The mid-rangers are getting serious

Take a good look at the iPhone X. Now, look at the Huawei nova 3e. Don't tell me you weren't fooled for a split-second. Huawei loves to up the ante - and its new mid-range smartphone certainly says so. While it borrows elements from the iPhone X, its pitch is that you can get a good-looking phone that performs pretty well at a quarter of what you'd pay for certain counterparts.
From afar, it does look like Apple's best, at first glance - thanks largely to the vertically-placed dual-lens camera. But putting the 3e and the X side-by-side, the latter is a tad taller and a hairline thinner, while practically matching up in width. It's got the card trays to the left, USB Type-C and 3.5mm audio ports below and power and volume rocker to the right - albeit those on the last feel loose. On the back is a nice glossy finish -also an invitation for fingerprint smudges - and a fingerprint scanner that reacts quickly. The blue variant, which we got, is absolutely gorgeous.
By looking at its 5.84-inch IPS LCD screen, you'll notice two things that set it apart from the X: a thick bezel below and a notch (another notch!) on top - though it's way smaller than the one on the iPhone X. Huawei says theirs is almost 50 per cent less, which means you have more digital real estate to enjoy. So, we can't really call this a truly end-to-end device.
You can, however, enjoy the crisp and bright display; watching videos is a visual pleasure. Speaking of videos, our standard one-hour YouTube test at full brightness eliminated 19 per cent of battery life, which is better than the nova 2 Plus we reviewed, and at par with the Honor 7X. By comparison, the lower-tier Alcatel A7 did slightly better. But don't worry: it's enough to get you through a whole day.
Huawei's EMUI is pretty straightforward, and die-hard users of the brand will get comfortable immediately. The phone responds fast, but there are times when scrolling through a web page on Chrome isn't buttery-smooth. It could be because some elements of the page hadn't fully loaded, but it's not a major hang-up.
A bit of trivia: the nova 3e is also known as the P20 Lite. From what we've scoured, there are some differences: for example, the nova 3e has up to 128GB of storage and has a 24MP front camera, while the P20 Lite has 64GB and 16MP respectively.
Which leads us straight to the camera: the nova 3e's main snapper has a dual-lens, 16MP/2MP combo. It works well in good lighting conditions - delivering sharp detail - but it tends to be grainy when the lights go dim. It also has what is called Moving Picture - similar to the iPhone's Live Photo - which takes shots before you hit the shutter, resulting in an animated, GIF-esque shot. As for its 16MP front shooter, there's a bokeh effect you can toggle. However, the effect appears inconsistent; in some of my selfies, a good chunk of my hair sometimes gets blurred as well. Merits our 'Beef of the Review'.
AND SO.
Props to our friends for churning out the Huawei nova 3e. The Chinese company is steadily raising the bar in the mid-range device segment, and that could put more pressure on other brands to raise their game as well. If this smartphone is too 'Lite' for you, keep it here because something that has the 'Pro' tag is coming soon.
THE LOWDOWN
CPU: Huawei Kirin 659, octa-core 4 x 2.36GHz + 4 x 1.7GHz
Platform: Android 8.0 Oreo, Huawei EMUI 8.0
Memory: RAM - 4GB; storage - 64GB, up to 256GB microSD
Display: 5.84" IPS LCD, 19:9 ratio, 80.5% screen-to-body, 432ppi
Camera: Main - Dual-lens 16MP+2MP; front - 24MP
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC; USB Type-C, 3.5mm audio
Battery: 3000mAh
Price: Dh1,199
Pros: Budget-friendly; smooth performance; great display
Cons: Low-light shots; inconsistent bokeh effect; that notch (again)
Author's rating: 9/10
alvin@khaleejtimes.com

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