Huawei Nova 9 - smartphone test. Does it bring something new?

Huawei has been delivering proven and beautiful phones to the market for many years. Were it not for the sanctions imposed by the US government, we could confidently put this company in one line with Apple or Samsung, although in many respects the Chinese supplied the most interesting devices. They had not only excellent cameras, even in the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro models, but also great displays and powerful components that guaranteed trouble-free operation of even the most demanding applications. When the US government blocked the company from using the services of American suppliers, Huawei fiercely fought for every customer, working on its own solutions. Today, after two years of sanctions, they are in a completely different position. The extensive HMS, i.e. Huawei Mobile Services, guarantees access to all the most important applications, and those that do not work can often be replaced with even better alternatives.

I had the pleasure of going to Vienna for the world premiere of the Huawei Nova 9 tested today. A mid-priced phone, which, in my opinion, could easily compete with the flagship proposals with its performance and appearance. It was promoted on the spot, among others, with a TV spot with Robert Lewandowski in the lead role, who spoke ... Polish. As soon as he appeared on the screen for a short moment, he aroused great excitement among journalists from all over Europe. After the premiere, it was time for tests. From October 21, I regularly used Nova 9 to check this smartphone not only in everyday operation, but also to try to use HMS without official support for Google. It's not that bad at all, quite the opposite. Huawei has found a solution to many of its problems.

Huawei Nova 9 technical specifications:

As you can see, mid-range components are used here, which may not be particularly impressive, but you can believe me that they are sufficient for regular tasks. The camera intrigues me the most, because as you can see from the pictures below, its main lens is separated from the rest and huge, so I assumed that Nova 9 must take excellent photos after dusk and at night. You could already meet the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor in devices from Realme or in Motorola Edge 20, costing exactly the same - PLN 2299. In this respect, there was no surprise for me, I was more curious about other elements of this smartphone.

Look and feel - Nova 9 in all its glory

From the first touch of this smartphone, you can be truly captivated by it. The blue color variant is beautiful. The backs are made of matte, but shimmering plastic that is difficult to scratch. The sides of the device are covered with shiny chrome (they are also plastic), and the back island with cameras practically does not stick out from the whole housing. Its largest 50 MP lens is finished with a glossy circle. Below you will see the other three "eyes" and a small illuminating lamp. I must admit that this camera design distinguishes this equipment from the competition. For me, it looks good, especially in combination with the beautiful blue color. Only the blue variant received the unusual NOVA signature on the back. In the set, the manufacturer adds a factory-installed film on the screen and a transparent silicone cover. In addition, we also get a fast, 66W charger with a USB-C connector.

At the bottom of the device, classic, we have a USB input, a mono speaker grille and a SIM card tray. The left side of Nova 9 is devoid of any buttons, and on the right side we find small power and volume keys that work lightly and pleasantly, but with a noticeable jump under the finger. The display itself is large, 6.57" and slightly rounded sides, which makes the screen seem even larger. Fortunately, the manufacturer made sure that the edges at the top and bottom are symmetrical and have the same thickness. Front camera lens placed centrally - it is quite large and very visible.The phone is also impressive due to its light weight - only 175g, which seem even lighter in the hand. The fingerprint reader (working perfectly and quickly) is placed under the screen "Huawei was perfect for my taste in terms of design and colors. The phone is very thin, 7.7 mm thick and you can like it. It's a beautiful device, especially suitable for women's hands.

AppGallery, HMS system, EMUI overlay - how applications work on a Huawei smartphone

It's time to update the Huawei store - AppGallery. Already during the world premiere, journalists from Poland could notice that the company is eager to promote its repository with Polish applications. Today we will find much more things there than two years ago. We have easy access to banking applications, Empik, Żabka, Spotify, Facebook, Messenger, Allegro, InPost, Smyk and Rossman. You will also install Lidl, AutoMapa, TVP Sport, Bolt, Booking, HP Smart, T-Mobile, Orange, Play, Canve, and even a good Translator or the latest Polsat Box Go. There is no shortage of HBO GO, Glovo and iTaxi. You can also easily use Uber, which until recently did not work, but all problems have already been resolved. You can use all messaging and social media apps as normal. Twitter also works, with which there were some problems at the beginning. And if you use a web browser, you will turn on Google maps, YouTube and handle GMail.

Huawei has prepared an interesting alternative in the form of the "Petal Maps" application, which in my opinion is as good as those from Google, but has an even nicer design. We will find here all the necessary information, access to a full list of the most interesting restaurants, bars, pharmacies, cinemas or museums, as well as searching for routes for cars, buses, pedestrians or cyclists. The application works very quickly and smoothly, it can also show the way, taking into account sections of toll motorways or bypassing the main, usually jammed crossings in all cities throughout Poland. Thanks to this, the lack of the Google maps application was not felt at all for me. However, I had a much bigger problem with the YouTube app. When we enter it in the AppGallery search engine, we will be sent to the browser version. This one, however, has some limitations, because you can't, for example, stretch a movie to full screen in 16:9 mode.

The solution is to use alternatives - for example YouTube Vanced, which is supposed to be the equivalent of the official application, but ... I have the impression that it offers worse quality of displayed materials, and also scares with ads (which are more than in the original application, but you can get rid of them for a small fee). It also suffers from the same problem - it is impossible to stretch the video to full screen by doing the "zoom" with two fingers, which we are already used to. Also, when turning the phone from vertical to horizontal, i.e. changing the playback format video, the file is re-buffered. It's annoying, and can also be a nuisance for slow internet users. Unfortunately, this is quite a serious drawback for me, because you can use YouTube resources, but not as comfortably as in devices with access to Google services. What is important, however, we will pay contactless, thanks to NFC, using the application of virtually all the largest banks available in Poland.

In addition, I had no major problems using the Huawei Nova 9 smartphone. Its use requires changing some habits, but we only need a few days to completely ignore the problems with the availability of Google services. In addition, I must emphasize that the EMUI 12 system overlay looks really great. It is designed with a great sense of style, has great and smooth animations and a convenient control panel for the most important smartphone settings (very similar to what we find in iPhones). If we have more devices from Huawei, we will also find here the option of instant switching between them and again, like Apple, we can answer calls on MateBooks or instantly see the content of our phone on the screen of a laptop or PC. Connecting the headphones is fully automatic, all you need to do is bring them closer to the phone to immediately start the connection animation and view the current battery value.

I need to mention a few more things. First, the Nova 9 doesn't have any waterproof certification, but it's splashproof. Secondly, we will not charge it wirelessly and it does not support 5G connectivity, which is unfortunately "thanks to" the sanctions imposed by the United States. Huawei is reportedly working on its own solution, but we still have to wait for the effects. For some, these can be big disadvantages, I especially lack support for wireless chargers, but I haven't felt the lack of 5G. I have the impression that in Warsaw this network works much worse and slower than the well-worn LTE. Often on other phones I had to switch to a theoretically slower band to get faster internet, so a lot of water in Wisła will pass before 5G actually makes sense. By then, Huawei will probably introduce the appropriate components to support it.

The cell with a capacity of 4300 mAh seemed small to me, but everyday life showed that the smartphone software makes great use of it. After a day of fun, taking photos, recording videos and using the application, I usually had 45-50% of battery left in the evening, which I consider a great result. The time I measured in front of the screen exceeded 7 hours. Importantly, thanks to the 66W charger included in the set, the phone can be fully charged in less than 40 minutes. It only takes less than 18 minutes for us to gain nearly 60% of the battery, which is enough to work all day. I also have no objections to the built-in mono speaker. I miss the stereo, but this speaker works decently. It does not play too loud, but it does not generate ugly squeaks, crackles or noise. For the occasional sounding of a movie or turning on music with friends, it is enough. It is also easily suitable for hands-free calls.

Display, Performance and Components

It's time to finally get down to the fun stuff. Let's start with the screen. Huawei has installed a very good OLED panel here with a diagonal of 6.57 "and a resolution of 2340x1080p, which gives 391 PPI. In addition, it supports a 120 Hz refresh rate and has nearly 300 Hz touch sensitivity. For players it will be completely sufficient, but sensitivity to you can also feel the touch when browsing Facebook or a playlist on Spotify. The content literally flows under our fingers - it's great to look at. I have no objections to the panel itself. It's a standard today. I emphasized earlier that the fingerprint reader works instantly. It's literally infallible and unlocks the phone in a fraction of a second, and the rounded edges that reveal the icons of installed apps are impressive, there are some minor stutters here and there, especially when navigating to the news view on the left, but these are occasional performance drops.

Yeah, performance. The manufacturer installed an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor inside, whose 4 cores accelerate up to a maximum of 2.42 GHz. The other four do not exceed 1.8 GHz. All this is supported by 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of space for user data. The Adreno 642L chip is responsible for displaying graphics, the results of which may not be flagship, but they are enough to play in any game. As usual, I ran tests in all major benchmarks. Importantly - the 3D Mark I installed had no Wild Life tests available, so I just concentrated on Sling Shot. In AnTuTu, Nova 9 dialed 475,533 points, and in Geekbench 5, respectively, 787 and 2,910 units for single and multi-core. Androbench showed a very good 1030 MB/s reading and 745 MB/s writing. Detailed values, as always, can be found in the photos.

I also wanted to check out the built-in 300Hz touch sensitivity and I have to admit that it works great while gaming. Our character's movements are literally instantaneous, and playing Call of Duty or GTA San Andreas was seamless and very enjoyable. Snapdragon 778G performed well in these games, as well as in Asphalt 9: Legends, although unfortunately it did not allow 60fps mode in the latter game. Players just need to be careful not to obscure the speaker grille while playing , but it is closer to the right edge and holding the phone horizontally is very difficult to do. In technical terms, therefore, Huawei Nova 9 is an average, but sufficiently efficient shelf. The beautiful display and slim design are the greatest advantages of this phone, but we still have to check the camera that Huawei praised during the world premiere.

Huawei Nova 9 photos are... various, but unfortunately not crazy

Seeing such a large lens on the back of the phone, I expected great photos, regardless of the time of day or night. Perhaps my expectations were too high, because when I saw this smartphone in action, I did not feel any "wow" effect. In full sun, as usual, it is decent, although the photos often lack colors and sometimes details, and the tonal transitions are not very smooth. Photos are often overexposed or darkened by artificial intelligence software. We have access to a wide-angle lens, as well as a 2x optical and 10x digital zoom. I didn't notice the effects of the 2MP depth analysis lens, and the 2MP macro lens seems to be similarly useless. Photos taken at night also don't impress, and the Nova 9 often has problems with post-processing, which imposes some noise on photos and cannot draw the full details available, relying on several light sources.

We can record videos in 4K resolution, but only at 30 frames per second. We also have slow motion in 720p to 960 fps, or in 1080p to 120 fps, which I find insufficient, because the lower resolution literally blurs the image to the point of obscenity. Image stabilization works well when recording in 1080p and 60 frames. I still find all the material lacking in color and having some trouble capturing the proper HDR level. I appreciate the super macro shots though, and I also enjoyed any close-ups of vegetation or food.

The smartphone usually detected the type of subject well, although it had some mishaps when it placed blueberry plants in the "snow" category. Compared to phones from the same price range, Nova 9 took definitely weaker photos in artificial light, even from Motorola Edge 20 costing the same money. I refer you to the gallery. Finally, I must appreciate the "story creator" mode, which works similarly to the VLOG from the POCO series from Xiaomi. We record up to six sequences of several seconds at different times with the phone, and the phone then neatly folds it into a dynamic video with music. This process, however, consumes a lot of performance, so when the video is exported (which takes up to 60 seconds), Nova 9 is significantly slowed down.

Summary - Nova 9 not so new in what it does, but it's a decent smartphone

It's time to go to the summary. First of all, Huawei Nova 9 is a beautiful device with a feminine appearance, aimed mainly at women who expect slimness and lightness. The lack of access to Google services does not affect daily use in any way, and I like Petal Maps much more than American maps. Huawei also added Petal search engine, which helps us find the best source to download some application, if it is missing from the AppGallery repository. This usually works very efficiently and without any problems, and only requires us to confirm that we want to download the app, which is almost the same as when using the "normal" store.

The biggest advantages are undoubtedly the beautiful OLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and long battery life, which lasts for almost a day and a half of work. In addition, fast charging from 1 to 100% in less than 40 minutes and the excellent EMUI 12 overlay with a great design complete the work. Throughout the entire testing period, I couldn't get rid of the impression that this smartphone was simply created for lovers of beauty, because its appearance, lightness and slimness combined with the huge fluidity of the screen perfectly match people who know what they want. Unfortunately, all this lacks water resistance, support for 5G technology, wireless charging and a better camera. The portrait one does well, but the rear eyes deliver photos that aren't particularly delightful. Anyway, I leave the assessment of this aspect on the example of the photos in the gallery. When buying a Huawei smartphone, you must be aware of its minor limitations or disadvantages, but overall I used this device with a lot of pleasure.

Rating - 8/10

Advantages:

Cons: