Huawei recently made waves with their two new mid-range smartphones dubbed the Nova and Nova Plus.
As the name suggests, the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus are two very similar phones that everyone expects size to be their basic difference. The former has 5 inches of display while the latter adds 0.5 inches to the same. You will get the same internals, but there are some slight variations when it comes to the cameras as well as the design language. So, how do these two – Huawei Nova and Huawei Nova Plus – compare against each other?
Design and display
As noted earlier, the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus are two phones with the same internals, but their differences come on the outside. Where many think of the introduction of the “Plus” moniker to be totally based on the addition of size, these two have more than you probably think.
You will come across a metallic unibody on both the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus, something that gives them a nice look and feel in addition to robustness. The phones have a premium feel that is brought about by the rounded corners and chamfered edges, but there are more similarities between the Huawei Nova and the Nexus 6P whereas the larger Huawei Nova Plus looks more like the company’s Mate series.
Despite taking after two different design languages, the two Huawei Nova and Nova Plus handsets have the same layout. There’s support for dual-SIM connectivity, USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack and the volume rocker and power button are positioned similarly on the right. The back has a camera, fingerprint scanner as well as LED flash alongside a Huawei logo. However, the fingerprint on the Huawei Nova looks more rounded while that on the Nova Plus looks more of a square. The latter’s rear snapper also comes with a bump and is located at the center while the former has its snapper flush with the body, but pushed towards one side.
As for the display, the size is the basic difference. You get a 5-inch Full HD panel on the Huawei Nova while the Nova Plus houses a 5.5-inch Full HD panel. The differences in size mean you get a lower pixel density of 401ppi on the Plus as opposed to the 443ppi of the Nova. This, however, is hard to notice with the naked human eye.
Hardware and performance
As noted at the beginning, the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus have the same internals. These two are powered by a Snapdragon 625 SoC that is paired with an Adreno 506 GPU and 3GB RAM. The processor has a clock speed of up to 2.0GHz and is a 64-bit.
The fact that these two have the same hardware means that they offer the same performance levels in real world situations. The fingerprint scanner is equally impressive, just like what the Huawei P9 has to offer. It can be used to unlock the device, trigger the camera shutter when taking photos, swipe across photos in the gallery or even receive a call.
The small size of the Huawei Nova also means it gets a smaller battery unit of 3020mAh. However, this is still decent for a 5-inch phone with a Full HD resolution. The battery capacity is upped slightly on the Nova Plus where you get a 3340mAh unit. These two should give you up to 11 hours of watching HD videos. There is a battery manager that when used, you will be promised of more phone usage across the day
Despite the new Android Nougat being available, Huawei chose to stick with Android Marshmallow for the two Nova and Nova Plus handsets. However, you get an Emotion UI 4.1 skin on top of the stock OS. Still, there is the option to replace this skin with something like Google Now Launcher or whatever it is that pleases you.
Camera and price
The Huawei Nova and Nova Plus are very different when it comes to the camera. Where the smaller Nova comes with a 12MP at the back with the ability to record up to 4K videos while the front has an 8MP snapper, the Nova Plus packs a 16MP lens at the back with the same support for 4K video recording, but also adds OIS. As for the front, you get the same 8MP snapper. Other than these differences, the rest is about the same between these two phones’ cameras.
Huawei is known for its affordable price tags that have actually been at the heart of its growth. However, this seems to be coming to an end. The Huawei P9 was actually the first handset from the company to come with a price tag similar to the likes of Samsung Galaxy S7, iPhone 7 and HTC 10, among others. As for the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus, the story is the same. The two are reportedly priced at 399 euros (about $448) and 429 euros (about $482), respectively. There is still no U.S. pricing details, but they should be out soon, including the availability.