Huawei Mate 50 Pro review

Reviewing a Huawei cellphone nowadays (not to mention utilizing one full time) is an train in acute frustration.

The cellphone maker was, in early 2019, driving the crest of a lovely Android wave. The P30 Professional was top-of-the-line telephones ever made and Huawei was actually difficult Samsung’s market dominance.

Almost 4 years on and one US commerce ban later, Huawei’s smartphones are hobbled by an absence of native Google app and repair help, and an incapability to supply 5G modems.

That doesn’t make telephones just like the Mate 50 Professional unusable – removed from it – nevertheless it does make them difficult to make use of such as you would every other Android cellphone.

Design & construct

• Pretty smooth design
• Matt glass again
• Curved edges

Huawei nonetheless is aware of make gorgeous {hardware}. The Mate 50 Professional is likely one of the finest feeling and looking telephones I’ve examined in 2022, with a frosted silver glass again and simply the correct quantity of curve to the perimeters of the show to make it really feel slim within the hand.

There’s additionally a black model out there in Europe, although one of the best wanting model, with orange vegan leather-based with gold highlights, isn’t out there within the UK.

Curiously, that orange model has Huawei’s extra sturdy Kunlun glass on the show and is waterproof as much as six metres – the silver and black variations get an unspecified, much less hardy glass and solely two metres of water resistance.

Most eye-catching in regards to the cellphone is its massive round digital camera module on the again, which homes three lenses (although it’s made to appear like 4 due to a laser auto focus unit). Its central positioning means the cellphone doesn’t rock when on a tabletop however my phrase, this can be a slippery cellphone. There’s a low high quality TPU case within the field that I usually wouldn’t use, however needed to as a result of with out it the cellphone slid off chairs, tables, and desks.

It is a massive cellphone that I discovered unattainable to make use of with one hand, needing two to grip it to succeed in the highest of the show. Up there’s a lengthy skinny notch now not often seen on new Android telephones. It homes the selfie digital camera and time-of-flight (TOF) sensor for biometric face unlocking of the cellphone.

Display screen & audio system

• 6.74in curved OLED
• 120Hz refresh fee
•  Stable stereo audio system

The cellphone is massive due to the massive 6.74in OLED display screen, which has glorious colors and a excessive, sharp decision of 1212 x 2616p. It’s an outstanding panel with a 120Hz refresh fee, although it doesn’t have the LTPO tech that permits different telephones just like the iPhone 14 Professional to scale down the speed to 1Hz as applicable to preserve energy – Huawei’s auto settings solely enable the cellphone to go between 60Hz and 90Hz.

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Movies and photographs look excellent when seen full display screen, with that top decision actually paying off if the content material is suitable. YouTube movies in 2160p can scale at full decision right here not like different premium telephones with decrease res shows.

Peak brightness may be very excessive, and although the panel is curved on the edges, colors don’t distort.

The stereo audio system that use the earpiece grille and down firing speaker on the underside edge are properly full sounding for taking part in movies, the radio, or podcasts.

Specs & efficiency

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset
• 4G solely – no 5G
• 66W wired charging

Huawei used to make use of its personal Kirin chipsets however the Mate 50 Professional as an alternative makes use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, a really succesful chip that on the time of launch in late 2022 has solely simply been outmoded by the 8 Gen 2.

Resulting from Huawei’s commerce limitations, it’s solely able to 4G networking, so you possibly can’t entry 5G. It’s not the tip of the world, however once you’re spending over a grand on a cellphone it’d be good for it to be futureproofed for when 5G actually comes into its personal.

Regardless of that, efficiency is superb for my use circumstances, which is to be trustworthy not pushing the cellphone to its extremes. To check that, I fired up some excessive finish cell video games akin to PUBG Cellular they usually ran with no hitch.

That’s good contemplating all fashions of the cellphone include 8GB RAM, a determine that’s truly a bit of low in comparison with different high-end Android telephones. The cheaper £629 OnePlus 10T has 16GB, and the identical chip however with 5G.

Most fashions, my unit included, have 256GB storage which is expandable, however solely utilizing Huawei’s personal nano reminiscence playing cards.

You additionally get a formidable array of location expertise inbuilt with dual-band GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, GALILEO, QZSS and NavIC, although the European fashions don’t get help for sending messages by way of satellite tv for pc just like the Chinese language model does.

Digicam & video

• 10-step variable aperture
• Beautiful fundamental sensor
• Versatile ultrawide and telephoto

The primary characteristic of the Mate 50 Professional is its variable aperture fundamental digital camera sensor. It’s the primary cellphone ever to have a lens whose aperture could be manually modified between greater than two stops.

You’ll be able to choose ten steps between f/1.4 and f/4.0in the digital camera app’s professional mode, or let the system decide for you in auto.

Selecting nearer to f/1.4 allows extra gentle, giving pictures a pure bokeh impact the place the shut topic is in focus and the background is blurred, whereas nearer to f/4.0 allows much less gentle however the background comes extra into focus.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Henry Burrell / Foundry

It’s a neat trick, and fairly astonishing that Huawei has match a 10-step transferring half into the again of a smartphone. However in precise use, I didn’t discover it that ground-breaking. It’s enjoyable to make use of, notably on objects up near see the impact of adjusting the aperture – however precise images don’t mirror the intelligent expertise as a result of they only find yourself regular pictures.

Fortunately, the primary 50Mp sensor is excellent, and the Mate 50 Professional genuinely produces among the finest photographs of any smartphone digital camera ever. It makes use of Huawei’s most well-liked RYYB (pink yellow yellow blue) sensor arrange the place the same old inexperienced pixel is changed by a second yellow pixel, which in flip allows extra pink and inexperienced gentle. This lets extra gentle into the sensor and improves low gentle images.

Photographs in daylight are gorgeous with very good element and tasteful dynamic vary for pleasingly actual to life photographs. In low gentle the dynamic vary can also be phenomenal, with good element and light-weight administration the place different cellphone cameras would possibly blow out the white of the sky or a light-weight supply in the dead of night. I typically didn’t want the night time mode within the digital camera app to get wonderful night-time pictures.

There’s additionally an ultrawide f/2.2 sensor that may take close-up macro pictures, and a 64Mp, f/3.5 periscope zoom lens with optical picture stabilisation that has a 3.5x optical zoom.

It makes for a flexible digital camera, and one which as a rule I used to be proud of. It’s nearly as good because the Vivo X80 Professional and Google Pixel 7 Professional in lots of situations. Capturing in 4K as much as 60fps additionally appears extremely crisp.

On the entrance of the cellphone is a 13Mp ultrawide angle f/2.4 selfie digital camera that’s completely good for selfies and video calls, which sits alongside a TOF sensor that permits for 3D safe face unlock – making the Mate 50 Professional one of many few Android telephones to have a face unlock characteristic that’s equally safe to Apple’s Face ID on the iPhone.

Battery & charging

• 4700mAh battery
• 66W quick charging
• Simply someday on a cost

The Mate 50 Professional’s 4700mAh battery is sizable however not the largest on a tool with specs this excessive, that calls for loads of energy for processing the display screen. Regardless of that it simply lasted a full day of use on 4G, utilizing maps, taking photographs, and messaging as I usually would.

Within the field is a 66W energy brick and cable that fees the cellphone by way of USB in about 40 minutes from empty. That is fairly quick, and higher than you’ll discover on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely or Google Pixel 7 Professional.

It’s additionally received 50W wi-fi charging, however I couldn’t check that because the suitable charging pad is offered individually.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Software program & updates

• No native Google help
• Poor app choice in AppGallery
• No automated updates for sideloaded apps

The Achilles’ Heel of any Huawei cellphone, this one included, is software program. I’ll attempt to put it as merely and pretty as potential.

The cellphone runs on EMUI 13, which relies on open supply Android. There’s no indication how lengthy Huawei plans to maintain the cellphone up to date for.

The Mate 50 Professional can’t natively run Google apps or providers correctly. It’s because it can’t use Google’s model of Android with software program that helps the providers correctly.

The cellphone doesn’t include the Google Play Retailer put in, so as an alternative you need to obtain apps from Huawei’s AppGallery app retailer. The difficulty is AppGallery doesn’t have a lot of the apps you need – and as an apart, this can be a fairly spammy place with a lot of full display screen advertisements, not one thing I anticipate from a tool this costly.

If the one apps you employ are TikTok, Telegram, Snapchat, Tinder, Microsoft Outlook, WeChat, and Deezer then you definately’ll be superb.

However WhatsApp, Fb, Instagram, Netflix, Disney+, Twitter, PayPal, and lots of different standard apps will not be out there – however you possibly can obtain them.

Huawei means that you can seek for these apps both in AppGallery or its separate Petal Search app, which provides you a complicated itemizing web page for potential APK information to obtain as a way to set up the apps from a special supply.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

That is authorized and one thing Android permits for. It’s known as sideloading. The issue is, sideloading isn’t very user-friendly.

There’s additionally a query of safety right here. Huawei says it retains tabs on the APKs its system exhibits you, and it additionally says it performs safety scans on information earlier than they’re downloaded. However with out the consolation that these information have been handed as protected by an app retailer infrastructure, you’ll nonetheless need to watch out you’re not putting in one thing dodgy.

Let me be clear: downloading the apps you need on this cellphone is feasible, however complicated and never a great person expertise. I received Twitter, Instagram, Libby, Fb Messenger, and Netflix working superb utilizing APK downloads. I might check in, they labored, and I received notifications as regular.

Updates to apps are additionally dealt with routinely, although generally take a bit of longer – as there’s a delay between the app developer pushing an replace to Google Play Retailer and that up to date APK making it on-line. You’ll must ensure you’ve enabled notification permissions to Petal Seek for these updates to come back via although.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

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Whereas many apps will work superb, there are exceptions. Google apps could be put in however can’t entry Google servers, so are severely hampered. You can also’t run apps like Uber or Citymapper as a result of they require Google Maps entry, and you may’t obtain your WhatsApp historical past from an outdated Android cellphone as a result of it’s backed up in Google Drive.

You may get Google providers working utilizing a sandbox utility like GBox, however don’t trouble. It’s far too difficult and unreliable. Simply purchase one other cellphone.

Apps apart, the cellphone’s software program is sort of enticing and makes use of its personal system font slightly than the one most telephones use from Google known as Roboto. You’ll be able to create enticing widgets and put apps into massive residence display screen folders so you possibly can open apps with out opening the folder. Petal Maps can also be surprisingly good and if you wish to use Huawei’s native apps for messaging, contacts, climate, and cloud storage all of them work as you’d anticipate.

I do get pleasure from how one can hyperlink the cellphone with a Huawei laptop computer or pill for straightforward file sharing and display screen mirroring, although that requires you to go all in on Huawei gadgets in your life.

Funnily, the Mate 50 Professional might be one of the best cellphone in the marketplace if you wish to get off grid from Google. For everybody else, it’s annoyingly restrictive and doesn’t act how Android is designed to.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Worth & availability

The Huawei Mate 50 Professional prices £1,199 within the UK in silver or black. You should purchase it straight from Huawei.

In Europe it prices €1,299, or €1,399 for the particular orange version. It’s not on sale within the US.

The worth makes the cellphone a good tougher promote. It’s such a excessive worth to pay for a software program expertise that frustrates, and even an outstanding display screen and excellent digital camera can’t make up for that.

Try our decide of one of the best Android telephones for a spread of different choices with the complete Google expertise – or one of the best Huawei telephones for extra from the identical model.

Verdict

The Huawei Mate 50 Professional is a superbly made smartphone with a tremendous digital camera however essentially the most irritating Android software program in the marketplace.

In case you genuinely don’t want Google apps and providers – or don’t wish to have a cellphone related to them – then it’s top-of-the-line picks on the market.

Nevertheless it’s not simply entry to Google apps that the Mate 50 Professional misses out on. With out entry to many apps within the official app retailer, you’ll need to sideload among the hottest apps on the market, and settle for that a couple of gained’t work in any respect.

As extremely good because the cameras are on the cellphone, I don’t assume they’re well worth the ache of utilizing the remainder of the machine. Huawei is decided to push on with out Google nevertheless it’s very arduous to advocate you go alongside for the journey.

Specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G
• EMUI 13
• 6.74in 120Hz OLED show
• 8GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage
• Nano reminiscence card expandable
• 66W wired charging
• 50W wi-fi charging
• Digicam:
  • 50Mp f/1.4-f/4.0 fundamental digital camera with OIS
  • 64Mp f/3.5 telephoto digital camera with OIS
  • 13Mp f/2.2 ultrawide digital camera
• Wi-Fi 6
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 162.1 x 75.5 x 8.5 mm
• 205g
• Silver, Black, Orange