Less than a week before it's official Philippine launch, I was able to sneak in to one of their kiosks in the South Metro as I had a hands-on of their first smartphone powered by Kirin 710 octa-core processor
Meet the Huawei Nova 3i which I found that for those who will pre-order, they will gonna have the black variant according to a male salesperson that I talked but starting on July 28, the Irish Blue version can also be availed. In case that you are looking at the full specs, you can check our previous article here. Compared to Nova 2i, it has a bit bigger display but the display clarity remains the same which is good.
Here is the back portion with some texts, same alignment compared to P20 Lite and just found out that there is a lil camera bump (for sure, there is a protective case to cover that flaw). One of Huawei execs mentioned that it has a glass back. For some reason as I tried to have a smudgy hand during the hands-on, there's not that much fingerprint smudges.
Almost the same placements that we seen - hybrid dual SIM tray at the left, volume rocker and power/unlock button at the right and the jampacked bottom section with 3.5 mm audio jack, micro USB port and single speaker. At first, I am a bit angry that they had this set-up once again but the 128 GB internal storage is in the rescue which if I gonna choose this as my main driver, I will gonna put in micro SD in somewhere
Almost the same EMUI but in version 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo based from the main page and pulldown menu. Unfortunately since the start of Nova 2i, the Nova 3i once again missed fave feature on the GR5 2017, the 4G toggle button. Coming from Nova 2i, the Kirin 710 really has more power chops in terms of app transition and some simulated multi-tasking that I did although the RAM management is still in question
Out of the advertised internal memory, the Nova 3i gives me around 107 GB left for app and file storage
Like almost on the Nova 2i, the Nova 3i has a lot of camera features to play with including the new addtions like AI and QMoji. The pro mode is also extensive ranging on 1/4000 to 30 seconds in shutter speed and up to ISO 3200. The edge of it over the Nova 2i? Huawei just brought in the H.265 video codec and can shoot up to Full HD at 60 fps
As we had limited time to play with the said device (for sure, I will gonna conquer more on our future review), I chose to do an auto shot, selfie and a portrait photo which based on the quality, it can be a bit better than the Nova 2i. As expected when you choose to do a portrait selfie, you need some few miliseconds for the extra time on image processing. The rear cam has f/2.2 aperture while it's f/2.0 from either of those two selfies that I did. For those who will gonna ask, you can only activate that watermark at the main camera shots
Huawei Nova 3i rear camera sample
Huawei Nova 3i front and "portrait mode" camera samples
Huawei Nova 3i will have it's official Philippine introduction this July 28, 2018 12 noon at the Glorietta Activity Center. Of course, expect that their newest ambassador James Reid will be there on stage. Huawei Nova 3i's official price in the Philippines is at Php 15,990 which if you will gonna pre-order (better to do it via Lazada Philippines hassle-free from the ongoing heavy rains throughout the country thru this link) and get a free speaker worth Php 2,990
