The HUAWEI P50 was launched in May, a little late considering it was announced alongside the P50 Pro last year. After more than three years without Google Mobile Services, HUAWEI is still selling phones and the company is growing strong to expand its ecosystem. In this review, we’ll find out what this phone offers and whether you can still live without GMS in 2022.
HUAWEI P50 Specs
- 6.5-inch QHD+ (2,700 x 1,224 pixels) 90Hz OLED display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G processor
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB storage
- Camera
- Rear: 50MP Color True-Chroma Camera with OIS + 13MP ultra-wide camera + 12MP telephoto camera with OIS
- Front: 13MP
- 4,100mAh battery with 66W HUAWEI SuperCharge
- EMUI 12 without GMS
- IP68 splash, water, and dust resistance
- Colors: Golden Black, Cocoa Gold
Design
The HUAWEI P50 looks pretty much like its predecessor, but the hole-punch selfie camera has been shifted to the center. As usual, the non-Pro model gets a flat screen, something that I prefer over a screen with curved sides.
My review unit is the Golden Black variant, which has a pretty reflective back that can be used as a mirror as well. The top left corner has the same Dual-Matrix Camera Design, you can differentiate it from another phone but it has two separate camera bumps. One thing to keep in mind though, the back of the phone is made of plastic, which means you don’t need to worry about shattering like glass, but it is more prone to scratches.
The phone is also IP68 rated for splash, water, and dust resistance, quite common for flagships nowadays, but not at this price range. At least you don’t need to worry about your phone suffering from water damage.
Display
The HUAWEI P50 sports a 6.5-inch QHD+ (2,700 x 1,224 pixels) 90Hz OLED display. The screen supports a wide color gamut and HDR10, not surprising to know since it’s an OLED display. Like many other flagships, the screen shows nice colors and deep blacks, there’s also an optical in-display fingerprint that works pretty well, it’s positioned a little bit too low though.
Performance
Powering the HUAWEI P50 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G processor, which is a rather outdated processor but we all know what happened to HUAWEI for the past few years. Paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, the phone still performs reasonably well, but there’s no guarantee that it will be the same for the next few years since this processor is a year older, and that 4G branding also means that the phone doesn’t support 5G connectivity.
Software
The HUAWEI P50 runs on EMUI 12, technically it is still based on Android 11 but without Google Mobile Services (GMS). The software experience is pretty much the same as HarmonyOS. You can now put your favorite apps in the Smart Folder and open any of them by directly clicking on the icon.
Just like previous HUAWEI phones, Huawei Share enables you to transfer files between your laptop and your phone in the blink of an eye. Also, with the new Distributed File System, you can get instant access to your phone documents or photos through your laptop. Open, view, and enjoy, all without a single cable. You’ll need a HUAWEI laptop to access this feature though.
AppGallery has certainly improved a lot over time, you can directly install and update apps from there and it will source apps from Petal Search. It’s much more convenient than before but the installation progress is slow and those Google apps still aren’t available since you will need GMS to access certain apps.
Camera
The HUAWEI P50 has the Dual-Matrix Camera Design, which packs a triple-camera setup — 50MP Color True-Chroma Camera with OIS + 13MP ultra-wide camera + 12MP telephoto camera with OIS.
Image quality generally is quite good, though the color consistency between the three cameras isn’t closely matched. In my opinion, I would prefer to have a 3x telephoto camera instead of 5x as you would need to move further back to make the composition looks right plus different focal lengths do affect the overall feel, it’s a little bit too close for comfort (pun intended). Low-light photos look great too, but the telephoto doesn’t take sharp low-light photos, especially in night mode.
Battery Life
The HUAWEI P50 has a 4,100mAh battery with a 66W HUAWEI SuperCharge. Charging the phone from 10% to full took around 50 minutes, not the fastest but I’m okay with it. In terms of battery life, the phone can last through a day easily with around 6 hours of screen-on-time.
Final Word
Retailing at RM2,999, the HUAWEI P50 is a good phone but still falls short without Google Mobile Services. Yes, AppGallery has improved and there are more apps now getting onboard, but if you are the one often using Google apps like YouTube, Google Drive, and other Google Services, it seems that there is no way for HUAWEI to solve it at the moment unless you access the web version. The phone has an impressive camera system, which is also one of the last HUAWEI devices in collaboration with Leica. In conclusion, it feels that many things are going away with the P50, guess you’ll have to decide what you really need.
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Yay
- Impressive display
- Great ecosystem
- Good cameras
Nay
- Relatively old processor
- No 5G support
- No wireless charging
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