Huawei Nova Plus Review – Premium Mid-ranger but High Price

Huawei Nova Plus Review

Introduction & Hardware Overview

Huawei Nova Plus – Introduction & Hardware Overview

Huawei announced Huawei Nova along with a larger model Nova Plus last year during IFA globally adapting the design from Huawei P9 and Mate 8 respectively in mid-range package. Both the phones were intented to give premium feel along with impressive performance in the lower price tag.

The Huawei Nova Plus was launched later last year in Pakistan with a price tag of Rs. 40,999/- and the mid-ranger (as the developed markets term this price range) is just here with us to be reviewed. According to price we’ll term the phone as upper mid-range which is quite higher in price than it should be.

Note: After price reduction Nova Plus now costs Rs. 38,900/-

You must continue below to find out if the Huawei Nova Plus really justifies the price tag it contains.

Other Read: Huawei Honor 8 – Review 

Huawei Nova Plus is quite a premium design with large screen and few more good properties but there are indeed some factors we didn’t like. Before we go any further with in-depth feature evaluation, take a look at the quick points from our experience with Huawei Nova Plus.

PROS CONS
  • Premium Deisgn
  • Nice Performance
  • Nice Battery Life
  • Fast Fingerprint Scanner
  • Camera: 4K Video Recording, OIS
  • Camera: Average Photo/Video Quality
  • EMUI 4.1 not for most of you there
  • Lower Processor
  • High Price for the package

Nova Plus Unboxing

Huawei Nova Plus comes in black wide square box just like the Mate 8. You will know how does the phone compare to Mate 8 throughout this review. Inside the box, top layer places the device while underneath boxed compartments are designed side by side. One of the boxes contains charger, the other contains headphones and data cable. An envelop box is also there that packs the manual and other things alike. Nothing special is served with the retail package.

Huawei Nova Plus – Specifications and Features

Huawei Nova Plus is powered by mediocre processor for the price as already told above. With the 5.5 inch display the phone carries 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Nova Plus also features a fingerprint scanner on the back like many Huawei devices.

Interestingly, Nova Plus features 4K video support as well as features optical image stabilization (OIS). Both of which aren’t present in either Honor 8 or even Leica branded Huawei P9. Seems like it borrows the camera features from Mate 8 too in addition to its design – we’ll see in the review below.

Huawei Nova Plus
MODEL Huawei MLA-L11
OS / SOFTWARE Android 6.0 / Emotion UI 4.1
SOC
CPU
GPU
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (MSM8953)
8x Cortex-A53 2.0 GHz
Adreno 506
RAM 3GB
NAND 32GB + microSD (upto 128GB)
DIMENSIONS
WEIGHT
151.8 x 75.7 x 7.3 mm
160 grams
DISPLAY 5.5-inch, IPS Display, 1920×1080, ~401ppi
Screen-to-body ratio: ~72.5%
CAMERA PRIMARY 16MP 1/2.8” 1.12µm pixels, Sony IMX298, phase detection autofocus (PDAF),
HDR, dual-LED flash (dual-tone), f/2.0 lens aperture,
4K (2160p) @30fps Video recording
CAMERA FRONT 8MP, f/2.0 lens aperture
CONNECTIVITY 2G / 3G / 4G LTE
Dual-SIM, WiFi b/g/n 2.4GHz, USB Type-C, Bluetooth 4.1
SENSORS Fingerprint Scanner, Hall Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Digital Compass, Gravity Sensor, GPS/GLONASS
BATTERY 3340 mAh, non-replaceable,
5V/2A Charger – No Fast Chaging