Huawei nova 9 review: A slim curved-OLED style phone — the post-sanctions 4G compromise.
Style over connectivity.
nova 9 sold a slim, curved, good-looking phone with fast charging to buyers who could live without Google and 5G — a niche Huawei carved out of necessity. Outside loyal markets the missing services and 4G ceiling make it a hard sell today.
01Display
80/10080/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2021.
02Camera
70/10070/100 trails the 74-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2021.
03Performance
64/10064/100 is one of the weaker performance results among mid-range phones of 2021 — 8 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
70/10070/100 is one of the weaker battery results among mid-range phones of 2021 — 6 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
76/10076/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2021.
06Value
58/10058/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2021.
- Slim 7.8 mm / 175 g curved-OLED design.
- 66 W SuperCharge fills fast.
- 120 Hz panel, 32 MP selfie.
- Premium look for the price.
- No Google services.
- 4G only — the sanctions tax.
- Two filler 2 MP lenses.
- Support winding down.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 3-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .