With the Mate 50 Pro, Huawei is bringing another model in its Mate series to Germany. Smartphones used to be among the best in Germany. But today even the top equipment cannot boost sales.
Huawei has always stood for smartphones that offer an incredibly good camera. It is not for nothing that the models often appear high up in the list in well-known camera tests. I myself used to be an absolute fan of Huawei smartphones, owned models from both the P and Mate series. The new Huawei Mate 50 Pro also makes my heart beat faster when I look at the equipment. Like many other customers in Germany, I will not buy the device – for one reason.
Huawei and the Google problem
Since 2019, TECHBOOK has reported on the consequences of the US embargo for Huawei. Since then, the company has not been allowed to sell smartphones with Google apps. There is also no 5G for the top devices in Europe. That has consequences. In 2019 Huawei still took the proud second place in the list of the world’s most popular smartphone manufacturers (behind Samsung, but ahead of Apple), the manufacturer will play loud in 2022 extra hardly any role in the ranking.
Nevertheless, I take my hat off to Huawei, who have tried to find various solutions since the embargo to be able to continue selling their devices in Europe. With HarmonyOS, for example, a separate operating system was created that runs on the basis of Android, but relies on alternatives to the well-known Google apps. Over time, the selection of partners who offer their apps in Huawei’s own app store has grown steadily. Nevertheless, the system is still not a real alternative to classic Android with Google. Certain processes do not yet function smoothly.
Huawei Mate 50 Pro – “what a great smartphone”
Despite all the difficulties, Huawei continues to produce impressive smartphones – and celebrates great success with them in its home country of China, where Google never played a role anyway. The company also brings the devices to Germany, where sales figures unfortunately remain low. That’s a shame, because the hardware usually has it all, as the newly introduced Huawei Mate 50 Pro proves.
I was allowed to hold it in my hands and try it out at a Huawei event. My first impression: what a great smartphone if it wasn’t for the system. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro offers an excellent camera system and powerful hardware. The design is very symmetrical, typical of the Mate series, and the smartphone is rather large with a display diagonal of 6.74 inches. With the Mate 50 Pro, Huawei once again focuses on the camera, which is framed by the so-called space ring in the middle of the back. In Germany, the device is available in either silver or black with gold accents.
The features of the Huawei Mate 50 Pro
In terms of hardware, Huawei leaves nothing to be desired with the Mate 50 Pro. The OLED display has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, has a resolution of 2616 x 1212 pixels (Full HD+) and reacted extremely quickly when trying it out for the first time. The screen is almost frameless as it curves slightly around the edges. There’s a notch at the top, into which Huawei has packed a front-facing speaker (it was missing on the previous Mate 40 Pro). On the other hand, there is also the front camera, which offers 13 megapixels and a variable angle between 78 and 100 degrees and is supported by a 3D ToF sensor (Time of Flight). The latter measures the distance between the camera and the subject and can adjust settings such as exposure, focus, etc. accordingly.
The Huawei Mate 50 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1, an octa-core processor with high performance. It is made up of a high-performance Cortex-X2 core with 3.2 GHz, three equally strong Cortex-A710 cores with 2.75 GHz and four energy-saving Cortex-A510 cores with up to 2.0 GHz. There is also 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage. The 512 GB version available in China will not be available in Germany. The processor also has to do without 5G due to the US ban. Users in Germany can therefore transmit via LTE/4G at most.
The battery has a capacity of 4700 mAh, which is okay considering the size of the display, but not outstanding. The battery can be charged with 66 watts by cable or wirelessly and with a compatible wireless charger with up to 50 watts. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro also supports reverse wireless charging and can, for example, charge headphones like a charging mat with up to 7 watts.
The emergency mode for the battery, which Huawei has introduced, is new. If the charge level has dropped to just 1 percent, the smartphone remains in stand-by for around three hours in this mode or alternatively allows 12 minutes of calling or texting. This is to ensure that users can still get help in an emergency even if the battery is almost empty. However, the functions in this mode are limited to the items mentioned.
Also read: Will there soon be Google apps on Huawei smartphones again?
The camera as a highlight
However, the highlight of the Huawei Mate 50 Pro is the camera. It offers three sensors with the following properties:
- 50 megapixel wide angle with the largest aperture ever seen in a smartphone. It can be opened variably in ten opening levels between f/1.4 and f/4.0. Previous models only offered two stops within the aperture. Stabilization is done optically (OIS).
- 13 megapixel ultra wide angle with a fixed f/2.2 aperture.
- 64 megapixel telephoto lens, f/3.5 aperture, 3.5x optical zoom and 90mm focal length and OIS.
The camera equipment is already impressive, but the photo results only become really good with the software and the quick reaction of the smartphone. In the test, a light click on the shutter button was enough and the photo was taken. Delay in triggering? None! Even when zooming, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro switches between the different levels almost as smoothly as butter. The image stabilizer manages to keep the image reasonably steady even at high zoom levels. A tripod is still recommended. Conversely, the macro mode works, with which you can zoom very close to a subject. Stabilization is also used here for better image quality and sharpness.
Thanks to the large aperture of f/1.4, the camera can take in a lot of light, which also improves the bokeh even further. Image noise is often noticeable with such an aperture, which Huawei cannot completely eradicate, but can significantly reduce it with good software. Above all, portrait and night shots succeed in very good quality. In keeping with this, Huawei continues to rely on the RYYB sensor. In contrast to the classic RGB or RGGB sensor, the green pixel is replaced by a yellow pixel, which absorbs red and green light and thus increases light transmission.
As far as the software is concerned, Huawei’s Mate 50 Pro appeals to both photo professionals and occasional snappers. Anyone who is familiar with photography can make many settings such as ISO, aperture or white balance themselves and thus react appropriately to any lighting and environmental situation. However, those who are less knowledgeable here can also rely on the automatic mode as well as specialized modes for bokeh, portrait or night. Overall, the camera of the Huawei Mate 50 Pro made a very good impression when I tried it out for the first time.
The price of the Huawei Mate 50 Pro is tough
Overall, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro offers extremely good equipment that was already convincing when trying it out for the first time. The company also promises at least two years of OS updates and three years of security updates. So it is clear that such a smartphone cannot be sold for 500 euros. Nevertheless, the price that Huawei calls for the Mate 50 Pro is tough.
The smartphone costs a whopping 1199 euros in Germany. In my opinion, that’s way too much, considering that the system just doesn’t run the way you’re used to from Android with Google. Sure, some will take up the challenge and try HarmonyOS. However, for the regular user who doesn’t want to rely on APK installations from third-party app stores, HarmonyOS is hardly the right choice. It would have been better if Huawei had left the price in three digits and not exceeded the magic 1000 euro mark. Because in this segment, customers also get an iPhone 14 Pro, a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra or another high-end smartphone with an established system and 5G support.