HUAWEI recently launched the Nova series in India with the two phones, Nova 3 and Nova 3i. The Nova 3i is a sub-20K smartphone priced at Rs 20,999 and it directly competes with the Xiaomi’s Mi A2 Android One smartphone. Both the phones offer similar specs, so we made a comparison so you can figure out which one is better over the other.
HUAWEI Nova 3i vs Xiaomi Mi A2 – Specs Comparison
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The Nova 3i is based on a glass design, both sides have a glass with polished metallic frames whereas the Mi A2 has metal unibody design.
Bigger Display
Similar to Honor Play, the Nova 3i offers a 6.3-inch Full HD+ IPS display (2340 x 1080 pixels) with a notch on top. On Mi A2, you get a 5.99-inch Full HD+ display (2160 x 1080 pixels) with a conventional notch-less design. The display on the Nova 3i is bigger as compared to the Mi A2.
Performance Turns Out To Be Similar
What powers on the Mi A2 is an octa-core Snapdragon 660 running at 2.2 GHz max while the HUAWEI Nova 3i uses its homegrown Kirin 710 octa-core SoC also running at 2.2 GHz.
Talking about the performance of both the phones, the Snapdragon 660 is an upper-midrange chip while the Kirin 710 is just as good as the Snapdragon 660. The performance of both the phones is expected to be similar in the benchmarks. Additional options like Bluetooth 5.0 is available on the Mi A2.
Less RAM, More Storage or More RAM, Less Storage
Both the devices are capable of offering up to 128 GB of internal storage, however, one of them has no microSD support. The Mi A2 lacks a microSD slot so you can’t expand the storage using a microSD card. The Nova 3i has a microSD slot that expands up to 256 GB and can be used on the SIM2 slot.
The Mi A2 has as much as 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM while the Nova 3i is stuck with 4 GB LPDDR4 RAM.
Android One & Stock Interface
HUAWEI Nova 3i runs on a customized Android interface EMUI 8.2 which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The EMUI 8.2 is AI-powered and offers several other features that you don’t usually see on stock Android phones. The Mi A2, on the other side, runs on a stock based Android 8.1 Oreo with stock features. The UI is pretty much cleaner and light in weight and it offers faster Android updates as it’s an Android One phone.
Conclusion – HUAWEI Nova 3i or Xiaomi Mi A2?
There’s nothing wrong picking either of the devices, there’s no complete winner, it’s more of preferred choices of the features such as the stock interface, the glass design versus the metallic, a microSD slot and less RAM versus more RAM and no microSD support.
For stock UI lovers and those who want faster Android updates and fancy the metallic design, the Mi A2 is a great option. If you do photography, want more camera features, and a design that outshines many phones, the HUAWEI Nova 3i is ideal.
