Huawei Nova 5T camera review

The Huawei Nova 5T is Huawei’s latest midrange powerhouse. It comes complete with four rear cameras, a flagship processor, and a price tag that’s hard to ignore.

Today though, we’re going to take a look at the major features of its cameras.

Huawei Nova 5T specs:

• 6.26-inch Full HD+ IPS Display (2340 x 1080, 412ppi), 19.5:9 Aspect Ratio
• 2.6GHz Octa-Core HiSilicon Kirin 980 Processor, 7nm
• Mali-G76 720 GPU, Dual NPUs, GPU Turbo 3.0
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB Storage
• 48MP f/1.8 + 16MP f/2.2 (Ultra-wide) + 2MP f/2.4 (Macro) + 2MP f/2.4 (Depth) Quad Rear Cameras
• 32MP f/2.0 Front Camera, AI Super HDR
• 4G LTE
• Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Dual Band
• Bluetooth 5
• GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
• Fingerprint Scanner (Side-mounted)
• Face Unlock
• USB Type-C
• EMUI 9.1, Android 9 Pie
• Midsummer Purple, Black, Crush Blue
• 3,750mAh Battery, 22.5W SuperCharge Fast Charge

Camera Review

The Huawei Nova 5T features a 48MP main camera and a 16MP ultra-wide camera. It swaps out telephoto with a 2MP macro camera. The last one is a 2MP sensor for depth.

Apart from the regular photo and video modes, the camera includes an AR Lens mode, a Night mode, and a Portrait mode. 

Under “More,” you also have the following modes: Pro, Slow-mo, Panorama, Aperture, Light Painting, HDR, Time-lapse, Moving picture, Filter, Stickers, Documents, and Super Macro.

For the selfie camera, you have a Portrait Mode with 10 levels of intensity.

Also Read: Huawei Nova 5T available at 0% interest through credit cards or Home Credit

Given the price, the Nova 5T delivers when it comes to photo quality. In good light, images are crisp and clean. They show vibrant colors with good details and contrast. Overall, photos are pleasant. 

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Low-light performance is also good. Like most handsets, you’ll get the occasional noise when it gets too dark. There’s Night Mode for that and it works well.

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Unfortunately, the phone can’t give you those cool moon shots the Mate 30 Pro and P30 Pro are capable of doing. I tried and these are the results.

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The Nova 5T has up to 10x digital zoom. The sample photos below show the zoom in different progressions. At max zoom, you can see that the image loses sharpness and contrast. You can still get a good zoomed-in photo by not maxing it out though. But if the images are for social media (which most go anyways), it is quite usable.

Also Read: How to install Google Play (and other Google apps) on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro

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The Nova 5T also has an 16MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. 

The ultra wide is useful for a landscapes. You can capture more of your subject with this mode. The quality of the ultra-wide is above average. It’s not as sharp and you get a slight purple tint, but otherwise it’s okay. You also get that barrelling effect common to wide-angle cameras on smartphones. 

The 2MP macro camera is what I call a “nice-to-have” feature. You can take macro shots as close as 4cm. Ideally you shoot at the correct distance to get a clear shot. You’ll also need more light than usual. Image quality is average to good. You’ll get adequate details with a slightly muted sharpness. 

As for selfies, the 32MP camera does a good job. The colors look good. Details are resolved. Even when shooting against the light, the photo looks good even though colors appear washed out a bit. Still, perfectly good for social media. 

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Conclusion

Well, the Nova 5T performs quite admirably. I am impressed with that it can do, especially given the price. The quad camera setup will give you a lot of flexibility in photography. The macro mode though, might not be as useful as telephoto, but it’s there if you need it. Still with this phone, you’ll have a good camera with you at all times for various situations. 

The Nova 5T is priced at PHP 18,990. It is available in Huawei stores and kiosks. It is also available at at 0% interest through a credit card installment or through Home Credit.