Goondu review: Huawei Nova 3i is priced attractively

If you think you’re already spoilt for choice when it comes to budget and mid-range phones, Huawei’s new Nova 3i brings yet another option in an already crowded market. Yes, competition is good.

Unveiled today, the S$398 Nova 3i is the Chinese manufacturer’s latest offering in this segment. Like with previous Nova models, you get a mid-range chip under the cover.

This time, it is Huawei’s own Kirin 710, which should be able to compete with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 common on many rival phones.

The main difference with Huawei’s top-of-the-line kirin 970 processor is the absence of the Neural Processing Unit that might affect AI performance.

The Nova 3i may lack the raw processing power but it still comes packed with the right specs. In the phone are 4GB of RAM coupled with 128GB of storage – decent enough for most users.

The phone’s 6.3-inch LCD Full HD display can display more accurate colors too – up to 85 per cent of the colour gamut. It helps to look good by keeping the bezels thin as well. There’s also a controversial notch but thankfully I can hide it just like on the P20 and P20 Pro.

What else is new from Huawei this time? It seems to have focused on gaming performance, with a feature called GPU Turbo.

During gameplay, the phone actively manages its resources to provide the best experience. It stops messages from being shown on screen when you’re in the middle of a game, for example.

This is not the first time we are seeing gaming-centric smartphones. Xiaomi, Razer and Asus have launched their respective gaming phones but they are largely considered as ultra-premium handsets.

The Nova 3i positions itself as a budget phone you can game on. Does it fulfill its promise? Unfortunately, you have to wait for an update that is coming up at the end of this month or early next month.

What I am not particularly fond of is the inclusion of Huawei’s version of Apple Animoji. Called Qmoji, this feature on the phone maps a user’s facial features and applies them to an avatar of the user’s choosing.

It’s a little gimmicky, to be honest. While I understand the Nova 3i is geared towards the younger set, is having Qmoji the way to go to build a strong brand among these consumers? I don’t think so.

So, it’s a good thing that Huawei has further improved the camera on the Nova 3i. It has four lenses as on the Nova 2 but now they come enhanced with scene recognition through artificial intelligence (AI).

Whenever a selfie is taken, the front-facing 24-megapixel and 2-megapixel f.2.2 dual-lens camera will apply the correct settings separately for the face and the background.

Bad news is, a small sensor such as the one on the Nova 3i will only exhibit more noise when squeezing so many pixels in. And it will get worse when capturing indoor images.

Another promise is the ability to apply the correct skin tone to people from four regions – Asia, Latin American, Europe and Middle East/Africa. From my tests, I’d say it doesn’t always work according to plan.

On occasions, the phone was unable to recognise the ethnicity of some of my friends. It sometimes makes their skin colour too pale, creating an unrealistic image.

The main camera, using a 16-megapixel sensor and 2-megapixel sensor, works differently from Huawei’s more expensive P and Mate phones. Though you still get a dual-lens setup, this is not the Leica design that fans have become used to.

On the Nova 3i, the 2-megapixel sensor collects depth-of-field data to apply the correct extraction for the blurred background portraiture shots.

Despite that, the subject extraction is still not as good as I had hoped for, Even with beautification set to off, my face still looked a little too artificial in many shots.

Despite the flaws, I’d say the Nova 3i performs well enough. I was able to take photos like I would normally do with my P20 Pro, though you have to note that the Nova 3i tends to over-saturate things a little.

With the right mode and setup, the phone can let you capture difficult scenes like fireworks at night. Clearly, Huawei’s partnership with Leica has paid dividends in this case.

At S$398, this is a phone for the budget-conscious that works well on the balance of things. I’d happily use it daily, especially with the 3,340mAh battery that lasts a day easily.

Just note that here are some things you have to give up, like the lack of 802.11AC Wi-Fi, which lets you download videos faster. You also get a slightly dated Micro USB port, instead of the newer USB-C that makes it easier to plug in a cable for charging.

Besides the Nova 3i, there are other competitive offerings from Huawei’s other brand Honor and rival Vivo as well. That’s a good thing if you’re looking for good value in a phone today.

CORRECTION at 24/07/2018 5:26pm: An earlier version of the article stated that the Huawei Nova 3i comes installed with GPU Turbo. The feature will be introduced at a later date via an update, as reflected in the current version. We are sorry for the error.