Huawei launched the Nova 3 and 3i on a launch event on 19th of July along with Talkband 5 and the Kirin 710. Giving continuity to the Nova lineup, the company expects these devices to be as popular as the previous phones of the Nova series. The device, as of now, is launched exclusively in China.
Huawei Nova 3
Talking about the phones, Huawei Nova 3 is like the pro version of this model and the more powerful one whereas Nova 3i is like the normal version of the phone. Both phones have the glass-on-glass body sandwiched by a metal band which surely gives the premium feel. The Nova 3 has a 6.3-inch notched Full HD+ LCD(19.5:9 aspect ratio) display. It runs EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo.
The Nova 3 houses a Kirin 970 processor which is a top-notch processor from Huawei coupled with the Mali-G72 MP12 GPU. It is the same chipset used by the Huawei P20 Pro which is competing directly with Apple’s and Samsung’s flagship phones in the international market. It comes with a 6GB of RAM. The phone notably supports Huawei’s GPU Turbo, which supposedly increases performance when playing graphically-intensive games.
Well, moving onto the cameras, the quad-camera setup is not a new thing as we have seen it on previous Huawei phones like Nova 2i and Y9 2018. The rear pair is 16MP + 24 MP setup and the front pair is a 24MP + 2MP setup. The cameras are AI enabled so they can detect the environment you are shooting on and set the favorable modes automatically to enhance the images. It also has the new 3D Qmoji which can be a bonus feature. It packs a 3750mAh battery.
Nova 3 Specifications:
Display: 6.3-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~409 ppi density) OS: EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo Chipset: Hisilicon Kirin 970 CPU: Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) GPU: Mali-G72 MP12 Memory: 128GB, 6GB RAM Rear Camera: Dual: 16 MP (f/1.8) + 24 MP B/W (f/1.8), gyro-EIS (1080p), PDAF, LED flash Front Camera: Dual: 24 MP + 2 MP (no AF, depth sensor) Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3750 mAh battery
The Huawei Nova 3 has been priced at CNY 2,999 for the lone 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant. The device comes in four color options: Black, Promise Gold, Light Blue and Blur Violet.
Huawei Nova 3i
The phone has a 6.3-inch 19.5:9 FHD+ display with a notch. The Nova 3i features the latest Kirin 710 coupled with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. That is not a mistake. The 6GB model indeed has less storage. However, the official site says there is a 6GB + 128GB model too. All the models have the microSD card slot (can be expanded up to 256 GB max.). The Kirin 710 is the HiSilicon’s first-ever 700 series SoC which is also equipped in the Mi 8 SE.
The Nova 3i also comes with a quad-camera setup. The front-facing camera setup is the same as the Nova, a 24MP sensor, and a 2MP secondary sensor. Huawei says it is capable of identifying 8 different scenes and has an “HDR Pro backlight mode”. The phone also comes with the Qmoji. The rear cameras are a 16MP sensor and a 2MP sensor. They have a bunch of professional shooting modes and can also record slow-mo videos @480fps.
The phone comes with Bluetooth 4.2 and has a dual-SIM support (nano only). There is also aptX and aptX HD audio for high-quality audio streaming. The phone has a 3340mAh battery and runs EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo.
Nova 3i Specifications:
Display: 6.3-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~409 ppi density) OS: EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo Chipset: Hisilicon Kirin 710 CPU: Octa-core (4×2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53) GPU: Mali-G72 MP12 Memory: 128GB, 4GB RAM Rear Camera: Dual: 16 MP (f/2.2, PDAF) + 2 MP (depth sensor), LED flash Front Camera: Dual: 24 MP + 2 MP (depth sensor) Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3340 mAh battery
The 4GB model will sell for ¥1999 (~$297) and the 6GB + 64GB model will sell for ¥2199 (~$327). The Nova 3i comes in Bright Black, Pearl White, and Blue-Purple.