- Analysis by KJ David
A watered-down version of Huawei's 2018 nova 3 flagship that leans more towards practicality than delivering premium-class specs, the Huawei nova 3i's cons are led by several hardware downgrades. For starters, it drops from the nova 3's massive 6GB RAM down to only 4GB 
, although a 4GB RAM count was nothing to be ashamed of in the semi-high-end Android market as of this Phonerated technical review. It also runs on a Kirin 710 processor this time, which is marginally slower than its mother model's Kirin 970 (2.4GHz + 1.8GHz) engine. That said, its two independent CPU clusters, which clock in at 2.2GHz and 1.7GHz 
, still put the 3i alongside several upmarket octa-core contenders.
Regrettably, with its slight reduction in engine speed, the nova 3i suffers a substantial reduction in raw battery power, dialing back the nova 3's 3750mAh power cap to only 3340mAh . Fortunately, this lower-specked version's pros still include the original model's large 6.3-inch 19.5:9 IPS display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 (FHD , bringing to mind some of the best phablets available today. It also comes with a similar 128GB storage memory that can be expanded by a maximum of 256GB .
As for its pros and cons on the imaging department, the nova 3i retains its base model's quad-camera concept, featuring dual-lens setups on both its rear and front sides. At the back is a 16- plus 2-megapixel dual camera , which, although is a downgrade over the nova 3's 16- plus 24-megapixel system, still passes 2018 high-end benchmarks, especially with things like AI scene recognition and bokeh shooting tagging along.
Up front, it boasts a dual selfie cam composed of a whopping 24-megapixel primary lens and a 2-megapixel deputy lens . Note, though, that it lacks a dedicated front-firing LED flash and is limited to a fixed focal length , which could put the 3i on the back foot versus some of the best selfie-driven smartphones out there.
This spinoff of the nova 3 runs on the Android 8.1 Oreo operating system overlaid with Huawei's own EMUI v8.2. Its pros and cons are topped off by a metal frame and a coating of either Black, Pearl White, or Iris Purple, the last one being a gradient finish that runs from Blue to Purple.
So, even though its mother model outshines it on multiple fronts, the Huawei nova 3i potentially attracts mobile photographers with its back-to-back dual cameras nonetheless.
** This phone is also known as: Huawei 3i
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