The dust from Huawei nova 3/3i has yet to settle, Huawei has already pushing yet another nova device. Meet the previewed recently but with a lesser chipset. Speaking of chipset… the nova 4 is flaunting the last generation HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC, as found on devices like the P20/P20 Pro, featuring an octacore processor composed of 4x Cortex-A73 2.36 GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 1.8 GHz with micro core i7 (the thing that is responsible for all-thing AI on the device).
It is not a P20/P20 Pro dressed in a new body though; the nova 4 one up the P20/P20 Pro in several aspects, including more RAM (8 GB). Onboard storage remains at a non-expandable 128 GB. Display is a tad bigger, at 6.4-inch, but it has less ppi and it is of the lesser TFT LCD (IPS) item. Not surprisingly, it has a triple camera setup too, which comprises of a 48 MP main camera, a 16 MP wide angle camera, and a 2MP depth sensing camera. Auto focus is, without question, a standard here.
The hole punch camera is a 25 MP “poster-grade” fixed-focus sensor, capable of 1080p videoing and supports EIS (the front records up to 4K and supports EIS too). It has a 3,750 mAh battery that, on paper, provides 20 hours of use on 3G and up to 15 days of standby, and it looks like it does not support any form of fast charge as taking this battery from zero to 100 percent will take around 2 hours.
Interestingly, Huawei may have pioneered a new novel feature with the nova 4, called “video ringtone” (though it remains to be seen if it will catch on). Video ringtone is exactly what it says it is; basically, instead of using audio file as ringtone, you can choose to assign video, including personal video, music video and whatnot, as the ringtone. When the phone rings, the video and its associated audio will be playback. Well, didn’t I say it is a novelty feature?
The new Huawei nova 4 is also backed by Huawei GPU Turbo for improving gaming performance. And then there is the psychedelic colorway, arguably pioneered by Huawei, plus the obvious and delightful near-bezel-less design. Huawei nova 3 runs on Android 9.0 Pie, overlaid with EMUI 9.0.1. Beyond those, the specs are pretty rudimentary by today’s smartphone standards.
Huawei nova 4 is now selling in China, priced at 3,399 yuan (around US$490-ish). If you are keen, skip ahead for an overview of the specifications in the table below.
Huawei P20 Pro |
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| OS | Android 9.0 Pie with EMUI 9.0.1 |
| Chipset | Kirin 970 CPU, octa-core + micro core i7, 4 x Cortex A73 2.36 GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 1.8 GHz |
| GPU | ? |
| Display | 6.4-inch, FHD+ (2310 x 1080 pixels) Pixel density at 398 ppi (pixel per inch) TFT LCD (IPS) with 16.7M colors |
| Memory | RAM: 8GB ROM: 128GB Extended memory: None |
| Network | Support Dual SIM Support Mobile / China Unicom / Telecom 4G+/4G/3G/2G Main SIM: 4G network standard Mobile 4G (TD-LTE) / Unicom 4G (TD-LTE / LTE FDD) / Telecom 4G (TD-LTE / LTE FDD) 3G network standard Mobile 3G (TD-SCDMA) / Unicom 3G (WCDMA) / Telecom 3G (CDMA 2000) 2G network standard Mobile 2G (GSM) / Unicom 2G (GSM) / Telecom 2G (CDMA 1X) Secondary SIM: 4G network standard Mobile 4G (TD-LTE) / Unicom 4G (TD-LTE / LTE FDD) / Telecom 4G (TD-LTE / LTE FDD) 3G network standard Unicom 3G (WCDMA) 2G network standard Mobile 2G (GSM) / Unicom 2G (GSM) / Telecom 2G (CDMA 1X) Notes: * If both cards are telecommunication cards, the secondary card (non-default mobile data card) must be connected to the telecom VoLTE service to use the telecom dual card at the same time; * Card slots 1, 2 can be arbitrarily switched to the default mobile data card; * Dual-card 4G network usage needs to be determined according to the carrier network and related service deployment. |
| Camera | Rear (High-spec Edition): 40 MP (Main, f/1.8 aperture) + 16 MP (Super Wide Angle, f/2.2 aperture) + 20 MP (Depth Sensing, f/2.4 aperture), support auto focus (phase focus/contrast focus) Still resolution: 4000 x 3000 pixels (default), maximum support 8000 x 6000 Video recording: Support 4K video recording, support EIS anti-shake *The photo pixels of different camera modes may differ. Rear (Standard-spec Edition): 20 MP (Main, f/1.8 aperture) + 16 MP (Super Wide Angle, f/2.2 aperture) + 20 MP (Depth Sensing, f/2.4 aperture), support auto focus (phase focus/contrast focus) Still resolution: 5120 x 3840 pixels Video recording: Support 4K video recording, support EIS anti-shake *The photo pixels of different camera modes may differ. Front: 20 MP, f/2.0 aperture, supports fixed focal length Still resolution: 5760 x 4304 pixels Video recording: Support 1080P video recording, support EIS anti-shake *The photo pixels of different camera modes may differ. Shooting function: AI beauty, dynamic photos, fun AR (funny makeup, amazing background, gesture effects, 3D Qmoji, 3D virtual objects), portrait mode, night scene, video, short video, continuous shooting, large aperture photo, professional Photo, 3D dynamic panorama, HDR, panoramic photo, streamer shutter (including water, dragon, light graffiti, silk water, beautiful star track), time-lapse photography, slow motion, filter, timed photo, voice-activated photo, smile shot, put out Screen snapshot, etc. Note: Users need to download support functions: watermark, food, document correction |
| Battery | Lithium Polymer Battery 3,750 mAh (Typical) Theoretical charging time: about 2 hours (Note: The above data is the laboratory data used to charge the screen with the standard charger, the actual charging time varies depending on the usage) Theoretical 3G talk time: about 20 hours (Note: The above data is laboratory data, the actual talk time, depending on the actual local network conditions and usage habits) Theoretical standby time: about 15 days (Note: The above data is laboratory data, actual standby time, depending on the actual local network conditions and usage habits) |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4 GHz/5 GHz Bluetooth 4.2 technology, support BLE, support aptX, support aptX HD audio, support HWA Data/charging interface: USB Type-C, USB 2.0 Note: no headphone jack (but of course) |
| Sensors | Fingerprint sensor, Gravity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Proximity light sensor, Gyroscope, Compass Note: NFC NOT supported |
| Positioning | GPS, AGPS, Glonass, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System |
| Audio/Video | Audio supported formats: *.mp3, *.mp4, *.3gp, *.ogg, *.aac, *.flac, *.midi Video supported formats: *.mp4, *.3gp |
| Dimension | 157 x 75.1 x 7.77mm, 172g (6.18 x 2.96 x 0.31 inches, 6.07 oz) |
All images courtesy of Huawei.
