While we are in Shenzen covering Huawei’s latest innovation for wearables, we got the chance to check out the nova Flip in person at one of their stores. As Huawei’s affordable flip phone, the nova Flip has a lot of promise in making flip phones more accessible to the public–assuming it will be made available outside of China.
Huawei nova Flip Hands-on: Design
Compared to the Pocket 2, the nova Flip looks simpler with a small, square-shaped cover display and two cameras. You also get Huawei’s latest waterdrop hinge, where it is rated for for as much as 1.2 million bends and has a thickness of 6.88mm in its unfolded state.
Despite bing a midrange flip phone, the nova Flip’s hinge feels solid, and we like that Huawei used frosted glass for the panels to make it resilient against smudges. You also get a metal frame, as well as the same button and port layout you’d see on the Pocket 2.
Huawei nova Flip Hands-on: Display
The inner display is a 6.94-inch LTPO OLED panel with a 120hz variable refresh rate and a punch-hole for a 32-megapixel selfie shooter. It’s one of the bigger displays we’ve seen on flip phones, and the crease is less pronounced compared to the P50 Pocket–aka the only Huawei flip phone that was made available in the Philppines.
We only had a brief time with the nova Flip, but the crease is barely visible despite trying to view its display in different angles.
Huawei nova Flip Hands-on: Cameras
The nova Flip has to rear cameras that consist of a 50-megapixel RYYB main camera and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera. While we weren’t able to take sample photos with the nova Flip, we expect the cameras to preform roughly at par with the nova 11. We’ll get back to this when we have a longer time with the nova Flip.
Huawei nova Flip Hands-on: Internals and Battery
While Huawei did not disclose what processor is powering the nova Flip, various reports confirm that it is using a Kirin 8000 chip. Not much is known about the processor, but reports describe is as an octa-core layout with a Cortex-A77 core running at 2.4Ghz, three Cortex-A77 cores running at 2.19Ghz, and four Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.84Ghz.
The nova Flip comes with 12GB RAM, and storage options include up to 1TB–the latter being a generous option on a flip phone. Being exclusive to China (at least for now), the nova Flip comes with HarmonyOS 4 out of the box.
As for the battery, you’re getting a 4400mAh cell that supports 66w charging, which is a good upgrade from the P50 Pocket despite the nova Flip being marketed more as a midrange device.
Huawei nova Flip Hands-on: Initial Verdict
As much as we’re excited about the nova Flip–not to mention all those accessories that you can pair it with–it still remains to be seen if Huawei has any plans of making it available in the Philippines. The last time we got a flip phone from the brand was the P50 Pocket from 2022, and we are still waiting for the possible arrival of the the Pocket 2 locally.
We think that the nova Flip might have a better chance of arriving in the Philippines, especially with its starting price of CNY 5288 for the 256GB model or around Php 43k when converted.
