The Huawei budget smartphone flagship, Nova and Nova Plus could be something to be aware of for other smartphone companies. Image Source: Mashable

Huawei is introducing a new product line to continue making steps towards the top of the smartphone business. The Nova handsets offer premium features and extras to distinguish the brand and gain an edge right in the mid-range, affordable market.

Nova and Nova Plus are the first two devices to be part of the new family. Both come in various colors –black, silver, white and gold. The material on the phones is aircraft-grade aluminum, while the body is similar to the looks of the Mate S or the Huawei Nexus 6p.

Both models share a single USB Type-C connector, hybrid dual-Sim design and run Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Emotion User Interface. Huawei says Emotion UI reinforces their user-centric philosophy and improves overall user experience.

Huawei announced the phones with the campaign #DefyExpectations. The commercial spots talk mostly about the advantages of the cameras and the battery, as the phone can work 48 hours taking pictures. “Thousands of great shots on a single charge.”

Processor and battery

The Plus version rocks a 5-inch screen with Full HD resolution, an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory.

The Nova Plus has a 4,000mAh battery. Combined with a mid-range CPU and screen, the phone could easily run for three days straight without a charge.

The Nova is the most compact of the two. It has a 5-inch 1080p screen (IPS LCD) which accepts knuckle gestures. Nevertheless, it has the same octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB RAM, and 32GB storage.

The regular Nova puts a smaller battery, a 3,020mAh battery with the power to run for three days combined with the efficient 625 processor chipset.

Both phones also boast the “fastest” rear-mounted fingerprint security system. It takes only three seconds to access the phone.

Camera department

On the Nova Plus, the primary camera has a 16 MP sensor with professional anti-shaking technology, fast autofocus, low light sensor and 4k video shooting capacities. The front camera has 8 MP. There is an inbuilt “Beauty Mode” for the selfies, a selection of various filters to make up the faces.

The only difference with the compact version is that the main camera is a 12 MP sensor with larger-than-average pixels and phase-detection autofocus.

Huawei MediaPad M3

Beyond the mid-range smartphones, Huawei also announced the MediaPad M3, their latest entry in of Android tablets. It has an 8.4-inch display with 21560X1600 resolution, and a Kirin 950 processor, with 4GB of RAM, 32GB storage, 5,100mAh battery and stereo speakers at the top and bottom.

The new tablet is not going to launch with Google’s new operative system, Android Nougat. In fact, when Huawei demonstrated the tablet on Europe’s tech event IFA 2016, it was running on a pre-marshmallow version of Android.

Release date and price

The Huawei Nova will take off globally in October, and it will cost €399/$446.64. The Nova Plus is slightly more expensive at €429/480.22. The M3 will reach 14 countries on September 26th with a price tag of €349/$390.78 or €449/$502.75 with double the storage and LTE connectivity.

Source: The Verge