Just as expected, Huawei unveiled its nova 16 series in China today with four members. The top dog in the rotation is the nova 16 Ultra, and it brings an impressive set of cameras and a substantial battery capacity.
Nova 16 Ultra is armed with a 7,000 mAh battery, which supports 100W wired, 50W wireless and up to 7.5W reverse wireless charging. The phone also holds IP68 and IP69 ingress protection ratings.
Up front, nova 16 Ultra features a 6.84-inch LTPO OLED with FHD+ resolution and a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The panel features Kunlun Glass protection and is rated at up to 6,000 nits peak local brightness. There’s a 50MP front-facing camera housed inside the pill-shaped cutout alongside a 1.5MP spectral sensor. The fingerprint scanner is located on the right-hand side, on top of the power button.
Under the hood, we have Huawei’s in-house Kirin 9010S chip at the helm. This is the same SoC that made its debut on the Pura 80 last year. It also comes with support for satellite communication in China, with the ability to send and receive text messages over Beidou satellites.
nova 16 Ultra gets the Kirin 9010S chip
Around the back, the Nova 16 Ultra brings an interesting camera island that is wrapped in vegan leather. We have two larger cutouts housing a total of three cameras as well as a spectral sensor and LED flash.
200MP main cam
As far as the hardware, the headliner is the 200MP RYYB main sensor (1/1.28”). It features an f/1.8 aperture and OIS capabilities. Huawei also added an 88mm-equivalent 50MP telephoto lens with 3.7x optical zoom. The third shooter is a 50MP ultra-wide-angle macro lens with an f/2.2 aperture.
Nova 16 Ultra ships with Huawei’s HarmonyOS 6.1 out of the box and comes in blue, white, and black colors.
nova 16 Ultra colors
Pricing in China starts at CNY 4,699 ($695/€596 converted) for the baseline 256GB storage trim, while the top-tier 1TB version is priced at CNY 5,799 ($857/€735 converted). Shipments there are expected to begin on June 6.
