Ai+ Nova 2 review: a fruitful attempt at a budget 5G smartphone

The Ai+ Nova 2 is the brand’s latest offering, starting at Rs 10,999. The handset heavily emphasises 5G capabilities, long-lasting battery endurance, and a clean software interface. Sitting below the Realme P4 Lite 5G and OPPO K14x, the Ai+ Nova 2 presents itself as one of the most affordable 5G options in the market. Additionally, the Unisoc T8200 chipset in the Nova 2 promises decent performance for everyday tasks, at least on paper. So, how does all of this translate in real-world use, and does it make the Ai+ Nova 2 an appealing buy? Find out in this review.

Quick verdict

The Ai+ Nova 2 is a strong budget offering that packs a reliable processor for the price, along with 5G capabilities and dependable performance for everyday use. The clean software is also one of the phone’s biggest strengths, complemented by impressive battery life. On the other hand, it can take hours for a full charge, while the phone’s rear panel easily catches smudges and scratches.

Standard-looking design that needs protection

As the successor to the Ai+ Nova, the Nova 2 doesn’t see drastic changes on the front panel as it continues to carry a U-shaped notch setup to house the 8MP selfie camera. At the back, though, the rectangular camera module has been revamped to sport a squircle design, which is very much reminiscent of the Redmi Note 15 (review).

Speaking of the back, the Ai+ Nova 2 carries a reflective and glossy rear panel. When used without a cover, it easily attracts smudges and is prone to minor scratches. If you wish to keep the phone tidy in the long term, the bundled TPU cover has got you covered. While the red-accented power button of the black colour variant of the Nova 2 gives the phone a standout character. The handset also comes in blue, green, purple, and pink colourways.

The polycarbonate build of the smartphone is IP64-certified, much like the Realme P4 Lite 5G in the Rs 13,000 segment. As for the in-hand feel, the Nova 2’s weight appears balanced, while people coming from smaller-sized or feature phones may require a couple of days to adjust to its heft.

Sufficiently vibrant display

The Ai+ Nova 2 flaunts a 6.74-inch HD+ IPS LCD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, much like every other entry-level budget smartphone. The panel makes excellent use of its high refresh rate. Most apps automatically run at the full 120Hz without requiring any manual adjustments. This is something that can’t be said for many phones in the segment.

The Ai+ Nova 2’s Colour settings include two modes, normal and vivid. During my usage of the device, I set the phone to the ‘vivid’ option and found the display to output sufficiently vibrant tones. While you can adjust the colour temperature, I found the default setting pleasant and well-balanced. The 720p resolution gets the job done for watching content, unless you’re really particular about gaining the best detail levels.

Furthermore, the phone supports up to 2160p (4K) resolution on YouTube for supported videos, which is impressive given its price segment, thanks to the capable hardware. Even though the device won’t natively play YouTube videos at 4K quality, it could benefit from the higher bitrates, resulting in a tad better sharpness. Lastly, the display offers great legibility indoors, but the visibility takes a hit when viewed under direct sunlight.

Performance that comes close to higher-priced rivals

Performance and gaming on the Ai+ Nova 2 are taken care of by the Unisoc T8200, an octa-core processor with a maximum clock speed of 2.3GHz. This particular chipset not only unlocks 5G capabilities on budget smartphones, but also offers higher performance numbers over the Unsoc T7250, a 4G chipset found on several sub-Rs 10,000 phones as of late.

The Unisoc T8200 chipset in the Ai+ Nova 2 performs almost on par with the MediaTek Dimensity 6300 and 6400, not just in benchmarks but also in real-world daily usage. Paired with its lightweight software skin, the phone handled app launches, multitasking, and everyday tasks without any major stutters or lags. I had a very similar experience with the Dimensity 6300-powered Realme C83, which is priced around Rs 4,000 higher than the Ai+ Nova 2.

Moving on to gaming, I tried playing a couple of games of Team Deathmatch on BGMI in ‘Super Smooth + Extreme’ settings, which translates to 60FPS gaming at the lowest possible graphical settings. While we couldn’t get the Scene8 app to work on the Nova 2 to track minute-by-minute frame rates, the game was very much playable by delivering near-consistent frame rates, at least for the initial few minutes.

Then I also launched Subway Surfers City, a casual, never-ending running game that offered a decent gaming experience. Apart from dropping a few frames every couple of minutes or so, the phone didn’t run into major stutters or lags.

A clean software experience

Ever since the company’s inception, the software on Ai+ smartphones has consistently been one of the most talked-about aspects for delivering a clean and privacy-focused user interface. Running on NxtQ version 1.0 skin layered on top of Android 16, the Ai+ Nova 2 is devoid of third-party pre-installed apps, which is a welcome move, especially in a segment where others push for third-party services and app recommendations through notifications.

When looking for dedicated AI features in the UI, I couldn’t find many, aside from the pre-installed Google Gemini assistant and AI imaging features in the Google Photos app. Unfortunately, the phone misses out on Circle to Search, a feature I’ve grown quite fond of using lately to quickly look up information from whatever is on the screen. Then there’s the Privacy Dashboard homescreen widget, which displays the apps that have recently utilised the microphone, location, camera, and clipboard. If not needed, the widget can be removed from the homescreen with one tap.

There’s also an ‘AI Search’ button placed right above the dock on the homescreen. It serves as a shortcut to quickly access popular AI chatbots and LLMs such as Gemini, Grok, and ChatGPT. Tapping the button takes you directly to the respective mobile websites of these AI tools, where you can enter your prompt. I wish these AI chatbots were more deeply integrated into NxtQ, so users could get their queries answered without leaving the homescreen.

As for how the NxtQ interface looks and feels, as noted in our Ai+ Nova review, certain elements within the software starkly resemble other custom Android skins. For instance, the quick settings panel is highly reminiscent of ColorOS 13, while the charging animation matches HyperOS. Underneath all of these, the phone also carries stock Android elements in several places, such as the lockscreen and notification tray.

Superb battery endurance with slow charging speeds

The Ai+ Nova 2 rocks a 6,000mAh battery, which is a tad smaller in capacity than the similarly priced Redmi A7 Pro and the Realme P4 Lite 4G (review), both of which carry 6,300mAh units. In our in-house PCMark Battery drain test, the Nova 2 lasted 11 hours on a single charge from 100 to 20 percent, which is lower than its rivals (refer to the graph below), but that’s not the whole story.

During my one week with Ai+ Nova 2, the phone managed to deliver over two days of battery backup on a full charge, with 17 percent remaining at the end. Though it’s worth noting that I used the phone lightly during this period by mostly running daily apps, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Spotify streaming in the background, reading articles and stories on Google Chrome. To further gauge the battery’s performance, I frequently switched between 5G mobile data and Wi-Fi, while keeping location and Bluetooth enabled for most of the time.

On the other hand, charging is one area where the AI+ Nova 2 could have been better. With the included 18W charger, the phone took approximately three hours to go from 16 percent to 100 percent, which is noticeably slower than many competitors with significantly larger batteries, such as the Realme C83 and OPPO K14x.

Primary camera outputs contrasty results

The Ai+ Nova 2 comes with a single 50MP camera at the rear, while the U-shaped notch cutout at the front houses an 8MP selfie shooter. Coming directly to the camera results, the smartphone can capture vibrant images in well-lit conditions. However, if the lighting is too harsh, the phone’s budget-level processing fails at maintaining balanced highlights. If you prefer clicking saturated images and can compromise on detail levels, the Ai+ Nova 2 can deliver serviceable results for the price.

Due to the lack of OIS and small sensor size, the Nova 2 outputs soft images in low light. The handset also tends to overexpose strong light sources. Moving on to the selfie camera, it’s the complete opposite of the main rear camera. The processing here is much more neutral, resulting in natural skin tones without over-saturated colours. Apart from that, I found it surprising that the phone can record videos in 4K resolution at up to 30FPS using the rear camera. In contrast, the Realme C83, which I recently reviewed, was limited to 1080p at 60FPS.

To further assess the Ai+ Nova 2’s camera capabilities, I compared it against the Realme C83 in various scenarios. It’s worth noting that the camera samples were captured before the Realme C83 received a price hike of Rs 1,000, pushing the phone above the Rs 15,000 segment.

Daylight

Right off the bat, the Realme C83’s shot looks flat, even though the highlights on the darker areas appear to be better. The Ai+ Nova 2’s image gains more contrasty tones, which results in a close to natural output. Lastly, even the details on the Nova 2’s image appear to be better.

Portrait

In portrait mode, the Ai+ Nova 2 completely overexposes the subject, leaving the colours and highlights blown out. On the other hand, the Realme C83’s shot not only carries better details, but also offers a much more appealing colour scheme and dynamic range.

Selfie

Coming to selfie comparison, the Ai+ Nova 2 adds reddish tones to the overall image, while the Realme C83 goes heavy on warm tones. In detail levels and dynamic range, the Ai+ Nova 2 takes the lead by preserving better sharpness and natural colours of the sky and background.

Low light

In low-light conditions, the AI+ Nova 2 retains slightly better details, but the Realme C83 outshines with exposure improved control over light sources and balanced contrast overall.

Night mode

Even with night mode enabled, the Realme C83 still delivers a more favourable image by offering better control over light sources and maintaining the actual tones and colours of the sky.

Final Verdict

With smartphone prices seeing major price hikes across segments due to a surge in memory prices, a 5G offering like the Ai+ Nova 2 at a starting price of Rs 10,999 is honestly a welcome change. For context, brands like Tecno and Realme, which graced the sub-Rs 10,000 segment with 5G phones until last year, are now releasing phones with 4G-only processors in the segment.

The Ai+ Nova 2 also makes a strong case for itself by gaining a reliable chipset for a budget smartphone. The Unisoc T8200 SoC powering the Ai+ Nova 2 not only delivers a capable user experience but even features 60FPS support in games like BGMI, 4K video playback on YouTube, and 4K video recording. While such aspects may not be crucial to many, these end up making the Nova 2 a well-rounded device for what it’s worth.

Furthermore, the clean and bloatware-free NxtQ software is a major highlight of the smartphone, even though it could do with bringing more originality and design refinements in key areas, like the lockscreen and quick settings panel. While the battery easily lasts a couple of days with light usage, slow charging feels outdated in today’s standards.

All in all, if you’re on the hunt for one of the most affordable 5G phones this year that can deliver a suitable level of performance for daily use, the Ai+ Nova 2 is worth considering.

Editor’s rating: 8/10

Reasons to buy the Ai+ Nova 2

• A sufficient level of performance for running daily apps and playing light-to-medium-tier games.
• Software that is devoid of pre-installed third-party applications.
• Offers fast 5G capabilities on a budget.
• Delivers strong battery endurance of over 1.5 days easily on casual use.

Reasons to skip the Ai+ Nova 2

• Doesn’t offer the highest-quality rear panel in its price class; it easily attracts smudges and micro-scratches.
• Can take hours for a complete charge.