Huawei Nova 8i is Launching in Asia Soon; Specifications and Design Leaked

Last year, Huawei came out with the Nova 8 lineup of mid-range phones, featuring the Nova 8, Nova 8 Pro, and Huawei Nova 8 SE. But the series hasn’t been rounded off yet, since another Nova 8 edition, the Nova 8i, is on its way. No formal announcements were made, but the specifications for the upcoming phone were leaked online.

Courtesy of the publication, PlayfulDroid, we learn that the Nova 8i will debut in South-East Asian markets. Malaysia and the Philippines are the first destinations. We speculate that it should arrive in other Asian markets, including Pakistan, soon after. Some design details were included in the report, alongside the specs.

The Nova 8 series adopts a single design language across the board —  curved displays and oval-shaped camera housings. But Huawei Nova 8i veers off from this formula, opting instead for a centered ring-shaped layout. Think the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, but painted in Moonlight Silver, Starry Black, and Interstellar Blue colors.

Huawei Nova 8i features premium specs but cuts corners on the chip. We’re looking at a 6.67” LCD panel with a highly immersive 94.7% screen-to-body ratio. It delivers a full HD resolution and utilizes a wide color gamut. The bezels are slim, and there’s a hole-punched in the corner to house a selfie camera. 

The main camera setup on the new Huawei mobile phone for 2021 uses a 64MP wide camera with an f/1.9 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree FoV, and two 2MP portrait and macro lenses.

It’s all powered by the entry-level Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 and a 4300 mAh battery. Huawei ships the Nova 8i with cutting-edge 66W SuperCharge technology that delivers a full top-up in just 38 minutes. Out of the box, the 8i will run on the old-gen EMUI 11, based on Android 10.