Huawei nova 11 Pro review

What criteria must be met for a new model to be an improvement over the model before it in the series? A new chipset is typically on that list, coupled with possibly some camera enhancements, display modifications, a larger battery, faster charging, or something similar. Now that the Huawei nova 11 pro doesn’t seem to offer any of those, what makes it superior than the nova 10 pro?.

For starters, the design of the back is distinct. The previous generation’s somewhat garish camera island style has been toned down by Huawei, which has also unveiled two colorways with faux leather rear panels and a debossed “nova” pattern.

We’ll spill some tea because we already know a few details about the handset. We obtained some very outstanding numbers there, so just because the charging specifications are the same doesn’t necessarily mean the outcomes are the same.

Although the nova 11 Pro may just be performing the barest minimum to merit an increase in the model designation, the 10 Pro already had some excellent specifications, so it might not be fair to write off the 11 so quickly. For instance, the very distinctive front camera system, which has been retained and consists of a 60MP ultrawide unit and a 50-ish mm-equivalent zoom camera, can be the ideal selling point for a populace that is obsessed with taking selfies.

The now-removed 2MP depth sensor on the back is unlikely to be missed, but the newly added laser AF should help in low light and with close-up shots. And because to its AF capacity, the otherwise modestly resolution ultrawide (8MP) can do better than others in closeups. We’re not upset that the 50MP main camera, which is largely identical, is returning because it performed well on the previous model as well.

Similar tales can be found in other places. The fancy 6.78-inch dual-curved display’s pixels and hertz did not require an upgrade right away. Despite not being state-of-the-art, the Snapdragon 778G CPU is still a strong midrange option. Additionally, you won’t be short on memory thanks to a huge 256BG base storage version (128GB on the nova 10 Pro) and a 512GB option.

Huawei nova 11 Pro specs:

• Body: 164.3×74.4×7.9mm, 188g; Glass front, glass back or eco leather back.
• Display: 6.78″ OLED, 1B colors, HDR10, 120Hz, 1200x2652px resolution, 19.89:9 aspect ratio, 429ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM7325 Snapdragon 778G 4G (6 nm): Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Kryo 670 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 670); Adreno 642L.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 8GB RAM.
• OS/Software: HarmonyOS 3.0.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, PDAF, Laser AF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 112˚, AF.
• Front camera: Ultra wide angle: 60 MP, f/2.4, 17mm, 100˚, AF; Telephoto: 8 MP, f/2.2, 52mm (portrait), AF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K, 1080p, 720p@960fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 4500mAh; 100W wired, 50% in 15 min (advertised), Reverse wired.
• Connectivity: LTE; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6; BT 5.2; NFC.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers; Virtual proximity sensing.

Unboxing of Huawei Nova 11 Pro

The logos and model names are painted with a reflective rainbow-like gloss on the traditional white box in which the Nova 11 Pro is packaged. A Kunlun Glass logo is also prominently displayed, signifying Huawei’s use of their own line of display protection.

A 6A-rated USB-A-to-C cable and the same 100W charger from before that surprised us this time may be found inside in addition to the phone. A soft silicone protective case is also supplied, which protects the sides and back without obscuring the view of the nova-patterned rear.

Design

There aren’t many differences between the nova 11 Pro and the previous model, but the redesigned back design is one of them. There are two parts to that; the first is the panel itself, and the second is the styling of the camera island.

The Green and Black colorways of the unit we are reviewing both include a faux leather back panel. However, it’s not your typical bland synthetic leather. The debossed (term of the day; the inverse of embossed) “nova” logos on the 11 Pro add some flair to the design. Of course, there are also the gleaming Huawei and ‘nova’ emblems in the bottom third of the phone.

The panel is fairly sticky and doesn’t pick up fingerprints, like all materials that resemble faux leather.

The camera hump is the other new design modification. The thick, shiny border that around the entire island is gone, but it still featured the major camera specifications printed twice in what was also objectively much too large of a font size. Although gold has an allure and adds some extra flare, that was on the verge of being garish.

No such thing happens here; only the main camera receives a golden ring, and it is far less intrusive. Additionally, the text printed inside has such fine lettering that it is not even discernible as text unless you carefully look at it from a close distance.

Although Huawei replaced the hard back with faux leather, they left the panel’s curve toward the sides, giving the phone a pleasing, compact feel in the hand.

For the sake of clarification, we should point out that there are two other colorways, White and Gold, with glass backs rather than faux leather. These seem to be limited to the nova 11 Pro’s domestic market, as the only leatherette colors available internationally are black and green.

Regardless of the rear material, the frame is plastic and quite thin along the sides. We previously noticed the nova 10 Pro’s similarity to a Galaxy Edge smartphone from a few years ago, and the nova 11 Pro continues in same vein.

The OLED display on the front of the phone curves toward the sides and has barely there black borders before it hits the frame, giving it a very upscale appearance. Similar to each other in svelteness, the top and bottom bezels add to the overall poshness.

We can’t say the same for the protective plastic layer that has already been placed to the display because it doesn’t glide as smoothly as glass. Naturally, it can be removed with ease, exposing the Kunlun glass, Huawei’s proprietary substitute for Gorilla Glass.

A pill-shaped cutout in the top left corner makes room for the dual selfie camera. We don’t get as large cutouts as often as we formerly did, but it’s not like they’re a big deal either, and we prefer weird selfie cams.

Huawei has installed an optical under-display fingerprint scanner at the near end of the display. Although we had no complaints about its reliability or speed, we could spare a word about its placement, which is too low in our opinion.

There are no other issues with the nova 11 Pro’s layout; everything is exactly where you would expect it to be. On the right side of the device, in a little wider area of the frame, are the power and volume rockers, which click reasonably effectively.

The three holes you see on top are all together one of the outlets for the top speaker; the other outlet is the earpiece in the front. There is also a mic pinhole here.

The primary loudspeaker, a second mic pinhole, and the SIM card slot are all located underneath the USB-C port.

To give us enough room to make our argument about the nova 11 Pro’s lack of certified ingress protection, we’ll show you a photo of the card tray. The tray does have an attractive, contrasting blue gasket to keep the elements out, but this does not imply that it has an IP rating. The Galaxy A54 and Pixel 7a are just two examples of devices with IP67 ratings that are available in this price range; the Motorola Edge 40 even has an IP68 rating. But not the nova.

Apart from that, the nova 11 Pro is a well-made midranger with distinctive designs that aren’t quite as divisive as those of its predecessor. When you get used to where the fingerprint reader is located, it handles nicely, feels light and compact for its size, and has good grip.

Display

The 6.78-inch display on the nova 11 Pro appears to be the same size as that on the prior model. It is an OLED display with a 19.9:9 aspect ratio (429ppi pixel density), a relatively unusual resolution of 1,200×2,652px, and an equally odd resolution. The display supports 10-bit color, HDR10, and a refresh rate of 120 Hz with a maximum sampling rate of 300 Hz.

The nova 11 Pro couldn’t quite equal the nits of the 10 Pro in our brightness testing, yielding slightly different results from what we measured on the previous model. With adaptive brightness activated and the phone in bright light, we measured 702nits on the Nova 11 Pro; this is less than the 10 Pro’s 784nits and lower than the majority of possible rivals. When the slider was manually adjusted, the nova 11 Pro was roughly 10% less bright than the nova 10 Pro, but this percentage is still greater than most.

Remember that the figures above were obtained using the default Vivid color option; however, we did achieve 737 and 540 nits in Natural mode, indicating that Normal may be slightly brighter.

Color accuracy

On the nova 11 Pro, there are only those two color modes. This time, Vivid was set as the default (the nova 10 Pro was initially set to Normal), and it’s the mode that produces a more vibrant output overall and an allegedly wider color gamut, though we weren’t able to get 100% DCI-P3 coverage.

Normal mode ought to be able to choose between DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces based on the content, but we were only able to obtain readings for sRGB, which were admittedly pretty accurate overall with the exception of the very noticeable purple shift to the whitepoint and the grays.

In fact, Vivid was leaning even more strongly toward purple, and in both modes, the ‘Warm’ color temperature setting didn’t really improve the grayscale’s accuracy. If you wish to change the way the colors are presented, you can still play around with the color wheel.

HDR and streaming

The 11 Pro supports HDR10, same like the nova 10 Pro, and hardware scanning apps note this feature. Support for Widevine L1 should enable high-resolution HDR streaming of DRM-restricted content.

Although a sideloaded version of the Netflix app didn’t support HDR content (as one might assume), it was happy to playback content at 1080p resolution, which was an improvement over the nova 10 Pro’s SD-only behavior.

Although YouTube’s web version could play videos with up to 4K quality, HDR wasn’t supported. However, the YouTube app on the GBox did support 4K HDR playback.

Refresh rate

The Nova 11 Pro offers three refresh rate settings: Standard (60Hz), High (120Hz), and Dynamic.

Both Standard and High modes keep their respective nominal refresh rates; High will stay at 120 even when showing static images, but it will drop to 60Hz for applications like Petal Maps or the camera viewfinder that don’t support higher frame rates.

You can achieve some adaptive behavior by using dynamic mode; after a brief period of inactivity, the phone will switch to 60Hz. Keep in mind that in this level, games that would normally be able to run at 120 Hz in High mode are typically limited to 60 Hz.

Huawei nova 11 Pro battery life

With a 4,500mAh battery, the Nova 11 Pro keeps the battery size of the 10 Pro and is about properly powered. The new phone posted the exact same Endurance rating of 89h, and since there are essentially no hardware changes that would directly affect battery life, we were led to expect similar endurance from it. The slight variations in the individual tests are what we’d consider to be within the margin of error of our tests.

The screen-on test outcomes for the nova 11 Pro are below average for the class. Competitors often play videos for 20 hours whereas the Huawei only lasts 15 hours. Rivals can also browse the internet for an additional hour or more. Not bad outcomes from the nova, but still lagging behind.

Charging speed

The nova 11 Pro makes up for its short battery life with quick charging. The included 100W Huawei SuperCharger adapter and 6A-capable cable are identical to those in the nova 10 Pro’s packaging, but the new phone charged much more quickly.

Using the provided adaptation, we calculated peak charging rates at about 88W, which is sufficient for comparison with the nominal values. The snapshots we have at 15 minutes and the time it takes the nova 11 Pro to reach 100% show that the new model is more willing to maintain that peak rate for longer even if we don’t typically record a full charging curve.

A full charge in 23 minutes and 73% in just 15 minutes are, in fact, quite astounding numbers—not just for the class specifically, but also in general.

There was no setting in the settings to make the Nova 10 Pro’s Turbo charging mode persistent, therefore it had to be activated each time you wanted to use it by long-pressing the charging animation that appeared when plugging in the charger. The nova 11 Pro in question has such a feature as well, so we still had to enable the Turbo charging, but after the first test we ran before we did (which, obviously, yielded slower results), the phone continued to Turbo-charge every time. Furthermore, long-pressing the Turbo charging animation won’t make it go away. The purpose of all that is unclear to us.

Although regular Turbo charging would undoubtedly work against that, there are provisions in the software if you’re inclined to take better care of your battery over the long term. There is the rather popular “Smart charge” option, which will charge your phone up to 80% and only do the final 20% just before you need to use your phone. This feature is dependent on your charging and usage habits, which the phone must first learn. To avoid your battery ever being fully charged, which lithium-ion batteries don’t like very much, you can also set a charging restriction (70%, 80%, or 90%).

The nova 11 Pro does not support wireless charging, however several possible rivals do, like the Motorola Edge 40 and the Nothing Phone (1).

Speaker test

The Nova 11 Pro has a typical hybrid stereo speaker setup, with one speaker coming out of the bottom of the device and another coming out of the top of the device with two outlets—one facing the top and the other facing the front to act as an earpiece. When in portrait position, each speaker only plays its own channel, and the top speaker plays the left track. In landscape orientation, the channels are dynamically assigned based on the phone’s real orientation in space.

In comparison to the ‘Good’ nova 10 Pro, the nova 11 Pro only received a ‘Average’ score for volume during our testing. You’ll be able to discern why that is the case when you hear the songs for yourself because the nova 10 Pro’s prominent mid-forward sound means that it receives a higher numerical value for loudness (loudness “mostly lives” in the midrange). Although the nova 11 Pro does reduce the mids to make the sound more balanced, it is still relatively quiet. The Motorola Edge 40 or the Galaxy A54 will give more volume and presence.

Software

The nova 11 Pro uses EMUI 13 on top of an Android 12 core, according to the apps. With the P60 Pro having EMUI 13.1, which you won’t be receiving here, that puts it one better than the Nova 10 Pro and nearly on level with the Huawei flagships.

Like in previous years, EMUI 13 is independent of Google Services. Instead, it makes use of the AppGallery app store, the company’s own services as part of HMS Core, Petal Search, and Petal Maps from Huawei.

This interface has many of customization possibilities, themes, widgets, and other features, and it resembles its predecessors quite a bit.

Numerous useful program shortcuts, stacked widgets, resizable smart folders, intelligent storage space, greater sharing choices, and enhanced security and privacy are all characteristics of EMUI 13.

There are many different clock skins to pick from and an always-on display is an option. Additionally, some of the themes have numerous variations. Additionally, if the pre-installed themes are not your style, you can download even more AOD themes. Then you can choose to have tap to show enabled or always-on only throughout specific hours of the day.

As with all EMUI-powered devices, you may configure a magazine lockscreen style where the image changes each time the screen is activated. Several regularly used applications will have quick shortcuts that can be accessed by sliding from the bottom.

An optical under-display fingerprint scanner is included on the Nova 11 Pro, and it functions as quickly and accurately as you might expect. Another option is the less safe facial unlock. Additionally, Smart Unlock is available.

All installed and system apps are available on the homescreen, but you can swap between the conventional layout and a two-tiered homescreen with an app drawer in the settings menu. It’s a matter of taste, and having a choice is a wonderful thing.

Some apps may stand out as highlighted, indicating that you can swipe on them to see a little widget. This widget can be used or pinned on your homescreen.

Large folders are supported by EMUI 13, where you can view 9 app shortcuts compressed into a 2×2 space. You can launch an app by tapping on its more compact shortcut rather than expanding this folder. These folders can be resized to your preference.

In EMUI 13, coupled widgets are supported; three widgets can be joined into one. Additionally, there is a relatively new feature that allows you to cycle between many stacked widgets. This feature allows you to stack two or more widgets on top of one another. It’s also neat to pull while holding to display all stacked widgets at once.

If enabled, Assistant Today is the homescreen page on the left-hand side; it provides a location for entertainment. It includes a newsfeed that is personalized for you, weather forecasts, intelligent app recommendations, battery information, health information, and AppGallery suggestions, among other things. You can modify this page by adding game details, scores, and other information. A variety of information services are offered by Huawei partners. We will confess that at first glance this page appears to be full of advertisements, but you can really personalize it by adding fascinating content.

Swiping down from the top of the screen brings down the Notification Center in the first two thirds, while the last third brings up the Control Center and its quick toggles. This is how Apple handles the Notification Center and Control Center, which are two separate pages. Only towards the top of the screen, which isn’t very convenient, can you swap between the two by swiping left or right.

Meanwhile, you may access the system-wide Search page by sliding downward anywhere on the homescreen.

The nova 11 Pro comes with Huawei’s Assistant Celia, which facilitates voice commands and communication. There are also further Huawei Assistant functionalities available. AI Lens, AI Touch, Tips, Search, and Today are a few of them. Today and Search have already been looked into, while Tips is self-explanatory and AI Touch enables rapid image/text searches with a two-finger tap and hold.

AI Lens uses the camera and item recognition to find objects. Opening AI Lens from the camera or lockscreen and pointing it at the item you want to buy is the quickest method to shop for something you see for the first time. This program also allows you to translate text using the Lens and recognize objects and landmarks.

Additionally, EMUI 13 has a Theme Store where you may entirely customize its appearance to suit your tastes.

It is common practice to multitask, and the task switcher supports pop-up and/or split-screen modes. The majority of built-in apps support pop-up views. Additionally, multi-window (also known as split screen) is an option. You are allowed to have two split-screen apps, two pop-up apps, and one pop-up app on top of the other two.

For starters, Huawei provides a ton of pre-installed apps, including the Gallery, Music, Video, and Health apps. There is also a file manager accessible.

Petal Maps, Petal Search, and Huawei’s own Browser are also included.

Super Storage is a brand-new feature in EMUI 13. Compressible files and Compressible apps are two new choices that are made available by selecting the Clean button in the Storage settings. By removing duplicate files, either by deleting them or stacking them, and compressing other unneeded data, compressible files help free up storage space. Infrequently used programs can be compressed to take up less space without having to be uninstalled.

The new iteration of what Huawei calls the Super Device is brought by EMUI 13. It intends to further enhance Huawei’s ecosystem’s integration. Similar to Apple’s AirPlay, Super Device displays your surrounding Huawei devices, such as MediaPad tablets, MediaBook laptops, Vision TVs, and Freebuds, and makes it much easier for you to interact with them. To manage all connections and deliver music and/or pictures to any linked Huawei devices, Device+ provides a centralized management panel.

Imagine you are using your Huawei smartphone while wearing your Free Buds. By pressing a single button on the Super Device control panel, you can instantly switch the audio from your Huawei TV to your Free Buds without pairing or further configuration, which would typically be a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi nightmare.

From Super Device, multi-screen cooperation is also possible. You may quickly drag and drop or just click to transfer different content, messages, or even calls. You can also effortlessly share your phone or tablet’s display onto your tablet or laptop screen for simple file editing and exchange.

The installation of apps is handled by Huawei’s AppGallery by default. It incorporates Petal search, which displays outcomes from app repositories like APK Pure and APK Monk as well as developer websites. There is no need to install the store apps directly because it can download and install the app as well. This is especially useful in addressing the dearth of some programs in the AppGallery marketplace.

Additionally, you can set up Amazon’s Appstore, APKPure, and Aptoide as well as other software repositories. You can download a ton of other games and office apps, in addition to apps like Facebook and Google Chrome, this way. Installing practically any APK file is possible, but bear in mind that functionality dependent on Google Services won’t work and, in the case of some apps, won’t even work.

Last but not least, GBox is the best way to get Google-dependent apps to run on the Nova 11 Pro. It is a tiny virtual machine that runs all Google services and is based on the most recent version of Android. The Play Store is incorporated into your device, so you may install additional apps from there if you’d like to (simply tap back on any of the suggested apps). You also have a list of apps you can install right away. Another possibility is a Play Store upgrade.

You don’t need to worry about it because the GBox adds app shortcuts to your homescreen. Of course, notifications are supported. Additionally, we have no trouble running 4K HDR streaming on Google Maps, Google Drive, Chrome, and YouTube. However, Netflix wouldn’t install from this location, although Disney+ and HBO worked without any problems.

Although it won’t give you things like Huawei Auto, GBox is currently the safest and best option for Google apps and services. However, we will be wary to use it for Google Wallet payments.

Performance and benchmarks

The Snapdragon 778 chipset, which also powers the nova 10 (Pro and vanilla) and nova 9 (Pro and vanilla), is a well-liked midrange SoC that is a little bit dated but still has plenty of power. Because of Huawei’s problems with the US-China trade war that go back to, what year was it, 2019, it’s a 5G-less version of the chip that was specifically designed for the firm.

We weren’t really expecting surprises in the performance area with hardware this tried and tested. The nova 11 Pro did indeed report excellent results that were consistent with previous chipset implementations. When it comes to benchmarks, the nova is largely on par with the Galaxy A54, the Nothing Phone (1) is marginally better, and the Motorola Edge 40 is a substantial improvement. If your budget allows for a nova, you may purchase the Pixel 7a, which is likewise considerably more powerful.

For the entire 20-minute Wild Life stress test in 3DMark, the nova 11 Pro displayed exceptional stability under GPU demands with essentially no performance degradation.

The phone performed at its best in the CPU Throttling test for the first 27 minutes, after which it suddenly dropped to about 60% of its top score. It remained there for three minutes before cooling off and returning to levels that were nearly peak. After that, it was 6-7 minutes of maximum performance, followed by 3-4 minutes at 60%. Even if that is far from optimal behavior, it is a vast improvement over the nova 10 Pro, where the dips were both longer and deeper.

Camera

The camera configuration on the nova 10 Pro hasn’t changed much from the nova 11 Pro, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing given the older device had a really distinctive setup, especially for selfies. The same 60MP ultrawide camera and a portrait module with a 50-ish mm equivalent are both present on the front of the 11 Pro. While the rear still contains the 50MP primary sensor and the 8MP autofocusing ultrawide, we believe the 2MP depth sensor was unnecessary.

A 60MP sensor with 0.6 m pixels serves as the foundation for the main front camera. This camera has autofocus, and it is mounted behind a 17mm-equivalent lens with an f/2.4 aperture. The second selfie camera has a 52mm f/2.2 lens and an 8MP sensor enabling a 2x optical zoom. There is also autofocus available.

The main camera on the back has a 50MP sensor with 1.0 m pixels. The lens’s 24mm focal length and f/1.9 aperture represent a slight improvement over the f/1.8 of the previous iteration. The inclusion of a laser focusing module this time around is a more significant genuine modification. However, there isn’t an OIS here.

The 16mm f/2.2 lens is part of the 8MP ultrawide camera on the rear of the Nova 11 Pro. Even though 8MP may not seem like much, this camera’s autofocusing ability makes it a more useful module than its resolution would imply.

The camera app is the same on all Huawei devices, and it works essentially the same way as any other camera app: by swiping left and right, you can switch between different camera modes; a “More” pane collects all of the extra modes; the zoom selector is nearby; and by using quick toggles at the far end, you can use the flash, filters, and AI mode. Yes, Huawei’s AI camera recognizes and adjusts settings for many different circumstances, but it is no longer as aggressive as it once was with phones.

Additionally, there is a Pro mode where you can manually change settings, but just for the main camera on the rear. These range from ISO 50 to 409,600, shutter speed from 1/40 to 30 seconds, exposure adjustment from -4 to +4EV in 1/3 stop increments, and presets and specific light temperatures for white balance. Additionally, you can select the focus mode (single, continuous, or manual) as well as the metering style (matrix, center-weighted, or spot). An icon will appear to alert you if the phone determines that you mishandled the exposure. Also available for video is Pro mode, which has a maximum ISO of 6,400.

Daylight photo quality

The main camera of the nova 11 Pro produced some really great images in daylight. Similar to the nova 10 Pro, the detail is superb and has a highly organic appearance that makes complex random textures seem real and not overly processed. There is hardly any noise at all.

The tone extremes are nicely developed while keeping strong overall contrast, and the dynamic range is excellent. The auto white balance typically produces results that are realistic, and the colors pop just enough without being garish.

If you shoot with the AI toggle turned on, you can get some more saturation, which will usually give you more punch in the greens. Although we wouldn’t say it’s necessary, it’s also not an excessively dramatic saturation boost, thus both possibilities are viable.

50MP photos

There are two sub-modes for the 50MP high-res mode: regular and AI. The AI mode uses picture stacking and takes three seconds per shot in an effort to capture more detail in a scene. If you look very closely, you might be able to see somewhat more detail resolved than in the standard 12.5MP photographs, but overall we don’t think it’s worth it.

Even less so is the usual 50MP mode; as far as we can tell, these are just the 12.5MP photographs upscaled to 50MP.

2x zoom

It turns out that the nova 11 Pro can extract more detail from that sensor; however, for the 50MP modes, it doesn’t really bother with it. Given the lack of a dedicated zoom camera, the quality of 2x zoom photographs are excellent, and they appear much better up close than the high-resolution images above. Strangely, the 2x zoom photos’ white balance frequently has an inconsistent lean to green. Our only issue with this is that it can be quickly fixed after the fact.

Ultra-wide Camera

In contrast to the primary camera’s far more realistic presentation, the ultrawide camera has a noticeably different color rendering. This is especially visible in outdoor images where the sky is rendered in a decidedly cyan tint. Other than that, despite having a modest resolution, it performs a decent job at capturing photographs with good detail. Additionally respectable is dynamic range. AF, which enables you to focus on a close topic, is a very useful tool.

Close-ups

Additionally, there is a Super macro mode that uses the ultrawide camera for all three degrees of magnification (0.8x, or native; 1x, or matching the main camera’s FoV; and a quite extreme 2x). We believe that the medium option strikes a fair balance between coverage and per-pixel image quality. These do, in fact, look fantastic at fit-to-screen magnification and are quite acceptable up close.

Low-light photo quality

The main camera of the nova 11 Pro takes excellent low-light pictures. Behind-the-scenes Night mode action in the basic Photo mode results in well-exposed images with adequate highlight restoration and good shadow development. Colors are still vibrant, with perhaps a touch more warmth from some street light types, but nothing too offensive. Overall, there is minimal noise and good detail.

On the Nova 10 Pro, we saw hardly any difference between photos taken in Photo mode and those taken in Night mode, but the 11 Pro shows a somewhat more noticeable difference. Even if they are still extremely slight, the enhancements in Night mode scenarios include greater shadow development and a little bit more crispness. When faced with a particularly dark or contrasty scene, it could be worthwhile to switch to that.

2x Zoom

When shooting at 2x zoom in the dark, per-pixel detail isn’t fantastic, but seeing these photographs at fit-to-screen levels hides those flaws and lets you experience the pleasing tonal development and vibrant colors.

Again, night mode is preferable for darker scenes because it enhances the shadows more.

Ultra-wide Camera

Although the ultrawide camera lacks a designated Night mode, it still manages to function admirably thanks to whatever low-light processing Huawei has built into it. If you view a scene at 1:1, the darkest scenes will appear fairly soft, whereas scenes with better lighting will have good detail. Given the hardware, dynamic range is also more than sufficient, and colors don’t suffer from desaturation at night. Not bad all around.

Portraits

In its Portrait mode, the Nova 11 Pro gives you three magnification options: the standard 1x from the primary camera, as well as 2x and 3x. Overall, the quality is very good at 1x, fair at 2x, and barely tolerable at 3x, though shooting distance and perspective do get better as the zoom level increases. The 2x mode may be a workable compromise in that regard. Although there is good subject detection, the blur level is a little too high, making its artificiality obvious. Although there are several blur effects, it is disappointing that there is no effect intensity control.

Selfies

There is no doubting the nova 11 Pro’s love of selfies. The 60MP primary front camera fulfills its promise and takes amazing pictures whether in the 1x crop mode or at the natural field of view (designated “W” in the viewfinder). Excellent detail, attractive skin tones, and a strong dynamic range are all present. In contrast, you can depend on sharp faces thanks to the autofocus function, regardless of the shooting distance.

Video recording

All four of the nova 11 Pro’s cameras, including both selfie cameras, can capture video at up to 4K30 resolution. The only camera that supports 1080p60 is the rear ultrawide camera, therefore 4K60 is not an option. All cameras have stabilization, which is always on and cannot be turned off (presumably with the exception of the 2x selfie camera).

As usual, you have the option of using the standard h.264 codec or the more effective h.265 codec. Despite this, the nova 11 Pro does occasionally use very low bit rates, even when h.264 is the preferred codec. For instance, our 4K30 balcony scene is encoded with a bit rate of 17.5Mbps, which is a common figure for 1080p30. However, even though that scene is crammed with fine information, we did obtain a far more reasonable 40Mbps bit rate when filming handheld for our stabilization test in the park.

However, the detail of the 4K footage from the main camera should be better; in fact, it is pretty soft. The white balance and saturation of the colors are good, though. The roll-off at the tonal extremes appears rather harsh in this performance since the contrast is fairly strong and doesn’t play well with dynamic range.

Verdict

The nova 11 Pro excels in many areas and has a few special selling factors, making it more than simply an average phone with a distinctive twist. One of the quickest charging speeds available on any smartphone, midrange or flagship, is provided by the 100W charger. Then there is the dual selfie camera, which is actually excellent for still photos. This isn’t so much due to the fact that it has two cameras as much as it is due to the 60MP ultrawide unit, but the telephoto doesn’t hurt either.

The seemingly unimportant ultrawide definitely benefits from having AF, and the rear cameras are actually not half terrible. The battery life is similarly ‘not-amazing-not-bad’, the display is passable but not particularly bright, the chipset is reliable, and the proprietary software is usable.

While certain apps won’t run on the Nova 11 Pro, others we’d be afraid to try to get to function on it with the workarounds that are available, the absence of Google Mobile Services continues to be a significant constraint.

And it goes beyond just that. Despite its excellent camera, the phone’s back camera isn’t really a good video capture device. The zoom selfie camera seems like an intriguing idea, but only if you own a selfie stick or if you enjoy a specific type of selfie video that was made popular by dancers on Tik Tok. The nova 11 Pro’s asking price makes it reasonable to expect it to have a decent rating for dust and water protection, but it doesn’t.

The nova 11 Pro’s primary flaw, in the end, might be that it is overly similar to the nova 10 Pro. Additionally, the older model still offers the features of the newer one at a lesser cost. While there is still supply of the Nova 10 Pro, which isn’t cheap either, the 11 Pro doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Pro’s & Con’s