Huawei used to launch its “P” series flagships every year in the first quarter, but this time, the launch was delayed for various reasons. Finally, the Huawei P50 & P50 Pro are now official & as the name suggests, these are the successors of last year’s Huawei P40 & P40 Pro. One of the things that make this “P” series from Huawei unique is the camera performance of these flagships, and the P50 series is no exception. There are some major camera upgrades this year over the previous generation.
HUAWEI P40 – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
Starting off with the Huawei P50, one thing that’s the highlight of these two phones in terms of the design is the camera module on the back. There is a huge oval-shaped camera island with two big circles in it that further includes all the camera sensors & one of the two LED flash modules. The upper circle has two cameras, whereas the bottom one has one periscope camera. Now, don’t get confused with those three cameras on the upper circle, as one of them is just a laser autofocus system.
On the front, Huawei P50 has a flat-screen, not a curved one. This time, there is a single selfie camera present in the middle instead of a huge pill-shaped cutout like last year’s P40. The USB Type-C port is present on the bottom alongside one of the two speakers (since there is a stereo speaker setup). Moreover, it is also IP68 certified for protection against dust & water.
The display on the front is a 6.5-inch 10-bit OLED with a resolution of 2700 x 1224 pixels & a 90Hz refresh rate. The touch-sampling rate is 300Hz & there is 1440 Hz high-frequency PWM dimming. Finally, the display supports HDR. Under the hood, there is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset which is impressive, but here is a catch. Due to the US sanctions, Huawei was not able to offer 5G support in its P50 series phones; hence neither the P50 nor the P50 Pro offers 5G support. Both are 4G phones only.
There is 8GB of RAM alongside 128GB or 256GB of storage, and you can also expand the storage by adding a nano-microSD card of up to 256GB.
Speaking of that camera setup on the back, Huawei P50 has three cameras. These include a main 50 Megapixel sensor with an f/1.8 aperture lens & OIS, a secondary 13 Megapixel ultrawide camera with f/2.2 aperture lens and a 12 Megapixel periscope camera (125mm) with OIS & 5X Optical Zoom. You can shoot up to 4K videos via the rear camera, and so, there is no 8K video recording feature, although the Snapdragon 888 supports 8K video recording.
On the front, there is a single 13 Megapixel camera for selfies. Finally, the battery size is 4,100mAh & the device supports 66W wired and 50W wireless charging. HarmonyOS 2.0 runs out of the box.
HUAWEI P50 PRO – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
Speaking of the Huawei P50 Pro, the biggest upgrade over the P40 in terms of the design is on the front. There is a curbed display instead of a flat one. Also, on the back, there is an extra camera, increasing the camera count to four in the case of the Pro version.
The display on the front is a 6.6-inch OLED with a resolution of 2700 x 1228 pixels. Compared to the P50, which has a 90Hz panel, the P50 Pro comes with a 120Hz panel. The touch-sampling rate remains the same at 300Hz. Coming to the performance, there is an interesting change here compared to the P50. While the vanilla model has Snapdragon 888, the Huawei P50 Pro offers you two options to choose from – Snapdragon 888 or the Kirin 9000. Again, there is no 5G support in either case.
There is 8GB or 12GB of RAM paired with 128/256/512GB of storage that is further expandable via a nano-microSD card of up to 256GB.
Speaking of the cameras, Huawei P50 Pro has a Quad camera system on the rear that includes the same 50 Megapixel primary camera with OIS & f/1.8 aperture lens as the vanilla model and the same 13 Megapixel ultrawide camera. But, there is now a 40 Megapixel B&W sensor with an f/1.6 aperture & a 64 Megapixel periscope camera (90mm) offering up to 3.5X Optical Zoom, lesser than what the P50 offers. On the front, there is a 13 Megapixel selfie camera.
One feature related to the camera that is there in the P50 Pro but not in the P50 is called XD Fusion Pro. This increases dynamic range by up to 28% and allows more light to be captured.
Compared to the battery of the vanilla model, there isn’t a huge increase in the battery size of the P50 Pro. It has a 4,360mAh cell and supports 66W wired and 50W wireless charging.
Finally, HarmonyOS 2.0 runs out of the box.
HUAWEI P50 & P50 PRO – PRICING & AVAILABILITY
The vanilla P50 comes in three colors, and there are two storage options. Here is the pricing for the Chinese market –
- 8GB + 128GB – ¥4498 (~$697)
- 8GB + 256GB – ¥4988 (~$772)
The Huawei P50 Pro comes in five colors and here is the pricing –
- 8GB + 128GB (Only Snapdragon 888) – ¥5988 (~$927)
- 8GB + 256GB – ¥6488 (~$1,005)
- 8GB + 512GB – ¥7488 (~$1,160)
- 12GB + 512GB (Blue) – ¥7988 (~$1,237)
- 12GB + 512GB (Black) – ¥8488 (~$1,314)
In China, the Huawei P50 & the 12GB variant of the P50 Pro will go on sale in September, whereas the pre-orders for P50 Pro will begin tomorrow. It will go on sale on the 12th of August.
Both of these phones are coming to the global market as well, but we don’t have any idea when.