Opinion | Huawei has finally learned how to make a good selfie camera

Huawei released its newest set of premium phones a few days ago. The company's Nova series typically fluctuates between sub-premium and premium and the new iteration of phones, the Nova 6 5G, Nova 6, and Nova 6 SE, appear to lean towards the premium side, as they feature some rather premium hardware. The most expensive of the lot, the Nova 6 5G, made the trip over to DxOMark, where its selfie cameras were put through the works...to incredible effect.

The Nova 6 5G earned an overall score of 100. That makes it the best selfie camera phone in the world, by DxOMark's criteria. A score of 100 means it slightly edges out the Galaxy Note 10+ 5G (99), and the Asus Zenfone 6 (98). In the still photography test, the Nova 6 5G had a score of 105, above the Galaxy Note 10+ 5G (103), Asus Zenfone 6 (101), and way above the Google Pixel 4 (93).

The Nova 6 5G is also the king of bokeh shots, scoring 70 in that particular test, ahead of every other phone and on par with the Zenfone 6 and its 48 MP sensor.

In the video category, the Nova 6 5G recorded a score of 93. That's the exact same score as the usual suspects, the Note 10+ 5G and Zenfone 6. It's also in the same ballpark as the Pixel 4 (91). 

This is a surprising result. DxOMark's selfie leaderboard is dominated by Samsung, with Huawei typically failing to compete. The P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro infamously score 72 and 75 respectively. For some perspective, the Galaxy Note 9 which was released around the same time as the Mate 20 Pro scored a massive 92. 

We were critical of the Huawei's selfie camera performance much earlier in the year, and it's nice to see that the company has worked on it. The Honor 20 Pro scores 85, the P30 Pro scores 89, the Mate 30 Pro scores 93, and this new Nova 6 5G stuns with a score of 100. That shows a definite improvement by Huawei in that department, and fans of the company will be grateful for that.