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Hands-on with the HUAWEI Nova and Nova Plus at IFA 2016
We’re here at IFA 2016, and HUAWEI just unveiled two new additions to their mid-range Android smartphone portfolio. What do these devices have to offer? We find out, as we go hands on with the HUAWEI Nova and Nova Plus!
The HUAWEI Nova is the standard model, and as the name suggests, the Nova Plus is the bigger of the two, and also offers better specifications in some key aspects. However, unlike other situations where a Plus iteration is essentially a carbon copy of its smaller sibling in terms of design, save for the size, that certainly isn’t the case with the Nova Plus, that looks quite different from its namesake.
Both smartphones feature full metal unibody constructions, which makes them very sturdy, and allows for a nice and solid feel in the hand. However, while the Nova looks a lot like a mini Nexus 6P, the Nova Plus borrows its design language from the high-end HUAWEI Mate series.
While the Nova does look a lot like the Nexus smartphone, it feels very different in the hand, and not only because of its obviously more compact size. The Nova also features more rounded sides and corners, that result in a better handling experience.
The Nova comes with a 5-inch display while the Nova Plus features a 5.5-inch screen, both with a Full HD resolution. Under the hood, both smartphones are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, and come with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. Unfortunately, there is no expandable storage via microSD card available with either.
The software experiences are identical as well, with both running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with HUAWEI’s Emotion UI 4.1 on top. If you have used a HUAWEI phone before, you will know what to expect here, and once again, you get a very iOS-like user interface, with no app drawer, transparency effects, and home pages filled with colorful icons.
The features that HUAWEI pack into their software package are all available here as well, including the Knuckle Sense technology, that lets you perform a variety of functions and tasks just by using your knuckles.
Apart from the design, where these two devices really differ are in the battery and camera departments. The Nova comes with a 3,020 mAh battery, while the Nova Plus packs a larger 3,340 mAh unit, so on paper, you should get a little bit more juice out of the battery of the latter, but we’ll need to test it more before drawing any conclusions.
On the camera side of things, both smartphones feature an 8 MP front-facing shooter, but the Nova and Nova Plus come with 12 MP and 16 MP rear cameras respectively. The Nova Plus camera also includes optical image stabilization, which isn’t available with its smaller sibling, but they are both capable of recording in 4K, and support all of HUAWEI’s Makeup and Beauty modes.
So there you have it for this quick look at the HUAWEI Nova and Nova Plus! Both smartphones will be available in three color variants, including titanium gray, prestige gold, and moonlight silver, but the pricing and availability information isn’t known yet.
Stay tuned with Android Authority for more great coverage from IFA 2016!