At least we got the latest firmware version of this Nova smartphone from Huawei but after a few months, we are still happy to discover new things apart from their launch in Makati and this might bother you - this is the Huawei Nova 3i review
Huawei Nova 3i comes on EMUI based on Android 8.1 Oreo. With it's new Kirin 710 processor coupled with 4 GB of RAM, it was quite a pleasure on us for navigation and multi tasking although in our taste, the custom UI was still a bit thick compared to our previous Huawei device, GR5 2017 as for first boot, it will give us only 60% RAM remaining.
The pulldown menu of Nova 3i which we still miss the 4G toggle icon. Please Huawei, bring it back.
On connectivity, we may sound like a broken record it was a norm on the Chinese brand. Calls, texts, mobile data, WiFi, OTG, Bluetooth and GPS were very good on our experience
On our video battery rundown test with it's 3,340 mAh battery, it survived at 15 hours and 26 minutes. Using it as a main driver in heavy mode and in average of 6 hours screen on time at 25% brightness, it usually gave us between 1 to 1.25 days of usage. Charging it with 5V 2A charger charge it at around 2 hours and 45 minutes
Good to know that Nova 3i has 7 out of 9 working sensors including the gyro. With Kirin 710 SoC, it scored at almost 138,000 on Antutu which is pretty close to Mediatek's Helio P60
On audio, it was not that much stated on the specs sheet but happy to know that it was quite good on 3.5 mm audio jack and very good as it has Qualcomm APTx codec support which our ears were glad with better sound experience with our LG BT earphones
Huawei Nova 3i features dual main camera and 24 MP + 2 MP selfie cam. Not much to talk about on the UI as it was almost the same as to the P20 series minus the high-end features. In camera quality, we can say that it was a lot better than Honor Play in terms of color accuracy and even the ease whe we are on Pro mode. The auto selfie mode was pretty good but we do not like the various portrait modes that they threw in (still a lot more to learn compared to iPhone's implementation). It may struggle sometimes during night time. Image processing time was pretty fast for a midrange device
Huawei Nova 3i rear camera samples
Huawei Nova 3i front camera sample
Extras: No one ever saw this so far but it bothered us a lot when we are into media consumption mode on the Nova 3i. For some reason, the default volume of this device was too low on the 3.5 mm audio jack when we are watching either Facebook or Youtube videos but when it comes to offline videos, the volume is in normal state. It was a hassle for us that we have to bring in our BT earphones to resolve it despite that we had a number of FB and YT app updates for a few times in our review timeframe and one Huawei OTA. We are reaching the guys from Huawei PH on this discovery
A few months after the launch, Huawei Nova 3i was still at Php 15,990. At it's first month, it was pretty decent for the asking price for a bit better cameras (compared to Honor Play at the same price) and better design but with the likes of OPPO F7 (hey, it has dual SIM) and two from their same backyard with dual SIM support (looking at both of you, Huawei Y9 2019 and Honor 8X with bigger display and sometimes, better camera quality for Pph 3,000 less), Nova 3i might be a bit in trouble especially from the bug that we experienced (this will be more noticeable than the bug that we seen in our previous phone review). Battery was more than enough for the battery capacity and quite good audio. Coz of this, it will be 3.75 out of 5 for the Huawei Nova 3i
