Huawei nova 9 hands-on review

Potent quad-camera setup

Both the Huawei nova 9 and nova 9 Pro have a promising quad-camera setup, with a 50MP snapper at the helm. It captures stills in about 12.5MP by default. In typical Huawei fashion, the 50MP sensor in use here is an RYYB one. It sits behind an f/1.9 lens and has PDAF. Nothing too fancy, but enough to get the job done.

Beyond that, there is an 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide with a fixed focus on the back of both the nova 9 and nova 9 Pro. That and two additional, supplementary 2MP, f/2.4 cameras - one for depth data and the other a macro cam.

We managed to capture a few quick snaps for the hands-on. You can check these out for yourself, and we'll reserve judgment for the full review.

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples

We snapped quite a few daylight shots with the main cam, just to be thorough.

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples

The main cam can capture 50MP, full-res shots as well if that is your preference. Here are some of these.

Huawei nova 9: 50MP main camera samples

Naturally, you can do portraits. The nova 9 even has a dedicated 2MP depth camera just for that very purpose. Unfortunately, the results don't seem very promising due to the poor edge detection.

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

We didn't skip over the ultrawide camera either. Here are some 8MP shots from it.

Huawei nova 9: 8MP ultrawide camera samples

Here are some low-light ones as well. A nice mix between full auto and Night mode shots, since the latter seems to have a very subtle effect overall, just restoring highlights slightly.

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

Huawei nova 9: 8MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Both nova 9 models get a 32MP, f/2.0 selfie cam. It captures in its full 32MP resolution by default. Here are some quick samples.

Huawei nova 9: 32MP selfie camera samples

The Huawei nova 9 notably skips the second 32MP, 100-degree ultrawide selfie cam, as seen on the nova 9 Pro. Depending on your opinion about the particular look of an ultrawide selfie, this may or may not be a big deal for you.

For video capture, the main cam and chipset can do up to 4K@30fps recording, and there is also gyro-based EIS on board. Here are a couple of quick video samples at 4K on the Huawei nova 9. It captures a standard AVC videos stream, at a solid 40Mbps, with a stereo AAC audio stream at 48 kHz.

The included gyroscopic stabilization impressively works at the full 4K resolution on the main camera. Here is a quick demo of its smoothing in action.

Final thoughts

The Huawei nova 9 is an interesting device in more ways than one, made more interesting still with its arrival to European markets. Just to recap some of the oddities at play here - the nova 9 runs on a Snapdragon 778G chipset, limited to just 4G connectivity. It also boots EMUI 12, instead of HarmonyOS. And, as far as we can gather, it still has an Android core, though with no Google services or apps.

Both of these points are just realities Huawei currently has to deal with, particularly if it wants to retain a presence in Europe. And if nothing else, this nova 9 launch appears to be a tentative indication of such intentions going forward.

Pricing for the Huawei nova 9 is set at EUR 499 for an 8GB, plus 128GB model, with preorders starting today (October 21) and official sales later this month. There was no mention of a 256GB model at the presentation, but it could be added to listings later on.

As far as hardware goes, the nova 9 is actually a pretty compelling and well-rounded offer. Sure, it's not perfect, but it has a gorgeous 120Hz, 10-bit, curved AMOLED panel, a modern and decently powered chipset, with potent connectivity, a solid 4,000 mAh battery, with 66W fast charging and a promising quad-camera setup, with a 50MP snapper at the helm. It does look good on paper, provided you can live with its particular quirks and deficiencies.