Huawei has introduced both the first horizontally folding mobile phone (big folding) and the first vertically folding mobile phone (small folding) in China. However, Huawei’s past folding screen mobile phones catered mainly to business users, which may not appeal enough to young people.
To meet the diverse needs of young users, Huawei launched the Nova Flip, a new folding-screen mobile phone. It combines avant-garde aesthetic design, excellent photography, powerful performance, and smart, convenient operation, perfectly matching the lifestyle and aesthetic preferences of the younger generation.
So, what new features does the first small folding phone in Huawei’s Nova series have?
In terms of hinge design, the Huawei Nova Flip uses the same basalt water drop hinge as the Huawei Pocket 2 flagship folding phone. This hinge provides excellent drop and impact resistance, ensuring long-term and reliable use. It also obtained the world’s first Swiss SGS 1.2 million folding certification, ensuring extremely high durability for the small foldable phone.
The Huawei Nova Flip introduces the industry’s first 1:1 square external screen – the Fun Square Screen. This square composition offers users a more atmospheric visual experience, with the charm of the Huawei Nova Flip centered around this Fun Square Screen. Huawei has developed various novel features to complement this screen.
First, the Huawei Nova Flip launched the first fun call display call emoji, upgrading the traditional call interface into a personalized “fashion window.” Users can display fun animations of different styles on the external screen, enhancing the interactivity and enjoyment of calls.
Secondly, the Huawei Nova Flip introduced fun mini-games on the external screen for the first time, such as Star Logo Puzzle, Astronaut Gravity, and Astronaut Parkour. These mini-games not only provide a great way for young people to relieve stress but also add interactivity and entertainment to mobile phones.
Design and Appearance
We received the Huawei Nova Flip in zero-degree white. The back panel features high-end, simple glass material with a frosted surface, making the phone comfortable to hold and anti-slip. The camera module on the back of the Huawei Nova Flip is arranged vertically on the left, with a single LED fill light and a color temperature sensor below the two cameras. On the right side of the camera, the industry’s first 1:1 ratio 2.1-inch square external screen, officially called the “Fun Square Screen,” is integrated.
The design of the Huawei Nova Flip stands out among small folding phones. Inspired by the classic 6X6 frame, it adopts a square composition, cleverly embedding the lens module and the square external screen into a symmetrical matrix. The circular lens and the square smart external screen complement each other, showcasing the beauty of harmony and order.
This symmetrical and balanced design is not only visually appealing but also reflects the high-quality feel of the Huawei Nova Flip. The inner screen of the Huawei Nova Flip features a 6.94-inch LTPO-based display, supporting an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120Hz, a resolution of 2960×1136, and a 120Hz touch sampling rate.
A 32-megapixel front camera is integrated into the middle of the top of the inner screen. The inner screen frame of the Huawei Nova Flip adopts an equal-width design to ensure overall visual harmony. This carefully designed equal-width border not only enhances the phone’s aesthetics but also improves the user’s viewing experience.
Although the Nova Flip is the first small folding device in the Nova series, its materials are directly comparable to those of flagship phones. The phone’s folding hinge uses the same basalt water drop hinge as the Huawei Pocket 2 and has won the world’s first Swiss SGS 1.2 million folding certification.
The basalt water drop hinge design eliminates the traditional middle door panel to achieve a flat screen and is equipped with double-arm lever gears and rocket steel materials, providing excellent drop and impact resistance, and ensuring long-term durability.
The power button and volume adjustment button of the Huawei Nova Flip are located on the upper right side of the body. The bottom of the phone features an independent speaker opening, which forms a stereo field with the earpiece speaker at the top of the inner screen.
A noise-cancelling microphone is on the top of the phone, and a main microphone, SIM card slot, and Type-C charging port are on the bottom. The Huawei Nova Flip comes with a 66W fast charging kit, and the adapter uses a “fool-proof design” with A+C ports.
Secondary Screen
The Huawei Nova Flip features a 2.1-inch external screen, officially named the “Fun Square Screen”. It stands out as the first square external screen in the industry’s small folding phones, adopting a 1:1 ratio. This square screen ratio not only enhances visual symmetry and balance but also offers users a more immersive visual experience.
When the phone is in the stand state, the screen enables the always-on display function, showing the time, notifications, and other information, making it convenient for users to check the time and important updates.
Additionally, the Huawei Nova Flip includes a fun and cute pet dynamic theme that increases the phone’s entertainment value and provides users with an interactive experience of virtual pet care. Users can observe subtle changes in their virtual pet’s expressions and experience real interaction through vibration feedback by touching the screen.
The Nova Flip offers a variety of cute animal themes, including koalas, cats, dogs, alpacas, and duck wives, enhancing daily use with warmth and companionship.
The square outer screen of the Huawei Nova Flip is not only aesthetically pleasing but also integrates many practical functions. Users can enjoy a comprehensive life and entertainment experience with independent applications such as games, videos, music, and social interaction without unfolding the phone, making it a true life companion. Users can also customize the external screen cards in the settings.
Huawei Nova Flip’s Call-emoji function injects fresh vitality into traditional voice calls. In the fun call display interface, Huawei provides 10 different display schemes. Every time users make or receive a call, they can showcase their unique style and attitude through these personalized animations.
This innovative feature breaks the monotony of previous call interfaces, displaying a variety of interesting animations through the fun screen. These animations make calls more enjoyable and attract attention in social settings, making the user the center of attention.
Moreover, the Huawei Nova Flip phone comes with three mini-games designed specifically for the external screen: Star Logo Puzzle, Astronaut Gravity, and Astronaut Parkour. These mini-games feature attractive interfaces, intuitive operations, and simple gameplay, making them easy to start and enjoy. They provide a lot of fun, especially for young people looking to relax and pass the time, and can even serve as a “slacking artifact”.
Performance and Game Tests
Huawei equips the Nova Flip with a new Kirin processor, integrates the unique Huawei Ark optimization engine, and runs the Harmony OS4 operating system. This combination allows it to compete with other flagship phones in terms of operational smoothness and system performance.
The Nova Flip model we tested has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. We conducted detailed tests on its theoretical performance and gaming capabilities.
Theoretical Performance Test
AnTuTu Comprehensive Performance Test:
- Total Score: 542,300 points.
- This performance places the Nova Flip at a medium level among many smartphones, making it capable of handling games like King of Glory and Chicken Dinner without any pressure.
CPU Theoretical Test:
- GeekBench 6.2.2 Single-Core Score: 1000 points.
- GeekBench 6.2.2 Multi-Core Score: 2419 points.
Flash Memory Test:
- Using Androbench, we measured the sequential read speed at 1053MB/s and the write speed at approximately 870MB/s, aligning with UFS2.X levels.
Game Testing
In our game tests, we selected three popular mobile games: “Honor of Kings,” “Game for Peace,” and “Call of Duty.” We conducted these tests in an office environment with an indoor temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. For each game, we used the highest image quality and frame rate settings, recording frame rate, power consumption, energy efficiency ratio, and body heating performance.
1. Honor of Kings:
- At ultra-high frame rate and extreme image quality, the game reached a maximum of 90FPS.
- Frame drops occurred at around 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
- The average frame rate stabilized at 67.83FPS after a single game.
- Average power consumption: 3.2W.
- Energy efficiency ratio: 21.2FPS/W.
- Maximum device temperature after the game: 42.4 degrees Celsius.
2. Peace Elite:
- Under smooth picture quality and extreme frame rate, the game ran at a maximum of 60FPS.
- After a 15-minute test, the average frame rate stabilized at 59.74FPS with minimal fluctuation.
- Average power consumption: 3.4W.
- Energy efficiency ratio: 17.57FPS/W.
- Maximum device temperature after 15 minutes: 43.2 degrees Celsius, with the high-temperature area located to the right of the camera.
3. Call of Duty:
- Under standard picture quality and extreme frame rate, the average frame rate was maintained at 59.88FPS after a single round.
- The Nova Flip played this shooting game without any pressure.
- Average power consumption: 2.97W.
- Energy efficiency ratio: 20.16FPS/W.
- Maximum device temperature after the game: 39 degrees Celsius.
Huawei Nova Flip Cameras
The Huawei Nova Flip features a rear dual-camera module with a 50-megapixel main camera that uses a super-sensing large-bottom sensor. The 1/1.56-inch photosensitive unit, paired with a large aperture of F1.9 and four-in-one pixel technology, synthesizes large pixels. This allows the camera to capture more light, producing clear and natural photos even in low-light conditions.
Additionally, the main camera’s full-pixel focus technology increases focusing speed by 30% in dark environments, enabling you to quickly take high-quality photos even at night.
The second lens is an 8-megapixel wide-angle macro camera with a 112° field of view. It captures pictures of subjects as small as 2 cm, revealing microscopic details that are difficult to see with the naked eye.
We took numerous sample photos with the Huawei Nova Flip camera. Let’s explore them:
Main Camera
The main camera captures realistic photos in daytime scenes without excessive saturation optimization. This shooting style produces natural and comfortable photos, closely resembling what the eyes see directly. Huawei emphasizes photo details, making each image look exquisite.
Night View
In night mode, the Huawei Nova Flip’s main camera increases exposure time to retain maximum subject details. It also demonstrates excellent noise control over the night sky, with almost no noticeable noise.
The camera effectively suppresses direct light, avoiding color deviation and ensuring photo clarity and color accuracy.
Ultra-Wide Angle
When using the ultra-wide-angle lens, despite its different photosensitive unit compared to the main camera, which allows less light to enter, the Huawei Nova Flip excels in image processing.
The edges of the photo show almost no distortion. Even when closely examining the edges of an enlarged photo, the image remains clear and undistorted, showcasing high imaging quality.
Shooting Portraits
Taking photos with the Huawei Nova Flip is flexible. The sample photos demonstrate that even at 3x magnification, the phone’s large-size photosensitive element captures rich details, keeping facial features very clear.
Additionally, Huawei’s Da Vinci Portrait Engine 2.0 avoids simple and crude brightening. Instead, it fine-tunes brightness, contrast, and color to make portraits look real, three-dimensional, natural, and unpretentious.
Battery
The Huawei Nova Flip features a built-in 4400mAh battery and supports 66W Huawei super fast charging.
Charging Test
We tested the charging and battery life of the Huawei Nova Flip. During the charging test, we started with the phone at 1% battery with the screen off, using the super fast charging Turbo mode. The phone charged 37% in 10 minutes, 64% in 20 minutes, 85% in 30 minutes, and reached a full charge in 39 minutes.
Battery Life Test
We used the professional battery life testing tool Battery Dog, produced by Fast Technology, for our battery life test. The test included items such as CPU high voltage, CPU multi-threading, AI recognition, image browsing, video playback, and web browsing to simulate real user scenarios and closely approximate actual power consumption.
To maintain consistency across all model tests and ensure accurate results, Battery Dog automatically adjusted the screen brightness to 50%, turned off automatic brightness, and set the volume to 30%.
After continuous testing by Battery Dog, we measured the battery to have 20% remaining, giving a battery life of 6 hours, 31 minutes, and 43 seconds. Based on the rate of power consumption, the comprehensive battery life of the Huawei Nova Flip is approximately 8 hours.
This battery life performance is sufficient for daily use, meeting most users’ needs from morning to night. Whether browsing the web, watching videos, or engaging in social communication, it provides stable power support.
Verdict of Huawei Nova Flip
Huawei’s Nova Flip, the first small folding phone in the Nova series, has successfully captured the attention of young consumers with its innovative design and powerful functions. It not only enriches Huawei’s product line but also strengthens its brand awareness among young consumers and consolidates its market positioning as a “trendy small folding phone for young people.”
The Nova Flip features an ingenious design. Its ultra-thin body, measuring 6.88mm and weighing 195g, offers users an extremely light and thin feel.
The 1:1 square outer screen, known as the “Fun Square Screen,” provides a visually symmetrical and balanced aesthetic. It looks comfortable and allows you to do many tasks without opening the phone, such as playing games, watching videos, and listening to music. It serves as a portable entertainment center.
The Call-emoji feature makes traditional voice calls more interesting and personalized.
Three small games designed specifically for the external screen turn this small folding phone into a stress-relieving tool for young people, adding interactivity and entertainment to the phone. It can even become a highlight in social settings.
Imagine being at a party with friends or waiting for someone. You can take out the Nova Flip and play a few games. It helps you pass the time, attracts the attention of those around you, and makes you the focus of conversation.
These innovative features not only enhance the playability of the Nova Flip but also make it a phone that truly fits the lifestyle of young people.
In terms of performance, the Nova Flip is equipped with the new Kirin processor and Harmony OS4 operating system, ensuring a smooth operating experience and powerful system performance. In our actual tests, it runs mainstream mobile games stably and smoothly. While meeting daily needs, it handles PUBG and other online games effortlessly.
The Nova Flip has a built-in 4400mAh large-capacity battery, supports 66W super-fast charging, and offers fast charging speed and strong battery life, meeting users’ needs for an entire day.
In conclusion, the Huawei Nova Flip combines avant-garde aesthetic design, excellent photography experience, powerful performance, and smart, convenient operation. It fully meets the diverse needs of the younger generation and is an ideal choice for young people who pursue fashion and technology.
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