Test – Huawei Nova 10 Pro: an effective selfie smartphone?

Despite being banned by Google, Huawei persists and continues to release smartphones under the Android ecosystem. Today we have a somewhat special smartphone in our hands: the Huawei Nova 10 Pro. Particular, because the latter embeds a huge front sensor. We are therefore on a smartphone focused on selfies, but what is it worth for the rest? Elements of answers throughout this article.

Unpacking

This Huawei Nova 10 Pro has (almost) everything you need for out-of-the-box use. Almost, because we can note the absence of headphones (the phone does not have a jack), but also the USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter. The charging block is present, however, with its USB-C cable. This block allows a very powerful recharge of 100W. Finally, it is a transparent shell which is present, in order to protect your smartphone as soon as it leaves the box.

Design and screen

If there is something that catches the eye in the photos of this Nova 10 Pro, it is this “Star Orbit” orbital ring. The latter, very shiny and above all very visible, integrates the various photo/video sensors of the smartphone. The block is quite massive, but still offers a well-worked and well-finished design. For the rest, the smartphone holds well in hand with a weight of 191g and a thickness of only 7.88mm. The curved screen, which we’ll talk about a little later, also plays a big part in this pleasant grip. The buttons are all present on the right edge (power and volume +/-). The left edge, meanwhile, will be completely blank while the upper edge includes a speaker and a microphone. Finally, the lower edge has the second speaker, the USB-C charging port, the SIM door and the main microphone.

The screen incorporates, as often now, an OLED screen with a diagonal of 6.78″. The resolution is 2400 x 1080 pixels, which is FULL HD+. The quality is quite good, despite a slightly lower resolution than the competition. Colors, however, are very good thanks to the use of OLED technology. On the fluidity side, the Nova 10 Pro will not be at rest thanks to a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Side grip, the curved side of the screen is very pleasant to use. The front camera is rather well integrated into the screen with this small notch on the left. You will also note the presence of a dual front camera, but we will come back to this in the next section.

Camera

The Nova 10 Pro integrates three sensors on this original module on the back. The main sensor has 50MP with an aperture of f/1.8. The second, on the other hand, is the ultra wide angle sensor with an 8MP resolution and an aperture of f/2.2. The latter is used for depth of field and a resolution of 2MP with an aperture of f/2.4. A beautiful technical sheet therefore, which offers very good quality shots. On the video side, it will be possible to film in 4K, in only 30 frames per second. A slow motion mode is also present, which can go up to 960 frames per second.

Below is an example of a photo with the possibility of accessing a complete album on Flickr, made up of photos taken during a trip to Cinque Terre (Italy). To do this, simply click on the example photo. As mentioned earlier, you will note the overall quality of the shots. The details, as well as the colors are rather faithful to reality. However, it is important to note that at night, the shots persist in detail and we notice an image that is a little too “smooth”.

As seen previously, the notch does indeed integrate two photo sensors. The first, and main, is a 60MP sensor with an ultra-wide angle of 100° and enabling 4K video. The second sensor offers a resolution of 8MP and will be used for slightly more zoomed shots thanks to an x2 optical zoom as well as a digital zoom of up to 5X. The quality is quite excellent for a smartphone in this budget, especially since it is rare to find so much quality in a front camera.

Performance and autonomy

When it comes to performance, the Huawei Nova 10 Pro doesn’t shine, but has what it takes to deliver a smooth experience. Indeed, it is a Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 778G processor that drives the smartphone, accompanied by 8GB of RAM. The main negative point of this processor is the absence of 5G, chosen quite rare on the latest smartphone releases. On the storage side, you can count on 128 or 256 GB of memory, without the possibility of extension via a µSD card. The raw performance is therefore not at the top of the basket, and it shows with the Antutu Benchmark score. However, no slowdown or freeze is to be deplored during use, whether in the menus or in game.

In terms of autonomy, you can count on a 4500mAh battery which has a significant positive point: a 100W SuperCharge Turbo recharge. The latter allows you to go from 20% to 80% in just 10 minutes, while a full recharge does not exceed 20 minutes. A pretty incredible performance that will never run out of batteries again (provided you have the right charger on hand, of course).

Conclusion: our opinion on the Huawei Nova 10 Pro

The Huawei Nova 10 Pro is a smartphone that offers a very good compromise. The power is largely necessary for typical daily use. The photo is not to be outdone with generally good quality shots, despite a small improvement to be made in terms of night shots.

Unfortunately, after writing this article, we realized that this Huawei Nova 10 Pro is ultimately not available in France. This is why we are redirecting you to the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, which we are testing at the start of 2023.