Having already launched the phone in China, Huawei has now announced that its latest ultra premium flagship – the Mate 50 Pro – will be coming to Europe and other global markets.
The big difference between this and the version launched in China, is that the global version – firstly – doesn’t support the satellite connection feature and – secondly – runs EMUI 13 based on open source Android, not HarmonyOS.
Design wise, there’s a prominent, round camera unit on the back, and it’s loaded with some top tier capabilities, which could tempt photographers.
The main camera is what Huawei calls an ‘Ultra Aperture Camera’ featuring a 50-megapixel RYYB sensor, optical image stabilisation and the ability to manually change the aperture between f/1.4 – f/4.0, to control its light capture and depth of field.
It’s joined by a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera which also works as a macro camera, then there’s a telephoto periscope zoom camera with 3.5x optical zoom and up to 100x digital/hybrid zoom.
There are a host of additional sensors too, like the multi-spectrum sensor for seeing additional frequencies of light not seen by the human eye, then a proximity light sensor and a laser autofocus sensor, to help make focussing quicker and more accurate.
Huawei says this is its most durable smartphone yet too, thanks to a material it calls ‘Kunlun Glass’ which makes the phone more drop resistant than previous models. Plus, you get IP68 water and dust resistance.
The glass backed models are waterproof down to two metres, where the vegan leather version has even better water resistance and can survive down to 6 metres.
Other specs include a 4700mAh battery with support for Huawei’s 66W SuperCharge fast-charging tech and 50W wireless charging. It’s powered by the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 platform, ensuring super speedy performance, with either 8GB RAM and 256GB storage or 8GB RAM and 512GB storage.
Display specs are similarly impressive. It features a 6.74-inch OLED with up to 120Hz refresh rates, support for over a billion colours and a resolution of 2616 by 1212 pixels.
This display features a notch at the top – a rarity in 2022 – and for good reason: it contains a 3D depth sensing facial unlocking system, similar to the iPhone’s FaceID feature.
As always with recent Huawei phones, the devices ship without support for 5G and don’t feature Google Play Services. However, you may find that with the AppGallery and Petal Search, you can get hold of your most used apps in other ways, if you’re willing to work around the less intuitive way of getting them.
With a price set at €1299 for the glass black and silver models, and €1399 for the vegan leather option, it’s a lot of money to put down for the phone with these limitations. But Huawei is hoping its impressive list of flagship specs will entice buyers.