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Introduction
The Huawei nova 9 is coming to Europe, just like the rumors said it would. The nova 9 Pro won't be joining it at this point in time.
Pricing is set at EUR 499 for an 8GB, plus 128GB model, with preorders starting today (October 21) and official sales later this month.
We just attended the announcement event for ourselves and got to spend some hands-on time with the phone. First up, though, a general overview is in order.
We are already familiar with the Huawei nova 9 and nova 9 Pro on paper since they did debut in China back in September. This is our first in-person encounter with one of them, however.
While slightly different, the two phones are definitely cut from the same cloth, as the saying goes and actually quite similar. You can see the comparison for yourself, but it's quite refreshing to see such a well-segmented lineup.
Huawei nova 9 specs at a glance:
- Body: 160.0x73.7x7.8mm, 175g; plastic frame, glass back and front.
- Display: 6.57" OLED, 1B colors, HDR10, 120Hz, 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 392ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM7325 Snapdragon 778G 4G (6 nm): Octa-core (4x2.4 GHz Kryo 670 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 670); Adreno 642L.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; UFS.
- OS/Software: EMUI 12.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.0, (wide).
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K, 1080p, 720p@960fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
- Battery: 4300mAh; Fast charging 66W, 100% in 38 min (advertised), Reverse charging.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC.
Compared to its vanilla sibling, the nova 9 Pro gets faster 100W charging on a slightly smaller 4,000 mAh battery, an extra ultrawide selfie camera, as well as HDR10 support on its display. The main difference, however being display and, naturally, device size. The nova 9 has 6.57-inch, 1080 x 2340-pixel display inside a 160 x 73.7 x 7.8 mm, 175-gram body. The nova 9 Pro has a slightly bigger 6.72-inch, 1236 x 2676-pixel panel and a 163.4 x 74.4 x 8 mm, 186-gram body.
The bigger Pro model does also have a beefier cooling system, with a vapor chamber and graphene cooling on the inside. We can't really say how much of actual performance or in-hand comfort difference that makes on the Snapdragon 778 4G chipset, shared between the pair prior to a full review, though.
Regardless, the nova 9 Pro won't be offered in Europe for the moment, and users don't get to choose. Since the nova 9 and nova 9 Pro are so similar, though we will be referencing the Pro in this hands-on review as well. Before we dive in, though, a couple of quick clarifications, since these questions are likely to come up - yes, the nova 9 uses a 4G-only variant of the Snapdragon 778G, and no, it doesn't have Google Play Services, despite coming to Europe. Both points kind of related to the still unfortunate geopolitical climate and the Huawei-US relations.
Design
The nova 9 design is quite distinctive, particularly from the backside - a desirable trait in the current, oversaturated smartphone market.
The camera island certainly stands out, particularly with the accent ring around the main 50MP camera. The colors themselves are a nice mix between eye-catching and upscale. Originally, the Chinese nova 9 and 9 Pro have four color options - Black, Blue, Green and Violet. The European nova 9, however, will be offered in a choice of either Starry Blue and Black.
The finish itself is frosted, particularly noticeable on the black variants.
The surface feels great in hand, and it's really hard for any fingerprints to linger on it.
The included "nova" text on the back, with scrambled and rotated letters, is a pretty playful accent, yet not over the top. Looking at official renders, it seems Huawei decided to leave it out on the black nova 9, presumably to make its look even more inconspicuous. However, the black unit we saw still has nova branding, which is perhaps worth noting.
The middle frame ties the design together pretty well. It is quite thin on the sides to accommodate for the curved glass folding into it. It's definitely a modern look and works well for handling, with the only downside being small buttons, due to limited space.
The frame is flattened-off on the top and bottom, making for a pretty modern look.
Moving on to the front, surprisingly, the regular nova 9 and nova 9 Pro still manage to look impressively similar. While it is fairly common for manufacturers to reserve a curved display for their top model and go for a simpler, flat one for the cheaper model, this is not the case with the nova 9.
The front on both nova 9 models is pretty aggressively curved, which does add to the overall look, but might not necessarily be your cup of tea. That comes down to preference, though.
In terms of differences, the selfie camera notch instantly stands out. Even though the one on the nova 9 Pro houses two cameras and is overall bigger, the cutout itself is also tighter than on the nova 9, which arguably makes the nova 9 Pro's notch less obtrusive. We can't confirm that before we get some hands-on time with the Pro, though.
The selfie punch hole on the vanilla nova 9 is on the bigger side, but nothing outrageous. Overall, the design looks very slick and modern.
Build and materials
The nova 9 employs a common "sandwich" design. In this particular case, a plastic frame sits between two curved glass panels on the back and front. The overall construction both looks and feels great. There is practically no flex whatsoever.
On notable omission on both the nova 9 and nova 9 Pro, however, is ingress protection. Officially, there is no IP rating.
Controls and connectivity
The Huawei nova 9 has a pretty standard controls layout. The volume rocker and power button sit on the right frame. As we mentioned, these are quite thin due to space limitations. Even so, the buttons themselves feel great and have satisfying tactile feedback. Although arguably useless, we still kind of like the little red accent strip on the power button.
There is absolutely nothing on the left frame of the nova 9.
The top is almost empty too, just housing a secondary, noise-canceling microphone and a dual Nano-SIM or single Nano-SIM card slot, depending on which version you get. There is no expandable storage here.
The bottom of the nova 9 houses a single, bottom-firing speaker. Both the nova 9 and nova 9 Pro notably lack a stereo speaker setup. Not even a hybrid one. No 3.5mm audio jack either. Next to that - a pair of microphones and a USB Type-C port, with a USB 2.0 controller and OTG support.
The nova 9 is equipped with an under-display fingerprint reader. Seemingly, both phones share the exact same optical reader. In our limited testing, we found it to be very accurate and quite speedy.
In terms of additional connectivity, both phones have NFC. Also, a slew of radios, courtesy of the Snapdragon 778G chipset. This includes dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 with A2DP and LE support and a tri-band A-GPS, with GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS and NavIC support. All courtesy of Qualcomm's FastConnect 6700.
Speaking of modems, this is a good time to address the elephant in the room, namely that the Snapdragon 778G is traditionally a 5G-capable chip, thanks to its internal X53 modem. However, the Huawei nova 9 only offers 4G/LTE connectivity. This rather odd situation probably has to do with Huawei's ongoing chip shortage for its own Kirin silicon, which has mandated the reliance on Snapdragon chips. But also, Qualcomm's continued inability to legally sell 5G chips to Huawei. So, in essence, the tense US-Huawei and US-China relations are the reason why the nova 9 and nova 9 Pro get these odd 4G-only Snapdragon 778G chipsets.
Brilliant OLED panels
The Huawei nova 9 is equipped with a gorgeous OLED panel. It measures 6.57 inches on the vanilla model, just a smidgen smaller than the 6.72 inches on the Pro. In person, the display on the nova 9 looks super sharp and vibrant.
The panel is also 10-bit, which definitely plays a part in the premium look. The vanilla nova 9 has a 1080 x 2340-pixel resolution, which works out to about 392 ppi of pixel density. It looks incredibly sharp in person. You get a nice and tall, but not overly so 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
The nova 9 gets a 120Hz refresh rate, just like its Pro sibling and 300Hz touch sampling. We still need to put the nova 9 through its paces in a full and proper review to judge just how well it utilizes said high refresh rate, but there is a dynamic option in Display settings, which sounds promising enough. We just have to see how well the dynamic adjustment works and how granular it is. As for just scrolling through lists and web pages at 120Hz - the image looks quite sharp and fluid, as expected.
The nova 9 has HDR10 support, just like its Pro sibling.
Internals
In another great move for consumers, the vanilla Huawei nova 9 basically rocks the exact same internals as its nova 9 Pro sibling. That includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, but one limited to 4G connectivity like we already mentioned. It is a modern chip with similarly modern connectivity and made on a 6nm TSMC process. We've already seen this chipset perform admirably in terms of both RAW performance and battery endurance in other phones, like the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE, the Realme GT Master or the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G.
Granted, we've yet to see how this particular 4G-only variant does in battery endurance, but we have decently high expectations. The nova 9 has a decently-sized 4,300 mAh battery, with 66W charging.
Just for reference, we will note some internal differences with the nova 9 Pro, as suggested at the original Chinese announcement event. Apparently, the Pro has a beefier cooling system than the regular nova 9, complete with a vapor chamber and graphene cooling. This could definitely influence performance, particularly sustained performance, and may help deliver the Pro's quicker 100W charging while managing the associated heat. By the way, the Pro has a smaller 4,000 mAh battery.
As far as we managed to gather, the nova 9 will be offered in Europe with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of no-expandable storage. The presentation did not mention the 256GB, though it could arrive on shelves later.
EMUI 12 on top of Android
Huawei's mobile OS situation is a bit complicated at the moment. The company's own HarmonyOS and, as per the last official numbers, has already reached over 120 million devices, mostly as a drop-in replacement for Android. As far as we managed to gather, however, all of the Harmony OS smartphones currently out there are meant for the Chinese market. All the while, international units and models, like the Huawei nova 8, which fairly recently made it to Russia continue to run EMUI on top of Android.
This appears to be the case with the European release of the nova 9, as well. Though Huawei is understandably trying not to focus too much on the underlying details of its software dealings, the nova 9 unit we were handed appears to run Android 11, though with very little mention of that fact anywhere in the UI and EMUI 12.0.1 on top.
To be clear, though, even if Android is running underneath the EMUI skin, there is still no Google Services on the nova 9, just Huawei's HMS and corresponding AppGallery store, among other first-party apps.
EMUI 12 was sort of quietly launched a while back, and overall, its look and features appear to be very similar to HarmonyOS 2.0. The UI employs plenty of rounded corners and gradients, with black, blue and white at the core of the color scheme. There are new and more refined animations, which Huawei says were inspired by the movement of celestial objects.
Some of the more tangible changes in EMUI 12 include the ability to freely adjust the weight of the system font on a slider. Also, separate notification and control panel shades - one accessible by swiping down from the left corner, while the other - by swiping the right one.
Huawei has carried over some of the advanced connectivity and productivity options from HarmonyOS 2.0 as well. Notably, the Device+ section in the quick access panel allows MatePad and MateBook users to pull off advanced multi-screen setups. There is also Huawei Vision casting to a compatible TV and advanced multi-device operations.
If you do happen to own a compatible MateBook, running PC Manager 11.1 or newer, EMUI 12 also supports Huawei's new Distributed File System, which is meant to simplify file access and transfer between your phone and your computer.
Potent quad-camera setup
Both the Huawei nova 9 and nova 9 Pro have a promising quad-camera setup, with a 50MP snapper at the helm. It captures stills in about 12.5MP by default. In typical Huawei fashion, the 50MP sensor in use here is an RYYB one. It sits behind an f/1.9 lens and has PDAF. Nothing too fancy, but enough to get the job done.
Beyond that, there is an 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide with a fixed focus on the back of both the nova 9 and nova 9 Pro. That and two additional, supplementary 2MP, f/2.4 cameras - one for depth data and the other a macro cam.
We managed to capture a few quick snaps for the hands-on. You can check these out for yourself, and we'll reserve judgment for the full review.
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples
We snapped quite a few daylight shots with the main cam, just to be thorough.
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera samples
The main cam can capture 50MP, full-res shots as well if that is your preference. Here are some of these.
Huawei nova 9: 50MP main camera samples
Naturally, you can do portraits. The nova 9 even has a dedicated 2MP depth camera just for that very purpose. Unfortunately, the results don't seem very promising due to the poor edge detection.
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples
We didn't skip over the ultrawide camera either. Here are some 8MP shots from it.
Huawei nova 9: 8MP ultrawide camera samples
Here are some low-light ones as well. A nice mix between full auto and Night mode shots, since the latter seems to have a very subtle effect overall, just restoring highlights slightly.
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples
Huawei nova 9: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples
Huawei nova 9: 8MP ultrawide camera low-light samples
Both nova 9 models get a 32MP, f/2.0 selfie cam. It captures in its full 32MP resolution by default. Here are some quick samples.
Huawei nova 9: 32MP selfie camera samples
The Huawei nova 9 notably skips the second 32MP, 100-degree ultrawide selfie cam, as seen on the nova 9 Pro. Depending on your opinion about the particular look of an ultrawide selfie, this may or may not be a big deal for you.
For video capture, the main cam and chipset can do up to 4K@30fps recording, and there is also gyro-based EIS on board. Here are a couple of quick video samples at 4K on the Huawei nova 9. It captures a standard AVC videos stream, at a solid 40Mbps, with a stereo AAC audio stream at 48 kHz.
The included gyroscopic stabilization impressively works at the full 4K resolution on the main camera. Here is a quick demo of its smoothing in action.
Final thoughts
The Huawei nova 9 is an interesting device in more ways than one, made more interesting still with its arrival to European markets. Just to recap some of the oddities at play here - the nova 9 runs on a Snapdragon 778G chipset, limited to just 4G connectivity. It also boots EMUI 12, instead of HarmonyOS. And, as far as we can gather, it still has an Android core, though with no Google services or apps.
Both of these points are just realities Huawei currently has to deal with, particularly if it wants to retain a presence in Europe. And if nothing else, this nova 9 launch appears to be a tentative indication of such intentions going forward.
Pricing for the Huawei nova 9 is set at EUR 499 for an 8GB, plus 128GB model, with preorders starting today (October 21) and official sales later this month. There was no mention of a 256GB model at the presentation, but it could be added to listings later on.
As far as hardware goes, the nova 9 is actually a pretty compelling and well-rounded offer. Sure, it's not perfect, but it has a gorgeous 120Hz, 10-bit, curved AMOLED panel, a modern and decently powered chipset, with potent connectivity, a solid 4,000 mAh battery, with 66W fast charging and a promising quad-camera setup, with a 50MP snapper at the helm. It does look good on paper, provided you can live with its particular quirks and deficiencies.
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