Huawei Nova 5T Launched in Kenya: Compact and Powerful

Huawei has this morning just launched the Huawei Nova 5T – their first device this year for the Kenyan market. This is also the first Nova device from the Chinese tech giant to hit our market. The Huawei Nova 5T will cater to those who want high-end specs but are a little tight on the pockets.

The Huawei Nova 5T features a big 6.26″ LCD display with a resolution of 2340 by 1080(412ppi) that fills pretty much all of the phone’s front, a quad camera setup just like the Huawei P30 Pro and a powerful HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor.

. @HuaweiMobileKE has finally launched the #HuaweiNova5T 1/ pic.twitter.com/kZzYbLglHf

— Techweez (@techweez) January 23, 2020

At the beautiful and glossy glass back is a protruding camera module that hosts three cameras and an led flash. Next to it is the fourth camera. When struck with light from a certain angle, you get a 3D light effect that gives the Huawei Nova 5T an attention-grabbing aesthetic.

The phone is compact and people with small hands are going to appreciate the overall design and the thin bezels that curve on the edge of the phone. The phone lacks a headphone jack on top but you get a pair of USB-C earphones in the box

The front camera sits in a punch-hole on the upper left of the screen. Above the screen is a grille for the earpiece with a notification light. With all this in mind, the Huawei Nova 5T feels really close to having an all-display front.

The display is an IPS LCD panel that gets very bright and if you consume multimedia content, you’ll enjoy watching video content as they’ll look punchy and sharp.

There’s a USB-C port at the bottom next to the single bottom-firing speaker that offers plenty of volume with pretty decent audio quality thanks to Huawei HIsten 6.0 3D Audio technology with support for 9.1 Channel Surround sound that boosts audio quality for gaming or watching multimedia content.

There's a USB-C port at the bottom of the #HuaweiNova5T next to the single bottom-firing speaker that offers plenty of volume with pretty decent audio quality. pic.twitter.com/Evpj0IHvQY

— Techweez (@techweez) January 23, 2020

Instead of an in-display fingerprint, the Huawei Nova 5T features a side-mounted fingerprint sensor embedded within the power button right below the volume rocker buttons. The location of the fingerprint sensor is convenient for both right and left-handed users and yo can unlock your phone when placed on top of a table.

Another form of biometrics is Face Unlock that’s super fast as the Huawei Nova 5T has a punch-hole camera.

Another form of biometrics is Face Unlock that's super fast as the #HuaweiNova5T has a punch-hole camera that's right there where you need it. pic.twitter.com/ow5PX6ZODW

— Techweez (@techweez) January 23, 2020

The Huawei Nova 5T is dual-sim(Nano) with slots on the left of the phone. Sadly, you can’t expand the 128GB of onboard storage as there’s no slot for a MicroSD card. Honestly, 128GB is the sweet spot in terms of storage for most midrange phones. 116GB of usable storage on the Huawei Nova 5T should be sufficient for most people.

The Huawei Nova 5T comes with EMUI 9.1 and Android 9 Pie. However, the phone is set to get Android 10 update via EMUI 10 just like the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 – so this should be exciting. The user interface is relatively clean and uses multiple home screens. With EMUI 9.1, you get up to 59% faster app launch and up to 57% smoother UI operation.

It comes with very few bloatware apps apart from Google apps and services. There are apps like Hicare and themes app for customizing your phone too. Other pre-installed apps can be easily deleted.

The Nova 5T is equipped with four AI-powered rear cameras. From the top is the 16MP ultrawide, 48MP Sony IMX586 main, 2MP depth assist and a 2MP macro camera. 10X digital zoom is available too.

The 32MP punch-hole front camera takes care of selfies. Huawei says that the punch hole camera on the Huawei Nova 5T is way smaller than punch-hole cameras that feature on other phones.

The Huawei Nova 5T is powered by an octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 980 processor, the world’s first 7nm mobile ai chipset that offers 75% CPU performance, 46% camera processing, 46% GPU performance and 120% AI performance. Under the hood is 8GB of RAM and a Mali G76 MP10 – this is the same hardware that powers Huawei’s flagships, the Huawei P30 Pro and Mate 20 Pro.

The Huawei Nova 5T comes with GPU Turbo 3.0 that lets games run smoothly in 60fps, reduces processor power consumption by 10% and covers up to 25 most popular games including PUBG and Asphalt 9.

As expected performance on this phone is bound to be excellent no matter what task you throw at it from gaming thanks to light tasks such as browsing the web or scrolling through social media or replying to emails when you’re out and about.

For charging, there’s a 3,750mAh battery and a 22.5W SuperCharge adapter that lets you get from 0% to 50% in under 30 minutes, to 80% in an hour and in an hour and a half to full charge.

For charging, there's a 3,750mAh battery and a 22.5W SuperCharge adapter that lets you get from 0% to 50% in under 30 minutes, to 80% in an hour and in an hour and a half to full charge. #HuaweiNova5T pic.twitter.com/2VECfKxHVn

— Techweez (@techweez) January 23, 2020

The Huawei Nova 5T embodies the great things come in small packages phrase with its solid and compact build, attention-grabbing aesthetic design, nice screen, plenty of storage and RAM, powerful processor plus decent photography that give it a buttery-smooth user experience thanks to flagship specs and at an affordable price.

“We are delighted to kick off the year with the launch of Nova 5T as the Nova series makes it debut in the market. As part of our strategy to provide quality products this time we are taking it up a notch higher, the latest smartphone Huawei Nova 5T comes with 5 AI-powered cameras inclusive of a quad-camera setup at the back of a powerful camera up front,” said Jim Zhujie, Huawei’s incoming country head.

Pricing and Availability

The Huawei Nova 5T starts selling from Ksh 41,999 with preorders starting today(23rd January) till the 31st of January. With the pre-order, you get a free Huawei Band 4(costs Ksh 4,699). From the 31st of January is when the phone will be available in Huawei’s official retail stores.

Stay tuned as we take the Huawei Nova 5T through its paces – with a full review coming soon.