Premium phones keep being launched.

The price keeps going up.

$1000.

$1500.

$2000.

And people keep buying them.

After all, you don't want to miss out on the latest tech right? But what if you could have all the bells and whistles for a lot, lot less?...

 

$699. There, I said it. No point in beating around the bush. The Huawei nova 5T is only $699. If you're considering spending $1500 or more on a phone, don't. Well, at least read this first.

Whatever you've heard about the future of Huawei devices given the current trade impasse between China and the U.S,, none of that applies to the nova 5T as it was already ready for market before any bans or embargoes came into effect. This is great news, because it's a great phone.

I mean, just look at it. Sure you can get it in black, but the limited edition Midsummer Purple is not just eye-catching, it's stunning. The picture above doesn't do it justice - the clever nova logo you can see in silver (it looks a bit like two stick figures hugging) is in fact replicated in purple in a repeating pattern right across the rear casing. Hard to describe, easy on the eye.

Flip the nova 5T over and the flagship hits keep coming. Although the device feels relatively small in the hand and slides very easily into my pocket, the screen itself is surprisingly large, measuring up at a very respectable 6.26 inches, stretching from top to bottom, side to side with virtually no bezels whatsoever.

 

There's no notch either. The 32MP selfie cam peeps out through a punch-hole in the top left corner of the display, which is undoubtedly the best position for a hole in your screen, as it's basically unnoticeable, down in the bottom left-hand corner when you watch video holding the phone in landscape. In saying that, most apps will just blank out a whole strip along the left side by default unless you tell them not to in the display settings.

The screen looks great, by the way. It's only LCD, not OLED like those much pricier phones, but I still found image quality to be sharp as. Of course, there's also the option to tweak the colour temperature to your preference too. Unfortunately, there's no dark mode on the nova 5T, although you can download a selection of dark themes that'll just about do the same thing. There's a "colour inversion" setting, but while it turns the annoying white settings menu to a nice, comfortable black, it also changes every other colour in every app to its opposite, so it's not really very useful.

 

Let's talk cameras. The Huawei P30 Pro really set the standard for smart phone photography when it came out early this year, with it's unprecedented rear-facing quad-camera. Well guess what? This $699 phone also has four sensors on the back, although it's swapped out the Time-Of-Flight lens for a macro camera, which let's you take shots at just 4cm away or less. In good light, these pictures are incredibly clear close-ups.

Speaking of light, there's a night setting that admittedly, can take several seconds to take a single shot, but the results are definitely worth the wait - extremely bright and clear. Obviously the camera is not the world-changing setup we saw on the P30 Pro, but it's not far off. I've been especially impressed with the wide angle shots that definitely stack up against the ones I've taken with some of those so-called "premium" phones. There are AI options everywhere, front and back, selfies look crisp and accurate and if you want to replace your head with that of an AR robot to create hilarious GIFs, more power to you.

The 3750mAh battery is by no means large by 2019 standards, but thanks to Huawei's combination of software-based power optimisation and the relatively low energy demands of the Kirin 980 octa-core processor, I usually coast through a long work day without falling below 33%. You read right, by the way - the nova 5T uses the Kirin 980, the same CPU as the P30 Pro. And also like the P30 Pro, there's 8GB of RAM to play with so this phone absolutely flies. You simply will not find another device in this price range with the same amount of processing power.

There's no IP water/dust-proof rating, nor is there wireless charging, but then, that's not unusual for a sub-$1000 phone. The USB Type-C SuperCharger is fast enough, without offering some of the insanely quick charging speeds we've come to see from other devices recently.

Interestingly, there's still a notification light at the top of the device - somewhat of a rarity these days. Some people like these, but I hate stupid lights and always turn them off. Unfortunately, this light also doubles as a charging indicator which can't be deactivated. Just something else I have to drape a black cloth over on my bedside table so it doesn't keep me awake at night.

Like many other late model phones, there's no headphone jack on the nova 5T, but this doesn't bother me at all because I've found the connection with both my bluetooth earbuds and headphones to be strong, stable and clear. There's also a USB Type-C headphone adapter included in the box, so don't let the no-jack thing put you off giving this fantastic phone a go.

I almost forgot to mention my favourite feature; the side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the power button. This is, without a word of a lie, the fastest, most reliable sensor I've ever used, in the most practical position it could be. Yes, in-screen fingerprint sensors are more in vogue and yes, they're gradually getting quicker and more consistent but the sensor on the nova 5T is so good, I don't ever want to go back to another type of fingerprint scanner. There's also the option to face unlock and I've found this to be fast and effective too - in either portrait or landscape.

This is absolutely an A-grade smart phone experience for $699. The nova 5T looks stunning, offers an impressive range of multi-lens, AI-assisted camera options and it has processing power to burn, resulting in a super-fast and silky-smooth user experience. Unless you've decided you can't live without wireless charging, or you definitely need your phone to be waterproof, you must at least pick up a nova 5T and give it a try.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Huawei nova 5T.