Huawei nova 8i

Huawei nova 8i Review

Design

The Huawei nova 8i features a plastic build with dimensions of 161.9 mm in height, 74.7 mm in width, and 8.6 mm in depth. It weighs 190 grams. The phone sports a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication. Color options include Starry Black, Moonlight Silver, and Interstellar Blue.

Display

The device is equipped with a 6.67-inch IPS LCD display. It has a resolution of 1080 x 2376 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 391 ppi. The screen has a 20:9 aspect ratio, a hole-punch notch, and a 180 Hz touch sampling rate. The display also features 2.5D curved glass and scratch resistance and is multi-touch and frameless. However, there's no mention of HDR support or specific brightness values.

Performance

The Huawei nova 8i is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset, built on an 11nm process. It features an Octa-core CPU with four Kryo 260 Gold cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and four Kryo 260 Silver cores at 1.8 GHz. The graphics are handled by the Adreno 610 GPU. The device achieves an AnTuTu benchmark score of 201,000 (v9). RAM is at 6GB with storage fixed at 128GB, with no expandable storage option.

Camera

The rear camera setup is a quad-lens system consisting of a 64MP primary sensor with an f/1.9 aperture and 0.80µm pixel size, an 8MP ultrawide lens with f/2.2 aperture and 1.12µm pixel size, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro lens, both with f/2.4 aperture and 1.75µm pixel size. Features include an LED flash, digital zoom, autofocus, phase detection autofocus, and several shooting modes like HDR, panorama, and face detection. Video recording is limited to 1080p at 30fps. It also features slow-motion video at 120 fps. The front-facing selfie camera is a 16MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.

Battery Life

The device houses a 4300mAh Li-Polymer battery. It supports 66W fast charging and is non-removable. Wireless charging is not supported.

Software

The Huawei nova 8i ships with Android 10 and is expected to not receive further major Android OS version upgrades.

Connectivity

The device offers Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0 with A2DP, LE, APT-x, LDAC, and AAC support. GPS is included with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, and Galileo. It is a dual-SIM device with dual stand-by (Nano SIM). 4G LTE bands and 3G/2G bands are supported in the device. USB Type-C 2.0 port with OTG support is included. However, it does not offer NFC or a display port output.

Pricing

The Huawei nova 8i is positioned in the medium price range, with retail prices fluctuating between $124.08 and $256.51, depending on the region. It is only available with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

Overall Verdict

The Huawei nova 8i provides a reasonable set of specifications for a mid-range phone, notable for its fast charging capability, multi-lens camera setup, and large display. However, it is let down by the older Android 10 operating system and the lack of NFC, and limited storage options. The Snapdragon 662 chipset is a capable processor for everyday tasks, and the screen offers good viewing angles, but lacks HDR support. Its overall value proposition is largely dictated by the local market price compared to similar devices in the category.