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 Mare 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.
