After teasing us for a week, Huawei has finally took to the stage at IFA and revealed its newest line of smartphones and the latest entry in the company’s MediaPad line of tablets. For the smartphones, it’s the all new mid-range Nova line; for the MediaPad, it’s the MediaPad M3.
First off, the Nova line. Huawei has unveiled both the Nova and the Nova Plus smartphones, both of which are mid-range smartphones. As the name may clue you in, the Nova is the “basic” phone in this new line of smartphones, measuring in at 5″. The Nova Plus is presumably the flagship of the Nova Line, being a 5.5″ smartphone. The design choices of both the Nova and Nova Plus would be familiar to those who have been closely following the Huawei phones, with the Nova having a Nexus 6P-ish design, while the Nova Plus ressembles the Mate series.
Performance on both the Nova and Nova Plus are identical, with both smartphones sporting a Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage space. Both phones will also come with a USB-Type C port. The difference between both phones, aside from the size, is the battery capacity, with the Nova sporting a 3020mAh battery and the Nova Plus housing a 3340mAh battery. The rear camera is also another part of the smartphone that differs from the Nova and the Nova Plus, with the Nova coming with a 12MP sensor with phase-detection autofocus and 1.25 micron pixels, while the Nova Plus gets a 16MP sensor and optical image stabilization on top of the autofocus and 1.25 micron pixels. Both phones will sport an identical 8MP front camera.
As is the norm for Huawei smartphones, the Nova and Nova Plus will run on Android Marshmallow with the company’s own EMUI 4.1 skin. The fingerprint sensor, as well as the Knuckle Sense feature will be present on both the Nova and Nova Plus. Both phones are expected to be available within the next month with the Nova having a retail price of EUR 399 (RM1,814) and the Nova Plus priced at EUR429 (RM1,950).
Moving on, we have the Huawei MediaPad M3. Powered by Huawei’s Kirin 950 processor, 4GB of RAM, and either 32GB or 64GB of storage, the MediaPad M3 is an 8.4″ tablet that comes with a WQHD+ display, fingerprint reader and a dual 1-watt speaker system co-engineered with Harmon Kardon. For imaging, the MediaPad M3 will come with 8MP shooters for both the rear and front cameras. Battery life for the MediaPad M3 is pretty standard as well, sporting an 5100mAh battery that gives the tablet two days worth of on time.
Huawei’s MediaPad M3 will run on Android Marshmallow with EMUI 4.1 and will have a starting price of EUR349 (RM1,587). Availability of the MediaPad M3 will be announced at a later date.
Lastly, Huawei will be introducing two new colours to the Huawei P9: the Huawei P9 Blue and Huawei P9 Red. If you’ve ever want to get the P9 but felt that the colours are too dull, these new additions would probably please you.
