When the Huawei Nova 2i was launched last year, I was amazed on its performance in photo and video, plus the good part is that it has 4 camera, and I think Huawei was the first to come up a smartphone device with 4 cameras. We didn’t know that its possible to have 2 camera at the front side and another set of 2 camera at the back of the phone.
But I got crazy when they’ve launched the Huawei P20 Pro, another model with 3 camera at the rear and equipped with Leica camera tech. But its an expensive line of Huawei’s P series and few can only afford it, but Im glad that Huawei is turning their Nova into a series, and now we have 2 version this year - Huawei Nova 3i which is on the price range of mid-range smartphones, but they also launched Huawei Nova with a much higher and upgraded specs.
Here’s my review of the Huawei Nova 3i after using it for 2 months, thanks to Huawei Philippines for sending a review unit, Im happy with the performance of this smartphone and Im glad that this phone is still on micro USB hahaha.
Huawei Nova 3i - out of the box
Inside : the unit, manual, earphones, USB cable, charger, and SIM tray pin
TECH SPECS of HUAWEI NOVA 3i
6.3 inches display TFT LCD(IPS) FHD+ 2340 x 1080, 409 PPI
HUAWEI Kirin 710
4 x Cortex A73 2.2 GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 1.7 GHz
Android 8.1
4 GB RAM
128 GB storage
micro SD card slot: support up to 256 GB
Rear Cam - 16MP + 2 MP F/2.2
Front cam - 24MP + 2MP F/2.0
Four AI Camera
AI scenery recognition
HDR Pro feature on Front cam
3D Qmojis
LTE ready
Finger print sensor
Face recognition
3340 mAh
Micro USB
Body color: Black, Pearl White, Iris Purple
SRP PHP 15,990
For the focus of my review, I did a lot of photo test and video test, because Im much more interested on using the 4 camera, Im a bit lost in using a some features because this phone can perform a lot of tricks. You can go normal mode, manual mode and also use the AI mode which let the phone think for the right setting for you when taking photos.
Here’s what I Like in the new Huawei Nova 3i
- Its handy and I like the shiny body - its so classy and sleek
- The back body is smooth and it didn’t get a lot of fingerprint or smudge
- Phone size is just right, it can easily be hold by one hand
- Fingerprint scan to unlock is fast and very responsive
- The face recognize works perfectly fine
- App loads so quick and the navigation around the menu is smooth
- Front camera can take photo in normal mode or with bokeh mode
- You can also set the bokeh level of both camera (front and rear)
- The camera app can also take photo like a photo booth, it removes the background and cover it with black background (parang passport ID pero black and white)
- The AI mode adjust so quick and it can also do HDR mode in photo and video
- I love the HDR mode on photo, to show more details on the subject and background
- The 3D Qmoji is fun to use, you can use it for social media posting or send it as a message to your contacts ( I think its only good for 10 seconds video with digital cartoon characters)
- Camera can perform good even in low light condition -- that’s for photo and video
- Yeah! I like the video performance of the camera, even in low light, you can still see the image on video, that’s why it is also good for vlogging ( See my VLOG TEST here)
- I also like the super fast charging feature
Here’s what I didn’t like
- I can’t find the setting on how to convert those AI taken photos, especially with the HDR photos, into a one final photo for download or sharing. Because the phone will let you choose if you want to view the normal photo and the HDR converted photo
- The 3340 mah battery is not enough to power the phone the entire day, but I hope they can push it up to 4000 mah at least
- Too many features, sometimes I get lost if ever Im on AI or normal mode.
So far, I only have few complains about this phone, and it looks like that the Huawei Nova 3i is the almost perfect or maybe perfect smartphone. I noticed when people use their Huawei devices in taking photos, you can really tell the big difference because of the good quality of the media content that it can produce.
I didn’t got a time to use it for gaming, but I enjoyed using it as my music device when I travel around the country.
Also I joked that it is also a good starter kit for James Reid fans and wannabes hahaha.
Huawei Nova 3i and a Fujifilm X-T100, because James Reid is the celeb endorser of these two brands -- kulang na lang Milo energy drink and a girl name Nadine.
Here are some of the samples of PHOTOS taken using the Huawei Nova 3i
Front cam with bokeh
Front cam with bokeh
Front cam in normal mode
Front cam in normal mode
Rear cam in normal mode
Rear cam with bokeh
Rear cam with bokeh
Front cam with bokeh
Rear cam in AI mode
Rear cam in AI mode
Rear cam in AI mode
Front cam in AI mode
Rear cam in AI mode
Rear cam in AI mode
Rear cam in AI mode
Thank you for reading my review, I hope it helped you decide if this phone is best for your lifestyle. But if you are into photo and video, I recommended that this phone is good for you.
Let me know if the comments if you have the same Huawei Nova 3i model and also if you are planning to get it soon.
If you have some tips in using the phone, feel free to share it in our comments below
Thanks to Huawei Philippines for the review unit!
