Ai+ Nova 2 Ultra review: Strong gaming performance, massive battery under a budget

Pros 

Cons 

Ai+ Nova 2 Ultra price (6GB RAM/ 128GB storage): Rs 16,999

Rating: 3.5/5

The smartphone industry is entering a phase where price hikes are starting to feel inevitable. As companies pour more money into AI-focused chips, advanced semiconductors, and on-device AI features, the cost of making smartphones is steadily rising. The impact is already becoming visible. Not only are upcoming devices expected to become more expensive, but even older-generation models are slowly seeing price revisions in several markets.

That naturally raises an important question: what happens to entry-level smartphones in the middle of this AI arms race? Do brands start cutting corners even harder to protect margins? Do budget phones become slower, cheaper-looking, and packed with compromises?

While the future is still unclear, Ai+ Nova 2 Ultra is clearly not interested in behaving like a typical budget device.

More from Reviews

Before reviewing the device, I expected a fairly basic smartphone experience, something functional enough for daily use but easy to forget. Instead, the Nova 2 Ultra turned out to be far more ambitious than its price tag initially suggests. From everyday usability to gaming, the phone consistently feels like it is trying to punch above its segment rather than merely survive within it.

Let's delve deeper into the Ai+ Nova Ultra 2 review.

Design

As you slit the seal and open the box, you are greeted with a host of accoutrements, A rare sight these days. We get an 18W charger, a Type-C to Type-A USB cable, a pair of Bluetooth AirPods, and a soft silicone case.

The AI+ Nova Ultra 2 carries a boxy and sturdy design. On the back panel, it sports a pill-shaped island, housing a dual-camera setup.

But, as you look at the centre, there is a new design. At first, it felt like it is a MagSafe magnet and the brand name etched to it. But it is a notification orb. Just like other OEMs like Nothing, Ai+ has also introduced a new way to display notifications to the users. The LEDs, arranged in a circle, light up individually. You can play around with them in the settings and probably flaunt them as a novelty.

With such design features, it is noteworthy that the device brings a certain weight to it. The phone feels heavy and bulky in hand, thanks to the 200g weight and 8.69mm thickness.

Throughout my testing, I used the phone with the case included in the box. It does add some extra weight, to a device that is already slightly heavy.

That said, the phone has an even weight distribution, helping in single-handed use. It also has an IP68 rating, allowing it to withstand accidental water splashes.

The power button is red, perhaps to help it stand out. In addition to the standard volume rockers, Ai+ has included two capacitive shoulder triggers, and they quickly became one of my favourite features during long Counter-Strike and Tekken 3 sessions. I’ll dive deeper into how they perform in the gaming section.

Display

The AI+ Nova 2 Ultra comes with a 6.78-inch AMOLED display, and it is genuinely impressive for the sub-Rs 20,000 segment. The screen is bright and remains comfortably visible even under direct sunlight. The noticeable difference between blacks and greys also makes the display feel richer and more premium.

It is rare to see uniform bezels in an entry-level device. But Nova 2 Ultra features slim and uniform bezels to make the viewing experience even better.

With the 120Hz refresh rate, I witnessed no lags or glitches while gaming or during general use.

The auto-brightness adapts to changing environments easily. If you use the phone in harsh sunlight, the screen quickly adapts to the ambient light.

If you often end up watching a lot of content on your phone, the Nova 2 Ultra would not disappoint. Its colour-accurate display, paired with a stereo speaker setup, delivers a well-rounded entertainment experience.

To further assess the quality of the display, I used a refresh-rate tracker during my testing to monitor how consistently the phone handled high refresh rates across different tasks.

Interestingly, the refresh rate behaviour varied depending on the workload. While regular usage and BGMI mostly hovered around the 60fps mark, Counter-Strike maintained a steady 120fps throughout my extended sessions of joyfully shooting virtual baddies in Counter-Strike.

Battery Life and Charging

The massive 6,000mAh battery leaves little room for complaint, comfortably delivering around eight hours of screen-on time. Even when running low, a quick 30-minute top-up from the included 18W charger can add nearly 35% to 40% charge from a 10% battery reserve.

If you do not consume a lot of content on your phone and use it sparingly, the battery might even last close to a day and a half without needing a charging stop.

Cameras

The Nova Ultra 2 is equipped with a 50MP Sony IMX752 primary rear camera, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 13MP selfie camera. The camera setup gets the job done. All the shots I took during daylight showcased natural colours, apt detail, and balanced contrast.

While it looks good on paper, the real-life experience was a little different. The Nova 2 Ultra's shutter time was a problem. This means that whenever I clicked a picture, the device was unable to capture that exact moment. The images took a few seconds to optimise.

Beyond that, while choosing a focus point and manipulating the exposure, the slider would move in erratic stops, leaving your photos either overexposed or underexposed.

An issue that often bothered me with night photography pertained to clicking subjects at a distance, often leading the entire photograph to be overexposed.  That said, it is a common trait for all entry-level devices.

Macro shots were well detailed and captured vivid colours in their full glory.

The 8MP wide-angle sensor does its job well. In natural lighting, it captures details effectively. I took this wide-angle image in a park that had a thick cover of trees above it, and even then, the photo came out well-balanced with pertinent details intact.

The selfie camera works well in natural lighting and offers realistic colours with apt details. It’s only under artificial lighting that I felt it had a tendency to over-optimise and soften the images slightly.

Performance Test

The combination of the MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chipset and Mali-G615 MC2 GPU powers the phone efficiently, ensuring smooth performance across everyday tasks as well as gaming.

Battery life also remains largely unaffected under load, with the device continuing to run optimally even during extended gaming sessions. Stress tests further reinforced that the proof is in the pudding — it is only while actively using the phone that you realise how effortlessly it handles day-to-day usage.

That said, apps left open in the background would occasionally reload, though it was never frequent enough to become a serious concern.

To test it further, we put the phone under benchmark tests. During the Geekbench 6 test, the phone scored 1052 in single-core and 2723 in multi-core. To our surprise, the Nova 2 Ultra noted 99.3 per cent stability during the wild-life stress test.

Its hardware does the hard work when gaming. I tried playing Counter-Strike, BGMI, and a few older titles on emulators. Even during the most strenuous gaming sessions I could manage as a novice, the phone didn’t heat up once, and the performance didn’t seem to throttle either.

It isn’t the hardware that skips a beat; it is rather the software. There is no way around this, but the Android 16-based NxtQuantum OS needs optimisation. While tech giants are arduously at work to ensure that all actions in the UI seem flawless and fluid, the Nova Ultra 2’s UI stands out with its sometimes obtuse tendency to feel jittery.

Verdict: Should you buy Ai+ Nova Ultra?

The Ai+ Nova 2 Ultra offers far more than what its Rs 16,999 price tag suggests. Its vibrant AMOLED display, reliable battery life, gaming triggers, and capable performance help it stand out in the crowded sub-Rs 20,000 segment. However, it is not without flaws.

The cameras are decent, though inconsistent at times, while NxtQuantum OS still needs better optimisation. But if you prioritise gaming, multimedia, and battery life over camera perfection, the Nova 2 Ultra delivers a surprisingly well-rounded experience for the price.