We unbox Huawei’s new 5G-capable mid-ranger!
Huawei’s expanding their nova 7 lineup of mid-range phones today, with the arrival of their new nova 7 SE 5G mid-ranger. Just like other nova smartphones in the past, the new device comes packing powerful hardware, new features, and most importantly, 5G connectivity, future-proofing it as operators like Smart start rolling out 5G services.
Packaging and contents:
If you’ve bought a Huawei phone recently (that’s not a flagship) you pretty much know what to expect with the nova 7 SE 5G in terms of packaging.
The phone comes in a white box with its name printed in the front, and inside sits the phone, silicone case, SIM ejector, USB Type-C fast charger, Type-C cable, and a pair of free headphones.
Dazzling new colorway, plus beefy specs and 5G
I’m starting to sound like a broken record when I start to describe Huawei’s phones, but dang the company really knows how to make good-looking smartphones. As expected the nova 7 SE comes in a variety of stunning colors, with our review unit coming in Space Silver.
There’s a very distinct visual effect with the coloration on the back, with the hue changing depending on how the light hits it. What’s surprising is that Huawei didn’t stick to a single formula when it came to formulating the gradient effect on the three color variants, as they used distinct manufacturing processes per color to really set the three colorways apart. As a result, each color variant looks unique, which is something you don’t see every day.
There’s a slight curve at the edge of the phone at the rear, and the entire back panel is protected by glass. The corners of the phone are curved, and Huawei used an aluminum frame on the nova 7 SE 5G for added durability.
The camera module is stacked vertically and is tucked to one side thankfully. The fingerprint scanner is embedded on the side, pulling double duty as the power button. The volume rocker is right above it.
The phone sports a 6.5-inch, full HD+ LCD display with a punch-hole notch on the upper left. The overall screen-to-body ratio here is 90.3%. No fast refresh rate here – the phone uses a plain 60Hz refresh rate panel. On the upside, Huawei advertises the display of the phone as covering 96% of the NTSC color gamut.
The selfie camera inside that punch-hole notch is a 16-megapixel sensor and has an f/2.0 aperture. Huawei says the phone supports Super Night Selfie mode for low-light shooting, and noise is controlled by BM3D algorithms. The detail is enhanced by stacking multiple RAW frames on top of each other. All of this is made possible thanks to Huawei’s AI algorithms.
The vertically stacked camera module holds 4 cameras, headlined by a 64-megapixel high-resolution shooter with an f/1.8 aperture lens. Other cameras include an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and a 2-megapixel “bokeh” (depth) lens.
Huawei’s shown us that they can work magic with the cameras they provide with their phones thanks to their AI mastery, and the nova 7 SE 5G is no exception. We’ll be giving you the low-down on the camera’s performance in our full review.
Moving on to the processor, the nova 7 SE 5G is powered by the company’s 5G-capable Kirin 820 chipset. This octa-core processor is based on a 7nm production process and offers substantial performance boosts over the previous generation. The chipset is equipped with one high-performance big core, three balanced middle cores, and four energy-efficient little cores, which raises multi-core performance by 27% compared to the previous generation.
Graphical duties are handled by a Mali-G57 GPU along with Kirin Gaming+ 2.0 tech for smoother gameplay when playing Android games. The phone comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage which is expandable via Huawei’s own NM storage cards.
Just like Huawei’s other phones, the nova 7 SE 5G doesn’t get Google Services or access to the Play Store. Instead, the phone uses Huawei’s AppGallery, the company’s de facto replacement for GMS has many of the apps that most people use anyway, and you can also utilize the built-in browser to download apps as well if you need it.
The phone runs Android 10 via EMUI 10.1, which gives users access to useful apps like Huawei MEETime for high-resolution video calling, as well as a reader-friendly eBook mode.
The nova 7 SE 5G has a large 4000mAh battery and can use Huawei’s SuperCharge tech up to 40W thanks to the included charger.
Huawei’s really piling on the value with their new mid-range phone, though they’re stretching the definition of mid-range for the nova 7 SE once you consider that it’s going to retail for Php 19,999. Is the phone worth that price? You’ll have to wait for our full review.
Huawei Nova 7 SE 5G Specs
- Kirin 820 5G octa-core processor
- Mali-G57 GPU
- 8GB of RAM
- 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS display; 1080 x 2310 resolution
- 128GB of expandable storage (up to 256GB via microSD)
- Quad rear cameras: 64-megapixel f/1.8 main camera; 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera; 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth sensor; 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera; with PDAF, LED Flash
- 16-megapixel f/2.0 front camera
- 4G, LTE (Dual SIM, Hybrid Tray)
- WiFi, Bluetooth
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
- Side-mounted Fingerprint scanner, Facial Recognition, USB-C, GPU Turbo 2.0
- Android 10 with EMUI 10.1
- 4000mAh Battery with 40W SuperCharge
