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3 comments by Laura Sacristán @Lau_Sacris

Memo from Engadget Mobile

In September, Huawei unveiled the Huawei nova 9 and 9 Pro in China, two mid-range 4G models with a slim design and a curved OLED screen. A month later, the company announced that both the first and the Huawei nova 8i will be sold in Spain.

Now the Huawei nova 9 has gone through our analysis table and we were able to see how it performs in each of the sections. On paper, it has specs and a price that puts it in the mid-premium range. Without 5G, of course, and without Google services (because of how we know the American veto) Let's see if it's really worth buying.

Huawei nova 9 datasheet

	HUAWEI NOVA 9
Screen	6.57 inch OLED FullHD + resolution (2340 x 1080 pixels) Refresh rate: 120 Hz
Editor	Snapdragon 778G 4G
Aries	8 GB
Storage	128 GB / 256 GB
software	Android 11 with EMUI 12 No Google services
Rear camera	Primary: 50 MP f / 1.9 Wide angle: 8MP f / 2.2 Depth: 2MP f / 2.4 Macro: 2MP f / 2.4
Front camera	32 Mpix f / 2.0
Battery	4300 mAh 66W fast charge
Communication	Dual SIM, 4G / LTE, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, USB-C
Others	On-screen fingerprint reader
Dimensions and weight	160 x 73.7 x 7.77 mm 175 grams
Price £	8 GB / 128 GB: 499 euro

HUAWEI Nova 9, 50 MP 4K Quad Ultra Vision Camera, 120Hz Hyperrealistic Curved Screen, HUAWEI Supercharge 66W, EMUI 12, Starry Blue

PVP at Huawei Store € 399.00 Today on Amazon for € 478.84 PVP at El Corte Inglés € 449.90

Crush at first sight

Fortunately, the unit that has passed through our hands is the color "star blue" (the black is very muted), with a pearly tone that changes against the light, generating attractive reflections. makes it really beautiful at first glance.

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Its weight of just 175 g, a thickness of only 7.8 mm and a textured back make it comfortable in the hand, although it slides easily (take the clear cover with you to avoid this). Another positive point in this regard is the complete absence of prints. fingers and dirt, in addition to the characteristic camera module, which, despite its size and the fact that it stands out strongly, does not rub off excessively. Huawei-plated in this section.

The left side is completely smooth, as is the top. The right edge is reserved for the power button and volume control, while the bottom is a speaker, USB-C port and a card slot (supports two SIM cards). Don't look for the headphone jack because it has it. there aren't.

Let's move on to the screen, which in the nova 9 is a 6.57-inch OLED panel with very tight bezels, a hole for the front camera and curved edges, which, we won't fool ourselves, is based on taste. more comfortable and natural to use.

The combination of a striking back design with a curved screen and metal edges makes it really beautiful at first glance

In any case, the screen has a FullHD + resolution, a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a touch sampling rate of 300 Hz, and can boast a reproduction of 1.07 billion colors and high HDR10 contrast. bright sunlight or at tight angles.

In the sound section, this model does not have a headphone jack and only has a single lower speaker which provides acceptable power and distortion-free sound unless we crank it up to the maximum, but in the price range it belongs to, we lack stereo speakers.

The Achilles' heel is called the HMS

Underneath the chassis, the Huawei nova 9 hides a modified Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G; and what is this modification? Basically, the loss of 5G connectivity is the point where the Nova 9 loses to most of its rivals. almost no 4G models at present.

At Engadget, "We have not given up on smartphones and will continue to introduce high-end models", Fred Wang, country manager, Huawei Iberia Consumer

Connectivity aside, the Snapdragon 778G paired with 8GB of RAM ensures smooth performance both while playing games and running any application. It also supports multitasking with ease, without lag or sudden shutdowns. And something that caught our attention: it does not heat up. even if you subject it to demanding tasks, here are the most popular benchmarks:

	HUAWEI NOVA 9	SAMSUNG GALAXY A52S 5G	REALME GT CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION	XIAOMI 11 LITE 5G NE
EDITOR	Snapdragon 778G 4G	Snapdragon 778G	Snapdragon 778G	Snapdragon 778G
Aries	8 GB	6 GB	8 GB	6 GB
GEEKBENCH 5.0 (Single / Multiple)	789/2968	686/2479	788/2759	771/2909
MARKING WORKS	9 559	12 416	12 697	10 743

Let's move on to the controversial software.As we said at the beginning, the US veto on Huawei is still in force, which prevents the Chinese manufacturer from incorporating Google services into their phones. Nova 9 has EMUI 12 based on Android 11, but lacks all Google apps and replaces them with HMS ( Huawei Mobile Services), with proprietary applications such as Huawei Video, Petal Search, Petal Maps or App Gallery.

We can download thousands of apps from the App Gallery, but we're missing many of the most popular apps and games we have on Google Play

From the latter we can download thousands of apps, but don't expect to find many of the most popular apps and games that we have on Google Play, in return they offer us links to download and install apk apps like WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook that work without There are also those from Google, but we are already predicting that they don't work. Solution? Use your browser to access YouTube or Gmail, for example.

Besides, we are dealing with a heavy and rough layer for the Western market, with a lot of customization options, but with a lot of bloatware and excessive advertising. In fact, in the beginning, almost 20GB of the 128 that our model includes was occupied and does not support a microSD card. On the positive side, this software does not slow down the system after all.

See full gallery »EMUI screenshots (38 photos)

From the software we go to the battery, the device in which the Huawei nova 9 takes off not thanks to autonomy, but thanks to its spectacular charging speed. Choosing a thin and light housing prevents the large battery from being turned on, so this model mounts 4300 mAh that reach the end of the day, but not much further , and with average use, it lasts for about 6 hours of screen time.

But all this is compensated by the fast 66W charging, which with the included charger allows you to charge from 0% in about 45 minutes, and in an emergency, it takes only 15 minutes to get 45% of the power.

What about biometric identification systems? Huawei nova 9 integrates facial recognition and a fingerprint reader under the screen. Both are effective and fast, no problem in this regard.

Fame - in photography - is ahead of him

Huawei Nova 9 photography equipment consists of a 32-megapixel f / 2.0 front camera and a quad rear camera with a 50-megapixel f / 1.9 main sensor, an 8-megapixel wide-angle f / 2.2, a macro lens and a depth sensor, the latter 2 megapixels and f / 2.4 aperture. Both cameras record 4K video, but Artificial Intelligence (AIS) stabilization is not very effective in this case.

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The camera app is quite intuitive and contains shortcuts to most of the popular shooting functions and modes (Night, Portrait, Photo, Video and Vlog). In the More tab, we have many more options that we can drag into the mode carousel, among which are Pro (professional) , Super macro, Aperture (to change the background blur), Slow motion and Rush motion. We lack the ability to turn HDR on and off.

Photo mode

But let's talk about what really matters: the quality of the images. In favorable lighting conditions, the Huawei Nova 9 offers photos with an acceptable level of detail, good dynamic range and correct focus (AF is fast and effective). It must also be said that artificial intelligence performs well. your scene recognition feature. You can even protrude your chest into the backlight.

Artificial intelligence does its job of recognizing scenes well, it can even breastfeed when backlit

Unfortunately, this phone comes with the usual camera setup we find in the mid range, so it lacks optical zoom (we recommend shooting in high definition mode and taking a crop, and never exceeding two increments with digital zoom). At least wide angle and macro do. a good job; the first, because it copes with the reduction of distortions and almost does not lose light, and the Super macro mode, because it allows you to get well-sharp images from a distance of 4 cm.

Photo mode (left) vs. Portrait mode (right)

Contrary to what happens with most phones on the market, regardless of their range, here the portrait mode does not allow us to adjust the background blur, which generates an excessive bokeh effect with a slightly uneven cut of the foreground. If we want to spice it up, we have to use the mode Aperture, with which we can modify it before and after the shot is fired.

Photo mode Photo mode (left) vs. night mode (right)

At night, the Huawei Nova 9 camera shows all the sensations that the Chinese manufacturer appreciates in night photography and it does not disappoint.It doesn't matter if you shoot in Photo (Auto) mode or in Night mode, this phone takes good photos with low noise, great detail and quite controlled lighting.

Front camera photo mode Front camera: Photo mode (left) vs Portrait mode (right)

In turn, the front camera gets a well-sharpened selfie, with a good level of detail and the correct dynamic range. Portrait mode offers us the possibility of applying a beautifier and various effects, but again does not allow us to adjust the background blur to our liking. Of course, the foreground cut is much more natural here. .

Photo mode Front camera: photo mode (left) vs night mode (right)

As for the behavior of the front camera in low-light scenes, it has to be said that Huawei did a great job here as well. The night selfie offered by this mobile phone surprised us for good, especially if we use the night mode, which has better control lights and saves detail in dark areas with results typical of better coverage.

See the full gallery »Photos taken with Huawei Nova 9 (36 photos)

Huawei nova 9, review by Engadget Mobile

For 499 euros that the Huawei Nova 9 costs (400 or 450 euros on some offers), we have a phone with a brilliant design, a spectacular screen, more than enough performance and a fast charging system that just makes life a lot easier.

We also cannot forget about these cameras, which, especially at night, in every photo remind us of everything Huawei has managed to do in photography. However, the Nova 9 is not a perfect phone and we lack some common features in this regard, such as 5G connectivity. or stereo speakers.

This overloaded operating system and the necessity to use apk of commonly used applications greatly harm the user experience

That said, we need to talk about the software and the lack of Google services that burden Huawei so much. There will be some who will not mind it, but it should be noted that in most cases, this overloaded operating system and the need to use apk from widely used applications significantly destroy the user experience. If that's not a problem for you, continue with your purchase.

7.9

Appearance9.25 Display 9.0 Performance 8.25 Cameras 8.5 Software 5.0 Autonomy 7.5

In favor of the

Against

HUAWEI Nova 9, 50 MP 4K Quad Ultra Vision Camera, 120Hz Hyperrealistic Curved Screen, HUAWEI Supercharge 66W, EMUI 12, Starry Blue

PVP at Huawei Store € 399.00 Today on Amazon for € 478.84 PVP at El Corte Inglés € 449.90 The phone has been loaned for testing by Huawei. He may inquire about our corporate relations policy.

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