Huawei is set to launch a brand new smartphone here in Malaysia next week. The new device is the Huawei Nova 7i, and it seems to be quite an interesting mid-range smartphone, complete with a Kirin 810 chipset, a hole-punch display, and not to mention a square camera module.

That being said, the Nova 7i appears to be a based on an existing smartphone in China, the Huawei Nova 6 SE. Both devices share the exact same design, and even the specifications of the the two smartphones are similar. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course, especially since the Nova 6 SE was only launched in China back in December 2019.

Powered by a Kirin 810 chipset, you can expect to get respectable performance out of the Nova 7i. It’s touted to be one of the best processors in the mid-range segment, and thanks to its 7nm size, power efficiency of the chip should be great as well.

Complementing the 7nm processor is the Nova 7i’s generous 4,200mAh battery. Thanks to these two hardware, battery life shouldn’t be an issue with this smartphone. On top of that, the Nova 7i also comes with Huawei’s proprietary 40W SuperCharge technology; it can supposedly charge the device up to 70% in only 30 minutes.

Just like the Huawei Nova 5T, the Nova 7i features a hole-punch cutout at the top left of the screen to house the selfie camera. The display itself is a 6.4-inch 2310 x 1080 IPS display with a 83.5% screen-to-body ratio, which is reasonably good for a device in this segment, though we do wish the bottom bezel was a tad thinner.

In the camera department, the Nova 7i features a quad camera system. While Huawei Malaysia only confirmed the 48MP primary sensor, we reckon the other three sensors in the camera setup are exactly the same as the Nova 6 SE. These include an 8MP ultra-wide angle shooter, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor.

Other specifications of the Nova 7i include 8GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, a 16MP front-facing camera, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and EMUI 10 based on Android 10 out of the box.

At the moment, we have no details on the local pricing of the Huawei Nova 7i. But given its similarity to the Nova 6 SE, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume the 7i will be priced similarly as well. In China, the Nova 6 SE retails at 2,199 Chinese yuan, which comes up to about RM1,290. We’ll have to wait and see exactly how much the Nova 7i will cost in Malaysia once it’s launched here on 14 February.