It’s been a while since I last handled a Huawei device, more so one from the brand’s mid-range Nova Series. To that end, I had the chance to hold the Nova 15 Max during a presentation and honestly, the phone feels deceptive.
Let me clarify that last statement: for a mid-range phone, Huawei seems to have taken many of the design aesthetics from its Pura and Mate premium series, and let it trickle down to the Nova lineup. The end result is a phone that features a display that is seamless from all sides. The only blemish, if you can even call it that, is the selfie camera that is smack dab at the top of the display.
Because we’ve covered the specs of the phone, I’ll just skim through them here. Beneath the hood, the phone is powered by Huawei’s own silicon, and more specifically, the Kirin 8000 SoC. Additional specs include 8GB RAM with 256GB of internal storage, which is the only configuration coming into Malaysia, by the way.
The display for Nova 15 Max comes in a 6.84-inches and is an OLED panel. That also explains why the colours on it look absolutely vivid and punchy, but not to the point that it looks saturated. Case in point, Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays.
Getting back to the Nova 15 Max, the phone certainly feels…weighty, but not to the point that it would pull down my pants whenever I stash it away in my pocket. And despite the straight-edge sides, it doesn’t feel like it is trying to cut into my hands. That said, both the display and back of the phone are smooth to the touch, which meant that it nearly slipped out of my hands a couple of times, which in turn means that a cover would be necessary if you really want some grip.
On a sidebar, Huawei says that the back of the Nova 15 Max is a “Pearlescent texture” that makes it shimmer in the light, but in my brief time with it, I didn’t really see that shimmer.
A party piece that Huawei was trying to show off with the Nova 15 Max at the launch was the durability of the screen as well. How, you ask? By having the crowd bash walnuts with it. In my personal opinion, it’s nice to know that the display can hold up to the punishment of controlled force, but to see all those walnuts being cracked and just discarded to the side was just diabolical.
As for the camera, I was, sadly, unable to do much, given that we were indoors and Huawei wasn’t allowing us to take the Nova 15 Max outside. Of course, and unsurprisingly, the brand says that its 50MP+2MP main shooter was more than capable of capturing luscious pictures with lots of natural colours, as well as being capable enough to do low-light photography. But, as always, we’ll have to test the phone by ourselves in order to see if it really is capable of capturing said shots on the fly, or if they are achieved through a controlled environment.
As another sidebar, Huawei is definitely still pushing its whole “It can use Google apps” and even showed said apps being present on the Nova 15 Max units, but as always, we’d recommend that you exercise caution when doing so with a Huawei device.
The Huawei Mate 15 Max is already available at retails for RM1,499 after its RM200 rebate offer with the phone. Customers can also get free gifts worth up to RM827, including a Huawei Band 10, 1-Year APAC Warranty, and 2 Years Unlimited Time Free Battery Replacement.