Huawei Mate 50 and Mate 50 Pro debut with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G and premium hardware across the board

Huawei, embattled as it may be since US sanctions struck years ago, has now returned to the market with its latest generation of premium phones. The company released the Mate 40 series two years ago and now debuts the Mate 50 lineup in China as its business-focused, complete flagship phones for the year.

The Mate 50 sports a 6.7-inch 90 Hz 2700x1224 OLED with a hole punch and 1440 Hz PWM. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G. 8GB of RAM comes as standard, and storage goes up to 512 GB. Camera-wise, the Mate 50 is equipped with a RYYB 50 MP IMX766 as its main shooter, a 12 MP IMX688 as its ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 12 MP 5x telephoto lens. The zoom lens and main camera both boast of OIS. 

The Mate 50 Pro sports a 6.74-inch 120 Hz OLED, but trades in the hole punch on the vanilla Mate 50 for a notch with advanced face unlocking capabilities. Cameras are the same on the Mate 50 Pro, with the exception of the zoom camera which is now a 3.5x periscope lens paired with a 64 M OV64B sensor. Surely a baffling choice as it means the Mate 50 has better zoom on paper. Interestingly, though, the Mate 50 goes up to 100x digital zoom, while the Mate 50 Pro tops out at 200x—likely thanks to the periscope lens. A 13 MP selfie camera sits within the phone's notch. 

Bothe the Mate 50 and Mate 50 Pro support 66W wired charging and 50 W wireless charging. The Mate 50 has a 4460 mAh battery, while the Mate 50 Pro is equipped with a 4700 mAh unit. Both phones run on Harmony OS 3, and feature NFC support, IP68 certification, 7.5 W reverse wireless charging, and Bluetooth 5.2.

The Mate 50 starts at CNY 4999 (US$720) for the 128 GB variant, and goes up to CNY 5499 (US$790) and CNY 6499 (US$935) for the 256 GB and 512 GB models respectively. For the Mate 50 Pro, base storage is pegged at 256 GB and costs CNY 6799 (US$980), with the 512 GB costing CNY 7799 (US$1120).

Buy the Huawei P50 Pro on Amazon.