- Flagship level performance
- Crisp clear screen
- Fingerprint reader on the power button
- Large screen
- Great value for money
- No notch
- Long battery life
- Dual sim capability
Cons:
- No waterproofing
- Camera is OK
- No wireless charging
- No headphone jack
- Punch hole camera does not provide 3D facial recognition. Also, face unlock doesn't work without ample lighting
On paper, the Nova 5T has an impressive specs sheet. It shares the same Kirin 980 processor and memory size (6 GB ram and 128 GB storage) as Huawei's other flagship phones. It also packs a camera with a quad-camera layout:
- 48 MP, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF
- 16 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/3.1"
- 2 MP, f/2.4, 27mm (wide), dedicated macro camera
- 2 MP, f/2.4, depth sensor
And it is almost half the price of Huawei's flagships.
But this is where the similarities end.
Design
The Nova 5T has a notchless 6.26 inch 19.5:9 screen. Instead, it sports a punch out in the left corner of the screen for the 32 MP front-facing selfie camera. The display is crisp and bright.
The back of the phone is clad in 2.5d hard glass, and there is a distinct camera bump for the 3 cameras + LED flash and depth sensor. However, despite the metal backing, the phone doesn't have Qi wireless charging.
Overall the design of the camera is curvy and easy to hold. The only concern I have is with the bump which juts out from the phone. Therefore, the phone doesn't sit flat on the table.
On the side of the phone is the power button, which also doubles as a fingerprint reader.
The reader works like a charm. It quickly and accurately unlocks the phone.
Camera
This phone has 3 cameras and one depth sensor. In theory, the 48 MP camera would mean great pictures, but in practice, I noticed that the camera quality is a bit lacking.
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| Fruit taken with adequate lighting |
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| Nova 5T night mode. Blurry as hell |
Picture of the peg taken under daylight
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| Nova 5T 48 mp (Ultra Clarity mode) | Shot of my neighborhood (48 mp) |
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| Mate 20 Pro | Google Pixel 4 |
The camera performs well under adequate light, but once lighting drops, the phone starts to struggle. Also, unlike the Mate 20 Pro, the Nova doesn't perform that well if your subject is close to the lens.
The front-facing camera lacks 3D sensing capability. Therefore, the face unlock won't work in dull lighting. However, the aforementioned fingerprint in the power button makes a nice backup.
Performance
Nova 5T is powered by Kirin 980 and has 6 GB of ram and 128 GB of storage. This is the exact same specs as in Huawei's flagship phones. Thus, the interface is as smooth as butter. One thing I like about this phone is that it has dual sim capability. That means that I can have two sims in the device, one for my main phone and one for a back up. Therefore, I can use different network providers to improve my coverage.
Summary
This is an excellent device with flagship-level performance. However, its camera is a bit poor, especially in low lighting.
