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First impressions of the newly launched Huawei Nova 8

Last night Huawei launched two new Nova series devices in South Africa – the Nova 8 and Nova Y60. These devices are aimed at younger consumers, with the Nova 8 sitting in the mid-range space and the Nova Y60 at the entry-level market.

Of the two devices, it is the Nova 8 which draws the most attention and we have been seeded one for review in Blush Gold.

We still have a little over a week to go before we publish a fully fledged review of the Nova 8, but thought it a good idea to share our first impressions of the device as it is currently available for pre-order for R10 999 (RRP) before a wider launch come 1st September.

Design

From a design perspective the Nova 8 looks great and the in-hand feel is not something we would come to expect from a mid-range device.

In fact, it is on par with some of the P and Mate Series phones that Huawei has released locally in recent years. It features the same curved display and minimal bezels that the company has utilised of late, with the Blush Gold colour option comparable to what we saw on the Mate 40 Pro earlier this year.

If companies like Xiaomi and Oppo have thrown down the gauntlet in terms of the look and feel of their affordably priced but well specced mid-range devices in 2021, the Nova 8 has returned in kind.

Other elements that we’re enjoying on the Nova 8 are its large 6.57″ OLED FullHD+ display that serves up great visuals and crisp detail. The thinness of the device too at 7.64mm too is great and it feels well balanced while you’re holding it, only tipping the scales at 169g.

UI

Next we need to talk about the user interface. The Nova 8 is running EMUI 12.0 and, unlike its predecessors, there is still some refining that’s needed here by Huawei. With Google services no longer in the picture, the company is having to bake all of its own elements into the interface and this has yielded some mixed results.

We quite liked the overall aesthetic and the ability to customise visuals elements like the Always-On Display and Themes of the device. But this is marred by annoying pop-ups notifying of Huawei’s other digital services. There are some oddities here too, such as a five second ad wall sometimes running when you launch the AppGallery, which is something I have not encountered before on a Huawei phone.

There is also the elephant in the room, or not in the room depending on how you look at things, with no Google apps or Play Store supported on the device. This will be a hurdle for some and while you can workaround via APKs, whether the general consumer will tolerate such an approach, is really a toss of the coin.

Either way it is something that those wanting to buy a Nova 8 need to be aware of.

Camera

The last aspect we’re going to touch on is the camera. Huawei are marketing it as a 64MP AI quad camera array, but to be more precise the quartet of lenses on the rear comprise of a 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth sensing and 2MP macro lenses. We are still in the early phases of testing the performance, but in general it yields solid photos, especially while shooting outdoors.

As for the AI aspect, this takes the guise of object recognition, with the camera settings adjusting depending on what is being framed, with it picking up flora, fauna and buildings with relative ease. The same goes for faces, which fires up the portrait settings.

The low light performance is still to be ascertained, but for now we are quite impressed by what is on offer here. Huawei has been hitting it out of the park in recent years when it comes to camera performance and it looks like the same applies here.

First Impressions

Our initial thoughts on the Nova are extremely positive from a hardware and specifications perspective. For the recommended retail price of R10 999 you are getting a lot of phone and with other Chinese smartphone makers coming up with similarly impressive devices in the same segment, Huawei has a solid contender here.

The issue, as it has been over the past year, is software and whether consumers are willing to make compromises. As a technology journalist that’s been publishing phone reviews for the better part of a decade, I can work around these issues, but I’m not sure general consumers can.

We still have a week to go with the Nova 8, so we’ll share our full thoughts in September.

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