Huawei keeps investing in the mid-range segment in a big to keep its smartphones fresh in the mind of fans. Today, the company is updating its Huawei Nova series with the launch of the Huawei Nova 11 SE. It’s a beautiful smartphone that bets on a sleek design with a powerful camera and decent performance. Curiously, there is no 5G connectivity and Huawei decided to omit the chipset details. However, we will dive into this smartphone to find out if it’s a good offering in a super-competitive segment the mid-range category.
Huawei Nova 11 SE – Specifications and Key Features
The Huawei Nova 11 SE was listed by Vmall, a Huawei-owned online store in China. Although Huawei decided to omit the phone’s hardware in its press release, the retailer confirmed the phone’s CPU. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680. It’s a bad chipset, for the mid-range segment it’s a decent Octa-Core CPU with only LTE connectivity. It’s efficient with a 6nm architecture. However, the chipset can be considered old at this point, and it’s not appealing as modern 5G chipsets. Still, it can deliver a decent performance for web browsing, social media navigation, and other casual tasks.
The Huawei Nova 11 SE is equipped with a 6.67-inch Flat OLED screen with Full HD+ resolution. The phone has a 90 Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. The panel is decent for watching media content, and the 90 Hz refresh rate will keep the content smooth. There is a single punch hole in the center for a 32 MP selfie shooter capable of 1080p video recording.
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Sleek Design, Fast-Charging, HarmonyOS 4 and More
As we’ve said before, the Huawei Nova 11 SE has its design as one of the more appealing aspects. The phone is very thin with just 7.39 mm of overall thickness. It weights in at 186 grams and packs a 4,500 mAh battery. The battery is not the most impressive for current standards, especially in the mid-range segment. However, we believe that Huawei didn’t mind in sacrificing the capacity to keep the phone slim. Anyway, the phone comes with 66W fast-charging. If you draw out the power, the phone will charge pretty fast. Huawei states it can go from 0 to 100% in just 32 minutes. The charger and the appropriate cable are in the retail box.
Other interesting features include NFC supporting cardless payment, a dual nano SIM slot, and an under-display fingerprint scanner.
The Huawei Nova 11 SE boots HarmonyOS 4. It’s Huawei’s proprietary software that currently runs on over 100 million devices. The software has a revamped Notification center, better permission management for risky applications and a Live Window to expand current activations.
Pricing and Availability
The Huawei Nova 11 SE sells in Green, White, and Black color options. The prices are CNY 1,999 ($273/€257) for the 256 GB option with CNY 2,199 ($300 / €285) for 512 GB storage. The pre-orders are already live in China, and the first sale will begin on November 3.
The phone has a decent set of specifications, however, the lack of 5G can be a determinant fact that pushes some consumers away in China. Die-hard Huawei fans will certainly enjoy one affordable offering that gives them access to HarmonyOS 4 goodies. However, it will face strong competition in China from the Redmi Note series, and Honor smartphones.
Due to the US ban, Huawei keeps trying to reinvent itself with new smartphones. Apart from the specifications, we have to agree that the Honor Nova 11 SE feels unique with its design and colorful variants. It’s always a matter of preference, but consumers that enjoy Huawei products in China and want a device that stands in the crowd, will certainly be pleased with this new handset from their favorite brand.
