Huawei Nova 2i (Honor 9i) vs Samsung Galaxy J7 Plus Comparison + Review

Just this Saturday, Huawei released their brand new mid-range dual-rear camera smartphone the Nova 2i or Mate 10 lite for western countries and honor 9i for India.  We wanted to see what it has against one of our long running competitors, the J7 Plus when it comes to price, camera and performance.

What’s up Manila, this is Clark of Manila Shaker and today is a comparison between the Huawei Nova 2i and the Samsung Galaxy J7 Plus.

Design

At first look the Nova 2i, it slightly bigger than the J7 Plus but is surprisingly lighter giving it has a larger build. The Nova 2i also resembles other Samsung models like the S8. and following the all screen trend, the Nova 2i also has an on-screen navigation keys with its fingerprint scanner located at the back portion of the phone, compared to the conventional home and fingerprint scanner in between the two capacitive navigation keys on the J7 Plus.

The dual-rear camera on the Nova 2i protrudes on the back but the case that comes with it helps it to lay out flat like the J7 Plus, which cameras are conveniently leveled with its back cover. Camera placements are also placed in the same horizontal fashion being different in flash location.

Display

The Nova 2i has a slightly larger 5.9-inch IPS LCD display with 1080 x 2160 resolution. While the J7 Plus has a 5.5 inches super AMOLED display at 1080p. Colors on the Nova 2i are softer compared to the dynamic tones of the J7 Plus and brightness level on our side looks somewhat the same but we’ll let you decide for it as well.

Camera

Both having dual rear-cameras, the Nova 2i has a dual 16MP + 2MP rear camera while the J7 Plus has a dual 13 + 5MP dual rear cam. Color accuracy and detail sharpness in outdoor shots are overall apparent in the Nova 2i, a closer look shows how the J7 Plus loses more details compared to the latter. The Nova 2i also adapts in lighting better than the J7 Plus which produces darker tones. Here are other examples and decide for yourselves. Low lighting shots however shows how the Nova 2i better compensates through lighting environments as seen in the close up of the elevator lights compared to struggling exposure of the J7 Plus. Scenic night shots on the other hand has a better noise control on the J7 Plus as opposed to the Nova 2i which had a hard time on detail quality.

Front camera shots on the J7 Plus produces whiter tones compared to the Nova 2i leaning closer to the original skin color of the subject. Low light source front camera shots however have a grainy look on the Nova 2i and more detailed on the J7 Plus but the opposite on night time shots, now having more detail and color accuracy on the Nova 2i. Video recording on both phones can go up to 1080p having almost the same quality, framerate and stabilization only being different in color which is more vibrant on the Nova 2i.

Chipset/Processor/Rom

The the Nova 2i is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 659 while the J7 Plus has a chipset of Mediatek Helio P20 both having 4GB of RAM and running on Nougat. Using the following benchmarking tools, we received these results in the process:

Although benchmarking results don’t stray far from each other, gaming experience is quite different on both. The J7 Plus struggles to show clarity on details in graphics and with a slower framerate compared to the smoother framerate of the Nova 2i and better detail rendering. Either way gaming experience is pretty decent on both specially if you don’t mind quality and framerate for high demanding games.

Fingerprint scanners may differ from location as mentioned before but not in speed, both works perfectly with little to no errors only depends on user’s preference on the scanners location.

Battery

Through our ManilaShaker Battery Rating, we can confirm the following overall lifespan of both devices:

Audio

Not only are both phones different in loudspeaker placements, but also in quality. The J7 Plus is surprisingly louder than the Nova 2i despite its small size, take listen for yourselves.

Price

Both the Huawei Nova 2i and Samsung Galaxy J7 Plus are available in local and online stores with the Huawei Nova 2i retailing at $300 or ₱14,990.00, while the J7 Plus at $390 or ₱19,990.00, although prices will differ in countries after taxes. So, which mid-ranged dual rear camera smartphone is for you? Are you willing to give the new Nova 2i a shot? Or will you stick to the Samsung’s J7 family? Comment down below what you think, like if you loved the video, subscribe if you want to see more of our videos. This has been Clark of Manila Shaker and see you on the next one.