Huawei Mate 50 Pro review

Inside the Mate 50 Pro package we find a silicone cover, a 66W power supply and a USB / USB-C cable.

Huawei Mate 50 Pro it is in our opinion one of the most aesthetically pleasing smartphones, with a design that immediately clarifies its spirit premium. The rear finish is in a beautiful opaque glass, which is also very pleasant to the touch. It is slightly sloping at the edges and symmetrically mimics the curved glass front at the edges. Frontally, the element of the upper notch could then displease someone (especially for the repercussions in terms of usability of the notifications), but it is undoubtedly an iconic design element. The smartphone then weighs 208 grams, not many considering the important dimensions, but not light for this. The circular element that contains the cameras is also nice: it is elegant, clean in design and being centered it prevents the phone from “dancing” when it is placed on a surface.

Plus Mate 50 Pro is once again resistant to water and dust according to the IP68 standard and having drowned it for a few minutes in water (unintentionally) we confirm how the Huawei has survived very well.

Huawei abandons its home processor for this line in favor of the more “classic” one Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 of the latest generation, albeit in his own 4G version. In fact, this smartphone is not equipped with 5G connectivity due to the limits imposed by US embargoes. Not bad in practice, in a country where 5G has certainly not changed the fate of connectivity (for now), but certainly not a negligible lack for a smartphone premium. We then have 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256 GB of UFS 3.1 internal memory, expandable using Huawei nanoMemory memories.

Excellent connectivity (with the exception of 5G): Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC chip, dual nanoSIM support and USB-C 3.1 connection with video output. In addition we also have the infrared emitter and also the possibility of connecting to the satellite for emergency messages, even if unfortunately it is a limited functionality for the Chinese market. Finally we have the optical fingerprint reader inside the display and above all it 3D face unlock via front ToF camera.

This smartphone is the only recent device in the Android world to have this feature which is standard on the iPhone, but lacking on Android. Well done Huawei.

The photographic part of this Huawei Mate 50 Pro it is once again perhaps the most well-finished one. There are 3 main cameras: one 50 megapixel with variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/4 and optically stabilized, a 64 megapixel f/3.5 zoom 3.5X and a 13 megapixel f/2.2 wide angle with autofocus for macro. As it is easy to understand it is a kit very complete and which covers almost any type of use, even if perhaps a second periscopic zoom camera with an even greater magnification is missing.

The results of these cameras are like a real smartphone premium: Focus and color balance are top-notch, and shooting speed is lightning fast. The images are sharp and with an excellent dynamic range, even if we are not entirely satisfied with the night shots where other competitors handle the strong lights a little better and where unwanted artifacts appear from time to time.

However, we are still talking about shots at the top. The photos from the wide-angle camera are also very good, maintaining good consistency with those from the main sensor. Just a shame that the resolution has dropped compared to the model of two years ago.

The front camera is excellent 13 megapixels which will give you very well-defined selfies and with a background well separated from the main subject, also thanks to the presence of the sensor ToF which helps in this process.

The video component is also very good, where perhaps we will not achieve the stabilization of some competitors but where the images are still very sharp (even with less light) and where even just the fact of being able to take advantage of recording in 4K at 60fps going through all the cameras it now seems to us an almost unique luxury, even if the fluidity of the zoom would need to be reviewed.

The screen of this Mate 50 Pro it’s a great 6.74-inch panel with a resolution of 1212 x 2616 pixels.

The latter can vary automatically, lowering to save energy when the maximum resolution is not useful. The screen can then vary its refresh rate between 90 and 120Hz according to use, to always guarantee the maximum possible fluidity. The screen is then protected by a glass Huawei Kulun Glass, in turn protected by a pre-applied film, perhaps a little too soft to the touch. The screen has excellent brightness and excellent performance. It might only disappoint those who don’t appreciate the curvature of the glass on the sides.

Huawei Mate 50 Pro is pushed by EMUI 13, which is Huawei’s operating system based on Android 12, in this case updated to the October 2022 patches at the time of writing. The smartphone is extremely responsive and the software is clear and simple to use, even if there are no real changes compared to previous generations. A shame considering how much Huawei has been a software pioneer over the years.

We have the SuperHub (also convenient for quickly saving photos and text from different apps), the feature that compresses apps and files to take up less space on your smartphone, the ability to open a quick widget by swiping your finger up on the app icons. One criticism: there are so many apps pre-installed in this smartphone. The attempt to show the world how many apps can be found in the AppGallery perhaps went “a little further”.

That’s right: obviously this smartphone is devoid of Google services and the Play Store and in their place we find the Huawei services and AppGallery. Every time we try a new Huawei smartphone, the increase in the number of apps (even specific to Italy) present in the store is clear, but we are still not close to the completeness of its more famous competitors. Care must therefore be taken when evaluating the purchase of Huawei to verify that the apps are present on the AppGallery or that they can work without problems by installing its apk (or its installation file), usually easy to find online or even directly from the phone via Petal Search.

The battery is from 4,700mAh, slightly smaller than other competitors, but still more than enough to guarantee excellent results in daily use. This is probably thanks to the excellent Qualcomm processor and the operating system optimized by Huawei. Getting to the end of the day with intense use is the norm and only by stressing it for a very long time with photos and videos in 4K could you put it in difficulty.

Charging is lightning fast 66W (also with the included power supply) and we even have 50W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging.

Huawei Mate 50 Pro is sold to €1,199. A price absolutely consistent with its true price range premium and in any case also much lower than other competitors. Proposing Huawei as a sort of alternative to the current duopoly, an even more aggressive price (or a launch promo) would have made it even more attractive. If you buy it on the Huawei website at the moment, there are still a pair of Freebuds Studio worth €299 for free.