Huawei Nova 12 SE
The nova 12 SE features a headliner 108-megapixel triple cameras, a Snapdragon chipset inside, and supports a blazing fast 66W charging rate — all wrapped in this stylish package. The first thing that strikes me about the nova 12 SE is its understated design. This phone goes for a sophisticated matte finish on the back — which also makes it fairly smudge resistant. It also has a subtle texture that reveals these tiny sparkles wherever light hits the surface.
Looking at the sides, we are greeted by a flat frame that comes in satin-like finish. This design choice, coupled with the phone’s slim profile (at a mere 7.39 mm), makes the nova 12 SE surprisingly comfortable to hold — even with a flat screen as well. Soft edges and rounded corners complete the picture, ensuring a phone that feels as good as it looks. The nova 12 SE rocks a 6.67-inch Full HD+ OLED screen. The bezels are almost equally thin, but you guessed it, the chin is still a bit thicker than the rest. A hole punch notch sits at the top housing its 32-megapixel selfie shooter.
Navigating the device is also smooth albeit capped at only 90Hz refresh rate. The nova 12 SE’s main highlight: triple rear cameras led by a 108-megapixel main sensor. No depth sensor is found here, but the other two lenses consist of an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel macro lens. The phone relies on the dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, a 2021 SoC built on a 6-nanometer process.
Huawei Nova 12i
The nova 12i — the more affordable option in the lineup.This model boasts a 108-megapixel camera, which Huawei touts as its main selling point. It’s backed by a Snapdragon chipset under the hood, a hefty 5000mAh battery, and 40W fast charging.
Our unit is in this sleek Green colorway, which reflects hues of green as light hits it despite the matte finish. The plastic material with this type of finish also makes it resistant to fingerprint and smudges. It is comfortable in the hands too thanks to the back panel’s curved sides. The frame is mostly flat all around but also has soft edges. This is where the earpiece actually sits which I find a clever design.
On the right side, there are the volume rocker along with the power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. The bottom houses the USB-C port, the speaker grill, the dual nano-SIM slot, and the second microphone. This leaves nothing on the left side. There’s no ingress protection or IP rating here, not even a screen protection. So, you may want to be more careful and slap a protective case on this phone.
Speaking of screen, the nova 12i sports a 6.7-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD panel capped to only 90Hz refresh rate. It has significantly thinner bezels, except the chin.the 108-megapixel sensor is a highlight, but megapixel count alone doesn’t guarantee image quality. While the nova 12i can capture sharp photos in good lighting, especially for social media use, zooming in reveals limitations in fine detail.
Moving on to performance, the nova 12i features the good ol’ Snapdragon 680 chipset from Qualcomm and comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Unfortunately, no expandable storage here.
Vivo Y100 4G
The Vivo Y100 4G, a powerhouse of performance with its Snapdragon® 685, 8GB RAM, and 256GB storage. The 6.67-inch AMOLED display delivers vibrant visuals, while the Dual 50 MP + 2 MP rear camera setup captures moments with precision. Stay connected with WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, 4G LTE, and 4G support, all powered by a long-lasting 5000 mAh battery in a slim 7.8mm design. Running on Android 14 with Funtouch 14 UI, the Y100 offers a seamless user experience packed with features for modern mobile users.
Infinix Smart 8 Pro
The Infinix Smart 8 Pro is under the hood is a MediaTek Helio G36 configured with up to 16GB extended RAM and 128GB expandable storage. Its dual camera gets a boost, now equipped with a 50-megapixel primary camera (from 13MP on the vanilla variant).
Battery is rated at 5000mAh capacity, although, despite having a USB-C port, it still employs 10W charging. For more storage, the smartphone also has a microSD card slot. It has a 5,000mAh battery that can be charged at 10W via a USB-C port. Furthermore, the phone sports a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock as security features. The smartphone has the XOS 13 UI on top of Android 13.
The Smart Pro is equipped with two cameras: a 50-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.85 aperture, an AI lens, a quad-LED ring flash on the back panel, and an 8-megapixel front-facing sensor. Additional features include Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and a 3.5mm audio connector. It measures 163.6 x 75.6 x 8.5 mm and weighs around 189 grammes.
Oppo Reno 11F 5G
The Reno 11F 5G features a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 1080 x 2412 pixels resolution and 394 PPI screen density. The sensors include an optical under-display fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, and color spectrum. It comes with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage. It features an IP65-rated dustproof and water-resistant chassis.
The device is powered by a Dimensity 7050 Octa-core processor while the GPU is ARM Mali-G68 MC4. The smartphone comes with a rear triple-camera setup with a 64 MP (wide) + 2MP (telephoto) + 8 MP (ultrawide). On the front, there is a single camera of 32 MP (wide) for your selfies.
Oppo Reno 11F 5G is fueled by a Li-Po 5,000 mAh + 67W fast charging. It runs on the ColorOS 14.0 operating system and supports Dual SIM. The dimension of the smartphone is 162.4 x 74.2 x 7.6 mm and it weighs 182 grams. It is available in colors including pink, green, and blue.
Honor X7B 4G
Equipped with a 6,000mAh ultra-large battery, the HONOR X7b delivers the best battery life among all HONOR X Series smartphones to date. It can support various activities for up to 3 days on a single charge, making it a reliable companion for users on the go. Thanks to HONOR’s innovative battery technologies, the HONOR X7b is the thinnest and lightest smartphone with a 6000mAh battery. The device’s battery maintains over 80% of its health even after three years of usage, ensuring exceptional longevity and reducing the need for constant recharging.
The HONOR X7b boasts a 108MP Main Camera with a 1/1.67-inch sensor. To enable the camera to capture bright and vivid shots even in challenging low-light conditions, the HONOR X7b supports 9-in-1 pixel binning, achieving a pixel size measuring 1.92µm that ensures night colors are faithfully reproduced in images.
Realme 12 Plus 5G
The Realme 12+ 5G was co-designed with luxury watch designer Ollivier Savéo. For context (if you’re like me who doesn’t know who he is), Ollivier has worked with Swiss watch brands Rolex. So, you can expect to get a sweet-looking phone, and I must say, it is a beauty. You can see the sensors and the flash on top of them. At first glance, you may mistake it to pack a quad-camera setup, but in reality, we only get three sensors.
We get a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfers, a dual nano-SIM card tray, and one of the dual stereo speakers at the bottom. Situated on the right side are its volume rocker and power button, and up top, we have another speaker and a 3.5mm audio jack. That is not a common sight these days. Moving on, the realme 12+ sports a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and a 92.65% screen-to-body ratio.
For cameras, we have a triple rear camera setup at the back comprised of a 50MP SonyLYT600 main sensor with an aperture of f/1.88, an 8MP 112 degree Wide Angle camera with an aperture of f/2.2 and lastly we have a 2MP macro sensor. Up front, we get a 16MP selfie camera.
On the software front, out of the box, we get realme UI 50 based on Android 14.
The realme 12+ is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset that is coupled with its octa-core CPU clocking up to 2.6GHz and an ARM Mali-G68 MC4 GPU. You also have 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, but there is an 8GB variant. RAM can be extended up to 12GB, giving you 24GB of total RAM thanks to Dynamic RAM Extension. A microSD card of up to 2TB can be inserted for more storage.
Honor X8B 4G
The Honor X8b has display has a pill-shaped cutout that houses a 50-megapixel selfie camera and a soft-LED flash. The back panel of the device features a 108-megapixel main camera, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. The device is powered by the Snapdragon 680 chipset and a 4,500mAh battery that supports 35W fast charging. The device comes in multiple configurations. Such as 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage, 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage, and 8 GB RAM + 512 GB storage. The smartphone also features a dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0G, GPS, a USB-C port, and a side-facing fingerprint sensor.
In conclusion, the Honor X8b is a mid-range smartphone that offers several improvements over its predecessor. Including an AMOLED display, better cameras, and other features. With its sleek design, powerful processor, and impressive camera setup, the Honor X8b is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a high-quality smartphone that won’t break the bank.
Huawei Nova Y72 4G
The HUAWEI nova Y72 is the company's newest affordable smartphone, featuring a 6.75-inch IPS display with a refresh rate of 90Hz. It also runs on the 2.0GHz 14nm Kirin 710A octa-core processor with Mali-G51 MP4 GPU. For cameras, it sports a sizable 50MP f/1.8 main camera with AF paired with a 2MP f2. 4 macro camera.
Powering the Huawei nova Y72 is the company’s own Kirin 710A chipset paired to 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, the latter can be expanded with Huawei’s proprietary NM memory card up to 256GB.
Software wise, you are getting Huawei’s own EMUI 12 skinned on top of Android, which you unfortunately don’t get official Google apps and services preinstalled, but the essential apps can still be downloaded on Huawei’s AppGallery.
One noteworthy feature within the EMUI 12 experience is Simple Mode, which enlarges fonts and icons that allows seniors to interact with the phone effortlessly along with smoother controls. 
