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Huawei isn't giving up on the high-end. In April we were able to test the Huawei P50 Pro and, just a couple of months ago, we analyzed the Huawei Mate XS 2, the company's new foldable. The latest high-end model to join the family is the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, the company's flagship. The most ambitious camera hardware, a new-generation processor, and (almost) everything on offer.
We take an in-depth look at the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, a device that faces the challenge of making us fall in love despite not having Google services, and with the ambition of have one of the best cameras on the marketWe've already told you that it delivers much of what it promises, although the shadow of the software will shadow it throughout this review.
HUAWEI MATE 50 PRO
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT
162.5 x 75.5 x 8.5 mm
205 grams
SCREEN
6.74-inch OLED
FullHD+ resolution (2,616 x 1,212 pixels)
Refresh rate: 120 Hz
Touch sampling rate: 300 Hz
1.07 billion colors
Huawei Kunlun Glass
PROCESSOR
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4G)
Adreno 730 GPU
RAM MEMORY
8 GB
INTERNAL STORAGE
256/512 GB
Expandable with NM Cards
REAR CAMERA
50 MP f/1.4-f/4, OIS
Wide angle 13 MP f/2.2
Telephoto 64 MP f/3.5, OIS
3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom
FRONT CAMERA
13 MP f/2.4
ToF
BATTERY
4,700 mAh
66W fast charging
50W Wireless Fast Charging
Reverse wireless charging
OPERATING SYSTEM
HarmonyOS 3.0
CONNECTIVITY
4G
Dual SIM
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
USB Type C
NFC
Dual-frequency GPS
OTHERS
IP68
On-screen fingerprint reader
PRICE
1,199 euros
We usually start our reviews by discussing the materials and construction of our devices, but the notch is such a key feature of this Mate 50 Pro that it's worth starting by talking about it. It is currently the longest in the high-end range, with a size that reminds us of the one we saw four years ago in the iPhone X. Even Apple, the culprit of this (now outdated) trend, progressively reduced the size of its notch, but Huawei revives it on this front, which reminds us quite a bit of a Mate 20 Pro.
The presence of this notch, despite its length, is justified. Huawei is betting on 3D facial recognition which we will talk about later, and the price for having such advanced technology is making certain sacrifices on the front of the device.
If we talk about the rear, The module is even more prominent than in the previous generation.Personally, I found the Mate 40 Pro to be a slightly more elegant phone, as it integrates the lenses directly into this glass module. On the Mate 50 Pro, in addition to having a more prominent module, the lenses are positioned in a somewhat less refined 2 + 2 arrangement. This is the price you pay for increasingly larger sensors.
The rear finish is also not very convincing, with a glass that gets covered in fingerprints and is quite slippery. Just placing your finger on it leaves a very noticeable mark. On the other hand, Huawei includes a transparent cover in the box which solves part of the problem, as well as a plastic protector on the screen.
The buttons are perhaps a bit high, especially the volume buttons. The unlock button is quite small, but not in a bad position. The keystroke is quite solid., they don't dance at all and respond firmly.
In short, a well-finished mobile phone, with the drawback of being quite dirty on the back, and with the return of a notch that could be smaller, but at least justifies its purpose. For better or worse, this Mate 50 Pro has its own personality in 2022, something that isn't so simple.
If we talk about the screen of this Huawei Mate 50 Pro, we go from 6.76 inches to 6.74, the Full HD+ resolution is maintained. The refresh rate goes up to 120 Hz, but we're not looking at an adaptive LTPO panel. In terms of sharpness, colorimetry, and overall experience, it's a great screen. It's barely different in quality from that of the Huawei P50 Pro, with the drawback of a lateral curvature that causes more problems than joys.
Apart from the shading that is generated with this type of curves, we have suffered some phantom heartbeatsIf we hold the phone firmly, the curve falls on the surface of our fingers, and when it detects that this is a touch, we've had problems with some apps.
Another issue we've had with the Mate 50 Pro is its automatic brightness, which is too energy-efficient. Even on the street, in full sun, the brightness has not been turned up to maximum., forcing me to manually upload it from the 75/80% where it remained. This is easy to fix via software, although the problem was present when I analyzed the phone.
From the settings, we can choose between a vivid mode and a normal mode, and we can also change the color temperature to warmer or cooler. The refresh rate can be forced to 120 Hz, or we can keep it in dynamic mode so that it oscillates between 120 and 60 Hz to try to save energy.
The same thing happens with the resolution, we can reduce it to 1,744 x 808 (a little more than HD) to save battery, something we do not recommend on a panel of this size, as the pixels begin to show at the edges.
If the notch bothers us excessively, we can virtually draw a black frame which obscures the entire top portion. If we activate this option, we completely destroy the symmetry between frames, and we'll have a huge virtual bevel at the top of the design.
The overall feeling about the panel is very good. It's not competing in the top 3, but it remains in a good position in terms of balance. 2K is missed on an Android of this price and size., in addition to LTPO technology. However, it's a panel that's both enjoyable and competitive in the high-end range.
The sound section was already good in the last generation, and the experience is repeated in this Mate 50 Pro. We have two speakers for stereo sound, with a very good volume level And the only fault is not fully boosting the bass. From the 80% onwards, there's noticeable distortion, although the maximum volume is so high that we won't need to crank it up to the max to enjoy a good experience.
If we connect our headphones, we'll access several sound profiles, including Huawei's equalizer. We would like to find these options for the device's own speakers, so we can customize the sound the phone emits to our liking. As with virtually all high-end models, there is no headphone jack, so if we want audio via cable we will have to use port C.
We were happy with the performance of the Huawei P50 Pro, but we did not fully understand the inclusion of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. With this Mate 50 Pro all the meat is on the grill, and we find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, Qualcomm's most powerful processor to date. Despite including this processor, 5G connectivity is neither here nor expected, as this is one of the main limitations that Huawei currently has.
Accompanied by 8GB of RAM (12GB is starting to be missed at this price), the processor flies. In this phone we have hardly noticed any throttling, and the performance seems to be excellent. In CPU throttling tests, performance only dropped by 23%, while several of its rivals saw performance drop by more than 40%.
These data usually accompany those of the GPU. If the drop is large in the CPU, the graphics unit usually has similar data. Indeed, the data is quite consistent. We can clearly see the graph. a fall from just over 10,000 points to 8,000 In the 3DMark stress test, stability was 74.5%, one of the phones that handled the Snapdragon best.
Huawei's strategy, according to benchmark data, is to be a little more conservative in managing the chip (peak scores are below the maximums seen on its rivals), in order to better control performance drops. It's of little use for a phone to reach a brutal peak in performance that it can't sustain for more than a couple of minutes, so we're more than happy with the decision made for this Mate 50 Pro.
Huawei Mate 50 Pro
Google Pixel 6a
iPhone 14 Pro
Samsung Galaxy S22
Xiaomi 12
Asus Zenfone 9
Sony Xperia 1 IV
PROCESSOR
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Google Tensor
Apple A16 Bionic
Exynos 2200
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
RAM
8 GB
6 GB
4GB
8 GB
8 GB
8 GB
12 GB
GEEKBENCH 5 (SINGLE/MULTI)
929 / 3.290
–
1.879 / 5.468
1.165 / 3.543
1.120 / 3.531
1.317 / 3.944
1.175 / 3.262
3D MARK Wild Life Unlimited
10.457
–
12.344
–
–
9.526
10.761
3D MARK Wild Life Stress Unlimited
10.743 / 8.036
–
12.344 / 7.931
–
–
10.892 / 8.166
10.071 / 4.232
PCMARK WORK
10.456
9.739
–
12.425
13.097
16.243
11.431
Performance on games like Apex Legends in Ultra HD or Genshin Impact in high resolution is excellent, with some very occasional FPS drops, but nothing to worry about. As a curiosity, I'd like to point out that I haven't been able to test Genshin Impact in the areas of the map I usually use (which are more graphically intensive), since Without Google services I can't log in to my account.
When talking about biometrics on Android, we usually find 2D facial recognition and an under-screen fingerprint reader. In the case of this Mate 50 Pro We have good news, and facial recognition is 3D. Its operation is very good, it's not as fast as Apple's Face ID, but it's an ideal, secure solution that works in low light.
It has a certain learning curve, and in the first two days the facial recognition failed me quite a bit, and later go on to function practically flawlessly as the days of use progressed.
It's complemented by an under-screen fingerprint reader that also works quite quickly and has a fairly low error rate. In short, a practically perfect biometrics which proves that sometimes it's better to have a notch in exchange for a superlative unlocking experience.
The Mate 50 Pro's battery life is quite good, even though 4,700mAh isn't much for a nearly 6.7-inch screen. However, seven hours of screen time are guaranteed, with a 66W fast charging system that fully charges the device. 41 minutes. On the most demanding cycle, with plenty of gaming, 4G, and some rides using Petal Maps, we reached midnight with over 4 hours of screen time and almost 40% of battery remaining.
In just half an hour we will have the mobile charged to 80%, so if we ever need extra battery life, all we need is a quick plug-in. Wireless charging is 50W, which is the icing on the cake for a charging system that doesn't need to go close to 100W to provide a good experience.
Another point that we loved is that Huawei allows you to limit the load to the range you want between 70 and 90%Current literature indicates that charging at a maximum of 80% is beneficial for battery life, making it an ideal option for maximizing battery longevity.
AIDA64 tells us that this Mate 50 Pro runs EMUI 13.0 with Android 12The problem is the one already known at Huawei: we don't have Google services. Huawei insists that AppGallery is a good alternative to the Play Store, and although it is gradually expanding its catalog, It is still difficult to recommend a phone with this problem to an average user..
AppGallery greets us with ads, recommends apps we don't even know about, and a good portion of the apps most users use on a daily basis (WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, etc.) are downloaded externally. Petal Search is integrated into AppGallery's own search engine., to try to find those apps that are not hosted on Huawei servers.
When you find it in an external repository, initially approved by Huawei, gives us a disclaimer (If we install something that is not on the AppGallery servers, even if we have searched for it in AppGallery, Huawei is not responsible) and we can proceed with the installation from this third-party repository.
Just like we complained about the Mate XS 2, we complain about this Mate 50 Pro: there's no consistency in the installation method. Some apps install directly from AppGallery, even if they're from an external repository. Others take us directly to the website, and here it's quite easy. Confusing “DOWNLOAD NOW” ads with the small “download APK” banner.
For the most experienced app installer, installing apps from outside the app store won't be a problem, but I can't imagine my family and close friends browsing APKpure, looking for the APK download banner, and installing files safely.
Regarding Google services, we find alternatives such as Gspace, which virtualize a space in which we can enter the Play Store by passing ourselves off as a Mate 20 Pro. It is still a third-party app that will have all our Google passwords and keys., and where information about all the apps we install from this virtual space can be collected. It's up to each user to decide whether or not to install it.
It's a way to install WhatsApp with your copy of Google Drive, Google services like Gmail, Maps, Drive, etc., and receive notifications from them as if they were natively installed. However, It has advertising if we don't pay, it is not as secure as Play Store.
He spoiler it's already done, This is one of the best cameras we've tested.. But before discussing the results, it's time to talk about the photographic hardware incorporated in this device. The module is enormous and houses four enormous circles, although we will actually use three camerasThe fourth "camera" is a proximity sensor. So what sensors does this Mate 50 Pro have?
The most striking thing about this configuration is that We have a main sensor with variable aperture between f/1.4 and f/4.0The phone will automatically adjust the aperture according to the scene. Alternatively, you can manually change it in either professional mode or aperture mode. And since we're talking about modes, let's review the camera app.
Huawei's camera app hasn't changed much in recent years. It could use a minor facelift to modernize it, but in terms of functionality, it can't be asked for much more. All important modes are in the bottom carousel, we have additional modes in a “more” tab and, what we don’t like so much, are the submenus that are hidden within the settings menu.
For example, if we want to switch from 1080p to 4K recording, there's no quick access. You have to open the settings, go to video resolution, and change the resolution and frame rate values. For obvious reasons, we don't have Google Lens integration, although Huawei has its own "AI Lens" feature so we can read QR codes, translate text, or even try to identify the calories in a food.
But what we liked most this generation has been the shutter speed of this Mate 50 ProWith the P50 Pro, I had some issues when shooting quickly. This Mate 50 Pro doesn't flinch, capturing images instantly, and unless we ask the shutter to take a lot of photos in a short period of time, there are no complaints.
WowI am demanding, very demanding, when it comes to analyzing high-end cameras. Along with the Pixel 7 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro, this is one of the few phones that has managed to impress me this year. The dynamic range is brutal, with simply perfect highlight control and very well-controlled shadows.
In extreme situations like the example above, we observe that the processed is not entirely natural, a common theme in every single phone we've reviewed this year. Despite this, the level of detail is very good, and the main complaint is the noise reduction process, which can create some spotty areas in the photo.
Even zooming in to the 100% in the most cornered areas of the photo didn't get the knee to stick in. The exercise with the sharpening is relatively moderate, and it ensures that when we photograph signs or any scene that has marked edges, the limits of the same are maintained quite naturally.
I was surprised by this camera's tendency to warm up, rather than opting for a neutral white balance. Sometimes, the more orangey areas end up oversaturated, and even in scenes with little warmth, the Mate manages to give everything that orange hue. It is a technically incorrect decision, but visually pleasing. in most scenes.
Here we return to the debate between whether we want the most realistic photography or the one that most convinces the average user, and bet on that look proper is a strong turn towards the second. The photos of this Mate now have their own essence, and that's a positive thing.
In close-up photography It is fast and accurate in focusing, something that, combined with the good shooting speed, prevents blurry and out-of-focus photos. The shooting experience is key on any phone, and aside from the poor quality of the preview, we really enjoyed taking photos of everything on this Mate 50 Pro.
The high-end proves it's high-end when night falls. This Mate 50 Pro is a beast in less-than-optimal conditions, with simply impeccable highlight control, a good level of detail (here we do notice the more artificial processing, but nothing exaggerated), and an overall balance in the photographs that is outstanding.
Something quite curious happens with night mode: it is best to avoid it at all costsThe Mate 50 Pro's automatic shooting already processes images as if it were using night mode (it takes a little longer to capture the photo to capture more light). If we manually activate "night" mode, the processing becomes much more aggressive, we lose control of the highlights, and the photo isn't even brighter. In short, it's better to shoot in automatic mode and let it do the work.
The Mate 50 Pro's star feature is its physical aperture, which ranges from f/4 to f/1.4, with the ability to play with all the values in between. There are two modes to change the aperture. The first is the professional mode, where you can configure all the steps between f/4 and f/1.4. pure physical openness.
The second mode is the aperture mode, which in this Mate 50 Pro It has two variantsThe first is an aperture mode that allows us to change only the physical lens settings. The second is the classic digital aperture mode, which combines physical and software aperture. In other words, if we use the physical mode and shoot at f/1.4, we're simply shooting at f/1.4, without any software intervention.
If we shoot at f/1.4 in virtual mode, we are simply emulating the aperture values in software (for example, we may shoot at f/16 so there is no bokeh, but the lens will be at an actual physical aperture of f/1.4 to capture light). The bottom line here is that It is better to avoid digital opening If we want real bokeh, we must keep in mind, however, that if we lower the aperture value (f/4 or close to it) the lens will capture less light and we will have darker photos.
I had to look at the Mate 50 Pro's spec sheet a couple of times to check that the 10x zoom wasn't optical. Regarding the 3.5x, it is quite clear, and this sensor is the basis from which the different zoom ranges in this device start, up to 100x.
The 100x zoom remains a trivial feature and a real-world scenario, unlike the 3.5x or 10x zoom. Shooting at maximum zoom is still practically a blur, although it's a rather striking feature that shows off Huawei's zoom muscle.
The ultra-wide-angle is the weakest camera on this phone, a common trend for any of its rivals. The processing is very similar to that of the main camera, so there is good dynamic range and that little shift towards warmIt's a sensor that will be a must-have for any high-end product, although its quality isn't comparable to the main sensor and telephoto lens.
Not everything could be almost perfect on the Mate 50 Pro. Portrait mode remains one of Huawei's pending issues.. If we shoot at the portrait itself, the processing of the skin is not entirely goodThe tones tend excessively toward pinkish, regardless of whether the skin tone is lighter or darker. The main problem is that Huawei defines bokeh as "an effect," and we can actually make the bokeh appear as circles, hearts, swirls, and so on.
Even the selfie is top-notch on this Huawei, which handles even the most aggressive backlighting without generating chromatic aberrations or artifacts of any kind. The skin processing here is the most accurate we've seen from the company to date. without over-lightening the skin, with an astonishing level of sharpness and understanding that you don't need to wash anything to get a better photo. An outstanding selfie to top off a magnificent camera setup.
Video recording has taken another significant leap forward in this Mate 50 Pro. We have 4K 60 FPS on both the front camera (something not very common) and the rear camera. The quality is good, especially the 4K selfie video, which surprised us with the great work it does with HDR and overall sharpness.
In fact, HDR works somewhat faster on the selfie camera than on the main sensor, where we had several issues with highlight corrections. The processing it's not quite in tune, with some watercolor effect even when recording in good lighting situations.
The Huawei Mate 50 Pro is a logical leap forward from last year's model. It's more powerful, maintains the camera muscle, and overall is a phone with hardly any weaknesses. The main problem is that His only two handicaps are too heavy.We're talking about a phone that costs over €1,000, without 5G connectivity or Google services—two key points for any phone.
Even if we don't use Google apps, Google's service framework is very present in Android, for app registration, backups, and, in many cases, simply for the app to launch. There will be some users who don't mind having such software, but the vast majority of consumers will have serious problems using such a limited ROM.
Without these drawbacks, the Mate 50 Pro would be one of the clear candidates for phone of the year, with a simply brutal camera in HDR and detail, and with a spectacular overall balance. Huawei still knows how to make top-of-the-line phones, although they are no longer for everyone.
8.8
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