HUAWEI Nova 9 SE Review

Beauty with Wallet friendly priced phone in your hands.

About a week ago we have just done our unboxing of the Nova 9 SE, which our first impression does give a good overall experience especially on usage and performance for everyday use.

Today we will dive in deeper as a review on the Huawei Nova 9 SE with our verdict and conclusion as the device is with us well over a week.

Design

The nova 9 SE design is built on a slim candybar profile carrying the weight of 191 Grams, which is on par with most smartphones today yet it is still an easy pocketable phone. Over to the back/rear of the phone, it is made of gloss coated finishing which looks like a mirror when placed under the sunlight with rainbow like colors shining however it will attract smudges, but still it is nice to see HUAWEI continues with the Nova iconic design which still never gets outdated. Towards the camera portion is an island design of two bump consisting of 4 camera sensors and a flash. bump wise, its not terribly annoying and the included slim profile translucent casing will solve the problem.

Over to the curved sides of the HUAWEI nova 9 SE, on the right hand side, there is a volume up and down button and a power button which doubles as a fingerprint scanner, while the top houses a microphone and the dual Nano SIM slots. Over to the bottom of the phone there is one microphone, one USB C port and a bottom speaker. All of the phone sides are made of plastic with blue greyish chrome finish to it. Over to the camera design, the same color applies to the side of the phone and the bottom/top part as well with mirror finishing touch to it. Since there is no 3.5mm audio jack, the nova 9 does not come with any converters, but you can easily purchase it now a days at any phone accessories shop

The nova 9 comes in three colors, Crystal Blue, Pearl White and Midnight Black. The Color that we are reviewing is the Crystal Blue and overall impression holding it and using it over daily basis is so mesmerizing by just gazing at it.

Display & Audio

Over to the display side, the nova 9 SE is powered by a generous sized 6.78 Inch FHD+ 90Hz flat TFT LCD screen with 16 Million color display. Color representation is well accurate although it is not an AMOLED display which is still remarkable. Depending on your daily usage and just a handful of games does support up to 90FPS gameplay. Other features include a 270Hz touch sampling rate which is a huge advantage when it comes to the accuracy and sensitivity over the touchscreen when gaming with the phone. On top of that with the density of 387PPI, you will enjoy one of the good displays available with streaming applications such as YouTube and Netflix. However due to lack of Google services, you will either need to load some streaming apps manually, and also no FHD and above Widewine certifications in the nova 9 SE. Audio wise, turning on full maximum volume can be real loud although it is just a single firing speaker near the USB port, and still deliver clear and clean listening experience in the room.

Camera

The nova 9 rear camera comes with one 108MP wide camera, one 8MP ultra-wide angle camera, 2MP macro macro lens, 2MP depth sensor followed by a LED flash. Pictures taken are close to the environment color matching with details captured properly whether it is in automatic mode or Aperture mode. Night shots wise, the results were acceptable with good amount of lights and shadows represented. The selfie images are bright and good during day time as well which is powered by a 16MP wide angle lens. A few sample shots were taken over different modes as below as reference. A sample of 10x zoom, normal, 108MP and automatic shots taken, with some noise encountered over certain images and softness depending on the environment.

On video recording you get support up to 1080P at 30FPS, stutters are visible while recording but it’s very minor with very good details and brightness during recording. Dual video mode is also supported which you can capture both front and rear recording at the same time. Such feature is great for VLoggers and YouTubers that be able to take the advantage. Below is a sample of the video recorded.

Performance & Benchmarks

Over to the performance of the phone, the nova 9 SE is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G 6nm Octa-Core Processor, 128GB of internal storage and 8GB RAM. Call quality test is excellent with a choice of calling via VOLTE or WOWIFI depending on your Telco Carrier. The phone does come with 4G connectivity support, WiFi 5/AC, Bluetooth 5 and NFC. Testing over WiFi connection gets up to an average of 400MBPS transfer speeds, which is a great speed for multimedia, download and streaming. Video call wise, the nova 9 SE does the job pretty good as well thanks to its 16MP front camera. If you have a WiFi 5 router or greater, you should be able to take all the advantages without issues.

Over to the gaming side, being a mid range entry phone by specs meaning that the nova 9 SE can game on par with its surrounding competitions provided user defined settings within the performance mode. Majority of the titles can be ran without issues and with titles that is optimized for higher frame rate, the nova 9 SE supports up to 90FPS. Certain games such as Genshin Impact may needed to tweak the graphical settings to low mixed with medium, while maintain around 38FPS to 55FPS.

Above is the Benchmark performance, which delivers reasonable average scores on each of the test between its graphics, and processor performance. The nova 9 SE is suitable for those seeking for a Mid range phone with some multitasking ability and eSports games.

Battery performance wise, you will get squeeze around 12 hours of it, a mix of calls, surfing, email, streaming, and a few Genshin Impact Sessions. Turning on the battery saving mode under 20% will get you around extra 2 hours of conservative usage. The nova 9 SE comes with a 67W fast charger, which will charge up the phone to 100% from 10% in less than an hour average. 

Features & Software

The nova 9 SE comes with Android 11, with EMUI 12 that brings in an UI that is simple to use, close to the Android Stock UI interface that features collaboration tools such as HUAWEI Share and easy one tap NFC connection towards Huawei and HONOR series of Laptop. The camera UI is also easy to use providing tips and help for the user, like tutorials and guide. While it lacks of Google Play Services, you still have Huawei AppGallery which hosts a vast variety of applications and games, which I find it a much improvement now with cleaner UI and more selections.

Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion 

The Huawei Nova 9 SE shows that a phone can be elegant, powerful and mesmerizing on the design with high megapixel count camera setup that is trending with the current social media packed in features priced right for the masses. Besides that, with so many improvement over it’s AppGallery, HUAWEI does proof that they do care about it’s users and keep on adding more apps and its services towards everyone that uses their product. With the price stated at RM1,099, this is really affordable and yet giving you all you need to communicate and you can capture all your great moments with it.

Pros

• 90Hz Refresh Rate Display
• A power saving decent Mid range chipset
• 270hz touch sensitive display

Cons

• Video Recording up to 1080P 30FPS only

For more information and purchasing the Huawei Nova 9 SE online, Click Here