Huawei Nova Y72

The Huawei Nova Y72 is a standard, non-folding smartphone with a 168.3 mm tall and 77.7 mm wide footprint, giving it a notably large physical profile. At 8.9 mm thick and weighing 207 g, it sits on the heavier side for a device of its type. The phone has no water resistance rating and does not feature a rugged build, meaning it carries no formal protection against moisture or physical impact.

The Nova Y72 uses an LCD touchscreen measuring 6.75 inches with a resolution of 720 x 1600 px and a pixel density of 260 ppi. It supports an Always-On Display mode, allowing basic information to remain visible without fully waking the screen. The panel does not carry branded damage-resistant glass and does not support HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision. There is no secondary screen.

The Nova Y72 is powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 710A, a 12 nm octa-core chipset using big.LITTLE architecture with four cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and four at 1.7 GHz across 8 threads. It is paired with 8GB of RAM running at 2200 MHz across two memory channels, alongside 128GB of internal storage that can be expanded by up to 256GB via external memory. The SoC integrates LTE, graphics support with a GPU clocked at 650 MHz and DirectX 12 compatibility, as well as security features including NX bit and TrustZone. Geekbench 6 scores come in at 319 single-core and 1125 multi-core, with Geekbench 5 results of 316 and 1149 respectively. The chip is built with approximately 5,500 million transistors, supports 64-bit processing, and includes a 64 KB L1 cache, though ECC memory is not supported.

The Nova Y72 has a dual-lens rear camera system led by a 50 MP primary sensor at f/1.8 and a 2 MP secondary lens at f/2.4, both using a CMOS sensor without back-side illumination or optical image stabilization. Autofocus options include phase-detection and touch autofocus, as well as continuous autofocus during video recording, though laser autofocus is absent. Video capture is limited to 1080p at 30 fps, with slow-motion recording also supported. Manual controls cover ISO, exposure, focus, and white balance, while panorama and timelapse modes are available; RAW capture and manual shutter speed are not. The rear camera has a single LED flash with no dual-tone or RGB configuration. The front camera is a single-lens 8 MP unit at f/2.0, positioned in the display rather than beneath it, and has no dedicated flash.

The Nova Y72 covers a solid range of software features, including dark mode, customizable notifications, widgets, and split-screen multitasking. Privacy-oriented options are present for camera and microphone access, and a child lock adds basic parental control functionality. The device supports multiple user profiles, voice commands, sharing intents, device tracking, and a battery health check tool. However, it does not receive direct OS updates from the vendor and cannot be used as a PC.

The Nova Y72 houses a 6000 mAh non-removable rechargeable battery and supports 22.5W fast charging, with a charger included in the box. A battery level indicator is present for at-a-glance monitoring. Wireless charging is not supported.

The Nova Y72 features stereo speakers but omits a 3.5 mm headphone jack, meaning wired audio relies on the USB-C port or wireless alternatives. None of the advanced Bluetooth audio codecs are supported — there is no aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, or LDAC. The device also does not include an FM radio.

The Nova Y72 is a dual-SIM device with a cellular module, supporting Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5, along with Bluetooth 5.1 and USB Type-C (USB 2.0). Download speeds reach up to 600 Mbit/s with upload capped at 150 Mbit/s, though 5G is not supported. Location capabilities include GPS, Galileo, and a compass, while an accelerometer and fingerprint scanner round out the sensor set. An external memory slot is available for storage expansion. The device does not include NFC, a gyroscope, a barometer, an infrared sensor, HDMI output, DLNA certification, ANT+ support, a heart rate monitor, crash detection, satellite SOS, or a stylus, and biometric authentication is limited to the fingerprint scanner with no iris scanner or 3D facial recognition present.

The Nova Y72 includes a video light, allowing the rear flash to assist during video recording. The display is flat rather than curved, does not use sapphire glass, and is not an e-paper panel.