Huawei surprisingly launched a powerful 108mp camera intended for an entry-level budget phone, the Huawei nova 9 SE. It aims to combine flagship-level features with great value.
It inspires the younger generation. The device comes with a powerful and exciting content creation feature that empowers youth to express themselves through multimedia.
Incorporating classic colors and design elements, alongside a vibrant curved display, smart camera features, and powerful performance, Huawei nova 9 SE believes that they have created the perfect smartphone for this generation.
UNBOXING
The Huawei nova 9 SE packs with goodies out of the box, It includes a free soft TPU case cover, a USB C cable, SIM ejector pin, 66W supercharge power brick and the unit itself with a pre-applied screen protector on it.
DESIGN & DISPLAY
Huawei nova 9 se ha conservative chassis with curved backplate, rounded corners, and flat display with glass laminate. It is plastic but looks like glass and has a glittering effect. It sparkles and mimics a starlight effect when you move it around.
There is an oval-shaped camera module in the back of the house, the rear AI quad-camera. The backplate looks pleasing to the eye; the finish is slippery and tends to attract fingerprints easily.
Fortunately, there is a free TPU soft case to solve the problem.
The phone’s right side has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader and a volume rocker. The bottom has a USB-C port and mono speaker grille and the dual nano sim card tray at the top.
Upfront, the device manages to have slim side bezels with a full view display to just 1.05mm from top to bottom bezels, plus a punch hole font facing a 16mp selfie camera. Fullview LCD measures 6.78 inches and 7.94mm thin, The screen has a 90Hz refresh rate supported by a 270Hz touch sample rate.
The display quality is good, and it has compliant with the P3 color gamut. It is a color-accurate, responsive display. The phone has a good sturdy build quality, but no IP rating for water and dust resistance is stated. The Colour rendition is decent for what you pay for, and the text is relatively crisp with fair clarity under daylight conditions.
PERFORMANCE
The phone has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor and is kitted out with 8GB RAM and 128 GB storage. Connectivity is capped at 4G, LTE, WIFI 5, and Bluetooth 5.1.
The device’s performance is fair for the price point; navigating is snappy and responsive.
Day-to-day performance for most daily tasks doesn’t irritate and make you slow, you are able to use dozens of tabs in browsers, watch videos and complete most tasks as expected without issue.
The usual gaming classics like Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang ran without issue at medium to low settings.
SOFTWARE
The phone runs on Huawei’s own EMUI 12 skin based on Android 12. It offers a straightforward, smooth, safe, and reliable user experience whether you are working, studying, gaming, or video editing. Huawei has consolidated different menus in the control panel. Swipe to open the
Control Panel and get quick access to audio playback, wifi, and Bluetooth settings without leaving your current screen and making it easier to control multiple devices as if you were controlling just one device.
There is no Google play installed, but fortunately, Huawei has an app sourced from their own and called Huawei App gallery. Suppose an app you’re looking for is unavailable on the phone. In that case, you can use Huawei’s Petal Search to search for alternatives to sideload on other app repositories like ApkPure and ApToide.
Most apps are available on AppGallery, and if users need something that requires Google mobile services (GSM) to run, there is the Huawei Gspace app that mimics a sandbox environment of a working GMS-enabled phone. Getting Gspace up and running is easy; just search and install it on the App gallery. Keep in mind that the Gspace app itself and other parts of the menu tend to have much adware popping up. YouTube via GSpace runs without issue on the phone, and Netflix and Spotify.
BATTERY
The device has a 4000mAh battery; it manages to offer longer battery life with the usage of 18 hours 39 minutes in some benchmarks. Under actual usage, the phone can last two days with normal use, including data or wifi on most of the day, a couple of hours of gaming, and moderate use of social media and emails.
With 66W supercharging, the phone achieved an impressive 60 percent from zero in about 17 minutes and achieved full charge in 40 minutes. Our Huawei nova 9 SE review sample proved to be a fair workhorse that’s capable of handling most day-to-day tasks asked of a smartphone in a competent fashion.
CAMERAS
The rear quad camera module is built around 108mp F1.9 that has a large-inch sensor, bringing the computational photography tweaks for brighter images even under challenging light conditions. This large AI quad-camera is complemented by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP Super Macro camera for close-up shots. It is capable of taking conventional stills, full-sized 108MP High Res stills.
Huawei nova 9 SE’s rear 108MP camera was able to deliver excellent shots with good detail, good dynamic range, and pretty good color rendition in both daylights and even in dim light conditions. The ultra-wide-angle camera delivers good results though it’s not as bright or vibrant as shots captured by the main camera.
The phone’s rear camera is able to tackle up to 8x digital zoom by cropping the large sensor, and at 2x digital zoom, the Huawei nova 9 SE’s camera was able to retain great detail.
At 8x digital zoom, the phone still managed usable shots though there’s some minor grain in brightly lit scenarios and outdoors, while dim light conditions at maximum digital zoom tend to yield softer shots.
The Huawei nova 9 SE’s front-facing selfie camera was helpful in daylight conditions but did not fare as well in dim light even with the screen flash employed. The front camera, like any camera, works best when there’s sufficient lighting, but it also supports Super Night Mode (enabled manually) for darker dining rooms and other low-light settings.
Video capture performance on both the front and rear cameras is categorically average at best and serviceable for social media use. The camera and video capabilities of the nova 9 SE is very advanced and powerful and can create a quality video with its dual view and continuous selfie and rear camera features.
The large 108MP sensor does allow for some amount of AI-based stabilization.
Suppose you’re primarily focused on getting great photos for a low price. In that case, the Huawei nova 9 SE is arguably one of the most affordable cameras with a 108MP AI quad-camera in the market.
VERDICT
Huawei nova 9 se has a unique set of strengths for the price and it is available on Lazada, Shopee, and Huawei stores. For 13,999 PHP you get a large display, 108mp rear camera that is great for photography, long battery life, and 66w superfast charging.
Well, Suppose you are okay using a phone without 5G or less dependent on Google mobile services but looking for an affordable smartphone setup with a great camera. In that case, the Huawei nova 9 se is worth looking for.
