On September 1, 2016, Huawei released the first Nova line handset in Berlin, Germany targeting the younger customers. As the media said, the Chinese manufacturer officially opened its arms and embraced young users. According to the statistics of the First Mobile Phone Research Institute, in November this year, there are two Nova series phones in the top ten mobile phones in China. This is the best proof of the Nova’s popularity. The company could reach such results due to fully covering requirements of younger users. Among those features, we can mention the accuracy, colorful body, smooth performance, good camera, and the price, of course. The second-gen Huawei Nova 2 smartphone with its sibling was launched in June. And the current model named the Huawei Nova 2S was unleashed on December 7 at a quite affordable price tag of 2699 yuan ($407). Like the previous models, this one comes with all trendy features including a full-screen, front-mounted fingerprint scanner, flagship chip, quad-camera, and many color options to choose from.
The Huawei Nova 2S comes in five colors and with three memory combinations. The one we are going to review is the light blue variant packing a 6+128GB memory option.
The phone comes in a white packaging with a stylish glossy purple printing on it. It reveals the name of the model and hints at the design of the Nova 2S. So regardless the hardware, the selling point of the Nova line handset is still remaining the appearance.
As usual, the back of the box carries the specs list as well as an information about the manufacturer.
On the front, we can see the 6-inch screen of the Huawei Nova 2S coming with an 18:9 aspect ratio, which is the trendies feature in current smartphones.
Below the screen, we can find a narrowed home button that supports fingerprint identification. But you can also use it for regular operations.
A dual-camera is placed above the screen. It is paired with a soft light.
The device uses a double-glass design. Plus, the corners are rounded enough. So when holding it in hands no one will have a discomfort, even if you have small palms. Thanks to special processes the glass body passes through, the phone’s back panel has a strong visual perception and lighting effects. At various angles of view, the color changes slightly.
Another dual-camera module is on the back accompanied by a flashlight.
A noise cancellation microphone hole is on the top.
A 3.5mm audio jack, a USB Type-C port, and a speaker are on the bottom. Nowadays, many smartphone makers cancel the headphone jack to increase the battery capacity. But the company decided not to act in this way. Seems the younger users should appreciate it.
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The volume rocker and the power button are on the right side. Here we can also see the metal frame covered with an aluminum alloy.
The SIM card slot is on the left. It supports dual-nano-SIM options.
The box also includes a 9V/2A charger and a Huawei headset.
The Nova 2S comes with the latest EMUI 8.0 based on Android 8.0. In comparison to EMUI 5.1, this one has less unnecessary features making the phone working smoother. There is also a new 3D Touch press function, which allows to pop-up common features of an icon when long pressed. Unfortunately, not all apps support this feature. Of course, this system comes with a split-screen feature. So you can do two separate and independent operations on a single screen.
One of the most appreciated additions is the settings menu opened when swiped left.
EMUI 8.0 increases the negative one-screen shortcut function integrated with the life assistant. They allow users to use the phone longer on a single charge. Another great option, a smart screen recognition that allows recognizing the text with a two-finger long press.
The payment security center is upgraded to version 2.0. There are 2000+ new protected applications enabling large transfers and automatically prompting users to add apps or add them manually. In addition, The Huawei Nova 2S also comes with a built-in SESE security chip, known as the financial-level security protection for mobile payments.
There is a built-in Histen4.0 sound system working on an AKM 4376A HiFi chip and aptX codec technology. So this phone provides a flagship-level sound quality regardless the fact whether the headphones are connected or not.
This phone comes with a previous-gen Kirin 960 flagship chip integrating four A73 cores and four A53 cores at the highest frequency of 2.4GHz. The chip is paired with a 6GB of RAM, 128GB of ROM, and Mali G71 MP8 GPU. It runs on a 16nm process node.
This chip is not new and it had been tested many times. So we decided to test it for other tasks such as gaming and 4K video playback.
First, we should understand whether this chip and this phone are capable of providing smooth gaming when playing King of Glory at the highest rate. Fortunately, it worked smoothly without any bags. The frame rate was at 30fps almost all the time.
It also has no problems with playing 4K videos. The clip has the following parameters – resolution: 3840 x 2160 pixels, date rate: 31Mbps, frame rate: 29fps, audio sampling rate: 18KHz, and audio bitrate: 317Kbps. Everything was smooth and stable as well.
This is the first Nova-series smartphone coming with a quad-camera design. On the back, we have a 16+20MP dual-camera with an aperture of 2xf/1.8. The front shooter uses a 20+2MP sensor combination. The larger lens is responsible for imaging, while the 2MP sensor is responsible for the depth of field effect. This camera also supports beautify feature. So when it’s enabled the selfies look more attractive. We can talk about various hardware and software improvements made in the camera modules. But the best way to realize the quality they provide is looking at the samples.
Daytime Photos
Night Photos
Selfies
The last feature we should take a glance at is the 3340mAh battery supporting 18W fast charge technology. But we are also interested in the power consumption and power saving control. So let’s find out what an endurance the Nova 2S provides.
Online Video Playback
When we started the test, the volume was 40%. Brightness was 50%, and we played a video when there was remaining a power of 38%. After the test, we see the phone consumed 8% of power. So we calculate the phone is capable of providing an online video playback for up to 5 hours.
Gaming
As usual, we tested it by playing King Of Glory. The remaining power was 58%. After 30 minutes of playing the game, the power decreased to 48%. So you can continuously play heavy games for 5 hours.
Charging
We started the charging test when the remaining power was 0%. It took almost 100 minutes to charge it fully. But what’s amazing it reaches 41% in 30 minutes.
There is every chance for the Huawei Nova 2S to continue the good sales performance shown by its predecessors. Recently, the company announced it has already sold over 20 million Nova line models. So with the launch of this model, this number should be increased a lot. Thanks to a full-screen, high-end processor, large memory, fast charging battery, quad-camera setup, and tons of goodies coming from EMUI 8.0, the Huawei Nova 2S should be one of the highest demanded smartphones among young customers.
