The most stylish midranger of 2022?
Ever since Huawei launched its nova series, it has pushed the boundaries of midrange smartphones in terms of specifications and design.
With the release of nova 9 SE– a more affordable version of the nova 9, Huawei has perhaps created the most beautiful phone in its price range. But more than just its looks, it also has the internals to complete the package with a 6.78-inch IPS display with a 90Hz refresh rate, quad rear cameras, Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor, and a 4,000mAh battery that supports 66W fast charging.
Here is our unboxing and first impressions of the Huawei nova 9 SE:
It arrives in the trademark white box of Huawei with the nova branding on front, while you’ll find some key features detailed on the back.
Lifting the lid of the box you’ll find the nova 9 SE unit, the 66W Huawei SuperCharge wall charger, SIM ejector tool, USB-A to USB-C cable, paper documents, and a TPU case–unfortunately there’s no earphones included this time.
DESIGN AND BUILD
Removing the phone from its plastic wrap, the first thing you’ll notice is just how shiny it is–almost blinding under the sunlight. The ups of this design is it looks stunning, the downside is that it is a fingerprint and smudge magnet, also quite slippery–and a challenge to photograph.
The phone is made of a glass front, glass back, and polycarbonate frame making it incredibly lightweight despite its huge size. Like I mentioned holding the phone can be slippery so its best to slap on that plastic case right away. There is a preinstalled screen protector but no mention of any glass protection.
If you are going for looks alone–the nova 9 SE definitely leaves most of the competition in the dust.
Exploring the phone, you have the sim tray slot and mic on top, the power/lock button/fingerprint scanner is on the right side. The left side is clean while at the bottom you’ll find the USB Type-C port, microphone, and loudspeaker.
At the back, is a giant capsule shaped camera module and the nova branding. Upfront you have a 6.78-inch IPS LCD panel with a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera along with the earpiece.
We got the Crystal Blue colorway for our review but it also comes in Pearl White and Midnight Black if you want a safer color choice.
Speaking of the display, the nova 9SE has a 6.78-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 2388 x 1080 capable of producing 387ppi. The display supports a 90Hz refresh rate making all the transitions and animations a lot smoother. The display is bright enough even when used outdoors and despite being an LCD panel colors are bright and punchy, making it a great entertainment device. The loudspeaker produces good sound quality as well.
Keeping things running smoothly is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SOC coupled with an Adreno 610 GPU, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. I have yet to encounter a Huawei device with a laggy experience and I have to say I didn’t encounter any sudden crashes or even hiccups when doing basic tasks and with multiple apps open. I will try to install some games to see if it still performs well and maintains a cool temp reading.
Besides the design the other standout feature of this nova 9SE is its cameras. It is the first Huawei smartphone to have a 108MP lens that is complemented by an, 8MP ultrawide + 2MP macro, and 2MP depth. For selfies it has a 16MP wide lens. Check out some of our sample photos below.
Again as you’d expect from a Huawei phone, photos taken with great lighting are detailed, but in true Huawei fashion it does appear to be a bit saturated. Night Mode is superb for this price range and images appear bright with enough readable details.
Powering up the nova 9 SE is a 4,000mAh battery with 66W fast charging support. According to Huawei you can charge this device from 0-75% in just 20 minutes which is pretty fast.
For the software side of things, it runs on Android 11 skinned with MIUI 12 and you download apps from the APP Gallery. I was able to find most of the apps I use on the APP Gallery and for those that are missing I just used Petal search. My only gripe is that it has a lot of bloatware and app suggestions, grouped into entertainment, social, lifestyle and games. They could easily be removed but unless you pay attention to the initial setup you might click install on those suggestions and your phone will instantly be full of unwanted apps.
So far the nova 9 SE delivers on its promises, with a stunning design, decent cameras and capable hardware, we’ll have more for you in our final review when it comes out in our column The Technivore on Business Mirror.
The nova 9 SE 8GB+128GB model retails for PHP 13,999 and is available via pre-order from March 18-24, 2022. You can also get freebies such as the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4i and HUAWEI Cloud worth PHP 4,745. It will be available via the Huawei Online Store, or at the Huawei Flagship Stores on Lazada, and Shopee.
Huawei Nova 9 SE specs:
DIMENSIONS/WEIGHT: 164.6 x 75.6 x 7.9mm 191g
DISPLAY: 6.78-inch (1080 x 2388) IPS display, 387ppi 90Hz refresh rate
PROCESSOR: Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G SoC
GPU Adreno 610
RAM/ROM: 8GB RAM 128GB storage expandable via microSD card
CAMERAS:
Rear cameras:
• 108MP F1.9 (wide)
• 8MP F2.2 (ultrawide)
• 2MP F2.4 (macro)
• 2MP F2.4 (depth)
Front camera : 16MP F2.2
Dual-SIM (nano) 4G LTE
SECURITY: Fingerprint scanner (side)
OS: EMUI 12 (Android 11)
BATTERY: 4,000mAh battery w/ 66W fast charging
