Huawei Nova 2s Officially Announced With 18:9 Display, Dual Cameras

Huawei has officially announced a new mid-range Android smartphone, the Nova 2s. The Huawei Nova 2S features thin bezels, an 18:9 display and a very competitive price tag.

The Huawei Nova 2s is the successor to the Nova 2 and the Nova 2 Plus, both of which were released earlier this year. The Nova 2s features a metal and glass body giving it a premium look and feel. Despite having very thing top and bottom bezels, it still has a front-facing fingerprint scanner, while the power and volume buttons are on the rights side and the SIM card tray is on the left.

The Huawei Nova 2s specs aren’t too impressive, but for a mid-ranger, it’s a very attractive device. The new Huawei smartphone features a 6-inch full HD+ (2,160 x 1,080) display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, according to Android Headlines. The display’s corners are rounded matching the device’s overall design. The display is also covered by 2.5D glass which curves to the contoured edges of the phone.

Inside, the Nova 2s is being powered by a 64-bit octa-core Kirin 960 processor with 4GB/6GB of RAM. Whichever model users pick, the Nova 2s will come with 128GB of storage, which should make a lot of users happy. If 128GB isn’t enough, the Nova 2s also supports storage expansion through a microSD card.

For the cameras, the Huawei Nova 2s features a dual-camera setup on the back, one with a 16-megapixel sensor and another with a 20-megapixel sensor. Unlike the iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X, the dual-camera setup on the Nova 2s doesn’t feature a telephoto zoom lens. Instead, one has an RGB (color) sensor and the other has a monochrome (black and white) sensor, according to GSM Arena. This setup should mean that the cameras on the device will be able to capture decent photos in low lighting conditions.

Up front, the Nova 2s also has a dual-camera setup, but this time it’s a pair of 20MP and 2MP cameras. It’s unclear how these cameras will work, but it’s likely that this setup should be more than enough for users who take a lot of selfies.

Other features of the Huawei Nova 2s include NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, a USB Type-C port and a decent 3,340 mAh battery.The handset also comes with the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is slowly disappearing from flagship devices these days.

On the software side of things, the Nova 2s will ship with Android 8.0 Oreo straight out of the box, while Huawei’s latest EMUI skin will run on top. The inclusion of Android Oreo is a surprise, since some phones that have come out recently, like the OnePlus 5T or the Razer Phone, still have Nougat pre-installed.

The Huawei Nova 2s price starts at 2,699 Yuan (around US$408) for the 4GB RAM model and 2,999 Yuan (around US$453) for the 6GB RAM model, according to Phone Arena. There’s also a special edition model of the Nova 2s that will sell for 3,399 Yuan (around US$514). There’s no word yet if this phone will officially be released in the United States, but curious fans should be able to find some way to have it imported from China.