Table of Contents
Huawei doesn’t have to prove over and over again that it can make flagship phones that can compete with phones from any other company. Huawei has done this many times with its Mate and P series of phones, which have pushed the limits of design, features, and mobile photography year after year.
The Huawei P50 Pro keeps going in the same direction. You’ve heard this before, but the problem is with the software. Since the US banned Huawei from using Google’s services, the company has been working to build its own platform based on Android and convince app developers to put their apps on its own App Gallery.
Depending on where you live in the world, Huawei has made good progress in this area. The App Gallery has many of the most popular apps and services from your region. Huawei needs to win over the bigger app developers. Big apps like Snapchat and TikTok are in the App Gallery, but apps like Instagram and WhatsApp are still not there.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Design and display
The Huawei P50 Pro has a unique design that you won’t find on any other phone. The four cameras on this device are set up in two large circles on the back of the phone. It’s bold and stands out, but not in a bad way, even if it takes some time to get used to. The colour of the model we got is “Cocoa Gold,” but it looks different in different lights.
It can look grey, gold, or brown. This is definitely a fingerprint magnet, but other than that, it’s one of my most stylish devices and one of my favourites in terms of looks. Even better, the phone itself is easy to hold and can be used with one hand, despite being big.
The rounded edges definitely help with that, but sometimes people accidentally touch them. It’s also not too slippery when you take it out of the case that comes with it. You can buy this smartphone from its official website.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Performance
We have the Huawei P50 Pro that is “global.” It has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor instead of Huawei’s Kirin 9000 processor and EMUI software instead of Harmony OS. At first glance, the software feels a lot like it did when Huawei was at the top of its game. There is no app drawer by default, but you can add one back in if you want to. It looks just like Android, because deep down it is Android.
The software on the Huawei P50 Pro is based on Android 11, but Google Mobile Services have been taken away. It has Petal Maps instead of Google Maps and Huawei’s AppGallery instead of Google Play. It also has a Huawei email client. If you’re upgrading from an older Huawei phone like the P30 Pro, you should be ready for this change. The app library might be the most important thing to give up.
AppGallery’s own app library is still pretty bad, and most of the apps we use every day are missing. With Petal Search, Huawei tries to fill in the blanks. When you search for an app in AppGallery, the results will include items from Petal Search and links to third-party app stores like ApkPure, ApkFab, and ApkMonk.
If you use those links, you’re at the mercy of the anti-virus and anti-malware practises of these small third-party stores, which won’t be nearly as strict as those of the Google Play Store. Also, Petal Search only seems to link to free apps from these stores, and the total number of apps is still not very big.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Camera
The P50 Pro’s unique Dual Matrix rear camera system has two large rings that hold the lenses and sensors. The four cameras are: 50MP f/1.8 wide angle with OIS, 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle, 64MP f/3.5 periscope telephoto with OIS and 3.5x optical zoom, and 40MP f/1.6 monochrome.
This is different from the P40 series, which helped estimate depth for the bokeh effect by using a ToF (Time of Flight) sensor instead of a mono sensor. The mono camera also works with the main camera to add detail and reduce noise in low light. There is also a 13MP, f/2.4, wide-angle selfie camera in the middle of the screen.
With the P50 Pro, Huawei adds XD Optics, a new technology, and XD Fusion Pro, an improvement over the P40 series. Huawei says that XD Optics uses image processing to fix optical errors. This increases the image signal that is sent to the computational photography algorithms by 25%.
The XD Fusion Pro image engine has a new Super Color Filter System, a True Chroma Image Engine, and Super HDR technology, improving detail, colours, and dynamic range. The P50 Pro camera system can zoom up to 100 times and has better image stabilisation.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Software
Unfortunately, EMUI 12 has a lot of bad software suggestions, pop-ups, and notifications. The default home screen is a mess because it has as many suggestion folders as it does pre-installed apps. Requesting permission all the time makes it hard to do anything.
Even though they only show up once, having to confirm permissions three or four times to finish one task is annoying and shows that HUAWEI’s system isn’t well put together. Instead, the phone jumps from one app to the next. For example, you can use the regular search, Petal Search, a browser, or the App Gallery to install software; each of these will gladly send you to one of the others.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Battery and charging
Even though the P50 Pro is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, it has the largest battery Huawei has ever put in a P series device: a 4360mAh cell. EMUI is known for its strict background power management. This didn’t seem to affect day-to-day usability, app launch times, or general performance, but it’s likely why the phone lasts so long compared to other devices with similar specs.
Having a screen on for close to 8.75 hours every day is also not to be sneezed at. Also, the phone has the same great charging setup as the Mate 40 series. It supports 66W wired charging, up to 50W wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging, which is great for charging your Huawei Freebuds while you’re out and about.
Huawei’s box comes with a 66W SuperCharge adapter that can charge the phone to over 80% in 30 minutes and the P50 Pro to 100% in about 45 minutes. Even though this is impressive on its own, the phone’s charging skills are even better when you consider that you only need about 60% to 70% charge to use it normally for a full day.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Price and availability
Huawei finally brought the P50 and P50 Pro to the Chinese market on July 29, 2021, after a long and well-known road to market. The phones went on sale the following month (12 August). At the time of this writing, only the P50 Pro has been released in markets farther away.
Beginning around the middle of January 2022, it will be available for pre-order in many markets in the Middle East and Asia. In most places, the Huawei P50 Pro is easiest to get by going straight to Huawei’s website. In Europe, the international model costs €1,199 and comes in a single 8GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration.
Huawei P50 Pro review: Final Words
Overall, the Huawei P50 Pro is a great phone with a lot to offer. The screen is beautiful, it works well, and the battery lasts a long time. Not to mention the camera, which is the most important part of this phone and takes some really great pictures. But, and this is a very big but, the Huawei P50 Pro is missing some very important things, making it much harder to recommend.
Almost every other top-of-the-line phone in 2022 has up-to-date connectivity, so you’re probably going to feel cheated that you paid so much for a device that doesn’t have 5G. Even though that will be a turnoff, most people won’t buy this because it doesn’t have Google apps.
Huawei P50 Pro Ratings