacturer with these platforms, given the high musical potential of the smartphone.
Although high-quality audio is an excellent marketing move for Huawei Nova 2, the reviews of the owners suggest that you will not be able to enjoy the soundtrack in recent games. The Kirin 659 chipset is good for ordinary, less demanding applications, but newer names do not work as smoothly - there is a noticeable drop in frame rate and a slow reaction to control commands.
Performance
The Nova 2 is not equipped with the flagship Kirin 960 processor, which is reserved for devices such as the Mate 9 and P10. Instead, the phone runs on a Kirin 659 chip, whose performance corresponds to the level of Snapdragon 625 used in the first generation of the model. The chipset is supported by four gigabytes of RAM, so the interface works smoothly and without delay. However, when launching demanding applications and games, the processor struggles to cope with them.
The Mali-T830 GPU seems like a good companion to the 1080p display, even if the embedded puzzle games are not very graphically intensive applications that can be found in the Play Store.
Nova 2 offers 64 GB of internal storage, while the larger Nova Plus offers 128 GB. In any case, if there is little free space, you can add a microSD card to the second SIM card slot.
The average phone score in the Geekbench test is 3461. This is more than that of the first generation model, which scored 3105, and is much lower than the capabilities of the Kirin 960 chipset, which averages over 6600 points.
The smartphone heats up noticeably when demanding games are launched, but not so much as to cause inconvenience. If you need a gaming phone, then it’s better to buy something else.
Battery life
Non-removable lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 2950 mAh, which is equipped with Huawei Nova 2 Blue, reviews are positive. And this is good, because the battery life of the original model was almost 2 days. With non-intensive use, you can expect the same on Nova 2. By “non-intensive use” we mean listening to music, taking short photos, browsing the web and updating social network data. With long photo shoots or the start of games, you should expect a decrease in battery life to one full day.
Huawei Nova 2 Gold smartphone battery reviews praise for the rapid recovery of charge. A quick charger, which is included in the kit, allows you to restore the battery to 40% of its capacity in half an hour. EMUI 5.1 introduced Smart Power Saving 5.0, which can reduce the performance and power requirements of the phone and extend the work of the smartphone for several hours.
Main cameras
Nova 2 is equipped with two rear image sensors, but this is not a color and black and white combination, in which Huawei is the leader. Instead, a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens are installed. Unfortunately, there is no optical image stabilization, which means the need for a solid hand, especially in low light conditions. Nevertheless, according to reviews, the front-facing camera works much better in the Huawei Nova 2 smartphone, which is equipped with a 20-megapixel sensor with a proprietary stabilization system and a 10-step image enhancement mode that provides a “natural, healthy and energetic look”.
There are many modes and settings that are already familiar with previous Huawei phones. These are "Portrait", "Night Shot", HDR and "Light". The dual camera setup also allows hybrid optical zoom. Unfortunately, its quality did not impress the owners of the Huawei Nova 2 (PIC-LX9) 64GB. According to user reviews, the camera can take good “basic” pictures in good lighting conditions, but not when its level drops, or when using features such as bokeh (blur the background) or zoom.
The quality of photos, especially when viewed on large screens, is not very good. When the background is blurred, a small area remains on which the camera focuses, and the rest of the photo is artificially changed by software, which leads to a very unnatural result. Zooming also deprives the image of many details and, in the absence of stabilization, makes it difficult to get clear pictures.
Smartphone for selfie
The front camera works much better. This forces users to wonder why the Chinese company did not install one good one instead of the rear two. The Huawei Nova 2 selfie camera, according to reviews, also supports blurring the background and is not so aggressive, which leads to better quality pictures. Improvement mode softens skin imperfections. It supports 3D mapping, which users have never been able to apply. However, placing such a huge number of pixels in a tiny sensor does not guarantee success. When zoomed in, the pictures appear a little blurry, larger than you would expect from such a resolution.
Conclusion
In the smartphone market, there is a tendency for good phones to be sold that are much cheaper than expected, and Huawei Nova 2 Black, according to reviews, follows it. At a cost of $ 360, the model offers an ascetic, but premium design, an excellent selfie camera and high-quality audio. The dual image sensor on the rear panel, as well as gaming characteristics, are not up to their level. At first glance, it seems that two cameras are better than one. This is true for other Huawei phones, such as the Mate 9 or P10, but not for the Nova 2, which disappoints with the quality of the shots.
The target audience
Huawei Nova 2 user reviews called a smartphone for lovers of self-portrait or lovers of good sound who do not want to overpay for these functions. The only reason not to buy this model is its rear camera. Those who do not use their phone as a camera will be satisfied with it. It is a rugged smartphone that offers good value for money and can prove extremely useful as a great music player. Those who do not attribute selfies and HiFi-audio to the functionality of prime necessity can find cheaper phones that do their job no worse.