Huawei Nova 2i review: Huawei's best flagship features have been successfully smuggled into the mid-tier

The Pitch

Everyone has a number. An amount that they can’t imagine paying any more than on any single purchase. For some people, spending almost $2000 on a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or Apple iPhone X is inconceivable. For others, the threshold lies further still. Regardless, everybody’s got a number - and if yours is a keen $500, then it might be fair to say that Huawei’s Nova 2i smartphone might just be one of the best devices on the market that fits that bill.

Whether we’re talking about the form-factor, camera or performance, Huawei have smuggled a lot of the flagship qualities of their P10 into the mid-tier with this device. What's more, they've done so with only a few significant shortcomings. Heck - if it had a stylus, it's not too hard to imagine them pitching it as a more budget-friendly Galaxy Note 8.

Specs

Running on Android 7 Nougat (plus Huawei's own EMUI skin), the Huawei Nova 2i comes powered by an 8-core Kirin 659 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage. It also boasts a 3,340mAh battery, fingerprint sensor and Huawei's brand-new 18:9 FullView Display, making it their first device with the expanded aspect ratio.

Last but not least (and like the flagship Huawei P10), the 5.9-inch smartphone Nova 2i packs dual-lens cameras onto both the front (13MP/2MP) and back (16MP/2MP) of the device.