Huawei Nova review: a stylish smartphone from China. Cameras and photographs. A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other

Huaweinova

Operating system

Screen

5 ", 1920x1080, IPS, 441 ppi

CPU

Graphics

RAM

Persistent memory

32 GB, microSD slot

Connection

4G, 3G, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b / g / n), Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS, NFC

Cameras

main: 12 MP, with autofocus, video recording 3840x2160,
front: 8 MP

Battery

3020 mAh, non-removable

Dimensions (edit)

141.2x69.1x7.1 mm

Weight

Price at the time of publication

23,000 rubles

Where can I buy

Huaweinova

ASUSZenFone 3 (ZE520KL)

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)

Operating system

Screen

5 ", 1920x1080, IPS, 441 ppi

5.2 ", 1920x1080, IPS, 424 ppi

5.2 ”, 1920x1080, Super AMOLED, 424 ppi

CPU

Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 MSM8953, 8 cores (8x Cortex-A53 2.0GHz)

Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 MSM8953, 8 cores (8x Cortex-A53 2.0GHz)

Samsung Exynos 7580, 8 cores (8x Cortex-A53 1.6 GHz)

Graphics

Operationalmemory

During the autumn IFA 2016 exhibition in Berlin, Huawei presented a pair of smartphones absolutely new series, which received the laconic and self-explanatory name Nova. The first representatives of this line were the devices Huawei Nova and Nova Plus, and during their presentation, the representatives of the company made it clear that Huawei is now in the most determined position to take a serious fight in the mid-price range.

It so happened that the first to get our review was the older model, Huawei Nova Plus, as the most technically interesting. However, it later turned out that on Russian market she will not be officially present. But the main model, the usual Huawei Nova, is already supplied to us, and now it's time to examine it in the most detailed way.

If we talk about the positioning of the novelty, then, according to the representatives of the company themselves, this is “the first gadget in the nova series of devices located at the junction of the middle and premium price segments. The focus of this series is to provide the customer with a range of advanced features and technical benefits at an attractive cost. ”

Main characteristics of Huawei Nova (model CAN-L11)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, Octa-core Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz
• GPU Adreno 506 @ 650 MHz
• Operating system Android 6.0, Emotion UI 4.1
• 5 ″ IPS touchscreen display, 1920 × 1080, 443 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB, internal memory 32 GB
• Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• MicroSD support up to 128GB
• GSM / GPRS / EDGE networks (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• WCDMA / HSPA + networks (850/900/1900/2100 MHz)
• LTE Cat.6 FDD Band 1/3/7/8/20 networks; TD LTE Band 38
• Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n (2.4 GHz)
• Bluetooth 4.1
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• USB Type-C, USB OTG
• 12 MP camera, autofocus, f / 2.2, 4K video
• Front camera 8 MP, f / 2.0, fixed. focus
• Proximity sensors, lighting, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, step counter
• The fingerprint scanner
• Battery 3020 mAh
• Dimensions 141 x 69 x 7.1mm
• Weight 146 g

Appearance and usability

For the design of the two smartphones of its new Nova line, Huawei has chosen different images, so the Nova and Nova Plus models are not alike. Although, of course, there are parallels with other models ever produced by the company. And if the Huawei Nova Plus is practically spitting out in appearance, then for today's hero it was chosen as a prototype of the Nexus 6P, released a year ago, but still a very powerful, top-end device produced by a Chinese company for the Google Nexus series.

Huawei Nova is almost identical in design to the Nexus 6P - adjusted for dimensions, of course. If that device was the personification of a real tablet phone, possessing a huge 5.7-inch display, then here, on the contrary, the smartphone turned out to be almost miniature. And miniature things are known to be much more graceful, so all the elements scaled down proportionally here look even more attractive.

This small five-inch smartphone in an all-metal streamlined matte casing with beautiful, nobly shiny side bevels not only looks very attractive, stylish and expensive, but also feels and holds in the hand with great comfort. The case is not easily soiled and not slippery, not large and not heavy. The device turned out, without exaggeration, very interesting in appearance.

Naturally, there are no complaints about the assembly and the quality of materials - the case is monolithic, almost entirely made of metal, with the exception of a pair of dielectric inserts on the back, made of plastic.

The top of the panels on the back side houses the main camera module and a flash, consisting of only one LED, but extremely bright. Slightly below is a fingerprint sensor platform, which traditionally for Huawei smartphones not only implements the fingerprint authorization function, but also acts as an additional control element.

By placing your finger on the scanner pad, you can shoot a selfie camera, answer incoming calls, turn off the alarm, call and hide the notification panel, and even scroll through photos in the gallery. The scanner is slightly recessed to make it easier to blindly feel it with your finger. Although if the device is lying on a table or standing in car holder, then you won't be able to find anything there.

The front panel is completely covered with 2.5D protective glass with sloping edges. On a small body, its beveled edges are more noticeable than on huge areas of large tablet phones, so the device really looks and feels streamlined due to such glass, here 2.5D glass is used very handily.

In the upper part above the screen there is a complete set of necessary elements: proximity and lighting sensors, a front camera peephole, an earpiece, as well as a useful LED indicator of events.

In the lower part under the screen there are no touch-sensitive hardware buttons, the buttons are virtual, on the screen, and in the settings you can change the order of their arrangement at your discretion.

The side card slot is universal: one of the slots is for Nano-SIM cards, the other is for Nano-SIM or microSD memory cards. Hot swapping of cards is supported.

The side buttons are located on the right side, they are made of metal, rather large and have, perhaps, a slightly stiffer stroke than we would like. But on the other hand, they are easily found blindly, and visually differ, since one of them has a red bevel.

At the bottom there is a USB Type-C connector, it supports connecting flash drives in USB OTG mode. Next to this connector is a grill that covers the speaker. The smartphone sounds very loud, the sound is pleasant to the ear, rich, thick and clear. With its help, you can not only hear the call signal well, but you can also listen to music, and even for video games, such a high-quality soundtrack is more than enough.

The top end is customarily given over to a 3.5 mm headphone jack; here you can also find the opening of the second, auxiliary microphone.

The smartphone is available in three colors: light silver, dark gray and gold. The light version has a white front panel under the glass, while the other two have a black one.

Screen

Huawei Nova is equipped with an IPS display and is covered with 2.5D glass with sloping edges. Its physical dimensions are 62 × 110 mm with a diagonal of 5 inches. The resolution is 1920 × 1080, the dot density reaches 443 ppi. The frame around the screen is not thick, it has a width of 3 mm on the sides and 15 mm at the top and bottom.

The brightness of the display can be manually adjusted or rely on automatic settings based on the operation of the ambient light sensor. The AnTuTu test diagnoses support for 10 simultaneous multitouch touches. Mode of operation with gloves is supported. There is a possibility of manual adjustment of the color temperature, you can also separately activate the mode with a "blue filter", in which the colors go into warm yellowish shades.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev... Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the turned off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Huawei Nova, then they can be distinguished by their size):

The screen of the Huawei Nova is noticeably darker (the brightness in the photos is 110 versus 118 for the Nexus 7). The doubling of reflected objects in the Huawei Nova screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS-type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (such as glass / air) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense ambient light, but their repair in the case of cracked outer glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen, there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, which is better in efficiency than that of the Nexus 7. Therefore, fingerprints are removed much more easily, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and with the display of the white field on the whole screen, the maximum brightness value was about 490 cd / m², the minimum - 4 cd / m². The maximum brightness is high, and given the excellent anti-glare properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at an acceptable level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable value. In the presence of automatic brightness control by the light sensor (it is located to the right of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness control, by which the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. We adjusted the brightness to the desired level in complete darkness and in an office environment and got that in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 17 cd / m2, in an office illuminated with artificial light (about 550 lux) it sets to 150-160 cd / m2, in a very bright environment (equivalent to bright daylight outdoors, but no direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or slightly more) increases to 520 cd / m². The result was quite satisfactory for us. It turns out that the automatic brightness control function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize his work for individual requirements. Only at a very low brightness level, significant modulation of the backlight appears, but its frequency is high, about 2.4 kHz, so there is no visible screen flickering (but, perhaps, it can be detected in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect - however, we did not succeed) ...

This smartphone uses an IPS-type matrix. The micrographs show the typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of photomicrographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift, even with large gaze deviations from the perpendicular to the screen, and without tint inversion. For comparison, we present photographs in which the screens of Huawei Nova and Nexus 7 display the same images, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to about 200 cd / m2, and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K.

White field perpendicular to screens:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

And the test picture:

The colors on the Huawei Nova's screen are a little oversaturated (note the bananas, tomatoes, napkin and skin tone) and the color balance is slightly different.

Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors did not change much on both screens, but on the Huawei Nova, the contrast decreased to a large extent due to the strong highlighting of blacks.

And a white box:

The brightness at an angle at the screens decreased (at least 5 times, based on the difference in exposure), but in the case of Huawei Nova, the drop in brightness is greater. When deviated diagonally, the black field is strongly lightened and acquires a slight reddish tint. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same!):

And from a different angle:

When viewed from a perpendicular view, the uniformity of the black field is excellent:

The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1400: 1. The response time for the transition black-white-black is 27 ms (13 ms on + 14 ms off). The transition between gray tones of 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes 52 ms in total. The gamma curve, plotted using 32 points at equal intervals in terms of the numerical value of the shade of gray, did not reveal a blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.17, which is slightly below the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve only in the light part deviates significantly from the power dependence:

We did not reveal the presence of dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image, which is very good.

The color gamut is slightly wider than sRGB:

The spectra show that the matrix filters moderately mix the components together:

As a result, visually, the colors on this screen are somewhat different from natural ones, since almost all images are designed to be displayed on display devices with sRGB coverage. The balance of shades on the gray scale is medium, since the color temperature is significantly higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the spectrum of the absolute black body (ΔE) is below 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, ΔE changes little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of the color balance. (The darkest areas of the grayscale can be ignored, since there is no color balance. of great importance, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This device has the ability to correct the color balance by adjusting the hue on the color wheel.

In the graphs above, the curves Without corr. correspond to the results without any color balance correction, and the curves Corr.- data obtained after shifting the point to the position indicated in the picture above. It can be seen that the change in balance corresponds to the expected result, since the color temperature approached the standard value and ΔE decreased on average. However, it doesn't make much sense to perform the correction. Note that this function is implemented in a variant rather for a show, since there is no numerical reflection of the correction, there is no field for measuring the color balance, and the adjustment range is insufficient, since even at the edge of the circle one has to look for a compromise between a color temperature close to 6500 K and a minimum value ΔE.

To summarize: the screen has a high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. It is also acceptable to use the mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, no air gap in the layers of the screen and no flicker, as well as high contrast and excellent uniformity of the black field. The disadvantages are low stability of black to deviation of the gaze from the perpendicular to the plane of the screen and overestimated color saturation. Nevertheless, given the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the screen quality can be considered high.

Camera

The front module here has an 8 megapixel sensor and optics with a maximum aperture of f / 2.0, with a fixed focus and without its own flash. At the presentation of new smartphones, a specially invited blogger girl talked for a long time about the key advantages of a selfie camera, about a variety of software processing algorithms that should appeal to lovers of self-portraits, especially girls. The program can smooth out irregularities in the skin, apply automatic makeup and correct the shape of the face in real time. There are no complaints about the quality of shooting, for a selfie level it is more than enough.

The main camera uses a 12 megapixel module with a physical matrix size of 1 / 2.8 inches and a pixel size of 1.25 nm and optics with an f / 2.2 aperture and a dual autofocus system - phase and contrast. There is no stabilization for photography, the flash is bright.

Camera control menus in all Huawei smartphones in general, almost the same, the differences mainly consist in the number of additional specialized modes. Here, of course, there are fewer of them than the flagships, but the main ones are in place: panoramic, night, HDR, and a separate mode for shooting food is not forgotten. Also, the modes of decoration and shooting of light trails with a long exposure from a tripod are also separately placed in quick access. Naturally, there is also a manual mode, in which you can independently control the settings for light sensitivity (up to ISO 3200), shutter speed, white balance, and choose the focus point. Using the Camera2 API, you cannot transfer camera control to third-party applications without restrictions, and there is no possibility of saving images in RAW.

The camera can shoot video in maximum 4K resolution, but there is no shooting mode at 60 fps. There is a stabilization function for video, but it does not turn on in all modes, but only below 4K. In general, the camera copes well with video recording at any of the top resolutions: sharpness, color rendition and detail are normal. At the same time, sound recording is also carried out quite efficiently, however, the noise reduction system does not always cope with sharp gusts of wind.

• Movie # 1 (53 MB, 3840 × [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)

The camera is good. Quite good sharpness and detailing in the field of the frame and in plans are immediately striking. Focusing issues occasionally occur, but this does not happen often. The program works neatly and does not leave too noticeable artifacts. We will not recommend a camera for artistic photography, but it will cope with documentary photography perfectly.

Telephone part and communications

The communication capabilities of the hero of the review are decent, since the fresh Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 platform provided the smartphone with a Qualcomm X9 modem with LTE Cat.6 support (up to 300 Mbps), and the manufacturer took care of support for all major FDD frequency bands LTE band 3, 7, 20, as well as TD LTE band 38, used by Russian operators. In the city limits of the Moscow region, the apparatus behaved more than confidently. The reception quality does not cause the slightest criticism, the connection to the Wi-Fi access point, as well as LTE networks at the usual test points, it takes place at maximum speed.

Supports Bluetooth 4.1 and, for some reason, only one Wi-Fi band (2.4 GHz). As usual, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels, there is NFC support... "Clever" wifi function+ allows you to automatically switch between Wi-Fi network and network mobile transmission data. The USB Type-C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode.

The navigation module works with GPS (with A-GPS), and with the domestic Glonass, and with the Chinese Beidou. The first satellites during a cold start are detected within the first tens of seconds. The smartphone is equipped with a magnetic field sensor, on the basis of which the digital compass of navigation programs usually functions.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing phone number the search is immediately carried out by the first letters in the contacts. You can search the contact book by name or email component, but not by other fields such as date of birth and address. There is a built-in blacklist for unwanted contacts. The default keyboard supports Swype-type strokes. As always, the proprietary way of all Huawei virtual keyboards for switching language layouts is inconvenient. You must press and hold the space bar, and then slide your finger, choosing a language from the pop-up context menu. Why was it so tricky, when everywhere you can just press the button with the image of the globe once, is completely incomprehensible.

In the conversational dynamics, the sound is thick and pleasant to the ear, clean, the volume reserve is sufficient. The voice of a familiar interlocutor remains recognizable, there is no extraneous noise, the sound is natural. It is possible to record telephone conversations from the line by pressing one button. The main speaker has a good volume, the sound is of average quality, but quite clear. The volume will be sufficient for any environment. The vibration alert is not powerful.

Thanks to its new platform, the smartphone supports dual SIM 3G and 4G simultaneously. Thus, SIM cards from operators like Tele2 will work in 3G for voice communications, even when a card from another slot is selected for data transmission in 4G. Usually, in this case, SIM-cards of operators that do not support the 2G standard (like Tele2) simply stop working. A special mode is designed to assign certain functions to each of the cards in advance. The cards work in Dual SIM Dual Standby mode, that is, there is only one radio modem here.

Software and multimedia

A 64-bit OS is used as a software platform Android version 6.0 with its own proprietary shell Emotion UI 4.1. This shell from Huawei developers is so versatile that they use it in almost the same form in all their smartphones, including the new Nova line. In the notification curtain, there is a scale with time stamps, a swipe from bottom to top brings up an additional pop-up menu where you can find a flashlight, calculator, voice recorder, etc. It is possible to change themes and arrange virtual control buttons on the screen in your own way. There is support for gestures and a mode for one hand, and the smart virtual semicircular button for quick access to the main functions is not forgotten. Third party applications quite a bit, everything is spoiled, as usual, by the mass of free services Yandex and Mail.ru, which everyone could install for themselves if there was such a desire.

To listen to music, we use our own player with a familiar interface, where there is even karaoke with scrolling text, but there are no additional manual settings- you can only turn on or off the virtual DTS system. The Huawei Nova does not have a dedicated audio chip, but it does have DTS Headphone: X software technology that creates a surround sound effect. In addition, the smartphone is equipped with a loud main speaker, and it sounds pretty good in the headphones and in the speaker. The sound is clear, without impurities, the volume reserve is more than enough. There is an FM radio in the smartphone - however, for some reason, Huawei never allows you to record the broadcast. The dictaphone demonstrates satisfactory sensitivity, records sound with high quality, the noise reduction system copes with its duties with dignity.

Performance

Hardware Huawei platform Nova is built on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC, made on 14nm technology. This SoC includes eight 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 2.0 GHz, the Adreno 506 video accelerator with a core frequency of up to 650 MHz is responsible for graphics processing. The RAM is 3 GB and the internal memory is 32 GB. About 24 GB of them are free in the new smartphone, and after clearing the memory and closing all applications, 1.9 GB of RAM is usually free.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 is a fresh chip for lower mid-range smartphones, since there is also Snapdragon 652, which is much more powerful, but also not top-end, but mid-level. Nevertheless, and Snapdragon 625, if not rely only on the performance of synthetic tests, in real life is a very interesting platform, which, thanks to the new 14 nm process technology, has a very good performance with low power consumption.

In complex SoC tests, Snapdragon 625 demonstrates not very high results, they are comparable to the capabilities of HiSilicon Kirin 650 and noticeably lower than that of Snapdragon 652. Of course, Snapdragon 625 is far from the flagship platforms, but at the same time, the overall performance should be more than enough to perform the main tasks and even for actual games, with which in practice Huawei Nova had no problems.

Benchmarking AnTuTu and GeekBench:

All the results obtained by us when testing the smartphone in the most recent versions of popular benchmarks, we have summarized in tables for convenience. Several other devices from different segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the resulting dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, therefore, many worthy and relevant models remain "behind the scenes" - due to the fact that they once passed the "obstacle course" on previous versions test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in game tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can be truly correct only on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

results AndroBench test on the speed of working with memory:

Thermal imagery

Below is a thermal image back surface obtained after 10 minutes of running the battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:

It can be seen that the heating is more localized in the upper part of the device, which, apparently, corresponds to the location of the SoC microcircuit. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was only 34 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is very little.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats that make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is often impossible to process modern options at the expense of processor cores alone. Also, do not expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are tabulated.

According to the test results, the subject, as is most often the case, was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed to fully play most of the most common multimedia files on the network, in this case, audio files. To play them successfully, you will have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it is also necessary to change the settings and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 audio format.

Further video playback testing was done by Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We could not check theoretically possible support for adapters for outputting an image to an external device due to the lack of an adapter option connected to USB port Type-C, so I had to limit myself to testing the display of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Testing technique for video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the frame output of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and the frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In our tests we used the MX Player video player in the "Hardware" mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

Red marks indicate possible problems related to the playback of the respective files.

According to the criterion for outputting frames, the quality of video playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since in most cases frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with a more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. The refresh rate of the screen is 62 Hz, but for some reason, in the case of files with 60 fps, usually a couple or a little more frames per second are skipped, which is compensated by the increase in the duration of several other frames. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the edge of the screen, one to one pixel by pixel, that is, in the original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: all shades are displayed in shadows and highlights.

Battery life

Non-removable accumulator battery installed in Huawei Nova has a capacity of 3020 mAh. By modern standards, the capacity is far from a record, but the smartphone showed autonomy results not only decent, but better than many of its competitors with more capacious batteries.

In real use scenarios, all this, of course, is leveled, and even the most hardy smartphone may not be able to reach the evening charge, but with a normal average operating mode, the hero of the review is quite able to calmly hold out for a day or more without recharging. Testing has traditionally been conducted at typical power consumption levels without using power saving features.

Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme) at the minimum comfortable brightness level (the brightness was set to 100 cd / m2) with auto-scrolling lasted almost 14.5 hours until the battery was completely discharged, and with continuous viewing of high quality video ( 720p) with the same brightness level through the home Wi-Fi network the device operates until 11 o'clock. In 3D games mode, the smartphone can work up to 6 hours.

Seems to be, fast charging QuickCharge must be supported by the platform, but the test copy arrived to us without a complete network adapter, and from the usual charger with an output current of 2 A, the smartphone charges in about 2 hours with a current of 2 A at a voltage of 5 V. Wireless charging the smartphone does not support.

Outcome

Unlike the older model Nova Plus, the usual Huawei Nova is officially presented in Russian retail, its retail price is 23 thousand rubles (there are offers for 19-20 thousand). This miniature handsome man in a solid metal case with a fingerprint scanner, good cameras, good screen, very impressive sound and excellent communication capabilities, as well as a very decent autonomy and quite acceptable hardware performance, such money is definitely worthy. As a competitor from the alternative Apple ecosystem for him, it may well be the same miniature, but technically richly equipped iPhone smartphone 5S / SE, and on the Android side, Huawei certainly considers the younger ones for the Nova Samsung smartphones mid-level Galaxy line A.

It has become one of the most interesting novelties at IFA 2016. And not surprisingly, with a price tag of $ 368, the model combines the stylish design of the top Nexus 6P, the comfort of using the flagship P9 and the advanced developments of a number of other brand devices. the site managed to get to know Nova better and find out if it has a chance to become one of the company's bestsellers.

Design and functional elements

Just at the first glance at the designers' Nova, you want to bathe in a sea of ​​compliments. The external forms of this smartphone are so graceful and perfectly balanced that when you take it in your hand, you get the impression that it is tailored exactly for you.

The all-metal case of the model with mirrored cuts at the ends looks expensive and stylish. Moreover, the design of Nova, in my opinion, is universal - both for a street look and a business look. Due to the three available colors (gold / silver / gray), the gadget does not have a pronounced gender identity. Although, I am sure, the fairer sex will be the first in line for the model, he is very elegant.

All connectors and functional elements on the case look very neat. At the top there is a 3.5 mm audio output and a noise canceling microphone, and on the bottom there is a symmetrical USB Type C port and a multimedia speaker, the grill of which also hides a microphone.

A hybrid slot for SIM cards and memory cards is located on the left side, and the volume rocker is on the right above the power button. Both are matched to the graceful sides of a smartphone made of brushed metal, and the latter is also originally marked with a red edging. They are pressed lightly, their course is soft and accompanied by a characteristic click. They are also well spaced so that erroneous clicks are excluded.

The thumb reaches out to any of them without the need for interception. In general, Huawei Nova is ideal in terms of ergonomics. The dimensions of 141.2x69.1x7.1 mm and 146 g, which are just tiny with a 5-inch display diagonal, make it easy to handle it with one hand.

What is especially nice, the manufacturer was not greedy for additional options that simplify this process, including the modes "One-handed control" and "Simple screen", as well as the "Control button", which calls a pop-up menu of quick access to some frequently used applications.

On the back of the Huawei Nova, the designers have nicely tied brushed metal and a black plastic insert into one, combining the photographer's key tools - a 12MP Sony lens with LED flash.

Here, almost in the center, there is a fingerprint scanner platform slightly recessed into the body, framed by a frame with a mirrored cut.

The biometric sensor stores up to 5 fingerprints, responds quickly and clearly. But, most importantly, its functionality is not limited to unlocking your smartphone. Through it, you can also take a photo, answer a call, turn off the alarm, open the notification panel and much more. To do this, you need to use special gestures - "press and hold" or "hold". Moreover, gestures can be done with any finger, even those whose fingerprint is not registered.

And one more important point- to unlock Nova using a fingerprint sensor, you do not need to activate the screen beforehand.

The control keys of the Nova are on-screen, so only the manufacturer's logo is located under the display. Above the screen is an LED indicator, an 8MP camera lens, light / proximity sensors and a speaker mesh.

Screen

The smartphone display is made using IPS technology. It is bright, contrasty and has the widest possible viewing angles. Full HD resolution at 5 inches diagonal provides clear and detailed pictures with deep vivid colors.

The screen is covered with 2.5D glass, but the manufacturer does not report on its protective properties. But the presence of an oleophobic coating is noticeable right away - a finger glides well on the glass, prints are easily erased.

It should also be noted that the smartphone is adapted to our harsh winters - the control is supported with gloves. In turn, a special mode "Eye protection" allows you to effectively and safely use the Nova in reading mode, as it excludes the colors of the blue spectrum as much as possible.

The display backlight can be adjusted manually and automatically. Its maximum level is enough for comfortable work with a smartphone even in bright sunlight. It is also possible to adjust the color temperature.

There were no questions about the sensitivity of the screen sensor - it is pleasant and easy to work with. The capacitive touch layer recognizes up to 10 simultaneous touches.

Memory

Built-in 32GB Flash storage in Nova. Standard storage can be expanded with microSD cards up to a maximum capacity of 128GB. For these purposes, a hybrid slot (2 nanoSIM or nanoSIM + microSD) is used.

Hardware and performance

Under the hood, the smartphone is equipped with an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (MSM8953) processor with a clock speed of up to 2.0 GHz, a Hexagon 546 DSP digital signal chip, an Adreno 506 video accelerator and 3 GB of RAM.

As you can see, unlike many others characteristics of Huawei Nova, its hardware stuffing is not top-end, nevertheless, its performance, I am sure, will be enough with a margin for at least a couple of years.

In AnTuTu, the handset reaches almost 65 thousand points, and in everyday work it easily copes with all modern 3D games at any graphics settings, quickly launches resource-intensive applications and easily plays high-definition video.

Autonomy

Pleased with the time autonomous work Huawei Nova, which is primarily due precisely to its economical single-chip system (SoC).

One full charge of its 3020 mAh battery lasts for 7-8 hours of watching Full HD video or up to 5 hours of racing in Asphalt 8. And this is at maximum screen brightness.

Smartphone fast charging is not supported. There are three proprietary power consumption modes: "Productive", "Smart" and "Energy Saving". In the latter, in particular, only calling and messaging functions remain available to the user.

Communication capabilities

Nova supports two nanoSIM cards. The radio module, however, is one, so during a conversation on one SIM card, the other will be unavailable.

The smartphone operates in 2G GSM networks: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and 3G WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, and also has support for 4G LTE Сat 6 with a maximum possible speed of up to 300 Mbps for reception.

Another pleasant moment for the user is a wide range of modules wireless... The gadget is equipped with Bluetooth 4.1, satellite modules GPS navigation c A-GPS and GLONASS, as well as Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n (2.4 GHz). The current Wi-Fi 802.11 ac standard has not been implemented.

Nova supports the ability to create a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels, Wi-Fi Direct technology, option wireless transmission MirrorShare images and Wi-Fi + mode, enabling smart switching between mobile and Wi-Fi.

In addition, an NFC chip is installed on board the gadget. It received support for Huawei Beam to exchange information with compatible smartphones, and can also be used to make contactless payments.

ON

Powered by Huawei Nova operating system Android 6.0 Marshmallow on top of which is installed branded shell Emotion UI 4.1. The latter, by tradition, is devoid of a program menu, but it has a "Hidden Applications" menu, where you can hide not often used utilities, since you simply cannot remove the latter from the desktops.

The user has the right to change the design of the shell by choosing one of several preinstalled themes, in which, among other things, you can customize the icon sets. In addition, he can choose the animation of turning the desktops, set the grid of his icons, etc. In a word, the user of EMUI 4.1 is the most friendly to the user.

Of the applications preinstalled on Nova, I will note the package Google programs, several games, office suite WPS Office, News Republic news aggregator, social networks Facebook and Twitter, etc.

The smartphone has a mode of operation "In a case" and an editable navigation bar, and also supports motion control. By double tapping on its display with a knuckle, for example, you can take a regular screenshot, and by drawing the letter "S" with it, you can create a long screenshot.

Similarly, using the letters of the English alphabet, it is possible to launch applications on the Nova. If you turn the smartphone over during a call, the sound will turn off, pick it up - the volume will decrease, bring it to your ear - it will answer the call.

Loudspeakers

The sound of the Huawei Nova is excellent. The multimedia speaker of the smartphone is loud, clean, but most importantly not "dry" - the entire spectrum of frequencies is well traced.

The earpiece speaker also has a sufficient volume reserve - the interlocutor can hear well during incoming and outgoing calls, as well as me to him.

The sound in the headphones is clear and balanced, supported by DTS Headphone: X audio technology.

Cameras

For the main Nova camera, Huawei took a 12MP Sony IMX286 sensor with 1.25 micron pixels, used phase and contrast autofocus, 6-lens optics with f / 2.2 aperture and a single LED flash.

Optical image stabilization, like Nova Plus, is not provided here, but a huge number of all kinds of photo and video shooting modes are preserved, including professional, in which you can independently adjust ISO, shutter speed, white balance, exposure, etc. In a word, experimenters in the field mobile photography will be satisfied.

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