Huawei P50 Pro full review

 

this is the p50 pro a flagship phone

with powerful cameras which came out in

china last year and is now being

released globally there are a couple of

things to consider right off the bat

this phone doesn't support google

services or 5g connectivity so does the

p50 pro offer enough despite those to be

worth getting over other flagships i'm

will for juhura siddeki and let's find out

in our full review

the huawei p50 pro was a flagship

through and through and like many

high-end devices brings a curvy elegant

glass design paired with a metal frame

the most unique design element here is

the camera bump which is divided into

two symmetrical circles it resembles

something like a cassette tape

the phone also feels quite thin and at

less than 200 grams it's easy to hold in

one hand

plus the p50 pro is ip68 rated against

water and dust to help protect your

investment

and you can get 128 256 or 512 gigs of

storage on the p50 pro and that's even

expandable using a huawei nano memory

card on the front of the p50 pro is a

6.6 inch curved oled display it's high

res with a pixel density of 450 ppi and

there's a fast 120 hertz refresh rate

too this high refresh rate smooths out

motions like swiping and scrolling and

it will dial down to 60hz to save energy

when you're not interacting with the

screen

there's also a fast 300hz sampling rate

which means the panel is extra

responsive which is nice for things like

gaming

the screen is quite nice in other ways

too there's support for 10 bit color and

hdr 10 plus and the color accuracy is

excellent

finding hdr content is trickier than on

other phones but more on that in a minute

the panel is also brighter than the

previous model the p40 pro we measured a

maximum of over 600 nits when using the

manual brightness slider and this can

boost up to 750 nits if you're in auto

mode in bright conditions

and you get an under display optical

fingerprint scanner which is quite fast

and reliable to wake up and unlock the phone

when it comes to audio the p50 pro

brings a pair of stereo speakers which

is an upgrade over the p40 pro's single

speaker setup the output is loud with a

score of good on our loudness charts and

the sound is rich clean and nicely

balanced with pretty good bass as far as

phones go

when it comes to chipset performance the

huawei p50 pro doesn't disappoint it

brings a snapdragon 88 just like 2021's

flagships and the ui and heavy games run

great here as you'd expect

like i mentioned at the beginning though

on the p50 pro you don't get the 5g

modem so connectivity is limited to 4g

networks and as far as thermals go the

p50 pro is about average for these sorts

of high performance phones that is we do

see some thermal throttling after some

heavy use

let's move on to battery life and in

this regard the p50 pro is a bit

lackluster it has a 4 360 milliamp hour

battery which is sizeable enough but the

phone was able to score just a 76 hour

endurance rating in our battery life

tests

unlike some other flagship phones the

p50 pro ships with the charger in the

box and it's a 66 watt one with it we

were able to charge the phone from zero

to 73 in half an hour and alternatively

you have support for 50 watt fast

wireless charging too

the interface here is huawei's emui 12

and it's actually based on android 11.

the layout overall is familiar to

android users except that here you get a

separate control panel for various

settings accessed by swiping from the

right corner

what you're missing here compared to a

typical android phone are google

services you'll get something similar

through huawei's proprietary package

which includes apps like pedal search

and pedal maps

probably the thing we miss most here is

google play you can use huawei's app

store but it comes with ads and some

popular apps and games aren't available

you can find alternative apps with

almost the same names but don't expect

the same quality and they may have

banner ads too

you can also sideload the real apps

through apks and the search function can

directly find the apks online for you

even so you can't get apps that rely on

google's mobile services to work right

and on top of that you can't make great

use of the hdr screen due to lack of

support by netflix prime video or

youtube at least you can access youtube

through the browser but it doesn't work

as well as on the app for example you

get black bars on the sides of the video

still huawei has made progress with

their own backbone services for

developers and the number of publishers

on app gallery is growing

finally we've made it to the p50 pro's

cameras there's a 50 megapixel main cam

with ois a 40 megapixel monochrome

camera a 13 megapixel ultra wide and a

64 megapixel telephoto camera with 3.5

times optical zoom and ois

during the day the main cam takes

outstanding 12.5 megapixel photos images

look balanced and natural with

true-to-life colors abundant detail and

just the right amount of sharpening

contrast is excellent and dynamic range

is impressive

the main cam is also the primary

portrait shooter and these are brilliant

separation is proficient and subjects

are detailed and sharp the monochrome

camera also captures photos in 12.5

megapixels to keep things consistent its

black and white photos are stunning with

magnificent detail and amazing contrast

the ultra wide cam is quite capable

during the day its photos are sharp and

detailed enough and like the main cam

have excellent contrast and colors and

great dynamic range

this camera has autofocus and is not

always on point resulting in the

occasional soft photo tapping the

viewfinder to refocus before shooting

seems to prevent that

and thanks to the autofocus you can use

the ultra wide to take close-up macro

shots these are detailed sharp and

contrasty with well-preserved colors

the p50 pro's telephoto camera provides

3.5 times optical zoom and these 16

megapixel photos are exceptional there's

high resolve detail and foliage looks

great with balance sharpening contrast

is excellent colors are accurate and

there's no visible noise dynamic range

is superb too

there's also a seven times lossless zoom

created by cropping from the center of

the original 64 megapixel image these

provide the same great quality as the

lower zoom level except that they aren't

quite as sharp

10 times zoom on the viewfinder is

achieved through upscaling so the detail

level and sharpness are a bit lower

still the other qualities like colors

contrast and dynamic range remain great

now on to low light photos while many

phones rely on a night mode to produce

good nighttime shots huawei has

integrated such processing into its

regular auto mode photos from the main

cam are brilliant with plenty of detail

great exposure outstanding color

saturation and excellent dynamic range

blown highlights are rare and shadows look natural

there is still a night mode you can

toggle but its effects are pretty

minimal it brightens up some shadows and

the skies add some color saturation and

if there were any clipped highlights it fixes them

the monochrome camera takes great

nighttime photos with a balanced

exposure plenty of detail and admirable contrast

there are plenty of clipped highlights

due to the more contrasty look but they

actually add a stylistic effect

ultra wide cameras aren't known for good

performance in the dark but the p50 pros

is an exception these shots are great

with punchy colors good contrast and

exposure and low noise

night mode doesn't do much here except

that it might make the colors pop a bit more

if you zoom in the dark the phone may

use the telephoto or it might decide to

make a crop from the main cam if the

scene is too dark if it does use the

zoom lens the results are sharp enough

and you get adequate detail good

exposure low noise and excellent color saturation

turning on night mode may improve the

sharpness and colors in some scenarios

but the difference isn't huge

zooming at 10 times will get you all

right results with low noise and good

exposure and colors but the detail level isn't great

again night mode doesn't make a big

difference it can occasionally improve

the sharpness and brightness of the

photo though

on to selfies these are taken with a 13

megapixel front-facing cam which has

autofocus and a wide field of view in

the native wide-angle mode these are

among the best selfies we've seen from a

phone they're incredibly sharp and

detailed with accurate colors superb

contrast and great dynamic range the 0.8

times toggle is a crop from the wide

angle photo and you can't tell that

there's digital zoom going on they're as

sharp and excellent as the default pictures

finally there's the one times toggle

which is just a bigger crop in this case

you can notice a drop in sharpness but

the quality is still fantastic overall

the p50 pro can record video and up to

4k with all of his cameras and

electronic stabilization is always on

the main cams footage is pretty good

though it seems the sharpness takes a

hit from the eis still there's enough

detail and a balanced look with accurate

colors good contrast and above average

dynamic range

video quality from the monochrome camera

is outstanding it's detailed with a

natural look and superb contrast and

dynamic range

4k clips from the ultra wide are good

too they have enough detail and the

colors are accurate though more contrast

would have been nice here

the telephoto can capture clips at

either four times or ten times zoom at

four times the quality is excellent with

more than enough detail good sharpness

realistic colors commendable contrast

and wide dynamic range

ten times zoom videos are softer and the

level of detail is less otherwise they

have good contrast and accurate colors

so that's the huawei p50 pro the main

benefit you get here are these cameras

they're some of the best we've seen on a

smartphone yet there are also nice

flagship features like a waterproof

build a curved high refresh right oled

stereo speakers a high-end chipset and

fast charging

however these sorts of features can be

found on other flagships too

and besides not having google support or

5g connectivity the p50 pro's battery

life is mediocre and its launch price is

no less than the competition

still if you're a fan of huawei or

you're just trying to step outside of

the google and apple ecosystems the p50

pro is a nice flagship that has a lot to offer

thanks for watching guys stay safe and

see you on the next one