The Huawei P50 series should have been announced in the first quarter of the year but Huawei’s ongoing troubles forced the company to postpone the launch. Today, the Huawei P50 and Huawei P50 Pro have been finally announced in China and they boast a new design and the impressive photography performance the series is known for.
Huawei P50 series Design
The Huawei P50 duo drops the pill-shaped punch hole from last year’s P40 series for a centered hole that houses a single camera. However, the main change is on the back. Huawei has gone for a unique camera housing style that makes use of double rings to house the sensors. It takes up much more space but this design won’t have you confusing the Huawei P50 and P50 Pro for any other phone.
The P50 Pro is the more premium model of the two with its curved display, special Ripple Blue color variant, eye-catching pink variant, and a collector’s edition that is made of nano-crystalline glass which is stronger and has up to 5 times increased drop resistance.
Huawei P50 Specifications
The Huawei P50 has a 6.5-inch FHD+ (2700 x 1224) flat OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It can display up to 1.03 billion colors, has a P3 wide color gamut, 1440Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, and a 300Hz touch sampling rate.
Huawei has adopted Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor with a 4G modem. It comes with 8GB of RAM and will be available in 128GB and 256GB storage variants with support for storage expansion via an NM memory card slot.
There are three cameras on the back of the phone – a 50MP f/1.8 RGB camera, a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide angle camera, and a 12MP f/3.4 telephoto camera with OIS. A 13MP f/2.4 camera sits inside the punch hole in the display.
The Huawei P50 has 5x optical zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. It also has the new generation XD Fusion Pro graphics engine for image enhancements.
There is a 4100mAh battery under the hood along with support for 66W fast wired charging. Sadly, the standard model doesn’t get support for wireless charging. It has an IP68 rating, dual SIM support, stereo speakers, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and an in-display fingerprint sensor. It will run HarmonyOS 2 out of the box.
Huawei P50 Pro Specifications
The Huawei P50 Pro has a 6.6-inch curved OLED display with a 2700 x 1228 resolution. The screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, 1440Hz PWM dimming, and a 300Hz touch sampling rate. It can display up to 1.07 billion colors and has a P3 wide color gamut.
Huawei is offering the P50 Pro in two processor variants – its own Kirin 9000 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888. However, both variants have their modems limited to 4G connectivity, no thanks to a sanction by the U.S. government. The difference in the chipset will translate to a difference in the overall performance of the phone. We are particularly eager to see the camera differences since they have different ISPs.
The Huawei P50 Pro will be available in four configurations:
- 8GB RAM +128GB
- 8GB RAM + 256GB
- 8GB RAM + 512GB
- 12GB RAM + 512GB
There is support for storage expansion (256GB. max) via Huawei’s proprietary NM memory card slot.
The Huawei P series is known for its camera performance and Huawei goes all out with the P50 Pro. The phone has two primary cameras – a 50MP f/1.8 RGB sensor with OIS and a 40MP f/1.6 Black and White sensor. The phone also has a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide angle camera and a 64MP f/3.5 telephoto camera with OIS. There is a 13MP f/2.4 front-facing camera too with support for autofocus and AIS anti-shake.
The P50 Pro has 3.5x optical zoom, 20x hybrid zoom, and 100x digital zoom. Huawei says the P50 Pro has an HDR Vivid mode and an XD Fusion Pro graphics engine that optimizes image quality and color reproduction.
There is a 4360mAh battery under the hood with support for 66W fast wired charging and 50W wireless fast charging. It also has support for reverse wireless charging. Unfortunately, Huawei won’t be bundling the phone with a charger this year. Just like the P50, the pro model also has an IP68 rating. Other features are stereo speakers with a new Histen algorithm, NFC, Bluetooth 5.2, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and HarmonyOS 2 pre-installed.
Price and Availability
Huawei P50 – Available September 2021
- 8GB RAM + 128GB = ¥4488 (~$695)
- 8GB RAM + 256GB = ¥4988 (~$772)
Huawei P50 Pro 8GB RAM version – Pre-order begins July 30, available August 12
- 8GB RAM + 128GB (Snapdragon 888 only)= ¥5988 (~$926)
- 8GB RAM + 256GB (Kirin 9000 and Snapdragon 888) = ¥6488 (~$1004)
- 8GB RAM + 512GB (Kirin 9000 and Snapdragon 888) = ¥7488 (~$1159)
Buyers will be able to buy the P50 Pro in the aforementioned configurations in White, Black, Gold, and Pink.
Huawei P50 Pro 12GB RAM version – Available September 2021
- 12GB RAM + 512GB (Kirin 9000 only, Ripple Blue only) = ¥7988 (~$1236)
- 12GB RAM + 512GB ((Kirin 9000 only, Black collector’s edition with a charger included) = ¥8488 (~$1313)
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