Huawei’s new mid-range nova 2 does 20MP for selfies

Huawei has been moving up the premium ladder pretty quickly and you can tell from their flagship phones like the P10 and the Mate 9 series. As these models go upmarket, there’s now a bigger gap in the mid-range segment. This is where the new nova 2 and nova 2 Plus come in.

Looking at the current global smartphone shipments, you can see that Huawei has maintained a nice #3 spot but its other Chinese rivals such as OPPO and vivo are also catching up closely behind. These two brands hardly have a flagship model and they thrive solely on their selfie-centric mid-range phones. With the new nova 2 and nova 2 Plus, Huawei is now trying to beat OPPO and vivo at their own game.

For starters, the nova 2 comes in two sizes – a compact 5.0″ model and a plus-sized 5.5″ version. Both does full HD resolution and they come in a full unibody metal design that’s similar to its P10 series. Under the hood, both runs on their in-house octa-core Kirin 659 processor that’s mated to 4GB of RAM. The nova 2 comes with 64GB of storage while the nova 2 Plus comes with a larger 128GB.

In a world where bigger means better, Huawei has fitted a 20MP selfie camera, which is probably the largest camera they have used for the front. The back comes with a dual-camera set up but it’s very different from its current flagship series.

The primary lens is a 12MP shooter while the secondary 8MP is used for telephoto. There’s a noticeable bump for the rear cameras and Huawei has retained its rear fingerprint sensor for both models.

In terms of battery, the nova 2 gets a 2,950mAh unit while the nova 2 Plus gets a larger 3,340mAh capacity. Over in China, the nova 2 is priced at 2,499CNY (about RM1,554) while the nova 2 Plus is going for 2,899CNY (about RM1,803). That’s basically OPPO R9s and vivo V5 Plus territory.

Can Huawei shake things up in the premium mid-range segment? Let us know what you think in the comments below.