Huawei Mate 50 Pro review: The best smartphone you either can't buy or probably won't buy - ZDNet

2 years ago 111

Pros

Smart design, coagulated physique prime
Excellent 120Hz OLED surface
Innovative and precise effectual camera strategy
High-end chipset delivers bully show
IP68 dust/water resistance

Cons

No Google Mobile Services
No 5G
Durable Kunlun solid connected Orange mentation lone
Expensive

Huawei's Mate smartphones regularly showcase cutting-edge design, physique and features, and this year's Mate 50 Pro is nary exception. The header diagnostic is simply a superb 50MP Ultra Aperture XMAGE camera with a 10-size adjustable carnal aperture, though we indispensable besides enactment the lack of Google Mobile Services (GMS) and deficiency of 5G enactment acknowledgment to ongoing US sanctions.

Those omissions whitethorn good marque the Mate 50 Pro's terms tag -- £1,199.99 successful the UK, €1,199 successful Europe – hard to swallow, particularly erstwhile there's plentifulness of GMS/5G-equipped contention successful the four-figure 'ultra-premium' smartphone sector. Needless to say, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro is not disposable successful the US.

Even so, it's good worthy examining however the Mate 50 Pro's benefits and drawbacks play out.

Design

In presumption of look and feel, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro is each inch the ultra-premium smartphone. Rather than being a regularisation slab of metallic and glass, the Mate 50 Pro has immoderate distinctive features successful the signifier of the curved solid overlaying its 6.74-inch show and the circular 'Space Ring' lodging for the rear cameras. There's a slim notch astatine the apical of the surface to location the beforehand camera array, but it's not overly intrusive.

We had the Silver exemplary for review. A Black mentation is besides disposable successful the UK and Europe, but there's nary motion of the Orange variant, which arsenic good arsenic having a striking vegan leather backmost uses durable Kunlun Glass to support the screen. Huawei does not disclose the benignant of solid utilized connected the beforehand and backmost of the Silver and Black models, but it's a shame that tougher Kunlun Glass is not utilized passim the range.

The Space Ring is simply a ample cardinal raised ellipse containing what looks similar 4 rear cameras. In fact, determination are three, positive a laser autofocus system. The Space Ring does protrude by a mates of millimetres, but its cardinal determination makes for bully stableness erstwhile the handset is connected a level surface. You get a wide bumper lawsuit successful the box, which helps with grip and protects the rear of the handset.

The powerfulness fastener and measurement rocker are some connected the close edge, leaving the near borderline free. The apical borderline has an infrared sensor and a microphone, portion the bottommost borderline houses a SIM/Nano Memory (NM) paper slot, a USB-C larboard and a talker grille. You tin unlock the Mate 50 Pro utilizing look oregon fingerprint recognition: the beforehand camera array includes a 3D extent sensing camera for look recognition, portion the fingerprint sensor is simply a speedy and susceptible in-display unit.

Like astir existent flagship-class smartphones, the Mate 50 Pro has an IP68 standing for particulate and h2o resistance. That means the handset is 'dust tight' and tin grip immersion successful static h2o astatine up to 2 metres (Silver and Black models) oregon 6m (Orange variant) for 30 minutes.

The other features connected the Orange mentation -- vegan leather back, 512GB of interior retention (vs 256GB), Kunlun Glass, amended h2o absorption -- relationship for the €200 terms quality compared to the Silver and Black models.

Features

Outside China, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro runs open-source Android-based EMUI 13 connected Qualcomm's existent top-end Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset -- with 4G but not 5G support, acknowledgment to the US sanctions mentioned earlier (next year's flagship phones volition beryllium powered by the precocious announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 2). All models travel with 8GB of RAM, portion the Silver and Black versions person 256GB of interior retention and the Orange variant has 512GB. Storage enlargement is disposable via Huawei's proprietary NM cards.

Other wireless capabilities are up to date, with Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2, NFC and infrared each supported. Location technologies see dual-band GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, GALILEO, QZSS and NavIC. Unfortunately, the European mentation of the Mate 50 Pro lacks the quality to nonstop substance messages via a outer connection, arsenic is the lawsuit with the Chinese model. The grade to which the deficiency of 5G volition occupation you volition beryllium connected sum successful your area: wherever I unrecorded (a agrarian country 40 miles northbound of London) determination is presently nary 5G sum from immoderate of the UK's 4 mobile networks -- O2, Vodafone, EE and Three. Still, if I'm paying a four-figure sum for a telephone I'd program to support for astatine slightest a mates of years, I'd privation it to beryllium future-proofed with 5G support.

The 6.74-inch show is an OLED sheet with 2616 by 1212 solution (19.5:9 facet ratio, 428ppi), 10-bit colour (1.07 cardinal colours) and HDR10+ support, and an awesome screen-to-body ratio of 91.4%. It has a maximum refresh complaint of 120Hz for creaseless scrolling and animation, a 300Hz interaction sampling complaint and supports 1440Hz PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) dimming, which reduces flicker erstwhile surface brightness is low.

Multiple show adjustments are available, galore allowing you to commercialized disconnected representation prime against powerfulness consumption. You tin tally the surface astatine precocious (2616x1212) oregon debased (1744x808) resolution, oregon person it automatically set (the default setting). The refresh complaint is handled similarly, with precocious (120Hz), modular (60Hz) oregon dynamic (default) settings. You tin besides specify whether an always-on show is enabled and however it's accessed (tap-to-show, scheduled oregon each day), person brightness adjusted automatically oregon manually, prime and docket Dark and Eye Comfort modes, and prime colour mode (Normal oregon Vivid) and colour somesthesia (default, lukewarm oregon cool). Bottom line: it's an fantabulous screen.

There are 2 speakers – the earpiece successful the surface notch and a 2nd talker connected the bottommost edge. Between them, these present plentifulness of volume, with bully treble, which is nary surprise, but besides bully bass response, which is rarer. There's nary 3.5mm audio jack.

Cameras

With its erstwhile camera spouse Leica having jumped vessel to rival smartphone vendor Xiaomi, Huawei announced its ain imaging marque – XMAGE – successful July and launched it successful September with the Mate 50 Pro.

The cardinal diagnostic of the Mate 50 Pro's XMAGE camera strategy is the OIS-equipped 50MP Ultra Aperture camera, which uses an adjustable SLR-style carnal aperture, with six blades offering 10 selectable steps – successful Pro mode -- from f/1.4 (more light, shallower extent of field) to f/4.0 (less light, broader extent of field).

This is accompanied by a 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide space (120˚ tract of view) camera with macro capableness and a 64MP f/3.5 periscope telephoto (3.5x optical zoom) with OIS. Also astatine the backmost is simply a laser autofocus unit, a multispectral sensor to assistance heighten colour accuracy and a dual LED flash.

Huawei's Mate 50 Pro presently sits atop the smartphone camera rankings astatine DXOMARK, intimately followed by the Google Pixel 7 Pro. Since we had a Pixel Pro 7 to hand, we decided to marque immoderate side-by-side comparisons, wherever relevant.

Variable carnal aperture

Huawei Mate 50 Pro

Telephoto

Huawei Mate 50 Pro: 1x

Google Pixel 7 Pro: 1x

Huawei Mate 50 Pro: 3.5x (optical) zoom

Google Pixel 7 Pro: 3.5x (optical) zoom

Huawei Mate 50 Pro: 10x (hybrid) zoom

Google Pixel 7 Pro: 10x (hybrid) zoom

Wide angle

Huawei Mate 50 Pro

Google Pixel 7 Pro

Macro

Huawei Mate 50 Pro (left), Google Pixel 7 Pro (right)

Low airy & Night mode

Huawei Mate 50 Pro

Google Pixel 7 Pro

The Mate 50 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro some execute precise well, delivering bully item astatine 10x zoom, satisfying wide space and macro images, and bully nighttime mode shooting. Where the Huawei Mate 50 Pro has the borderline is its adaptable carnal aperture functionality, which gives bully originative power and, on with the main camera's RYYB sensor, allows for fantabulous low-light performance.

The beforehand camera array successful the on-screen notch comprises a 13MP f/2.4 camera and a 3D extent sensor for look recognition. You tin prime 1x, 0.8x oregon wide angle, and use quality mode and assorted effects successful bid to marque the astir of your selfies. Both rear and beforehand cameras tin sprout video astatine up to 4K@60fps, with representation stabilisation disposable connected the former.

Performance & artillery beingness

Qualcomm's 2022 flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, backed up by 8GB of RAM, helps the Mate 50 Pro present awesome all-round performance. It besides beats Huawei's erstwhile show champ, the P50 Pro, which is based connected the 2021 Snapdragon 888 chipset.

Geekbench 5 CPU show of 925 (single core) and 4072 (multi core) puts the Mate 50 Pro successful the front fertile of Android handsets. If you prosecute the Mate 50 Pro's show mode, you'll get a important boost to single-core show (1286, +39%) and a flimsy dip successful multi-core velocity (3894, -4.4%), according to our tests.

The Adreno 730 GPU besides delivers a decent boost implicit the P50 Pro successful the Geekbench 5 Compute (GPU) tests:

The PCMark for Android Work 3.0 benchmark evaluates handsets connected a scope of mundane activities -- web browsing, video editing, writing, photograph editing and information manipulation. Both of Huawei's handsets execute good overall, but the Mate 50 Pro comes retired connected top, with photograph editing show lasting retired astatine 21.3% up of the P50 Pro.

The Mate 50 Pro runs connected a 4700mah battery, which is considerably much capableness than the 4360mAh artillery successful the P50 Pro. This is reflected successful the PCMark for Android Work 3.0 artillery life benchmark, which reported 15 hours 44 minutes for the Mate 50 Pro versus 11h 38m for the P50 Pro.

PCMark for Android Work 3.0 artillery life

Although Huawei doesn't enactment the precise accelerated charging speeds of immoderate manufacturers (Realme [150W] and Xiaomi [120W], for example), the Mate 50 Pro's artillery charges rapidly capable astatine 66W utilizing the supplied USB-C adapter. Wireless (50W) and reverse wireless (7.5W) charging are besides supported. If you request to eke retired artillery life, you tin set things similar surface brightness, solution and refresh complaint to support powerfulness depletion to a minimum. Also adjuvant is simply a caller Low-Battery Emergency Mode, wherever 'optimal' powerfulness absorption automatically kicks successful erstwhile the artillery level reaches 1%, delivering different 3 hours of standby clip oregon 12 minutes of speech time, Huawei claims.

User acquisition

As noted earlier, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro runs connected open-source Android and Huawei's EMUI 13 idiosyncratic interface, replacing Google Mobile Services (GMS) with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Instead of Google Play Store you get Huawei AppGallery, which volition find some, but astir apt not all, of the autochthonal apps you require. Google apps and third-party apps that usage GMS are missing, of course, but Huawei has worked hard to supply alternatives specified arsenic Petal Maps and Petal Search. In the lack of a requested app, AppGallery volition nonstop you to the applicable website, oregon to a third-party app store specified arsenic APKPure. As of July 2022, Huawei claims that the HMS ecosystem encompasses 5.4 cardinal registered developers and 203,000 apps. Be that arsenic it may, users extracurricular China volition person to judge immoderate other hassle compared to a regular Android/GMS experience, oregon look elsewhere.

If you bash clasp the Huawei ecosystem, you'll observe plentifulness of utile functionality successful EMUI 13. Widgets person been enhanced, for example: app icons that are underlined tin beryllium swiped upwards to entree a widget, which tin either beryllium utilized in situ oregon pinned to the location screen. Widgets tin beryllium combined or, if the aforesaid size, stacked. Also, Smart folders, which tin clasp up to 9 tiny (active) app icons, present connection much resizing options. These and different features, specified arsenic Multi-Window and One-Handed modes, let you to put and navigate the idiosyncratic interface successful conscionable the mode that works for you. There's adjacent a Senior mode that sets up larger substance and icons.

Notifications are accessed by swiping down from the apical of the near two-thirds of the screen, with the power sheet appearing erstwhile you swipe the right-hand third. Swiping downwards from anyplace other connected the surface brings up hunt (Bing by default, with options for Qwant, Petal and Seznam). Huawei has its ain integer adjunct too, successful the signifier of Celia.

New features successful EMUI 13 see SuperStorage (accessed via Settings/Storage/Clean up), which deduplicates and compresses files, and compresses seldom utilized apps (decompressing them erstwhile invoked). Another utile diagnostic is SuperHub, a cross-application and, potentially, cross-device record transportation system: you long-press connected files, resistance them to the SuperHub floating window, from wherever they tin beryllium accessed from different app, oregon -- if you're logged into your Huawei relationship -- copied to different wireless-connected Huawei instrumentality via the company's Super Device system.

Elsewhere, there's an enhanced Privacy Centre that shows the fig of times antithetic apps person accessed accusation similar location, camera and microphone, and allows you to negociate permissions. Another caller privateness feature, Image Privacy Protection, removes metadata specified arsenic determination and clip stamps from images that you upload to societal media apps.

Conclusions

The bottommost enactment arsenic regards Huawei's Mate 50 Pro is simply a acquainted refrain: large phone, shame astir the deficiency of Google Mobile Services and 5G. In this lawsuit it's a treble shame, due to the fact that with GMS and 5G, the Mate 50 Pro would rival the champion connected connection from competitors specified arsenic Samsung, Apple, Google and Xiaomi. Some users, peculiarly keen photographers, whitethorn beryllium consenting to place these drawbacks and wage the four-figure asking price, but we fishy that astir won't.

Huawei Mate 50 Pro specifications

Dimensions	75.5mm x 162.1mm x 8.5mm
Weight	209g (glass back), 205g (vegan leather back)
Colours	silver, achromatic (glass back), orangish (vegan leather back)
Display	6.74-inch OLED, 2616 x 1212 pixels (428ppi), 120Hz refresh, 300Hz interaction sampling, 10-bit colour (1.07bn colours), 100% DCI-P3
Dust & h2o resistance	IP68
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G
RAM	8GB
Internal storage	256GB, 512GB
External storage	Huawei NM slot (shared with SIM)
OS	open-source Android + EMUI 13
Google Mobile Services	no (Huawei Mobile Services instead)
Rear cameras	50MP Ultra Aperture (f/1.4-f/4, OIS)• 13MP Ultra Wide Angle (f/2.2) • 64MP Telephoto (f/3.5, OIS)
Front cameras	13MP Ultra Wide Angle (f/2.4) • 3D Depth Sensing Camera
Audio	stereo speakers, 3 mics, nary 3.5mm headset jack
Battery capacity	4700mAh
Battery charging	66W wired • 50W wireless • 7.5W reverse wireless
Price	€1199 (8GB/256GB, silver/black) • €1399 (8GB/512GB, orangish leather)