Huawei Nova Y72 Review: A Budget-Friendly Smartphone with Solid Performance

The Huawei Nova Y72 is a budget-friendly smartphone designed to deliver solid performance and essential features at an affordable price. As part of Huawei’s Nova Y series, the Nova Y72 aims to attract users who want a reliable device without breaking the bank. With its large display, decent camera system, and long-lasting battery life, the Huawei Nova Y72 offers good value for money in the competitive budget smartphone market. In this review, we will take a closer look at the design, performance, camera capabilities, battery life, and overall user experience to determine if the Nova Y72 is worth considering.

Design and Display: Practical and Comfortable

The Huawei Nova Y72 features a practical and straightforward design that appeals to users who prefer a simple and comfortable device. The smartphone is built with a plastic back and frame, which helps keep the cost down while still providing a durable and lightweight build. The back has a glossy finish that gives the phone a clean look, but it is prone to fingerprints, so users may want to use a case to keep it looking fresh.

One of the standout features of the Nova Y72 is its 6.75-inch LCD display, offering a HD+ resolution (1600 x 720 pixels). While not as sharp as higher-end OLED screens, the display offers vibrant colors and adequate brightness for everyday tasks, such as web browsing, watching videos, and using social media apps. The large screen makes it an excellent choice for users who prefer bigger displays for media consumption, and the 20:9 aspect ratio ensures that the phone feels comfortable to hold and use.

The LCD screen performs reasonably well for a budget device, providing decent color reproduction and wide viewing angles. Although it lacks the deep contrast and rich blacks of an OLED panel, the HD+ resolution is sufficient for the price range and ensures that content is still clear and readable. For users who prefer a more immersive experience, the Nova Y72 offers a good screen-to-body ratio with minimal bezels, maximizing the usable display area.

Camera Performance: Decent Photography for Casual Users

In the camera department, the Huawei Nova Y72 comes equipped with a 48MP primary camera and a 5MP ultra-wide lens, which provides a basic yet versatile setup for capturing different types of photos. The 48MP main sensor is the standout feature of the camera system, offering good detail and sharpness in well-lit conditions. The f/1.8 aperture allows for decent performance in low-light environments, though low-light photos may exhibit some noise or softness.

The 5MP ultra-wide lens gives users the option to capture wider scenes, making it useful for group shots, landscape photography, or tight spaces. While the ultra-wide lens doesn’t deliver the same level of detail as the primary sensor, it offers flexibility for different shooting situations. Additionally, the camera features several AI enhancements, such as scene detection, which helps optimize camera settings based on the subject, ensuring better results for portraits, landscapes, and close-up shots.

The Nova Y72 also offers a 2MP depth sensor, which helps in capturing portrait shots with a blurred background, simulating the bokeh effect commonly seen in professional photography. While the depth sensor doesn’t provide as much precision as higher-end devices, it still offers basic portrait photography capabilities.

On the front, the Huawei Nova Y72 includes an 8MP selfie camera, which takes decent selfies with natural skin tones and good detail in well-lit conditions. The front camera also supports AI beautification features, which can subtly enhance facial features for a more polished look. While the front camera may not produce the most stunning selfies, it is more than sufficient for social media, video calls, and casual photography.

In terms of video recording, the Nova Y72 can shoot 1080p videos at 30fps with both the rear and front cameras. The video quality is decent, with smooth playback and clear audio, making it a good option for casual video recording. However, the lack of 4K video support may be a limitation for users looking for more professional-grade video capabilities.

Performance: Smooth Operation for Everyday Tasks

Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset, the Huawei Nova Y72 offers solid performance for its price. The Dimensity 700 is an entry-level 5G chipset designed for budget devices, providing efficient performance for basic tasks and moderate multitasking. With 4GB or 6GB of RAM, the Nova Y72 can handle day-to-day activities such as browsing the web, social media, and watching videos without significant lag or stuttering.

While the phone is capable of handling light gaming, it may struggle with more graphically demanding titles. Casual games like Candy Crush or Subway Surfers run smoothly, but for more intensive games such as PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty Mobile, you may need to adjust the settings for optimal performance. The Mali-G57 GPU offers decent graphical performance for casual gaming, but it’s not meant for high-end gaming experiences.

In terms of storage, the Huawei Nova Y72 comes with 128GB of internal storage, which should be sufficient for most users. Additionally, the phone supports expandable storage via a microSD card, allowing users to increase storage capacity if needed. This is a great feature for users who store large amounts of photos, videos, or apps.

The device runs on HarmonyOS 2.0, Huawei’s proprietary operating system. HarmonyOS provides a user-friendly interface with useful features, such as multi-screen collaboration, Huawei Share, and a streamlined design. However, the lack of Google services might be a downside for some users, as they won’t have access to apps like Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps. Instead, users can access apps via Huawei’s AppGallery or Petal Search.

Battery Life: All-Day Performance

The Huawei Nova Y72 is equipped with a 5000mAh battery, offering impressive endurance for a budget smartphone. With moderate usage, such as web browsing, social media, and video streaming, the phone can easily last a full day on a single charge. For power users who engage in more intensive tasks like gaming or video recording, the Nova Y72 may require a charge before the end of the day, but overall, the battery life is more than sufficient for most users.

When it comes to charging, the Huawei Nova Y72 supports 22.5W fast charging, allowing you to charge the device relatively quickly. The 22.5W charging speed is decent for a budget phone, providing around 50% charge in 30 minutes, but it is not as fast as some higher-end devices that offer faster charging speeds.

Connectivity and Additional Features

The Huawei Nova Y72 supports 5G connectivity, allowing users to enjoy faster download and upload speeds, which is a great feature in a budget smartphone. It also includes Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, and NFC for seamless connections with other devices. The phone also features a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for quick and secure unlocking.

Other features include dual-SIM support, which is convenient for users who want to separate personal and work numbers, as well as Face Unlock for an additional layer of security.

Conclusion: Is the Huawei Nova Y72 Worth It?

The Huawei Nova Y72 is a solid budget smartphone that offers good value for users seeking a reliable device without spending a premium price. With its 5G connectivity, 48MP camera, 5000mAh battery, and decent performance, the Nova Y72 delivers a strong package for everyday tasks, media consumption, and casual photography.

While it lacks some premium features like 4K video recording and Google services, the Nova Y72 excels in areas such as battery life, camera performance, and 5G connectivity, making it a great option for users looking for a budget-friendly phone with modern capabilities. If you’re in the market for a budget smartphone that offers reliable performance, solid battery life, and a good camera system, the Huawei Nova Y72 is certainly worth considering.