Huawei Nova 11 SE Smartphone Review – The Nova series of smartphones from Huawei is meant to be the budget alternative to Huawei’s other smartphones, but budget pricing doesn’t mean low-end components. In fact, the new Nova smartphone, Huawei Nova 11 SE, comes with a premium display, impressive camera, battery, and more. The Huawei Nova 11 SE was announced at the end of October 2023 and will go on sale soon in the month of November.
The company hasn’t announced any plans regarding a global release and chances are that it won’t happen anytime soon. Although the new smartphone has some premium components, 5G couldn’t make the cut, whereas the device is certainly going to impress its users with its robust fast charging support. This 5G cut was done to keep the pricing under budget. But since it’s going on sale soon, we are going to review the Huawei Nova 11 SE smartphone and tell you all about it before it is released to find out whether this device is worth buying.
Table of Contents
Huawei Nova 11 SE Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The Huawei Nova 11 SE features a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED display panel with 90Hz refresh rate support.
- The phone is powered by the Qualcomm snapdragon 680 4G SoC, which can reach up to a 4×2.4GHz clocking speed.
- The Nova 11 SE runs on HarmonyOS 4.0 for a better user experience.
- The smartphone features a 108MP triple-camera system on the back with a 32MP selfie camera at the front.
- The smartphone features a Li-Po 4500 mAh battery with 66W fast wired charging and 5W reverse wired charging support.
Design and Display
The Huawei Nova 11 SE is a budget smartphone, but it hardly looks like one. It features an elegant design and upon first glance, one may even confuse it as a flagship smartphone, especially in the Green color. It is also available in White and black options. The smartphone is made up of polycarbonate materials and is very sturdy. The sides and rear panel of the smartphone are flat, which will provide you with a solid grip and won’t slip out of your hands easily.
On the front, you will find a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED display panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and 1 Billion color support. Now, that’s an OLED display with FHD+ resolution, which is rare at such a budget price. The bezels of the smartphone are also extremely narrow, which gives the impression of a super high-end smartphone. Watching content on this display will be a pure joy, thanks to the OLED panel, which is also color-accurate. Apart from this, the device is lightweight at 186 grams facilitates holding it for a long time, whereas the smartphone is 7.4mm slim which is impressive. All in all, the display section is decent, while better nits brightness and refresh rate are expected from the brand makers.
Memory and Internal
The Huawei Nova 11 SE uses the 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G chipset. This chipset can reach up to a 4×2.4GHz clocking speed, which has plenty of power to run all your everyday apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, more smoothly. This chipset is manufactured on a 6nm manufacturing process, so it is extremely efficient and produces little to no heat. You can put your overheating worries to rest. In terms of software, the device runs on the HarmonyOS 4.0, which is an Android fork. You will receive lots of customizations on the device while bloatware apps may be present.
The chipset also has Adreno 610GPU, which can easily run some of the games like PUBG and CODm smoothly. However, you will need to have gaming at medium graphic settings as this is not a gaming device. Unfortunately, not everything is as rosy as it seems. The smartphone doesn’t have 5G connectivity and therefore you have to rely on 4G, which feels outdated. For storage, the Huawei Nova 11 SE is available for purchase in two variants, 256GB and 512GB internal storage, while there is no information about the RAM options.
Camera
The Huawei Nova 11 SE has a 108MP triple rear camera system. The primary camera has a 108MP sensor, which can take some great photos with high detail levels, accurate colors, and a high dynamic range. Even the highlights in the shadows are captured properly and all the details are preserved accurately. Then there’s the 8MP ultra-wide camera, which can take pictures with a wider 112˚ field of view and it is perfect when taking group pictures. Apart from this, there is a 2MP macro lens that has nothing to talk about. The low-light photography from the main lens is not bad either and the images captured during the night have enough light.
On the front of the smartphone, you will find the selfie camera with a 32MP sensor, which can take some great selfies and manages to preserve skin tones and colors accurately. When it comes to video recording, the Huawei Nova 11 SE can shoot up to 1080P@30FPS from the main rear cameras as well as the selfie camera. Besides this, there is no support for stabilization on any of the cameras.
Battery and Others
Huawei has included a Li-Po 4500 mAh battery for the Huawei Nova 11 SE. This is a high-capacity battery that can easily provide 1 – 2 days worth of battery life under normal day-to-day usage But playing a lot of games will drastically drop the battery levels and in that case, the smartphone may not last a full day.
When it comes to charging, the Huawei Nova 11 SE supports 66W of wired fast charging, which can fully charge the smartphone in just 32 minutes. It even supports 5W reverse wired charging, so you can charge accessories such as wireless earbuds. Apart from that, the Huawei Nova 11 SE also has an aside-mounted fingerprint sensor, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and a USB Type C port for charging. The price of the smartphone starts at $267 (Rs 22,290 in India) approx for the base variant.
Huawei Nova 11 SE Pros and Cons
Huawei Nova 11 SE Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Huawei Nova 11 SE smartphone.
| Specifications | Huawei Nova 11 SE |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Announced | October 2023 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.39 x 2.97 x 0.29 inches |
| Weight | 186 g |
| Size | 6.67 inches |
| Display | OLED 1B colors 90Hz 20:9 ratio ~395 PPI density |
| Protection | No |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels |
| OS | HarmonyOS 4.0 |
| Chipset | 6nm – Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G |
| CPU | Octa-core 4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 4×1.9 GHz Cortex-A53 |
| GPU | Adreno 610 |
| Card slot | No |
| RAM | N/A |
| Internal | 256GB, 512GB |
| Camera | 108 MP (wide), PDAF 8 MP (112˚ ultrawide) 2 MP (macro) LED flash, HDR, panorama Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Selfie | 32 MP (wide) Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band |
| Bluetooth | 5.0, A2DP, LE |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0 |
| Sensors | Side-mounted fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Battery | Li-Po 4500 mAh 66W wired 5W reverse wired |
| Colors | Green, White, Black |
| Expected Price | $267 (Rs 22,290 in India) approx |
Conclusion
The Huawei Nova 11 SE smartphone has a lot going for it, including a good display, a decent chipset, a great camera, a balanced battery, and a whole lot more. All these features make the Huawei Nova 11 SE an appealing smartphone for users looking for a new smartphone in the budget section. However, there are some downsides to this smartphone. One of them is the default nits brightness and a restricted refresh rate support on the smartphone. Besides this, the sensors and SoC on the device feel quite outdated especially as per the pricing of the smartphone. Apart from this, the device feels impressive in terms of design, camera, or whether we talk about fast charging support.
However, the smartphone doesn’t support 5G, which in this day and age can be a dealbreaker for some users. But if 5G is not a priority for you, then the Huawei Nova 11 SE should satisfy your needs.
In our opinion, the pricing of the smartphone is on the higher side as per the specs offered with the smartphone. Therefore, you to check for alternatives such as the Samsung Galaxy M34 that provides a better set of specs at the same pricing. Anyways, the final decision is up to you so choose accordingly.
