Huawei has launched its premium P50 Pro and foldable P50 Pocket smartphones in international markets even as it continues to face challenges from U.S. sanctions. The P50 Pocket is featured at Huawei’s flagship store in Hangzhou, China.
Long Wei | Costfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Huawei has launched high-end smartphones in international markets despite its diminished global standing as a result of U.S. sanctions.
The Chinese telecommunications firm announced plans on Wednesday to launch the P50 Pro and foldable P50 Pocket to markets outside China. These phones launched last year in China.
Neither phone however has the ability to connect to super-fast 5G internet as a result of U.S. sanctions that continue to bar Huawei from purchasing certain U.S. technology. Instead, the devices sport chips from U.S. company Qualcomm to allow 4G connections.
The P50 Pro has a 6.6-inch display and two large camera modules on the back of the phone. The P50 Pocket is a foldable smartphone designed to slip into pockets and bags. The phones are designed to be able to sync across various Huawei hardware products.
The P50 Pro starts at 1,199 euros ($1,353).
With the release of these handsets globally, Huawei is sticking to its ambitions to continue to have a feasible business in consumer electronics.
But its global standing has declined dramatically since it became the number one smartphone player in the world in the second quarter of 2020. Counterpoint Research estimates Huawei’s worldwide market share to be 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2021, with China making up more than 90% of that total.
Huawei has officially announced the P50 Pocket, a clamshell-style folding smartphone that has a circular, 1-inch external display for quick access to notifications and widgets. The device launches in China today, though US sanctions (which mean Huawei can’t use key tech like Google’s Android OS) mean the P50 Pocket won’t make any impact in the West.
Huawei teased the handset earlier this month with a photoshoot focused on the P50 Pocket Premium Edition that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar China. This version of the device was created with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen. It has a gold or silver finish, and a 3D pattern on the exterior surface that’s typical of van Herpen’s work, resembling feathers or leaves.
The P50 Pocket is Huawei’s third foldable phone, but its first to use a clamshell design.
Huawei’s sales pitch for the P50 Pocket focuses, not surprisingly, on the pocketability of the device.
When unfolded, the Pocket’s OLED screen is 6.9-inches in size, with a 21:9 ratio and 120Hz refresh rate. The device weighs 190 grams and is just 7.2mm thick (Huawei compared it to the iPhone 13 Pro Max which weighs 238 grams and is 7.65mm thick). It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G SoC, a 4,000mAh battery, and runs Huawei’s Harmony OS 2.
The P50 Pocket’s main camera array has a 40-megapixel main sensor, 13-megapixel wide angle lens, and 32-megapixel “super spectrum” lens which Huawei says captures a greater range of color. There’s a hole-punch camera built into the main display, but Huawei notes that the phone’s foldable design makes it more convenient to use the main camera for taking selfies, with the 1-inch cover screen doubling up as a viewfinder.
The P50 Pocket’s external circular screen can be used to display various apps and widgets.
Accessing basic information like turn-by-turn directions can be done more discreetly.
Huawei is positioning that same “cover screen” as a big part of the P50 Pocket’s appeal. As well as showing notifications or the time, the screen can be used for widgets, letting users control music, follow directions, and so on. So, for example, if you’re using your phone to navigate in a new city, the cover screen will show discreet, turn-by-turn directions, rather than forcing you to open up the large 6.9-inch main display to check your position.
The P50 Pocket also has a new hinge which leaves zero gap between the screens when folded. This compares favorably to devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3, which is another clamshell but has a slight tapering gap when folded. The P50 Pocket also has face unlock on both the main and cover screen, and a side-mounted fingerprint unlock sensor — handy when many people are still commonly wearing masks during the pandemic.
The P50 Pocket folds completely flat, while Samsung’s Z Flip 3 has a slight tapering gap.
A standard edition of the P50 Pocket has gone on sale in China today with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for ¥8,988 (around $1,400), while the premium version, with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, sells for ¥10,988 (around $1,700). The standard edition is available in black and white, while the premium edition comes in silver or gold.
During a presentation, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu said the clamshell design offered a more refined take on folding devices. “It’s very delicate and exquisite,” said Yu. “We want to bring elegance to you, on the go.”
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, unveils the Chinese tech giant’s new P50 smartphone lineup.
Huawei
Huawei on Thursday unveiled its new P50 smartphone range, which lacks support for super-fast 5G internet, as the Chinese tech giant grapples with both U.S. sanctions and a global chip shortage.
The company is launching two models: the P50 and a more expensive P50 Pro. Huawei’s P series is mainly known for its cutting edge camera tech, and the P50 line-up builds on that with two huge circular camera units.
On the P50, the main camera module has three lenses: a 50-megapixel large sensor, a 40MP monochrome lens and a 13MP super-wide angle lens. The second one uses a 64MP telephoto lens capable of 3.5x optical zoom. Huawei says this lets users zoom in 200x.
However, neither model supports 5G mobile networks, instead coming with a 4G chipset from Qualcomm. It’s a sign of how trade curbs imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration continue to impact the firm.
Last year, Washington introduced restrictions which meant foreign manufacturers using U.S. technology would need to get a license to sell semiconductors to Huawei. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, had warned Huawei could run out of its own high-end Kirin chips, which are manufactured by Taiwanese firm TSMC.
Meanwhile, Huawei and other smartphone makers are starting to feel the impact of a worldwide shortage in semiconductors. Chips have been in short supply this year, mainly due to Covid-19-triggered factory closures and heightened demand for electronics. Huawei has blamed the shortage on U.S. sanctions.
“Our products still maintain the ultimate performance,” Yu said Thursday. “Only a very small drop in speed will be experienced, almost negligible.”
“Huawei is a global leader in 5G technology and in communication technology,” he added. “Because of the four rounds of U.S. restrictions over the past two years or so, 5G phones are beyond our reach and we have to go with 4G.”
The Huawei P50 starts at a price of 4,488 Chinese yuan ($695) while the P50 Pro starts at 5,988 yuan ($927).
Both P50 phones come with Huawei’s new operating system, Harmony OS, which the company introduced in response to Google’s decision to stop licensing its Android software to the firm due to U.S. trade restrictions.
Yu said Thursday that more than 40 million Huawei users have upgraded their phones to HarmonyOS 2, a new version of its software. Starting from next year, Huawei customers will be able to upgrade any model to HarmonyOS, he added.
Huawei’s next flagship phone, the P50, is set for launch on July 29th, the company has announced. Writing on his own Weibo page, Huawei consumer group CEO Richard Yu said (via Google translate) that the phone would mark the beginning of “a new era of mobile imaging,” suggesting that Huawei may once again make cameras the focus of its upcoming flagship.
The launch comes a little over a year since Huawei announced its P40 series, but the launch of the P50 has been far from certain. US sanctions placed on the company over national security concerns have seriously impacted Huawei’s ability to produce its own Kirin chipsets, creating doubts about its ability to release new flagship devices. “For reasons you are all aware of, a launch date has not been set,” Yu said when he teased the design of the P50 during a launch event last month.
These chip challenges, combined with sanctions that mean Huawei can no longer preinstall Google’s apps and services on its devices, have eroded Huawei’s market share. Globally it failed to rank in the top five smartphone vendors in the second quarter of this year (after being the biggest in the same quarter the previous year), and even domestically in China Oppo overtook it to become the country’s most popular smartphone brand in January.
