The Nova 3 is Huawei’s new flagship smartphone with four cameras

UPDATE: Huawei Nova 3 and Nova 3i are now official.

The Nova series is Huawei’s range of selfie-centric smartphones which usually come with entry to mid-range hardware. The last device they announced was the Nova 3e which is also known as the Huawei P20 Lite.

Now Huawei has just introduced the Nova 3 and this is a flagship-class smartphone that’s on par with the likes of the Huawei P20 Pro and the honor 10. On top of that, it comes with a total of four cameras.

The Nova 3 was supposed to launch next week but it turns out that Huawei couldn’t wait and they have started accepting pre-booking on VMall in China. Since the P20 Pro’s Twilight variant was so popular, the new Nova also gets a similar 2-tone gradient paintjob as well with an added Aurora effect.

The front gets a 6.3″ Full HD+ display that does a 2340×1080 resolution and under the hood, it runs on Huawei’s top of the line Kirin 970 processor that has an NPU for AI-oriented tasks. To keep up with other flagships, it has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage which is still expandable via microSD.

In the imaging department, the rear gets a 16MP RGB + 24MP monochrome camera setup with a f/1.8 aperture. Meanwhile, the front also gets a dual-camera combo with a 24MP f/2.0 main selfie camera and a secondary 2MP unit for depth of field effects. The Nova 3 is the first Nova smartphone to get AI-assisted camera features and it’s used for both front and rear cameras. Because of its dual-camera setup for the front, the notch on the display is noticeably wider than the P20 and Nova 3e.

Another interesting addition is its 3D camera feature which supposedly provides better Face Unlock. Also available is 3D Qmoji, which is basically Huawei’s version of Animoji.

According to VMall’s listing, the Nova 3 runs on Android 8.1 with EMUI 8.2. Powering the device is a 3,750mAh battery and it comes with a 9V2A fast charger. It uses USB-C and also retained is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

In China, it comes in 4 colour options. Apart from the purple-blue gradient, the Nova 3 also comes in Black, light blue and yellow. Malaysia will be one of the first countries to get the device and the local launch is happening next Thursday on 19 July. Do stay tuned to us for more local details of the Huawei Nova 3.