Amid a large number of Samsung and Apple smartphones in the market is a new contender when it comes to smartphone design, Huawei.
They are no longer hitting it out of the park in their price bracket but are even matching up to devices that cost hundreds of dollars more. Their latest release is the Nova series, a couple of Android phones that differ mainly in size but are unified by a couple of core elements.
Firstly, they are quite affordable given their specifications, and secondly, they offer style which can easily be described as the best among their competition.
For a very long time, it has been easy to dismiss Huawei as an also-ran. They have had high sales for cheap devices where the priority was always keeping the price low and nothing else.
Samsung, HTC, and LG were more than happy to let them rule that category while focusing on high-end phones where their brand recognition was cemented. But, Huawei didn’t get the memo and aggressively challenged this with many devices which could compete on design, metal construction, and thinness.
The tipping point probably was when Google chose them to manufacture the Nexus flagship, Nexus 6P. This was the most premium Google phone since the Nexus One, and it made the Nexus 5X feel cheap and plasticky while making the Nexus 6 look vast and clunky.
The DNA of the 6P is clear in the Nova, particularly the smaller model. Indeed this small smartphone could easily be misinterpreted as a Nexus Mini with its brushed, smooth aluminum body, sleek plastic strip, camera inset, etc.
The Nova offers quite a bit given its cheap price tag. There’s fingerprint biometrics, a 12 and an 8 MP camera on the front and the back, USB-C, a fulsome battery, fast charging, removable storage, and dual-SIM support.
There is a reason for Huawei becoming the third largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, and it isn’t just their cheap price tags.