The Huawei nova Y90 is the latest affordable smartphone from the nova family. It packs a 6.7-inch display with a 90Hz refresh rate, triple rear cameras, Snapdragon 680 chipset and a 5000mAh battery with 40W fast charging.
Specifications
| DIMENSIONS: | 163.3 x 74.7 x 8.4 mm |
| WEIGHT: | Approx. 195 g |
| BATTERY: | 5,000 mAh Fast charging 40W |
| DISPLAY | 6.7 in LCD (IPS) FHD+ 1080 × 2388 Pixels 90 Hz refresh rate |
| FRONT CAMERA: | 8 MP Selfie Camera, f/2.0 aperture |
| REAR CAMERA: | 50 MP High-Res Camera, f/1.8 aperture 2 MP Marco Camera, f/2.4 aperture 2 MP Depth Camera, f/2.4 aperture |
| OS: | EMUI 12 |
| INTERNAL STORAGE & RAM: | 8 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM |
| REMOVABLE STORAGE: | None |
| CHIPSET: | Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 CPU: 8 cores, 4× Cortex-A73 Based 2.4 GHz + 4× Cortex-A53 Based 1.9 GHz GPU: Adreno 610 |
| CONNECTIVITY: | 4G, BT 5.0, Wi-Fi, GPS |
Read the full specifications here.
Packaging
The Huawei nova Y90 comes in a white cardboard box with the phone and accessories well protected in different compartments.
The packaging includes:
- Phone
- Charger
- USB Type-C Cable
- Quick Start Guide
- Warranty Card
- Eject pin
- TP protective film
- TPU Protective case
Design
The Huawei nova Y90 comes in three colors – Emerald Green, Crystal Blue, Midnight Black. Our review model is the Crystal Blue. The phone uses design cues from Huawei’s flagship models. The matte-finish back panel shimmers depending on the lighting angle and is resistant fingerprint smudges.
Measuring 163.3 x 74.7 x 8.4 mm, a weight of 195g and a 6.7-inch screen, this is a large but lightweight phone. However, if you are looking for a smartphone that is comfortable to use with one hand, this is not the device for you.
On the front, is the 8MP selfie camera in the center which can also capture 1080p video. On the right side of the phone are the volume up/down and power button. The fingerprint sensor is located within power button and is fast to recognize and unlock.
At the back is the camera bump in the center and consists of a 50 MP high-res camera, 2 MP depth camera, 2 MP macro camera and a single LED flash.
At the bottom are the SIM tray that can use two SIM cards, stereo speakers and the USB-C 2.0 port for charging. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top.
Display
The Huawei nova Y90 comes with a 6.7-inch 2388 x 1080 pixels IPS display with a 94% screen-to-body ratio. It features a 270Hz touch sampling rate and 90Hz refresh rate which makes the overall experience smoother.
The colors are vibrant with good contrast and viewing angles. It has narrow bezels to give you a more immersive viewing experience and the brightness is good enough to be used outdoors.
Performance & Connectivity
The Huawei nova Y90 features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680 processor, Adreno 610 GPU, 8GB of RAM and 128GB built-in memory. The Snapdragon 680 along with the Adreno 610 is powerful enough for a budget phone, performance is great with no visible delay or lags. It has plenty of power to run most games without issues.
In terms of connectivity, the Huawei nova y90 supports WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0 and GPS.
Camera
The Huawei nova Y90 has a triple camera setup in a circular design which Huawei calls ‘Space Ring’ design. It features a 50 MP main, 2MP macro and 2MP depth with an LED flash.
The 50MP main camera produce photos with good colors and sharpness during daytime and works great for social media and sharing.
The main camera struggles in low-light conditions and produces images with somewhat acceptable noise and color. We hope this could be improved later with a software update.
The second is a 2MP macro lens for short-distance shooting, but it captures soft images and appears pixelated.
The 16MP selfie camera captures photos with acceptable contrast and good color but struggles with bright light sources.
Videos can be recorded in either 1080p or 720p at 30fps. Dual-View video lets you record through both your front and rear cameras simultaneously. The video quality is decent but does not support OIS or EIS and the outputs tend to be a bit shaky at times.
OS
Like most other recent Huawei phones, the nova Y90 runs on Android 11 skinned with MIUI 12. Even though the device doesn’t support Google Play Services, you can install Android apps either via the Huawei AppGallery store or via third party app stores such as APKPure.
The Device+ tab in Control Panel enables users to easily control or set up multi-device collaboration with other devices. Thanks to One Hop Connection via NFC, the nova Y90 can pair with other Huawei devices directly with a simple tap.
And with the Distributed File System, the nova Y90 allows users to access files from a PC. Alternatively, users can send files between the smartphone and other Huawei devices via Huawei share.
Battery & Audio
The phone comes with a 5000mAh battery, which can last a full day of use. As for charging, Huawei nova Y90 comes with a 40W fast charger, which should take the phone from 0 to 50% in about 30 minutes or about an hour to fully charge it.
In terms of audio, The Huawei nova Y90 has bottom-firing speakers. The sound is loud enough to fill a small room but there is some distortion at maximum volume. The microphones also offer very good audio quality during calls.
Verdict
The Huawei nova Y90 is a budget smartphone built for casual users. The nova Y90 works best for entertainment and comes with a decent screen, can last a full day on battery and offers a smooth experience overall. For the price point, the balance between hardware, software and price is great.
The deal-breaker here could be the average camera and lack of Google Play Services, but there are plenty of built-in features and applications that make up for this.
The Huawei nova Y90 starts at 799 AED, comes with gifts worth 339 AED and is available in Emerald Green, Crystal Blue and Midnight Black.
