Huawei Nova 3 vs OnePlus 6 – Comparison Review

Before the release of OnePlus 6, it has already been making a scene with leaks and collaboration with Avengers. Perhaps one of the most anticipated smartphone this year. Meanwhile, from the company that has surpassed Apple in sales this year – Huawei has launched another smartphone flagship at the end of July this year dubbed as Nova 3.

• OnePlus 6 Review – Is it really the speed you need?
• Huawei Nova 3 Review – Flagship to beat?

OnePlus 6 boasts their smartphone’s performance speed while Huawei Nova 3 labeled as the company most powerful AI quad-camera smartphone up to date. Here, we tested these two to see which flagship smartphone deserves to be in your pockets.

Design

The Huawei Nova 3 has a dimension of 157 x 73.7 x 7.3 mm built with the metal frame with glass front and back weighing 166 grams. Meanwhile the OnePlus 6 is has a dimension of 155.7 x 75.4 x 7.8 mm sporting a glass front and back with metal frame similar with Nova 3 but with protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It weighs 177 grams little heavier than the other.

With the notch trend, it is not surprising that these two sports this design with thin bezels without physical or capacitive buttons to maximize space for the screen.

The back panel of both phones contains the same necessary features such as dual camera setup with LED flash, fingerprint scanner, and company branding with different placements. OnePlus 6 focused on the middle part by placing all components there whereas Huawei Nova 3 camera and LED flash are on the side with fingerprint scanner remained at the middle.

Both smartphones’ power button is at the usual location on the right side facing the display. Volume rockers of Huawei Nova 3 are positioned beside the power button while OnePlus 6 is on the opposite side since the company added a toggle button that serves as the silent button. And the SIM tray is at the left side of both phones.

Moving on to the bottom, both have the similar components with Type-C port, speaker grille, audio jack and the microphone with another microphone at the top portion of both handsets.

Overall, both looks premium and sleek with glass back panel. However, it can be prone to fingerprint smudges that is why phone cases are important on these type of phones.

Display

The Huawei Nova 3 features a 6.3-inch Huawei FullView FHD+ notched display with a screen resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels, an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 supported with 3D Glass. On the other hand, the OnePlus 6 comes with a 6.28-inch Full Optic Full HD+ notched display with a screen resolution of 2180 x 1080 pixels, an aspect ratio of 19:9 protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

We tested which phone is the brightest on maximum level, turns out they almost have the same intensity of screen brightness meaning both won’t be a problem under broad daylight. The only difference is the display’s color tone.

With a big screen and vibrant display, these two can be enjoyable for both gaming and entertainment purposes.

Huawei Nova 3

OnePlus 6

It is clear that not all are in favor of notch display, which is why manufacturers added the hide notch feature. Also, the display settings of both have a wide range of customization. OnePlus has this Ambient display, pulse notification and LED notifications settings while Nova 3 has smart rotate where it follows the direction of user’s face.

Camera

On this first set of photo, Huawei Nova 3 appeared to be more vibrant and exposed as compared to OnePlus 6 that is more into capturing its accurate color.

As we tried the HDR mode on low-lighting, both smartphone has successfully emitted enough lighting to expose the subjects. However, on Huawei Nova 3, it has appeared to be a bit cloudy and soft as compared to OnePlus 6 that managed to look sharp on photos.

It is clear that Huawei Nova 3 shoots vibrant photos as compared with OnePlus 6 that is more on the natural side. Both can shoot high-resolution photos in different lighting situations. However, it took us a while to shoot on Huawei Nova 3 because there are times that it is struggling with focusing on the subject.

Here, it shows that Nova 3’s rear camera allows more light than OnePlus 6. This proves that on any lighting situation, Nova 3 provides good quality photos. Although OnePlus 6 cannot compete with Nova 3 photo exposure, this smartphone gives us even detailed photos.

The more light, the fewer details are taken on the subject. That is why one of the main aspects of photography is right lighting. In this case, OnePlus 6 appeared to be more pleasing than Nova 3.

AI feature on Huawei Nova 3 recognizes and enhances photo such as plants, objects etc. However, on this shot, the vibrancy and contrast levels of the plants was a bit over the top. It looked unreal as compare to OnePlus 6 that is close to accurate hue which is more appealing.

The color difference between the two smartphones are obvious, it’s just up to the users which they prefer since everyone has their own subjective opinions. In this case, both deliver high-quality photos that show a lot of detail which is expected for a flagship smartphone.

Audio

As we tested both devices, we’ve noticed that each phone has its own strengths and weaknesses. OnePlus 6 is much louder though it is not scratchy, the Huawei Nova 3 is clearer and crisp when it comes to music.

However, gaming sounds can be much intense with OnePlus 6 which can be a good thing or a bad thing depends on the users whereas Huawei Nova 3 produces a balanced sound.

Battery

The Huawei Nova 3 is packed with 3, 750 mAh, bigger than OnePlus 6’s 3,300 mAh battery juice. With this amount of battery, it isn’t surprising that these two can last a day with light usage.

Both are equipped with fast charging technology with a Dash charge added for OnePlus 6, it only took an hour and 10 minutes of charging time from 20% to fully charge the phone pretty fast as compared with Huawei Nova 3 with 2 hours and 30 minutes.

With casual gaming, web and social media browsing. It took us 2 days to completely drain the Huawei Nova 3. This smartphone’s battery management compensates with slow charging time. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 6 took us 12 hours of light usage. Both devices feature battery saving modes.

Features & User Experience

The Huawei Nova 3 is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 970 paired with a Mali-G72 MP12 GPU carrying 6GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via micro SD card.

Meanwhile, The OnePlus 6 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 along with an Adreno 630 GPU. It comes in three storage variants – 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM, 8GB + 128GB ROM, and 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM that sadly cannot be expanded. Both handsets run on the latest Android 8.1 Oreo.

Going to the first step to unlocking the phone, the security features. Face unlock and fingerprint sensor are common with the flagship smartphones. On OnePlus 6, it has a faster response as compared to Huawei Nova 3. But as you get used to it, it won’t be that noticeable.

Both cannot be opened with eyes closed so sneaking into your phone while sleeping won’t happen unless they used your fingerprint.

In terms of gaming, both phones are enjoyable since these two are equipped with top of the line chipsets with vibrant and large displays. We played high graphics games such as Asphalt 9 and Arena of Valor, and we didn’t encounter any trouble with frames and buttons. Overall it’s a smooth gameplay.

Although both did well on our test, it may be different real-life life usage. The OnePlus 6 powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 that has a better CPU and GPU performance ensures the best gaming experience while the Huawei Nova 3 with Hisilicon Kirin 970 does better in with any feature that is AI-related which is the phone’s quad-cam.

Benchmark

We tested both smartphones using the following benchmarking tools and here are the results:

Verdict

From what we’ve seen, these two offers a good quality smartphone that provides seamless gaming and phone browsing.

However, both has its own pros and cons. If you prefer good camera quality, then Huawei Nova 3 is for you. If you’re into games, OnePlus 6 is the flagship for you.

The Huawei Nova 3 is priced at PHP 25,990 while OnePlus 6 can be purchased for the price of Php 30,990 for 6GB + 64GB storage and Php 33,990 for 8GB + 128GB storage variant. Both available in the country in local and online stores nationwide.