Getting a phone for less than Rs 10,000 that you can flaunt and a good all-round user experience is difficult. If you can increase your budget and go a little more, then a whole new world is waiting, a one who is smiling with possibilities. But what if you have a super-tight budget? The tables suddenly turn, and you are left with less options. This section is not a hotband of the essential innovation, which can ask for a phone to provide enough basics to cover bare requirements and depend on the formulas made.

NXTQUANTUM Shift Technologies, a new technology startup, which has former Realme CEO Madhav Sheth, which wants to change the stereotype with brand-new AI Plus Nova 5G. This phone, no matter where you look, feels heavy on the specs and surprisingly highlights the pocket. Some people may also say that it is very good to be true. For an initial price of Rs 7,999, you are getting more than your money, as far as hardware is concerned. But if NXTQUANTUM is anything, its software is its largest USPS. For a new brand that is trying to break into India’s hyper-practical smartphone space, AI Plus Nova becomes very correct on paper. So, how does it rent in the real world? Let’s find out in this India Today Tech Review.

AI Plus Nova 5G Review: Design and Performance

AI Plus Nova 5G has raised the bar, especially from the design perspective. For a device related to this price section, the phone has a premium look and feel. It has a boxy build, but with a thin profile. It is light and smooth to fit perfectly in your hand. I am using the green variants (it also comes in the option of blue, white, pink, purple and black), and I love how minimum the design is. The rear panel has a subtle rectangular shaped camera island, hosting dual shooters.

The company has noticed the details. The island on the back panel is divided into half (horizontally) with a deep shade of green. Additionally, the power button on the edge is contrary to the rest of the color profile. it is red. Following such a description, AI Plus Nova keeps 5G boredom.

This minimum approach also means that without excessive wanki, the phone remains quite stable when placed on a flat surface. While the design is grip-friendly, to combat sweat/smooth fingers, the smartphone comes with a protective case in the box.

Coming on the display, AI Plus Nova 5G has a large 6.75-inch display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It is also bright to live completely under sunlight, and the vivid colors on the performance make everything more immersive. Bezels can be more similar, but it makes sense at this price.

AI Plus Nova 5G Review: Performance & Battery

Powered by an UNISOC T8200 chip, AI Plus runs on Nova 5G NXTQ OS, based on Android 15. The best part, the phone comes with no blotware, which is a rare vision with an entry-level smartphone. The new NXTQ OS is the name of Android skin that the brand is offering more than Android 15. It has a privacy dashboard so that you can track which apps are accessing your data. There is an app store, design tool, community app and wallpaper app from the platform.

With this new OS, the phone offers a smooth and staggering performance. Whether it is scrolling on Instagram or whether it is WhatsApp chatting or biping video on YouTube, the phone offers a large-scale leg-free performance.

In fact, to put it through my pace, I also run some benchmark tests on the device. On Geekbench, the phone saw 742 for single-core and 1995 for multi-core.

The smartphone packs a large 5,000mAh battery. I have been using it for about 2 weeks now, and I can say that it can easily strengthen through daily tasks. While I used the phone for only WhatsApp chatting, Instagram scrolling, the AI Plus Nova 5G 5G was able to pull 8-9 hours, watching youtube videos and sometimes reading.

While the battery is good for the phone in the sub-RS 8,000 segments, 10W charging speed leaves you to ask for more. It took about 2 hours to charge from 2 percent to 88 percent.

AI Plus Nova 5G Review: Camera

The AI Plus Nova comes with a 50-megapixel primary sensor and 5-megapixel front camera on the 5G back. While specifications seem promising, the actual world performance is decreasing. The camera struggles with a fine detail, often produces shots that lack desired sharpness and clarity. Especially in complex texture or low-light environment creeps tenderness. For casual photography and social media posts, it completes the work, but it is unlikely to affect severe shutterbugs.

In the daylight, the colors appear vivid, yet the highly smooth finished images look slightly flat. The portrait mode performs evenly. While the edge detection is better than other smartphones in the price segment, the flattening effect results look slightly artificial.

Interestingly, the front camera provides the opposite experience, distributing images that bends to the grains instead of lubricating.

See samples of photo clicked photos using AI Plus Nova 5G here.

AI Plus Nova 5G: Is it worth it?

For Rs 7,999, AI Plus Nova 5G is definitely worth it. It plays a beautiful design that at first you cannot even tell you that it is less than Rs 10,000. Apart from looks, the phone also has other premium features. For example, a 6.7-inch HD+ display, 5,000mAh battery and 50-megapixel primary camera. For budget-conscious buyers, it comes as a fresh air breath, a recommendation that is easy to recommend.