Huawei Nova Y72S

The Huawei Nova Y72S has a standard candy-bar form factor — it neither folds nor carries any rugged certification. It stands 168.3 mm tall and 77.7 mm wide, with a thickness of 8.9 mm, and tips the scales at 207 g, resulting in a total volume of roughly 116.38 cm³.

The Huawei Nova Y72S uses an LCD IPS touchscreen measuring 6.75 inches, with a resolution of 720 x 1600 px and a pixel density of 260 ppi. The panel runs at a 90Hz refresh rate and supports Always-On Display, though it lacks branded damage-resistant glass and does not support HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision. There is no secondary screen on this device.

The Huawei Nova Y72S is driven by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G, an octa-core SoC built on a 6 nm process with four cores clocked at 2.4 GHz and four at 1.9 GHz, running 8 threads in total and employing big.LITTLE technology for workload distribution; it carries a TDP of 6W and integrates LTE directly on the chip. The processor is paired with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM running at 2133 MHz across two memory channels, delivering a maximum bandwidth of 14.9 GB/s, while 256 GB of eMMC 5.1 storage handles local data. Graphics are handled by the integrated Adreno 610 GPU, clocked at 845 MHz with a turbo ceiling of 800 MHz, supporting DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. The platform is fully 64-bit capable and includes hardware security features such as NX bit and TrustZone; Geekbench 6 scores sit at 416 single-core and 1466 multi-core, with Geekbench 5 returning 385 and 1550 respectively.

The rear camera system on the Huawei Nova Y72S is a dual-lens setup combining a 50 MP main sensor and a 2 MP secondary lens, both at f/2.0 aperture, with no optical image stabilization or optical zoom. Autofocus options include phase-detection and touch autofocus, as well as continuous autofocus during video recording, though laser autofocus is not present. Video capture tops out at 1080p at 30 fps, with support for slow-motion recording but no HDR10 or Dolby Vision recording. The camera app offers a broad range of manual controls — exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance — alongside HDR mode, burst shooting, panorama, and timelapse, while raw capture and manual shutter speed are not available. A single LED flash (non-dual-tone, non-RGB) assists in low-light situations. On the front, an 8 MP single-lens camera sits at f/2.0 with no dedicated flash, and the selfie camera is a conventional notch or punch-hole placement rather than an under-display solution.

The Huawei Nova Y72S runs Android 12 and covers a solid range of usability and privacy features. On the privacy side, it offers clipboard warnings, location privacy controls, and camera/microphone access management, along with the ability to block app tracking; however, Mail Privacy Protection and cross-site tracking prevention are not included. The interface supports theme customization, dynamic theming, dark mode, and an extra dim mode for low-light comfort, while productivity is aided by split-screen multitasking, picture-in-picture, customizable notifications, full-page screenshots, sharing intents, and the ability to play games while they download. It also supports on-device machine learning, offline voice recognition, voice commands, Live Text, widgets, a child lock, multi-user accounts, and device position tracking. OS updates do not arrive directly from the vendor, and features such as focus modes, a media picker, Wi-Fi password sharing, battery health check, app offloading, and Quick Start are absent.

The Huawei Nova Y72S houses a 6000 mAh non-removable rechargeable battery with a built-in level indicator. It supports 22.5W wired fast charging, and a charger is included in the box, though wireless charging is not available.

The audio hardware on the Huawei Nova Y72S is notably limited — it lacks a 3.5 mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, and a built-in radio. Wireless audio codec support is equally absent, with no aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, or LDAC on board.

The Huawei Nova Y72S supports dual SIM cards and connects wirelessly via Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC, though 5G is not available. Wired connectivity is handled through a USB Type-C port running USB 2.0, and there is no HDMI output or external memory slot. Cellular download speeds reach up to 390 Mbit/s with uploads up to 150 Mbit/s. Location is covered by GPS with Galileo support, and onboard sensors include a gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass; a barometer, infrared sensor, heart rate monitor, and ANT+ are all absent. Security relies on a fingerprint scanner, while 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are not featured. The device does not include crash detection, emergency SOS via satellite, DLNA certification, motion or optical tracking, a stylus, or a built-in projector.

The Huawei Nova Y72S includes a video light for illuminating footage during recording, but its display is a flat, standard panel — there is no curved screen, sapphire glass, or e-paper display.