Huawei Nova 12 Ultra Smartphone Review – Huawei announced the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra in December 2023 in China, but the smartphone only started shipping in January 2024. This is Huawei’s most premium smartphone in the Nova lineup and the company plans to disrupt the high-end smartphone market in China with it. Also, judging by Huawei’s previous track records, the smartphone will not launch outside of China.
Users outside of China will need to get an alternative smartphone. Since it is a flagship-level smartphone, it has 5G connectivity and all the latest technologies. In terms of design, it looks quite similar to the Huawei Nova 12 Pro smartphone. Let’s begin with a detailed review of the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra smartphone and see if this smartphone is worth purchasing.
Table of Contents
Huawei Nova 12 Ultra Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The Huawei Nova 12 Ultra has a 6.76-inch LTPO OLED display with 120Hz high refresh rate support.
- The Huawei Nova 12 Ultra has the Kirin 9000S 5G chipset with clock speeds capable of reaching up to 1×2.62GHz.
- The smartphone comes with HarmonyOS 4.0 for rich ecosystem support.
- The main rear camera of the smartphone has a 50MP dual camera system with a 60MP dual selfie camera system.
- The smartphone is powered by a 4600 mAh battery with 100W wired fast charger support.
Design and Display
If you have been using Huawei phones for a while, then you will find the design of the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra familiar. This design language has been found in Huawei’s other smartphones and also closely matches that of the Huawei P60 series of smartphones. It’s a solid design with rounded edges with a touch of vegan leather on the rear side of the smartphone. It’s what makes the smartphone so premium to the touch.
The rounded edges also make it a lot more comfortable to hold the smartphone in the long run. The smartphone will be available in three colors, Blue, White, and Black. On the front, you get the 6.76-inch LTPO OLED display with 120Hz high refresh rate support. This is a proper HDR display with 1.5K resolution, so it will be a pleasure to use.
The display is color-corrected, and it is capable of featuring up to 1 billion colors. The display is also protected by Kunlun Glass, which was first introduced by Huawei in early 2023. It is supposed to be unbreakable even with tougher concrete drops.
Memory and Internal
The Huawei Nova 12 Ultra comes equipped with a 7nm Kirin 9000S 5G SoC, which is a high-end SoC that is indigenously developed by the company. It is capable of delivering clock speeds of up to 1×2.62GHz, making it capable of running all your daily apps smoothly in real-life usage. You can multitask with multiple apps in the background and you still won’t find any slowdowns.
This raw performance can also be seen in gaming. The Maleoon 910 MP4 GPU found inside this chipset can run any game flawlessly, even with the highest graphical settings. For storage, the smartphone can be purchased with up to 1TB of internal storage. Since it has a 5G chipset, the smartphone is 5G-ready and can reach gigabit speeds easily. As for the OS, the smartphone is equipped with HarmonyOS 4.0 which is a popular choice among Chinese users.
Camera
The Huawei Nova 12 Ultra comes 50MP dual rear camera system. The 50MP primary camera is capable of taking some incredible photos that tend to have better detail levels, accurate colors, and a higher dynamic range compared to other smartphones in the same price range. The 8MP ultra-wide camera also takes some good pictures that can be used for social media but nothing too amazing.
The lack of a telephoto camera does set the tone off a bit considering the money you will be paying for the smartphone. It also manages to capture some amazing details in the photos taken at night. Also for selfies, there are two cameras on the front. There’s a 60MP sensor that takes ultra-wide selfies with a ton of details and a wider FOV.
While the secondary 8MP telephoto selfie camera takes some great closeup selfies. As for video recording, the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra can shoot at a maximum of 4K@30FPS from both the rear and selfie cameras. You will also find gyro-EIS for both the rear and the selfie cameras and it helps stabilize the video frame during recording.
Battery and Others
The Huawei Nova 12 Ultra has a 4600 mAh non-removable battery, which can provide you with up to 2 days’ worth of battery backup, that is, with low to medium usage. But the same cannot be said with games in the mix. So, if you play a lot of games, then the battery will not provide such high battery life. However, the smartphone supports 100W wired fast charging, so even if your battery loses juice quickly during gameplay sessions, you can quickly recharge it back to its full state.
You can get to 60% in just 10 minutes. It also has support for 5W reverse wired charging. The price of the smartphone starts at $721 (Rs 59,990 in India) approx. Apart from that, the smartphone also has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, an under-display fingerprint scanner, GPS, NFC, BDS Satellite Calling and Message, and high-res stereo speakers for a better audio experience.
Huawei Nova 12 Ultra Pros and Cons
Huawei Nova 12 Ultra Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra smartphone.
| Specifications | Huawei Nova 12 Ultra |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G |
| Announced | December 2023 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.42 x 2.95 x 0.30 inches |
| Weight | 198 g |
| Size | 6.76 inches |
| Display | LTPO OLED 1B colors HDR 120Hz ~449 PPI density |
| Protection | Kunlun Glass |
| Resolution | 1224 x 2776 pixels |
| OS | HarmonyOS 4.0 |
| Chipset | 7nm – Kirin 9000S |
| CPU | Octa-core 1×2.62 GHz Taishan Big 3×2.15 GHz Taishan Mid 4×1.53GHz Cortex-A510 |
| GPU | Maleoon 910 MP4 |
| Card slot | No |
| RAM | N/A |
| Internal | 512GB, 1TB |
| Camera | 50 MP (wide), PDAF, Laser AF 8 MP (112Ëšultrawide), AF LED flash, panorama, HDR Max – 4K, gyro-EIS |
| Selfie | 8 MP (telephoto), AF, 2x optical zoom 60 MP (100Ëšultrawide), AF HDR, panorama Max – 4K@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (stereo speakers) |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct |
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE, L2HC (320-960 kbps HD audio) |
| GPS | GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS (L1), BDS (B1I+B1c+B2a+B2b), GALILEO (E1+E5a+E5b) QZSS (L1+L5), NavIC |
| NFC | Yes; NFC-SIM, HCE |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, OTG |
| Sensors | Under display fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, compass, color spectrum BDS Satellite Calling and Message Virtual proximity sensing |
| Battery | 4600 mAh 100W wired 5W reverse wired |
| Colors | Black, Blue, White |
| Expected Price | $721 (Rs 59,990 in India) approx |
Conclusion
The Huawei Nova 12 Ultra smartphone seems to provide all the right specs to provide a solid user experience. It has a high-end display, chipset, and battery that are usually reserved for high-end smartphones. But the smartphone also missed many features such as a better camera, water resistance, wireless charging, and Android OS support. Some smartphones provide better features along with a far better camera system for a price tag that is lower than the Nova 12 Ultra smartphone. That’s none other than the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE which provides similar or better specs in every way.
So, if you live outside of China, there’s very little reason to go for the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra. But if you live in mainland China, then this smartphone can be a better option, thanks to HarmonyOS 4.0’s rich ecosystem support that may vastly enhance the user experience for Chinese users. However, the final decision is up to you, so it is better to choose a smartphone based on your requirements and needs.
