Huawei P50 Pro Review: Camera first, smartphone second

Huawei has recently launched their newest flagship smartphone on the market and it’s the Huawei P50 Pro. Over the years, the P series has focused on the camera and as expected, we got an exceptional camera with the Huawei P50 Pro but how about the other aspects of the smartphone? Check it out in our review below.  

Huawei P50 Pro Review: Design and hardware

When it comes to design, the Huawei P50 Pro is definitely one of the best in the flagship segment. The curves are perfect for the hands and the materials that was used was just premium. You can feel how premium it is once you hold the frame and also the glass back of the smartphone. The smartphone is just really ergonomic for most hands.

At the back is where we can see the glossy and reflective back of the smartphone. And yes, since it does have a mirror look, the smartphone does attract a lot of fingerprints so you might want to wipe it off everytime but you would probably use a case to avoid it.

On the right, the smartphone features the power button and also the volume rocker. We can see in here the USB-C port along with the speaker grill and the card tray and I’m happy to tell you that the smartphone still comes with a fast 66W fast charging inside along with the 50W Wireless Charging. 

The smartphone also comes with IP68 water and dust resistance so you know that the device is protected from sudden rains, coffee spills, and more. When it comes to the colors, the smartphone comes in Cocoa Gold and in Golden Black in the Philippines and they are pretty to the eyes and it fits perfectly with the large camera module of the smartphone.

Speaking of the camera, the Dual-Matrix Camera design is something that some people might not appreciate. As for me, I’m fine with the design and it has definitely grown on me but a lot of people who saw the phone mentioned that the camera module was too big for them

Huawei P50 Pro Review: Display

The display of the smartphone is a 6.6-inch 2700×1228 OLED Display with a 120Hz refresh rate and also a 300 Hz touch sampling rate. Basically, the display of the smartphone is sharp and of course, there’s the curved display as well which makes it look and feel more premium. 

The colors were great and the display of the smartphone is definitely usable even when I’m outside. I actually like the look and feel of the display and gaming. It was really darn good as I can get here a smooth and fast refresh rate and the colors are really good.

Huawei P50 Pro Review: Battery life

When it comes to the battery, the smartphone comes with a 4360mAh battery inside and in our PC Mark Work 2.0 Battery test, we got a score of 10 hours and 19 minutes which is what I already expected on the smartphone. 

Huawei P50 Pro Review: Software and performance

First, let’s talk about what’s inside the smartphone. There’s the EMUI 12 on this one which is based on Android 11. But of course, a lot of the elements and aspects of the smartphone are customized by Huawei and the HarmonyOS is still missing on the smartphone. Nonetheless, it’s still user-friendly and the functions are very easy to access.

Of course, the smartphone still doesn’t come with Google apps or the Play Store so your way to download apps and games on the smartphone is thru the Petal Search Widget which will give you access to different sites that lets you download and install APK and then there’s the Huawei AppGallery as well.

As for me, I’ve been using GSpace in case I need to use Google Apps. This app lets you virtualize a smartphone and lets you use Google Apps and services with it. When it comes to games, I just download APKPure so I can download and update apps directly on the app just like a normal app store and then there’s the Taptap.io app as well for my favorite games.

The smartphone also comes with a Snapdragon 888 chipset inside. Yes, it’s a great chipset and the performance that we’re getting from the smartphone is great but this one is different because this one doesn’t come with 5G inside. Yes, it’s a flagship smartphone with no 5G inside which is a deal breaker for some people but if you are living in an area with a decent connection, you’ll barely notice it. But for some people who wants to experience the fast 5G internet speeds, well, you’re out of luck on this one.

When it comes to benchmarks, we did reach the potential of the Snapdragon 888 processor and the thermals was well optimized but in performance mode, the smartphone gets extremely hot which is very uncomfortable to use. Nonetheless, the benchmarks that we got on the smartphone were just fine. Check out the benchmarks that we got on the smartphone:

As expected, the Snapdragon 888 processor is good enough for most games and apps that I’ve used. We played Call of Duty Mobile on the smartphone and it was a breeze. When it comes to the demanding Genshin Impact, the smartphone was able to run at the highest settings at 60fps but the smartphone gets extremely hot. We were also able to play PUBG Mobile on the smartphone at HDR Graphics at Extreme framerates.

Huawei P50 Pro Review: Camera

The Camera is where the Huawei P50 Pro really shines. The smartphone features a 50MP main camera along with 40MP mono camera, 64MP telephoto camera, and also a 13MP ultra wide-angle camera. The smartphone might have a different camera setup from the other smartphones in the market but the Huawei P50 Pro is definitely one of the best if not the best in the market right now.

First, let’s talk about the night shots on the smartphone. They are excellent and they are bright. Despite the lack of the lighting in the environment, the Huawei P50 Pro still managed to get more light on the camera of the smartphone and it can still capture a lot of details.

In our shots of the smartphone, Surprisingly, the skin tones have improved in this generation and we can capture more details on both the wide-angle camera and also the ultra wide-angle camera of the smartphone. The colors are accurate and the AI definitely helps in the processing of the photos on the smartphone:

The selfie on the smartphone were really good as well and the post-processing has definitely helped in improving the skin tones and colors of the smartphone. However, I find the selfie camera of the smartphone smoothening my selfies despite removing the AI optimizations.

As expected, the smartphone can also do up to 100x zoom and it’s amazing. You can get more details with the Huawei P50 Pro.

Overall, the Huawei P50 Pro does have an amazing camera and whether you want to use a smartphone for video or photos, this should be one of the smartphones that should be on your list.

Huawei P50 Pro Review: Verdict

Without a doubt, the smartphone is beautiful, sexy, and pleasing to the eyes. The smartphone’s camera was really good as well and it might be powerful but the smartphone lacks 5G and it gets really hot after a while of use when playing games. With its lack of 5G Huawei P50 Pro proves that the smartphone is a camera-first smartphone and a smartphone second.

So if you’re prioritizing the camera for your next smartphone then you might want to look at this, the Huawei P50 Pro