Huawei Nova 7SE Smartphone Review

I recently changed my 4 years long Huawei Nova 3i smartphone to a new one. The new smartphone is from the same brand Huawei. After many weeks of contemplating whether or not to stick to my beloved brand Huawei. I end up purchase Huawei Nova 7SE. I was hesitating because the new Huawei brand is without the GMS, Google Mobile Service. Well, most application I am using is running on the GMS. Yeah, man!!! I was doubting the HMS, Huawei Mobile Services capability. But I end up gamble my life away and purchase one, anyway! Urgh!!! Talk about being bold for the wrong reason.

Before I started my personal review, here is what Huawei Nova 7SE smartphone at one glance (psstttt...tech language which I don't even understand)

Huawei Nova 7SE specifications (as written on Huawei official website) Promise me you read as fast as you can on the part of this specification. Why? I don't even understand what I copied down from this website. hahaha.... I almost doze off just by copied this down. isk isk isk

Size : 75mm (width) x 162.31mm (height) x 8.58mm (depth)

Weight: 189g (including the battery)

Display size: 6.5 inches

Color option : Space silver / Crush Green / Midsummer Purple

Processor : 

* Huawei Kirin 820

* CPU : Octa-core processor 1xCortex -A76 based Based 2.22GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 1.84 GHz

* GPU Mali-G57

* NPU: 1 Big-Core (Neural-network processing unit)

Operating system: EMUI 10.1 (based on android 10)

Memory: 8GM RAM + 128 GM Rom and can support external memory support NM SD card up to 256 GB (you can purchase this separately.)

Camera : 64 MP (High resolution Lens, f/1.8 aperture) + 8 MP (Ultra Wide Angle Lens, f/2.4 aperture) + 2 MP (bokeh lens, f/2.4 aperture) + 2 MP (Macro lens, f/2.4 aperture)

* Autofocus (phase focus, contrast focus)

* AIS (HUAWEI AI Image Stabilization)

* Front Camera:16 MP, f/2.0 aperture

Battery: 4,000 mAh (Typical Value)

*The Battery Rated Capacity is 3,900 mAh.

**Typical value. Actual capacity may vary slightly.

This capacity is the nominal battery capacity. The actual battery capacity for each individual phone may be slightly above or below the nominal battery capacity.

***Non-removable battery. Removing the battery may cause damage to the device. To replace or repair the battery, please visit an authorized HUAWEI Service Centre.

Charging: HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 40 W)

* HUAWEI SuperCharge cable and charger is required. Serious this phone charge really fast!

Network: Dual sim

Connectivity : 

WIFI:

802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz

Bluetooth:Bluetooth 5.1, BLE, SBC, AAC

USB:Type-C, USB 2.0

Ear jack:

3.5 mm earjack

Others:PC Data Synchronisation

Audio : .mp3, *.mp4, *.5gp, *.ogg, *.midi

Video : *.3gp, *.mp4

Disclaimer: As mentioned, I copied down whatever written from Huawei website.So please refer to Huawei website directly for the correct information. The purpose of this post is to review my personal experience of using the Huawei Nova 7SE)

Finally, done copied down the specifications up to here. Now let us do the real review. I promised this is not going to be the too technology language review since I don't really tech-savvy myself. hehehehe

What is inside the Huawei Nova 7SE box?

* Huawei Nova 7SE 

* Charge

* 3.5mm earphones

* TPU protective case

* Quick start guide

* Eject tool

* Warranty card

* TP protective film 

The seller sent me Huawei Box free gift too. Inside contains a selfie stick, ring holder and USB port.

Huawei Nova 7SE comes with 5G connectivity but since our country only has 4G so this capability kind of redundant here.

By now, many of you are probably familiar with the trade war created by the US against China. Before you make a decision please aware that the Huawei has lost access to Intel Qualcomm's chips, Microsoft and Google's software. This means no window and GMS, Google Mobile Services. All those are US tech-based. 

I guess China is being China. They are quick in having their own backup plan. No GMS? They launched HMS, Huawei Mobile Services, right away. No Google search?  Huawei has Petal Search! No Qualcomm's hardware? Huawei makes phone using its own Kirin processors.  One good thing Huawei still can use Android since it's open-source. The thing is losing access to GMS means the new Huawei phone couldn't run Google apps or third-party apps that use Google APIs (ah! this is the time when I missed my old Huawei Nova 3i). 

Applications - What Works and What doesn't work for me

I am writing this post is to share which apps work and which don't and can I continue living my day to day life without any GMS on my phone? For your information, Huawei has its own built-in AppGallery. Most of the applications, I am currently using is in there. So, at one glance this sound promising, right? 

Social Media

I can have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok like I used to have. No big issue at all. 

My concern is just since now I develop some interest in uploading the video to my not popular YouTube Channel CindyrinaRina, I can't have YouTube Apps on my mobile. I have to access using the desktop version website. So imagine straining my eyes uploading the video and typing those words which my 4 series eyes could barely see. But I need to get used to this. For this limitation, I end up uploading the video using the phone and type out the words and do other settings to my channel in the desktop instead. Problem solve! 

Communication

Email, calendar and contacts are not an issue at all since I found this Microsoft outlook apps here.

Gmail apps obviously not in Huawei apps. But this is not an issue at all. I just sign in using the Huawei email application. So most of my Gmail can be access from that app. It just that since its outlook does not like Gmail which is with the label and so on, so my email loads kind of mess up. I need to clean up all those promotion emails on daily basis now. Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Kakao, Viber work well here too. So no issue at all. 

Maps

As for maps, I still can use google maps with my new Huawei phone. But Huawei app also has its own maps. So I decided to have both maps on my phone. Yes! you can still use Waze on this phone though. I tried all three apps and it excellent here.

Cloud Storage and Documents

I personally, don't use cloud storage. As expected Google Drive, Documents, Sheets and Slides do not run well here. It's in here but it just doesn't run. So I remove from my phone to save the space. It's not a big deal since I still have my Huawei tablet which runs all those. Just pray hard my GMS Huawei doesn't die. huhuhuh... Other alternatives, they have an app call Office which has Word, Excel and PowerPoint too. It works well for emergency use. As for Dropbox, I read it run well in HMS but I personally not a big fan of this app. Huawei has its own cloud storage too and it has a 5GB free.

Web Browser

Google Chrome works well here. I can't connect to google account to sync bookmarks and browsing history but it works just fine. If you don't like Google Chrome, you can have an alternative like Petal and Bing, 

Shopping and Food

Other apps like FoodPanda and GrabFood works in this phone. So no issue and I believe Huawei won't let their fan go hungry! hehehehe Online shopaholic like me, Shopee and Lazada apps is a must but I can't really use PGMall in HMS. Not a big deal! Shopback works well here but OctaPlus I deleted that app last month since I feel bitter when they decided to reject my cashback tracks out of sudden after the approval. isk isk isk. Whatever!

Keyboard

I used to has Google's Gboard but in this new phone it automatically uses the Microsoft Swiftkey. no big issue and it works really well too.

Photo and Video

I usually use Canva, PhotoGrid and Meitu and all work well here. As for the video I usually use InShot for video editing and this works excellent in HMS too. Other than that I did read that Netflix doesn't run in here but since I don't have a Netflix account, I can't verify that for you. I don't use Spotify or Google Play Music so I don't know whether this is work here. They do have Huawei Video in here but I never really try this app since I am afraid they ask me to pay. Talk about a Penny Pincher attitude. hahahaha...No..I am still exploring. What can and what cannot using this HSM phone.

Other apps limitation

I may have a problem to register a guest to my new home since my new neighbourhood app doesn't run in HMS. Anyway, since I don't accept any guest to my new home so this is not a big issue yet! I just need to drive my car in and out since it already has the RFID sticker to access. I did tried the Flexi Selangor parking app to pay for my parking and it has GPS detection problem since the app itself prompt up it doesn't work well without google play service. I still manage to point out the location manually and paid. But worried and nervous while did my shopping just in case I point out the location wrongly. Pray hard no ticket issue out if the officer who did the round out couldn't detect my online payment. hahaha

JomRun app doesn't work well in HMS. It doesn't track my activities well. Urgh!!!! really hate this part. So basically, if the app doesn't run in HMS it will just pop up says " This app require google play store service to run". 

 

So my conclusion, I would say, it's crucial for the app developer to take HMS into account when they create a mobile app. If you are kind of love to explore and no problem living in an experimental environment then you can live with HMS. It's doable but there are some limitations too, no doubt. With my personality, I shouldn't be too bold in purchasing this Huawei phone for the sake of trying something new. isk isk isk...I should have gone for Samsung even though it is more pricey than Huawei. Although the limitation of HMS doesn't give too much of the impact on my day to day life. I personally think Huawei need to try harder to improve and ensure all apps works well which means to seek the negotiation with Google to open up GMS for the future of Huawei. Minus of the HMS thingy, overall the Huawei Nova 7SE is an excellent phone from the battery, screen, capacity, the camera has all I wanted for my smartphone. I wish the trade war end soon with the new President.

I have made my choice for now, unless a miracle happens,  I have to live with HMS for at least another 4 years and I think by that time I am more familiar to live in the world without GMS.

By the way, for those living in Malaysia,  MySejahtera apps work well in HMS. So, worry not!