Huawei nova 9 review

Competition

The Huawei nova 9 sounds good on paper. It has a catchy design with unique attributes, curved flagship-grade screen, speedy 66W charging and a modern Snapdragon 778G chipset, although without the 5G part. That might not be such a big deal-breaker considering the poor 5G coverage in Europe anyway. Sadly, at €499 starting price, the appeal of the phone crumbles because pretty much all phones with a Snapdragon 778G run below the €400 mark.

The first alternatives to spring to mind are the Xiaomi 11i and the 11T. The former costs about as much while the 11T is even cheaper at around €450. They are both very similar phones with brighter displays, more powerful SoCs, have ingress protection, boast stereo speakers and are better photographers too.

Xiaomi Mi 11i • Xiaomi 11T • Realme GT 5G • Samsung Galaxy A72

Next on the list, we've got a flagship killer costing €450 - the Realme GT 5G. It has all the bells and whistles like the rest - flagship SoC, great display, fast charging, big battery and although not as good as the Xiaomi's, the GT is still a better cameraphone than the nova 9.

Speaking of cameraphones, the Samsung Galaxy A72 is probably right up there with the best in its class, camera-wise. It even has a proper telephoto camera with 3x zoom and OIS. The ultrawide is 12MP with 123-degree field of view - way better than most phones in this price bracket. Great display, a nice set of stereo speakers, and extra long battery life may be enough to compensate for the lack of a powerful chipset. The nova 9's raw horsepower is the only real advantage over the Snapdragon 720G-powered Galaxy A72.

Verdict

We can't overlook the elephant in the room - the lack of Google Mobile Services on the nova 9 specs sheet. However, as our review progressed, we learned this is not its only shortcoming, far from it.

The nova 9 has a sub-par camera performance; similarly priced rivals run considerably more powerful SoCs, all the while Huawei's contender fails to impress with battery endurance. Stereo speakers and ingress protection are also popular features in the price bracket that the nova 9 fails to deliver. The slick and lightweight design and good display won't be enough to attract enough buyers.

If Huawei's handset was priced lower, it might have gotten our recommendation, but for now, your hard-earned money would be spent better elsewhere. Unless you are reading this review a couple of months after it's been published, in which case the nova 9 might be in a more advantageous position price-wise.

Pros

• Slim and lightweight design, curved screen.
• Bright, fast, 10-bit OLED display.
• Competitive fast charging solution.

Cons

• Underwhelming camera performance.
• More powerful alternatives for the same or lower price.
• Lacks Google Mobile Services.
• No ingress protection, no stereo speakers.