HUAWEI nova 14 Pro Review

Item: HUAWEI nova 14 Pro
Rating: 4.5
Author: Miguel Ty

Think your selfies never look good? Blurry shots, blinking faces, or photobombers ruining your perfect group photo?

HUAWEI says those days are over with the nova 14 Pro. The brand wants everyone to know its King of AI Selfies, bringing industry-first selfie hardware, AI photography tools, ultra-fast charging, with a nice build and design while staying in the upper midrange price category.

Read on for the full review.

Design and Construction

The nova 14 Pro is one of the most eye-catching devices in its class. The rear camera housing remains the signature design highlight, now paired with this “Ice Crystal Texture” that shimmers subtly as light hits it in different angles.

But if blue isn’t your thing, it’s available in White and Black options as well, with the white variant getting the same icy texture for the back.

At 7.78mm thin and 208g, it strikes a premium balance between sleekness and weight. Reinforced edges and corners contribute to its SGS Five-Star Drop Resistance Certification, giving the phone extra protection against accidental drops.

Found on its right are the volume rocker and power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Up top is the secondary microphone and one of the stereo speakers. At the bottom is its dual nano SIM card tray, primary mic for calls, USB Type-C port, and the other half of the stereo speakers.

It also gets certification for IP65 dust and water resistance, giving users peace of mind from dust and low-pressure water sprays.

Design-wise, HUAWEI delivers with the nova 14 Pro with its nice build materials and overall fashionable aesthetic.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

The phone features a 6.78-inch 1.5K Quad-Curved LTPO OLED display with a smooth 1–120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The LTPO panel helps preserve battery by automatically adjusting the refresh rate according to the content on screen.

And the Quad-Curved distinction pertains to the corners of the display rounding into the edges.

The display is vivid and sharp with inky blacks. And excellent for watching HDR videos stored locally. Streaming apps like Netflix and Youtube don’t exactly take advantage of the phone’s full resolution nor Widevine L1 support.

Unfortunately, it seems to be some of the underlying effects from the 2019 ban. Which is just a shame because the display is quite excellent all things considered.

Of course, if you’re the type of users who wouldn’t notice, or someone who thinks of themselves as the Jack Sparrow of digital video content; this isn’t the biggest loss.

Audio output from the stereo speakers deliver crisp highs, slightly muddy lows, and practically no lows. The silver lining here is how loud they can get in higher volumes with the trade-off for some distortion.

Overall, the multimedia consumption experience is good, it especially gets the job done for casual binging and listening even in louder environments.

For biometrics, it includes a reliable side-mounted fingerprint scanner that also acts as the power button and fast AI Face Unlock, which still uses optical hardware of course.

Both of which performed well and as expected during our review.

Cameras

For optics, the HUAWEI nova 14 Pro leads the selfie market thanks to its dual front camera system composed of a 50MP main selfie camera and an 8MP telephoto sensor, which makes it the industry’s first 0.8 to 5x telephoto selfie zoom.

From ultra-wide group photos to close-up beauty shots, it’s a nice functional setup that delivers on the promise of delivering selfies with great image quality, strong enough to outperform some entry-tier flagships.

The rear camera setup continues Huawei’s focus on delivering the best image quality they can achieve with the hardware they can pack into their nova lineup.

It’s a triple camera setup consisting of a 50MP RYYB main sensor with a mechanically adjusting variable aperture of f/1.4–f/4.0; A 12MP telephoto that serves as its 3x optical, and can go up to 30x digital. And an 8MP ultrawide, capable of taking macro shots from 2 cm away.

In real-world shooting, photos come out vibrant and detailed with a good punch of contrast.

Even in less than optimal lighting conditions, shadow detail is well preserved and highlights really pop with vividness. Telephoto performance is also significantly better compared to more expensive phones without a dedicated sensor.

OS, Apps, and UI

The nova 14 Pro runs on EMUI 15, which feels just as smooth as previous EMUI versions. Google apps work smoothly via AppGallery-supported installation methods, making it easy to use practically most apps anyone can think of.

But of course it’s still far from perfect. Like I mentioned earlier, there are still some kinks that need to get sorted like streaming apps not being able to take full advantage of the display hardware.

We’ve also noticed that they haven’t added too many new “trendy” features in terms of software. There are no new major design changes worth mentioning in terms of interface, at least for their global units.

–And no, new dynamic or live wallpapers don’t necessarily count here.

However, they have packed-in some useful AI features to enhance the experience. They have their own version of an AI Remove tool for instant photobomber cleanup after taking photos. It’s not the best one out there but it certainly isn’t the worst either.

Then there’s AI Best Expression, a feature we got with its predecessor that pretty much enables users to edit the expression of subjects blinking or looking away in photos after the shot was taken.

There’s also AI Gesture Control which allows us to scroll through pages or take screenshots hands-free, which can be useful when we have wet or dirty hands.

All-in-all the interface handles most everyday tasks and functions with little to no issues, and it’s nice to see HUAWEI’s efforts in dealing with certain software woes they’ve had to deal with over the years, but there’s definitely still room for improvement.

Performance and Benchmarks

The HUAWEI nova 14 Pro sports an in-house Kirin 8020 chipset that utilizes an octa-core CPU with clock speeds that can go up to 2.29 GHz.

Our review unit comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage, providing ample headroom for multitasking, file storage, and app usage.

Check-out our benchmark scores below:

Device:	HUAWEI nova 14 Pro
Chipset:	Kirin 8020
RAM	12GB
Antutu v11	1,088,571
Geekbench Single-Core	1,286
Geekbench Multi-Core	4,078
Geekbench OpenCL	2,386
Geekbench Vulkan	2,324
3D Mark Wild Life	3,172 (19 avg fps)
PCMark Work 3.0	10,058
Antutu v11 Storage	93,046
Seq. Write	2,187.3 MB/s
Seq. Read	1,906.0 MB/s

These scores place the nova 14 Pro firmly in the upper midrange performance bracket.

Its CPU scores show strong single-core responsiveness and solid multi-core capability suitable for daily tasks, multitasking, and light-to-moderate gaming. Meanwhile, the GPU results indicate it can handle titles like Mobile Legends, CODM, and Genshin Impact at medium settings.

The standout performance metric is storage speed, with read/write speeds exceeding 2 GB/s, contributing to fast app loading, smooth file transfers, and responsive system performance.

Overall, the nova 14 Pro is optimized for all-around day-to-day use, competitive mobile titles run just fine, but its not the best for heavier gaming titles played in their highest graphical settings.

Battery

Battery life is one of the phone’s strongest areas thanks to its 5,500mAh battery and extremely fast 100W charging. And support for Reverse-wired charging at 5W is available for accessories or emergencies. Charging with the included power brick got us from 0 to 100% in around 38 minutes.

When running our standard YugaTech Video Loop Test it lasted 40 hours and 33 minutes. And in PCMark’s Work 3.0 Battery Test it garnered a result of 18 hours and 52 minutes

These are exceptional numbers, easily among the best in its budget segment.

For connectivity options, in the Philippines we’re limited to 4G LTE but the phone notably gets 5G support in other regions.

Apart from that it features Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, Infrared, and USB-C 2.0.

Signal stability and call quality performed well throughout our testing. While the device lacks 5G due to restrictions, in our opinion, LTE performance remains smooth enough for most users.

Conclusion

Wrapping up the review, the HUAWEI nova 14 Pro lives up to its name as the King of AI Selfies.

It offers a powerful dual selfie camera system with great image processing front and back, a good build and design, good battery life with extremely fast charging, and good overall software stability.

Despite all the “good’s” I just mentioned, it’s not just a good midrange phone. The nova 14 Pro has the potential to challenge more expensive offerings in design, battery, and overall camera performance.

–Which is definitely worth considering.

At the time of writing, pre-orders for the HUAWEI nova 14 Pro (PHP 32,999), HUAWEI nova 14 (PHP 22,999), and HUAWEI nova 14i (PHP 12,999) are ongoing from November 27 to December 4, 2025.

What we LIKED:

Front and rear camera image quality
Battery Life
Display
Design

What we Liked LESS:

Still has room for software improvements

HUAWEI nova 14 Pro specs:
6.78-inch 1.5K Quad-Curved LTPO OLED (2776 x 1224) 1–120Hz refresh rate
1,200 nits peak brightness, HDR support
HUAWEI Kirin 8020
Maleoon 920 GPU
12GB RAM
512GB internal storage
Triple rear cameras:
• 50MP RYYB main (variable aperture f/1.4–f/4.0)
• 12MP telephoto (3× optical zoom, up to 30× digital)
• 8MP ultra-wide/macro (112°, 2cm macro)
Dual front cameras:
• 50MP Ultra Portrait Autofocus
• 8MP Close-Up Portrait (0.8×–5× selfie zoom)
EMUI 15
Fingerprint scanner (side-mounted)
4G LTE (Philippines)
Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC
Dual SIM (Nano + Nano)
USB-C (2.0, audio in/out)
5,500mAh battery
100W HUAWEI SuperCharge Turbo, 5W reverse wired
Stereo speakers
208 g (weight)
163.4 x 75 x 7.8 mm (dimensions)
Color options: Crystal Blue, White, Black

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Miguel Ty

Miguel Paolo Ty is an Executive Producer at YugaTech. He first joined the team in 2019 as a Multimedia Producer but left after a year for personal reasons. He was then asked to return in 2023 as a senior member of the team, poised to produce engaging tech content for the Yugatech audience. Since then, he was quickly promoted as an Executive member of the team for his virtuous sense of accountability and has helped manage all the current MPs while continuing to contribute video and written works. Outside Yugatech he's known as a Content Producer that specializes in video production.