The Huawei Nova 2i came out of left field and took the midrange market by storm, with a solid popularity thanks to its near bezel-less display and competitive specs for its PHP15k price. Today, we’ll take a small dip into the Huawei Nova 2i and see what makes this smart device such a hit in the local market.
Each purchase of the Nova 2i yields what honestly looks like an interesting box setup which already puts it apart from competitors, and inside, buyers will get:
- Huawei Nova 2i (1 unit)
- micro-USB cord (1 pc.)
- Travel Charger (1 pc.)
- Earphones (1 pair)
- Clear Phone Case (1 pc.)
- Huawei Quick Start Guide (1 pc.)
The Nova 2i looks great for a midranger, and the all-metal unibody design gives off the suave vibe that makes me liken it to its high-end siblings like the P10. The slimness helps as well, which complements the enormous 5.9-inch display. What surprised me was the manageability of this device; not once did I feel uncomfortable holding and handling this phone. Shout out to that nice 83% screen-to-body ratio that could compete with other devices on a higher price point!
For button placement, we can see the power button and volume controls on the right, while the SIM slot is on the left. For the bottom of the device, we will find the audio jack, loudspeakers, micro-USB port, and the primary microphone. Inversely, we will see the noise-cancelling mic on the very top.
On the back, meanwhile, we will find the fingerprint sensor that has become the norm among Huawei devices, just below the rear camera. On top of this camera, we will find the LED flash, with the top and bottom corners visibly marked by the antenna bands.
The Nova 2i comes with an enormous 5.9-inch IPS LCD display, competing with the likes of the Galaxy S8 and the Vivo V7+. This is pretty impressive considering that the price is below 15k. Users will definitely love watching Youtube or streaming on Netflix via this device.
The Nova 2i runs on Google Android 7.0 Nougat with the EMUI 5.1 skin. There’s not much to say about the UI, but I will praise the ability to have multiple home screens. In addition, I also liked other features like the app drawer, folder-based grouping of apps, and app twin. Overall, it contains a lot of useful features that lets buyers customize their usage of the device.
Due to the pre-installed apps, each purchase of the Huawei Nova 2i gets 51.5GB of internal storage left, from the advertised 64 GB.
The Nova 2i is the first smartphone from Huawei to get a quad-camera setup. This means that we have access to dual rear cameras and dual front selfie shooters. The 16-megapixel rear camera takes full-resolution photos, while the front camera delivers clear, crisp selfies. Cameras can be caught in RAW format with Pro Mode, but we haven’t tinkered much with the specific features. After all, we only took a few test photos.
The quad-camera setup impressed me greatly during my first few uses of it, establishing a solid first impression. Now I can begin to understand why this was such a hit with local consumers. However, you should still tune in for the full review to see if this is THE Huawei device to have.