Huawei Mate 50 Pro in for review

The Mate 50 Pro from Huawei sits atop the brand’s flagship hierarchy for 2022 and it has the usual mix of compelling hardware seen in the high-end Mate models for past several years. This is our unboxing and first impressions of the Mate 50 Pro.

Mate 50 Pro feels and looks premium. The leather-like material on the back is nice and soft to the touch and eliminates the need for a case. The aluminum frame and curves around the screen and back make for a great-feeling product in the hand. Despite the sizeable 6.74-inch 120Hz OLED screen, the Mate 50 Pro is easier to use with one hand than some competing flagships with similar-sized screens.

Interestingly Huawei ditched the punch hole cutout and went with a notch - reminiscent of the one used on the Mate 20 Pro from 2018 though you do get the benefit of a 3D TOF biometric sensor. The screen is also protected by Huawei Kunlun Glass while the phone itself is IP68 dust and water-resistant. The in-box contents include a clear silicon protective case, a 66W charger and a USB cable.

Cameras are traditionally a strong point on Mate devices and this year’s Mate 50 Pro brings XMAGE imaging technology and a variable aperture with a potent 50MP wide, 64MP periscope (3.5x optical zoom) and a 13MP ultrawide setup. We’ll make sure to pay extra attention to the cameras during our review process.

Elsewhere, Mate 50 Pro gets the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset though without the 5G connectivity for obvious reasons. One of the marquee features - BDS-3 Satellite Messaging is sadly not available on our international variant. Stay tuned for our full review.