For China, Huawei today presented the new flagship smartphone Mate 50 Pro. And the highlight is clearly the camera. Because it has a variable aperture with 10 f-stops. This allows users to manually control the light and sharpness.
Huawei Mate 50 Pro: what a camera!
As the name suggests, the main camera in the Mate 50 Pro has a resolution of 50 megapixels. It offers optical image stabilization and gets additional support with artificial intelligence. And then it offers the option of choosing an aperture between f/1.4 and f/4.0 as desired.
With the f-stop you control the amount of incident light, but also the size of the depth of field. An aperture of f/1.4 lets a lot of light through and focuses only a small area in the image. And that’s a good thing, because your photos will look more professional and the backgrounds will be softly blurred.
In addition, the main camera also has a macro and a super macro mode – so you can get very close to a subject and still focus on it. There’s also an AI cinematography mode, plus audio son and 4D predictive focus, meaning AI will preemptively focus for you on what you probably would have focused on anyway. The video camera masters 4K with a maximum of 60 frames per second.
The properties of the other two cameras in the triple camera set read a little less sensational. The ultra-wide-angle camera has a resolution of 13 megapixels and has a fixed aperture of f/2.2. The telephoto camera even has to make do with a rather weak f/3.5 aperture – but that is due to the periscope camera system. It boasts a proud 64MP resolution and is supported by optical image stabilization.
Mate 50 Pro: Specifications
| Specifications | Mate 50 Pro |
|---|---|
| screen | 6.74-inch OLED display with variable refresh rate (up to 120 Hz), resolution: 2616 x 1212 px, 428 ppi, 1.07 billion colors |
| chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4G) Octa-Core: 1× Cortex-X2 @ 3.2GHz + 3× Cortex-A710 @ 2.75GHz + 4× Cortex-A510 @ 2.0GHz |
| Storage | 256 or 512 GB ROM 8GB RAM Supports storage expansions with NM SD card |
| camera | triple camera with 50 MP wide angle and variable aperture (f/1.4-4.0) 13 MP ultra-wide angle with f/2.2 Telephoto camera with 3.5x zoom, periscope lens and f/3.5 Video up to 4K @ 60 fps Front camera from 13 MP (ultra wide angle), f/2.4 + 3D Depth Sensing, 4K video |
| Comms/Miscellaneous | 4G-LTE, WiFi 6 (ax) 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.2/BLE, USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 1, IP68, NFC, GPS, A-GPS/Glonass/BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC, BDS Satellite Messaging
Face recognition, fingerprint sensor in the display Charging cable and plug included (but not full fast charging speed), transparent case |
| battery pack | 4,700 mAh with Huawei Super Charge (66W) and Wireless Super Charge (up to 50W), each accessible only with a separately sold charger |
| system | Harmony OS 3.0 with EMUI 13 |
| Mass weight | 16.21 x 7.55 x 0.85mm, 209 grams |
| price approx. | approx. 1,000 euros (not intended for the European market) |
What else can the Mate 50 Pro do?
Huawei currently uses the strongest Qualcomm processor 8+ Gen 1, but is not allowed to install a 5G modem in it due to US trade restrictions. For the same reasons, Android is also missing from Google Play services and apps. Huawei relies on its own Android fork Harmony OS 3.0 with the familiar Emotion UI 13 interface.
A real treat, at least for customers in China: the Mate 50 Pro supports satellite connections. It should also be possible to send messages in China without mobile reception.
Like the rest of the smartphone elite, Huawei also uses a colorful high-resolution OLED display with 120 Hertz technology in the Mate 50 Pro.
The storage capacity is 256 GB and nothing less – that’s commendable! There is also a 512 GB variant, but only for the dual SIM version. In comparison, 8 GB of RAM sounds a bit small for a flagship.
Three colors are available for customers in China: silver, black and orange.
Classification/Conclusion
The Sony Xperia 1 IV is the first smartphone with which you can continuously zoom without loss of quality. At least in the zoom camera from 85 to 125 mm focal length, where the aperture also adjusts. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro now installs a variable aperture in the main camera. With 10 freely selectable zoom levels, it is the first of its kind.
And that is a breakthrough, so to speak, because the fact that you can adjust the aperture and thus the amount of light that enters and the depth of field to your own taste, as with a system camera and a suitable lens, is new. .
It is also a pity that the Mate 50 Pro should not be launched in the European market, because Huawei has managed to come up with a very nice smartphone design here. The rest of the equipment is also good for a flagship.
The appalling trade restrictions that have made business difficult for Huawei for years have apparently not brought down the former market leader: Huawei still knows how to play with the big ones. The manufacturer also showed this yesterday in the innovative Huawei Watch D. But it is also very nice that the technology is now apparently so advanced: variable apertures in smartphone cameras are possible. The lack of it was one of the biggest drawbacks of smartphone cameras over system cameras. Until now.