Huawei is working on its way back to the forefront with the Huawei Mate 50 Pro launch with some exciting new camera advancements, which is more or less the brand’s strength now. The 50 Mate Pro comes with a very interesting mechanical variable aperture along with the main camera sensor. So this boils down to 50 megapixel primary camera with an F 1.4 to F 4 brightness level. The smartphone will be available for sale in India starting this November. According to multiple reports, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro price at the time of the launch will start from Rs 86,976. To see what more Huawei will be offering to the smartphone user base with this new device, let’s dig deeper with our Huawei Mate 50 Pro review.
A quick glance at the key Huawei Mate 50 Pro specifications
- Display – 74″ OLED, 1B colours, 120Hz, 1212x2616px resolution, 19.43:9 aspect ratio, 428ppi
- Chipset – Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730
- Operating system / Software: EMUI 13 (International); HarmonyOS 3.0 (China)
- Rear Camera – Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.4-f/4.0, 27mm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; Telephoto: 64 MP, f/3.5, 95mm, PDAF, OIS, 3.5x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, PDAF
- Front camera – Wide (main): 13 MP, f/2.4, 18mm; Depth: TOF 3D
- Video capture quality – Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240/480fps, 720p@960fps, 720p@3840fps, HDR, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps
- Memory – 256 GB, 8 GB RAM; 512 GB, 8 GB RAM; UFS 3.1; NM (Nano Memory); up to 256 GB (uses shared SIM slot)
- Battery – 4700mAh; Fast charging 66W, Fast wireless charging 50W, Reverse wireless charging 5W
- Other important features – Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC; Infrared port; stereo speakers
- Body – 162.1×75.5×8.5mm, 205g; glass front, aluminium frame, glass or leather back; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 6m for 30 mins
Huawei Mate 50 Pro Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
- Flagship performance in gaming and multitasking
- Great camera setup with 3.5x optical zoom
- Facilitates 4K video recordings with HDR and gyro-EIS support.
- It is NFC and OTG enabled
- Decent battery life with 66W fast charging support.
- Has an infrared port
- Impressive OLED display screen with 1B colours
- Support dust/water resistance
- Huawei Kunlun glass protection
- BDS Satellite message support
- Comes with stereo speakers
Disadvantages
- Expensive as per specifications offered
- No 5G connectivity even at this price point
- Without Google play services support
- No Google services compatibility
- Heavy-weight smartphone
- At this pricing, an 8K video recording is expected
- No custom UI support
- Shared SIM micro SD card slot
Huawei Mate 50 Pro Review
It appears Huawei has reserved its Mate series for all the innovations and some of the best features that the brand has to offer. As we mentioned the exciting camera that the brand has packed with this model, the mechanical variable aperture will allow users to be a lot more creative with the mobile camera than they could with a similar camera in competing smartphones. Users can shoot with it a wide open shot, and the sensor along with the aperture will let in more light. If the brand’s word is to be believed, up to 24% more light can be expected. Users can easily get out-of-focus “bokeh” and yet an attractive look in the portrait shots. At the same time, it can be stopped down to f/4 and the result shots will be more in focus.
Huawei Mate 50 Pro sports a 6.74 inch OLED display with a decent 120Hz refresh rate. The display is also ceramic glass material as per the brand and has received an HDR certification. The material that the brand is calling ceramic glass has been developed under toughened 1,600 degrees celsius temperatures. Huawei has also made the claim that the Mate 50 Pro model has been built with the most impact-resistant screen to be ever found in any of its other smartphones. This is one aspect that would not take much for users to test around.
For optimum performance, the smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. What is important to note here is that because of the US restriction of Huawei and the many concerns the authorities have raised on its 5G devices, this smartphone is restricted to the 4G version only. The same US restrictions are also the reason why Mate 50 Pro comes without any Google services. This means that smartphone users would not be able to access various Google services such as Gmail, Play Store or Chrome. Although the brand has been working hard to grow its own app in order to provide a necessary outlet to users, the fact remains that many games or other apps that are only available on the Play Store are inaccessible on Huawei devices.
No matter how the brand tries to position itself and the devices in the market, Huawei Mate 50 Pro not having Google services and 5G connectivity is a major disadvantage when it comes to smartphone usage.
Huawei, however, has tried its best to make up for the disadvantages in other departments in the smartphone. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro’s rear camera clearly steals the show with its primary 50 megapixel RYYB sensor and the 13 megapixel ultrawide camera which is teamed with autofocus and macro capabilities. The camera has been developed with a true variable aperture (f/1.4-f/4.0). The device also 64 megapixel telephoto camera along with a periscopic lens for 3.5x optical zoom. The entire camera system is supported by laser autofocus and a 10-channel multispectral sensor.
The Huawei Mate 50 Pro packaging box has been designed richly. Apart from the device, the package box also includes a 66W charger, a transparent soft case and a 6A-rated USB-A to USB-C cable.
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