Huawei announces P50 and P50 Pro equipped with Snapdragon 888 and HarmonyOS

Huawei announces its flagship P50 series equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888. However, the phone won’t be available outside the Chinese market because of US sanctions. Both P50 and P50 Pro are powered by Huawei’s in-house HarmonyOS 2, making them the first two major smartphones to get Huawei’s HarmonyOS. In addition to the new OS, both phones have great flagship specs, which we will be talking about in a while.

Looking at the previous release history of Huawei phones, this year, P50 has been delayed a little. The reason is US sanctions. Since the company is restricted from buying chips and other computing components from US tech companies, the phone will also be lacking 5G support. However, 4G is still there, but it’s a big turn-off for many. The smartphones also lack Google services and apps, thanks again to the US sanctions.

Even though US companies are asked to halt business with Huawei, Qualcomm was granted permission to sell 4G chips. Hence, Huawei has included Snapdragon 888 processor in P50 Pro variants. In addition, some variants also have Kirin 9000, Huawei’s in-house processor.

Both P50 and P50 Pro have high-end specs, including an 8 or 12GB RAM with internal storage of up to 512GB; however, the regular P50 only has 8GB RAM and 256GB variants, which is still more than enough for many users.

Speaking of the display, P50 Pro has a 6.6-inches display with a 120Hz 1228p OLED panel. However, the regular P50 has a smaller 6.5-inches display with a 1224p OLED panel at a lesser 90Hz refresh rate. Both are IP68 certified, which means they’re tested for dust and water resistance. With this much high refresh rate in a screen and high-performance insides, P50 Pro has a larger battery of4,360mAh as compared to a smaller 4,100mAh battery of the regular P50 model. Both support 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging for P50 Pro.

Huawei is famous for “ridiculous” camera bumps for cameras. Since these are flagship-level phones, Huawei has added Pro-level camera sensors to these phones. The P50 Pro has four rear cameras with huge circular bumps. The Pro model of Huawei P50 has a 50MP primary, a 64MP telephoto, a 40MP monochrome, and a 13MP ultrawide sensor. The regular P50 lacks one camera sensor and has 12MP telephoto instead of a 64MP telephoto lens. The camera sensors in P50 include a 50MP main camera, a 12MP telephoto, and a 13MP ultrawide sensor. For selfies, Huawei has added a 13MP front-facing camera in both smartphones.

The phones are available in Snow White, Shining Gold Black, Cocoa Tea Gold, Dawn Powder, and Ripple Cloud Wave colors. The pricing starts at $695 approx or 4,488 Yuan. Huawei P50 and P50 Pro will go on sale in the Chinese market in September 2021.

Huawei P50 & P50 Pro Specs