Even the most vocal Huawei hater in the U.S. has to admit that the company has put together a delectable flagship line this year. It used to be that the beginning of each year was reserved for the company’s photography-focused (no pun intended) P series with the technologically advanced Mate series released later in the same year. But with all of the bans on Huawei, it now produces one flagship line each year, switching from the P series one year to the Mate series the next year.
What this means is that with the Mate 50 line available in 2022, the P60 series can be expected in 2023. Still, it is a wonder that Huawei has produced such a great flagship this year and the reaction from consumers in China was amazing with long lines greeting the Mate 50 models when they were released in September.
Here’s the deal folks. Huawei has done a kick-ass job considering that it lost its ability to source parts from its U.S. supply chain. As a result, the Google Mobile Service version of Android was no longer available to it. So it created its own HarmonyOS and the third version of the software is pre-installed on the Mate 50 line. It also created its own ecosystem, Huawei Mobile Service, which is doing great.
The Low battery emergency mode will give you 12 minutes of phone calls and three hours of standby with 1% remaining
Consider the Huawei Petal Search app which searches for an app that you want to install on your Huawei phone. If a title can’t be found in Huawei’s own AppGallery, it will search third-party app stores for one that might have it for you. And to get around the chip ban that prevents foundries using American technology from shipping cutting-edge chips to Huawei, the latter is using powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chips tweaked to work with 4G signals only.
The Huawei Mate 50 series was the subject of a new ad timed to be released with the European release of the phones. The video, called “Huawei Mate50 Series – Heralding a New Era for Smartphones,” runs for 75 seconds and starts by showing off the variable aperture on the 50MP rear camera that ranges from ranging from f/1.4-f/4.0. Huawei also had to deal with losing Leica as its photography partner to Xiaomi. The Mate 50 line debuts Huawei’s own XMAGE camera.
The Huawei Mate 50 Pro is now available in Europe but will not be coming to the states
The video, which is about the Mate 50 Pro, shows off the Super Macro Video mode and if your battery life drops to 1%, Low battery emergency mode will deliver up to 12 minutes of phone calls or three hours of standby. After a few seconds of video that will remind you of 9/11 (shame on you Huawei!), the manufacturer brags about its “Powerful Gaming Performance,” and water resistance to 6 meters (more than 19 feet).
The video concludes by showing how the Kunlun Glass will survive a fall down a snow-caked mountain.
The Huawei Mate 50 Pro is equipped with a 6.74-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1212 x 2616. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G Mobile Platform is under the hood. The single SIM model features 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. The dual SIM unit carries 8GB of memory along with 256GB or 512GB of storage. Both models come with a 256GB capacity microSD slot.
The rear camera array includes the 50MP variable aperture camera, a 13MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2 aperture), and a 64MP telephoto camera. The front-facing camera weighs in at 13MP and there is a 3D Depth Sensing Camera for secure facial recognition similar to the iPhone’s Face ID (hence the notch on the Mate 50 Pro). There is a 4700mAh battery that supports 66W wired charging. Wireless charging takes place at up to 50W.
The Huawei Mate 50 Pro is a phone that could compete with any flagship available in the U.S. and that includes the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and the Pixel 7 Pro.
