Huawei P50 Pro review - one of the most controversial flagship smartphones in recent times

Huawei flagships, deprived Google services after the US sanctions, it became more difficult to compete with Samsung and Apple. However, the Chinese giant is trying to compensate for this problem with improvements on all other fronts. With every new P‑series smartphone comes even cooler cameras, fresh design, advanced display, once again faster charging.

All this is cool, but is it enough to consider the new product as an alternative to the Galaxy or iPhone? Let's watch.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design and ergonomics
• Screen
• Biometrics
• Sound
• Performance
• System
• cameras
• Autonomy and charging
• Results

Specifications

Design and ergonomics

The Huawei P50 Pro looks and feels a lot like the P30 Pro, the company's latest flagship with Google services, released back in 2019. He, by the way, was very good, I speak as his former owner.

The P50 Pro has a streamlined body with curved glass front and back. The frame is aluminum, with flat edges at the top and bottom.

In light gold color, the back panel has a mirror reflective surface. It looks stylish and “expensive-rich” until you touch it – fingerprints and stains are perfectly visible. From an aesthetic point of view, it is not very pleasant to use the device without the silicone case that comes with the kit.

In Russia, a black version is also officially available, which should be less branded.

A huge part of the rear panel is occupied by a photomodule, four cameras of which are divided into two round blocks. They do not protrude much forward, and the cover hides part of this ledge. The device practically does not stagger on the table when it lies with the screen up.

The power button and volume rocker are placed on the right side. They have a very clear and tangible move. slot for sim cards and nanoSD memory card is located on the bottom, next to the microphone, speaker and USB-C connector. Two more microphones are on the top edge. There is also a second speaker and an IR transmitter.

In a case, the device turned out to be convenient even for use with one hand - largely due to the narrow case by modern standards with a width of just under 73 mm.

The assembly is at the highest level, without any hint of problems with the fitting of components or backlash. Huawei P50 Pro is protected from moisture and dust according to the IP68 standard, which means that even falling into the water he will easily survive (if it is a dive up to 1.5 m and no longer than half an hour).

Screen

The smartphone was equipped with a 6.6-inch curved OLED display with a resolution of 2,700 × 1,228 pixels. The screen supports a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10 and the entire DCI‑P3 gamut, the color space used in digital cinemas.

Also announced are the ability to display up to 1.07 billion colors, a touch sampling rate of 300 Hz, which guarantees a fast response, and a high-frequency PWMPulse Width Modulation is the ripple of the diodes when the screen brightness is lowered. If the frequency is low, the display may flicker slightly, causing discomfort when using the device.- dimming control 1 440 Hz.

Don't let PWM scare you - flicker is completely invisible at any screen brightness.

By default, the resolution is set to "smart" and the refresh rate is set to "dynamic". In other words, these parameters adjust to the content. And they don’t always do it well - it’s better to immediately set the desired values ​​yourself.

There was an oddity with the refresh rate: even at manual 120 Hz, some content feeds scrolled as if at 60 Hz, that is, not as smoothly as they should. I'm assuming this is a software issue that could be fixed with an update.

The screen settings offer two color modes: "Regular colors" and "Vivid". The names speak for themselves - the first option is for those who are closer to calm shades, the second provides maximum saturation, although not "vyryglazny". In both cases, the temperature can also be adjusted separately.

Of course, there is an AOD (Always on Display) mode that allows you to display the time, date, notifications, battery status, and animation, inscription, photo or any other image in miniature. There are many ready-made templates to choose from.

As for the curves of the screen, they are rather conditional. A significant part of the space under the rounded part of the glass is occupied by a black frame, so the picture edges is not distorted and almost does not glare, as it was on some previous smartphones with a curved panel.

Biometrics

The smartphone has an optical fingerprint scanner built into the screen. It does not have a very large touch area, but lightning-fast operation speed and the highest accuracy. Due to the small width of the case, it is convenient to use the scanner, even if you use your thumb to unlock.

Also unlock the device is possible due to face recognition. This, of course, is not Face ID, but for a system based on a single camera, everything works fine. The smartphone recognizes you even in glasses, including in the dark.

Sound

The P50 Pro has excellent stereo speakers with high maximum volume and wide dynamic range. Music is pleasant to listen to even without headphones.

In Bluetooth connection mode, only SBC and AAC codecs are supported for simple headphones and LDAC and L2HC for advanced ones, for example for Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro. There are traditional Huawei Histen audio effects for brand devices with various sound playback modes and an equalizer.

I also note the presence of the Sound Booster option, which allows you to use the microphones of your smartphone to amplify ambient sound and transmit it to headphones or a speaker. This can be useful, for example, when watching TV by a person with a hearing impairment - it is enough turn on the function in the settings, place the smartphone next to the TV and select an accessory to output amplified sound.

Performance

The gadget has a Snapdragon 888 processor with an LTE modem. This is not the top-end Qualcomm solution, and besides, without 5G, but Huawei cannot use more modern chips due to sanctions.

The 888 is quite powerful, but gluttonous in terms of power consumption, despite the 5-nanometer process technology. Besides, he's good warming up under load and is subject to throttling (limiting the maximum clock frequency), which was confirmed by tests in CPU Throttling.

Simply put, long gaming sessions in demanding shooters or MMORPGs are not about the Huawei P50 Pro. The device, of course, will cope, but not without a frame rate drop and case heating.

The smartphone has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. You can expand the storage using nanoSD cards (up to 265 GB) - very small, but quite expensive.

As for performance in basic everyday tasks, there is no problem with this - until the moment you try to run something from Google. With such services, the smartphone begins to stumble on simple tasks, because many things work through “crutches”. But more on that below.

System

The smartphone runs on EMUI 12, which is still Android and not the Harmony OS that Huawei is moving its devices to in China.

Visually, the shell has not changed much since the company's devices still had Google services. But there are some useful innovations:

• A convenient quick settings curtain, or "Control Panel" - it opens with a swipe down to the right of the front camera eye, and the same gesture on the left will open notifications.
• The ability to adjust the size of icons on the desktop along with the grid (display scale).
• Large folders with nine icons that occupy the desktop area with four standard icons. Moreover, to access these nine icons, the folder does not need to be opened - applications available in one click.

• Ability to open applications in windows that are minimized or scaled on the desktop.
• New Device+ app for remote access to all devices in the Huawei ecosystem that you own: tablet, laptop, TV, headphones or speaker.

Google apps and services

For all its aesthetics, EMUI immediately scares you with dozens of third-party application icons that are already sorted into folders. These are not installed programs and games, but only their installers that launch the download itself in two clicks.

There are more than 50 such shortcuts on a smartphone, not to mention the recommendations of a couple dozen more services that are displayed there, in folders. Huawei seems to have collected all this stuff, trying to show: "We have no problems with applications." But in fact, of course, they are.

First of all, we are talking about the lack of Google services - this is still a problem, but not as critical as before. During the time of sanctions, several ways have appeared to circumvent some of the restrictions. I'll tell you in order.

App Gallery

This is the standard Huawei app store. It has all the programs of Yandex, Telegram, Mir Pay, VKontakte, VPN services, many popular games and bank clients. Including Sberbank Online and Alfa-Bank, remote from Google Play.

If something is not found in the App Gallery, but it is something popular, the store will offer a link to the APKPure website. From there, you can download the APK file of the app you want and install it manually.

So, for example, you will be able to get the Google Chrome browser or Google Maps, but you will not be able to log in to them with your Google account.

Quick App

You can use Google services under your account through Quick App - this is a format of applications that do not require installation. They are also displayed among the search results in the App Gallery. How such applications look - look at screenshots below.

In fact, these are web versions of services that do not differ in an optimized interface and high speed, but are still quite functional. YouTube, Gmail, Google Search, Google Photos, Calendar, Drive, Spreadsheets, Docs, and more are available in Quick App format.

Quick App Icons can bear to the desktop - they will be marked with a lightning bolt icon. It is better to look for programs of this format in a separate application "Quick App Center", the emblem of which can also be placed on the screen.

gspace

The real salvation was the Gspace service, which is available in the App Gallery. It organizes a virtual space with a Google account on any “sanctioned” Huawei smartphone. The program is free, but with advertising, which is removed by purchasing a subscription.

After authorization in Gspace, Google services will identify your gadget as another smartphone for which there are no restrictions. In my case it was Honor 8X.

Inside Gspace, icons for a number of popular applications are immediately available: Gmail, Google Drive, Zoom, Google Docs, and others. The first click on the shortcut takes you directly to Google Play, from where you can install everything you need on your smartphone. In the screenshots below, for example - already working YouTube and Google Photos.

After going to the application page, you can go to the main Google Play and use the store search to download any other program you need.

Yes, Google Play works on Huawei P50 Pro.

However, there is one thing. Or even two. Firstly, applications load very slowly, which will be especially noticeable in heavy games. Secondly, everything installed through Gspace remains in Gspace. That is, icons of programs from Google Play will be visible only in Gspace. And you will always need to go there to use, for example, the normal Gmail application, cloud storage Google or something else that is not available in the usual way.

And since applications from Gspace are isolated, Google programs installed via APK will not be able to contact them. For this reason, every launch of a regular Google application or a program somehow related to search engine services will be accompanied by an annoying notification with a suggestion to “install Google Play services” (which, of course, is not succeed).

This message will be displayed every time you enter the Chrome, YouTube, or even when using Yandex. This can only be dealt with.

cameras

Cameras have always been a strong point of Huawei flagships, and in the case of the P50 Pro, this is generally the main selling point. The smartphone has four modules, each of which has excellent focus.

General shooting

The 50-megapixel True-Chroma main camera with optical image stabilization lets you take cool shots during the day and simply gorgeous shots at night.

In conditions of lack of light, the camera opens up fully, since the photos are taken with the participation of the second module - monochrome at 40 megapixels. Such a sensor allows you to capture much more light, providing the smartphone with maximum data for software processing of the frame. The result is images with details that you might not see with your own eyes in the dark.

Wide angle shooting

The ultra-wide-angle camera has a resolution of only 13 megapixels, but at the same time it has auto focus, which is rare for such modules, even among flagships. This allows you to take shots from a fairly close distance, similar to macro photography.

This camera does not like backlight, otherwise there are no critical problems. Its use is not exactly limited to the standard wide landscapes and desire to embrace the immensity. You can experiment with close-ups or even night shots.

Zoom

The fourth module in the Huawei P50 Pro camera is the so-called periscope for 3.5x optical zoom. How sharp this "eye" is, judge for yourself:

The camera provides a very high level of detail at a zoom of ×3.5 and even ×10. You can use more, up to a hundred, but this is more of a purely marketing story. Even if you need to read something or view something from a distance, it is better to use a 10x zoom and then just increase the resulting photo on the screen.

Selfie camera

The 13MP selfie camera also has autofocus, which is a big plus. Not all flagships today can boast of this.

The quality of shooting is at a very decent level. There are several capture angle options to choose from, which will be useful for group selfies, as well as neat portrait enhancements that smooth and mattify the skin.

There is also a flash from the screen and a night mode - it does not guarantee a perfect photo from the first take, but still allows you to get a decent shot where there is almost no light.

Autonomy and charging

The smartphone battery has a capacity of 4,360 mAh, which is an average indicator by modern standards, which, taking into account the 120 Hz screen, did not inspire hope for high autonomy. And in fact, this was confirmed: the smartphone lives one light day and no more. In numbers, this is about 4.5–5 hours of screen and 10% charge by the evening.

Probably, the refresh rate and display resolution were initially set to dynamic, so that the smartphone just survived until the end of the day. Additional way save charge - Disable Always on Display. However, if you are used to shooting a lot, then all this will not save you - the camera will quickly drain the battery, and you will need recharging during the day.

The power of the complete recharge device (66 W) partly compensates for this shortcoming. In 20 minutes, the smartphone is replenished by 50%, and completely - in about 50 minutes. Slightly slower - with 50W wireless charging, although such a charger will have to fork out.

Results

In many ways, the Huawei P50 Pro is a great smartphone, a full-fledged flagship. It is comfortable, pleasant in appearance, with a decent display, good sound and a great camera - one of the best to date. The gadget has no problems with communication, wireless connections and contactless payment (while there are MirPay).

With all this, Huawei P50 Pro is not a mass product. This is not the device that can be safely advised to everyone who lives their lives by sticking to the screen for 6-7 hours a day, scrolling through tapes and social networks. And the point here is not so much autonomy, which is partly offset by fast charging, but the inconvenience with Google services and the high price tag.

At the beginning of May 2022, a smartphone costs 114,999 rubles. At this price point, the Huawei P50 Pro is hard to see as a collection of features. Rather, it is a more “narrow”, fashion device – original, stylish, modern, and with impressive shooting capabilities, of course.

Advantages

• Convenient case.
• Great screen.
• Great main camera.
• Top zoom.
• fast charging.

disadvantages

• Very slick body.
• Lack of Google services.
• Low autonomy.
• CPU throttling under load.

Buy Huawei P50 Pro

The author thanks Huawei for the device provided for testing. The company had no opportunity to influence its result.