At an event in Delhi today, Huawei launched the Huawei Nova 3 and the Huawei Nova 3i in India. The phones are the first in the Nova series to officially make their way to India. The Huawei Nova 3 has high-end specifications including the HiSilicon Kirin 970 system-on-chip (which is a first for the Nova series), while the Huawei Nova 3i is the first Huawei phone to feature the new HiSilicon Kirin 710 SoC.

The specifications of the Huawei Nova 3 and the Huawei Nova 3i are noted below:

Huawei Nova 3 and Huawei Nova 3i - Specifications at a glance

Huawei Nova 3i Kirin 710

Specifications

Huawei Nova 3

Huawei Nova 3i

Dimensions

157 x 73.7 x 7.3 mm, 166g

157.6 x 75.2 x 7.6mm, 169g

Software

Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.2

Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.2

SoC

Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 970 (4x 2.36GHz Arm Cortex-A73 cores + 4x 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-A53 cores); Mali-G72MP12 GPU @ 746MHz; Neural Processing Unit; i7 coprocessor

Octa-core Kirin 710 (4x 2.2GHz Arm Cortex-A73 + 4x 1.7GHz Arm Cortex-A53 cores); Mali-G51MP4 GPU

RAM and storage

6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage; microSD card slot

4GB of RAM with 128GB of storage; microSD card slot

Battery

3,750mAh; fast charging

3,340mAh; 10W charging

Display

6.3-inch Full HD+ (2280x1080) IPS LCD with 19:9 aspect ratio

6.3-inch Full HD+ (2280x1080) IPS LCD with 19:9 aspect ratio

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2

Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2

Ports

USB Type-C port, dual nano SIM slots (nano SIM + nano SIM/microSD), 3.5mm headphone jack

microUSB port, dual nano SIM slots (nano SIM + nano SIM/microSD), 3.5mm headphone jack

Bands

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHzHSPA: 850/900/2100MHzFDD-LTE: Bands 1/3/5/8TDD-LTE: Bands 38/39/40/41

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHzHSPA: 850/900/2100MHzFDD-LTE: Bands 1/2/3/5/7/8TDD-LTE: Bands 38/39/40/41

Rear camera

16MP RGB camera with f/1.8 aperture, phase detection autofocus (PDAF)24MP monochrome camera with f/1.8 aperture, PDAF

16MP with f/2.2 aperture2MP depth sensing camera

Front-facing camera

24MP + 2MP depth sensing camera

24MP + 2MP depth sensing camera

Software

On the Nova 3 and the Nova 3i, Huawei has introduced an AI Shopping feature that lets users shop for products by image or camera. They can long press on the image with two fingers to shop on Amazon, and they can scan objects to shop on the e-commerce platform.

The Huawei Nova 3 also supports infrared (IR) face unlock that will work in low light. Both phones support Huawei's GPU Turbo technology for better gaming performance.

Huawei also stated that the company's biggest R&D center outside China is located in India. The company also claimed to have 21 exclusive service centers and more than 250 authorized service centers. Huawei phones will now come with India-specific features such as a customized calendar, Ride mode, and more.

Pricing and availability

The Huawei Nova 3 and the Nova 3i will be available in Black and Iris Purple colors. The Nova 3 costs ₹34,999 ($510) in India for the single 6GB RAM/128GB storage variant. The Huawei Nova 3i, on the other hand, costs ₹20,990 ($305) for the single 4GB RAM/128GB storage variant.

The phones are now available for pre-booking on Amazon India. Launch offers include ₹2,000 "exchange discount," ₹1,200 cashback from Jio, as well as 100GB "additional data." The Huawei Nova 3 will be available from August 23---nearly a month from now. The Nova 3i, on the other hand, will go on sale starting August 7. Consumers pre-booking the devices will get ₹1,000 cashback.

In terms of competition, the Huawei Nova 3i competes with the company's own P20 Lite in terms of pricing, but has a significantly better SoC. The Nova 3, on the other hand, competes with the Honor 10, the OnePlus 6, and the Asus ZenFone 5Z. The latter two competitors are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, which means they have an advantage in performance.

The Nova 3's specifications are mostly similar to the Honor 10's specifications, with the exceptions of screen size (6.3-inch vs. 5.84-inch), front-facing camera (24MP + 2MP depth sensor vs. 24MP single camera), face unlock (the Nova 3 has IR face unlock for unlocking in low light), and battery capacity (3,750mAh vs. 3,400mAh). The Honor 10 is also cheaper than the Huawei Nova 3 (₹34,999 vs. ₹32,999).

Note: Huawei has stopped providing official bootloader unlock codes for its devices. Therefore, the bootloaders of the Huawei Nova 3 and the Nova 3i cannot be unlocked, which means that users cannot flash Magisk/TWRP/Project Treble Generic System Images/AOSP-based custom ROMs.


Pre-book the Nova 3 and the Nova 3i on Amazon