Huawei nova 7i Review: This is a good mid-ranger

Huawei nova 7i Review:: Huawei’s latest device in the Kenyan market, the Huawei nova 7i will be going on sale towards the end of this month. 

Huawei opened pre-orders for the device on May 19 and the selling price is 29,999. For every pre-order, Huawei was giving consumers a free band 4 worth Kshs 4,699 and Bluetooth headset worth Kshs 2,499. 

The nova 7i is a good device, especially in terms of design. The device is available in 3 colors, Sakura pink, Midnight Black and Crush Green. The review unit sent to us by Huawei’s local office was Sakura Pink.

Unlike last year’s nova 5T, the new nova comes with a larger display -6.4-inch LTPS IPS screen with a resolution of 2310 x 1080. The display delivers a decent display with some good viewing angles. The color reproduction is equally good and the same goes for the brightness. 

There is also a punch-hole. Remember we also also saw this on the nova 5T although it comes with a lower pixel count.  The 5T featured a 32MP f/2.0 while the 7i now comes with 16MP f/2.0. 

As mentioned, our Huawei nova 7i review unit came in Sakura Pink with the top light pink portion beautifully fading into baby blue at the bottom. 

Huawei also decided to give the nova 7i camera a complete redesign. Unlike what we saw on the nova 5T, the nova 7i four cameras are compressed into a square with the LED flash at the bottom.  There’s a 4MP f/1.8 main, an 8MP f/2.4 ultrawide, a 2MP f/2.4 macro, and a 2MP f/2.4 portrait.

The fingerprint scanner is not at the back as you may be used to. This is because Huawei has integrated it to the power button at the right-hand side. Huawei also did this with the Huawei Y9s. The volume rocker is also just above the power button. 

The left side houses the Dual-SIM tray. If you expected a triple-cut SIM tray just like most smartphones in this price range then you might be disappointed.

It may be worth mentioning that the hybrid slot only takes Huawei’s Nano Memory SD cards which can be quite expensive. Down below is where have find the 3.5mm port, USB Type-C port, a microphone, and  the speakers located at the far right. 

The overall nova 7i  design is sleek, stylish, solid, and measures up for a perfect preference for most consumers. 

Huawei Nova 7i is powered by an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 810 processor that features 2 cores clocked at 2.27GHz and 6 cores clocked at 1.88GHz. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. 

The Huawei Nova 7i runs Android 10 with EMUI 10 and is powered by a 4200mAh battery which does an excellent job. 

EMUI 10 comes with most features we have come to expect from Huawei phones such as multi-window mode among others.  

The nova 7i is also the second device from Huawei to launch in the Kenyan market without Google services, after the Huawei Y7p.  Of course this is due to the situation which Huawei is facing with Google, which we have extensively covered on TechTrendsKE. 

There have been concerns raised around access to apps like YouTube, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Google Chrome, just to name a few. Huawei addressed these concerns by pioneering and launching its own ecosystem, Huawei Mobile Services, which offers access to a massive amount of favoured apps and hidden gems.  This article should however help you understand how you can download all your favorite apps on any Huawei device with no Google services. 

The nova 7i is powered by a 4,200mAh battery that supports Huawei’s 40W SuperCharge technology.  A full charge should be able to last for an entire day and leave you with enough charge to carry you through the next morning, at least based on our experience. Fully charging the device takes about an hour. 

For camera lovers, the nova 7i really makes good use of its quad cameras. Camera modes include Photo, Video, Pro, Night, Portrait, Panorama, Stickers, HDR, Slow Motion, Light Painting, Moving Picture, Super Macro, Aperture, Time Lapse, and Document. See sample shots below.

The photos taken look detailed even in lowlight. You can check more sample shots on our official TechTrendsKe Instagram page. Dark areas have some little bit of noise but well, the picture quality is good.

Conclusion

For first time users, the lack of Google services support can be a turn off especially due to the fact that some apps are not available in Huawei’s AppGallery. Huawei has however promised to onboard more developers so there will be more apps in the AppGallery. 

For Ksh. 29,999, the Huawei nova 7i has undoubtedly positioned itself to offer a good smartphone experience for local consumers. Other than a few downsides like the lack of Google services, which I think is something we should get used to, the nova 7i is a powerful smartphone. 

If you’re considering expanding the storage you will also need to part with some extra cash. The phone only supports Nano Memory Cards, which might actually be expensive compared to MicroSD cards with similar capacities.

The phone does not disappoint in terms of performance to its Kirin 810. The camera quality and the battery also does a good job.  You can grab one on Jumia and other Huawei branded shops across the country starting at the end of this month. 

Nova 7i Specifications

Have anything to add to our Huawei nova 7i Review? Leave us a comment in the comments section below. Follow us on Telegram, Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to our weekly newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any future updates.