Huawei had a big announcement today in China, introducing the nova 11 series to the local crowd. For the first time, that includes three phones - vanilla nova 11, nova 11 Pro, and nova 11 Ultra - all of them with a signature green paint job.
The trio has shares the Snapdragon 778G chipset by Qualcomm, but limited to LTE cellular connectivity.
Huawei nova 11 Pro & Ultra
The only differences between the Pro and Ultra are that the latter supports two-way satellite messaging through the Beidou constellation and, of course, the price.
The two are built around a 6.78” 10-bit AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 300Hz touch sampling rate. Resolution is 2652 x 1200 pixels and some versions feature Kunlun Glass protection on top with slightly curved edges. There is a pill-shaped hole in the upper left corner for the dual selfie cameras.
The setup at the front features 60MP wide camera with 100-degree FoV and an 8MP camera with 2x optical zoom for portrait purposes.
There are three more cameras on the back, highlighted by a 50MP main one with aperture that can toggle between f/1.4 and f/4.0, RYYB sensor and laser AF. There is also an 8MP ultrawide camera and a “ten-channel color temperature sensor”, which helps adjust colors on the other two.
The Huawei nova 11 Pro and Ultra have 4,500mAh batteries with 100W charging, and the required adapter comes in the retail box. Other features include HarmonyOS 3.0 and vegan leather back on the Green and Black versions. The other two, White and Gold, have glass
The nova 11 Pro storage options are 256GB and 512GB, while the nova 11 Ultra comes only with 512GB.
Prices for the nova 11 Pro begin from CNY3,499 ($510), but that’s without the Kunlun Glass - the extra protection costs CNY200 ($30) more. Double the storage costs CNY3,999 ($582) but you don't get fancy glass on top. The nova 11 Ultra is CNY4,499 ($655) - that’s CNY500 ($70) more for the Kunlun glass and satellite messaging.
Huawei nova 11
The vanilla nova 11 retains the 10-bit AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, but it comes with a bigger 6.7” diagonal and is fully flat.
The rear holds the same 50MP + 8MP camera duo as well as the color temperature sensor. At the front the zoom selfie camera is dropped and only the 60MP 100-degree FoV shooter with 4K video recording remains.
The battery capacity is again 4,500mAh, but charging is limited to 66W. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2 with BLE, while the UI is HarmonyOS 3.0 - nothing surprising here.
Colors are once again Green, Black, White, and Gold but all of them have plastic on top. Prices are CNY2,499 ($363) for the 128GB version and CNY2,799 ($410) for the 256GB. Putting a Kunlun Glass on top is an extra CNY200 ($30) (only for the more expensive option). There is also a version, available only in Green or Black, with 512GB storage and the fancier protective glass for CNY3,399 ($495).
Pre-orders for all phones are open in China. First sale is scheduled for next Wednesday, April 26, at exactly 10:08 AM local time.
