The backplate itself is visually appealing, yet the surface is slick and readily attracts fingerprints. Fortunately, the supplied enclosure neatly eliminates this issue.
The right side of the phone has a power button that also serves as a fingerprint reader, as well as a volume rocker. The phone’s base houses a USB-C connector and a grille for the phone’s single mono speaker, while the top houses a twin nano SIM card slot. Unfortunately, there is no extendable storage, so you’ll have to make do with the present 128GB.
Up front, the Huawei nova 9 SE has managed to reduce the side bezels of the FullView display from its predecessor, the original Nova 9, to just 1.05mm, however, the top and bottom bezels are a tad bigger with a small punch hole for the front-facing 16MP selfie camera. With an FHD+ resolution, a fast 270Hz touch sampling rate, a reasonable 90Hz refresh rate, and compliance to the P3 color gamut, the 6.78-inch FullView LCD touch display is claimed to be able to reproduce over 16.7 million colors onscreen.
Our Huawei nova 9 SE review sample featured a solid construction and felt substantial. Even though Gorilla Glass is usually an uncommon choice for entry-level phones, the phone itself does not have an IP classification for water and dust protection.
Performance and Battery Life
The low-cost Huawei nova 9 SE phone attempts to pack all the necessities without breaking the bank. Although the refresh rate is reduced from 120Hz to 90Hz, it still boasts a little bigger display than its brother, the Nova 9, as well as a more cheap processor and a somewhat smaller battery. However, it is significantly thicker and heavier to accommodate the more potent camera array.
The phone’s hardware includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 octa-core CPU, which was released in late 2021 and was constructed on a 6nm technology. The Huawei nova 9 SE is equipped with 8GB RAM and 128GB of expandable storage, which increases its lifetime in comparison to many entry-level phones that often only have 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The maximum levels of connectivity include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, and Bluetooth 5.1. At this pricing range, 5G is wonderful but not absolutely necessary.
The phone’s operating system is Huawei’s proprietary EMUI 12, and apps are downloaded via their own Huawei AppGallery. You may utilize Huawei’s Petal Search to check for other apps to sideload from other app repositories if the app you’re looking for isn’t accessible on the phone.
