Huawei has been recently releasing new smartphone models restlessly, and among the ones steadily gaining in popularity is the Nova 3. Its sub-brand, Honor, is also in the spotlight for the Honor Play. Both are known for their amazing specs as midrange smartphones, today we are going to dissect the differences between the two.
Design & Construction
At first glance, the two are barely distinguishable from each other as both the Honor Play and Nova 3 are roughly the same size with almost the same-looking notch. If it wasn’t for the Honor Play’s branding at the front, you wouldn’t be able to tell right away which phone is which. The only other major difference aesthetically is the Nova 3’s stylish gradient at the back that instantly gives away the phone’s identity. The Honor Play and Nova 3 share almost the same dimensions with a very slight difference in weight (the Nova 3 weighs 10g lighter).
Display & Multimedia
Since both the Honor Play and Nova 3 feature notches, they have maxed out a total display area of 6.3 inches. The two come neck-in-neck but the Nova 3 wins with it’s higher screen-to-body ratio at 84.2% compared to the Honor Play’s 83%. It’s such a negligible difference but it can be attributed to the presence of Honor Play’s branding at the bottom of its front panel. Both phones score the same type of IPS LCD capacitive touchscreens with 409ppi pixel density, which means the Honor Play and Nova 3 is capable of producing crystal clear images and vivid colors.
Camera
When it comes to shooting power, this is where we see the first major deviations. The Nova 3 boasts an ultra-powerful 16MP+24MP dual rear camera coupled with a 24MP+2MP dual camera at the front that can produce sharp and crisp pictures with amazing depth of field and bokeh effects. In comparison to the Honor Play’s 16MP+2MP dual rear camera and 16MP selfie camera which are still pretty impressive on its own. With Huawei always trying to innovate, almost all new releases, including the Honor Play and Nova 3, sport cameras that have AI enhancement pictures which enables users to take better photos as easy as possible.
Performance
The Honor Play and the Nova 3 are powered by the same Kirin 970 chipset and run on the same Android Oreo OS with the same CPU and GPU. At this point, the two phones can almost be considered as twins. This also means that the GPU Turbo software update for Honor Play and the P20 series might also be applicable to Nova 3—making both smartphones a perfect fit for mobile gamers, as the GPU turbo update accelerates graphics processing speed. They even share the same non-removable Li-Po battery with a 3,750 capacity. The only ace that makes the Nova 3 win this round is the memory: while both the Honor Play and Nova 3 are available in 6GB RAM variants, the Nova 3 has a higher internal storage which is twice as large as the Honor Play’s at 128GB.
Honor Play vs Huawei Nova 3 Specs Comparison
Honor Play | Nova 3 | |
---|---|---|
Chipset | Hisilicon Kirin 970 | Hisilicon Kirin 970 |
GPU | Mali-G72 MP12 | Mali-G72 MP12 |
OS | Android 8.1 (Oreo) | Android 8.1 (Oreo) |
Memory and Storage | 4GB / 6GB RAM, 64GB Storage, Expandable up to 256 GB | 4GB / 6GB RAM, 128GB Storage, Expandable up to 256 GB |
Rear Camera | 16MP + 2MP | 16MP + 24MP |
Front Camera | 16MP | 16MP + 2MP |
Display | 6.3 inches, 1080 x 2340 pixels, 409 ppi | 6.3 inches, 1080 x 2340 pixels, 409 ppi |
Sensors | Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass | Infrared face recognition, fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
Battery | Non-removable Li-Po 3,750 mAh battery | Non-removable Li-Po 3,750 mAh battery |
Networks | GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE | GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE |
Colors | Midnight Black, Navy Blue, Violet, Player Edition Red, Player Edition Black | Iris Purple, Airy blue, Primrose Gold, Red, Black |
Overall, the Huawei Nova 3 can be seen as a small step-up from the Honor Play. When you start considering the price, you’ll realize that the Honor Play is the sweeter deal. Even though they are made with roughly the same internal and external features and only differing slightly in other areas, the Php 10k difference in pricing doesn’t justify a shift towards the Nova 3. If you can forego the Nova 3’s quadruple camera setup, the Honor Play is a much better choice for the everyday consumer. It can deliver quite the same level of performance without breaking your wallet.
The Honor Play retails for a suggested price of Php 15,990 while the Huawei Nova 3 retails for Php 25,990.
Honor Play Launched, Pre-orders Start on August 11
Huawei Nova 3 Available in the Philippines Starting August 11