Huawei, once a mainstay of the smartphone scene in Malaysia, is trying to mount a comeback here with not one, but two new devices launched today. The first is the Huawei P50 Pro, which is their flagship smartphone packing what could be the last Leica-engineered camera setup. The other is the Huawei P50 Pocket, their first clamshell foldable seen as a rival to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3.
Huawei P50 series pricing and availability
The Huawei P50 Pro is available for preorder from the official Huawei eStore as well as their official stores on Lazada and Shopee from 4pm, 12th of January onwards until the 21st of January, with full availability from the 22nd of January onwards. As for the Huawei P50 Pocket, the clamshell will be available for preorder from the 22nd of January onwards till the 13th of February. If you are planning to get one of these devices, here’s how much they’ll cost:
- Huawei P50 Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage – RM4,199
- Huawei P50 Pocket, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage – RM5,999
- Huawei P50 Pocket Premium Edition, 12GB RAM, 512GB storage – RM7,299
They are certainly not the cheapest of smartphones, and for the Huawei P50 Pocket puts it at a much steeper price range compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 that retails at RM3,999 onwards. In fact, the Huawei P50 Pocket Premium Edition is more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Z fold 3 too, which starts at RM6,699.
If you do plan to get them though, Huawei will be sweetening the deal a little bit. Those who pre-order the Huawei P50 Pro will snag themselves a free Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro worth RM1,199, a free one time screen replacement for accidental damage within the first three months worth RM119 as well as a bunch of Huawei Mobile Services & Partner vouchers worth up to RM725. The latter is also free with pre-orders of the Huawei P50 Pocket, along with a Huawei Watch 3 worth RM1,699 and a free one year extended warranty worth RM309.
Huawei P50 Pro specs
The Huawei P50 Pro was originally launched in China back in July of last year, but still has some pretty solid specs today. It features a 6.6-inch, dual-curved OLED display pushing a 2700 x 1288p resolution for a pixel density of 450ppi. The screen is also capable of a 120Hz refresh rate as well as a 300Hz touch sampling rate.
Despite it being its flagship device, the Huawei P50 Pro (and pretty much all other devices in their lineup) won’t come with 5G support even though it’s being powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 system-on-chip. Instead the Huawei P50 Pro will be limited to just 4G connectivity. The Snapdragon 888 chip itself gets mated to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. As is the case with the 5G limitations, the US government’s sanctions against Huawei also means that the Huawei P50 Pro won’t be coming with Google Mobile Services on its EMUI 12 operating system.
As for its cameras, it’s been speculated that it’s the last Huawei smartphone to feature the Leica branding, as Leica as since released its own smartphone while also reportedly working with Xiaomi instead. Nevertheless, the P50 Pro still packs a solid dual ring quad-camera setup, with a 50MP, f/1.8 main camera. That gets flanked by a 40MP, f/1.6 mono shooter, a 13MP, f/2.2 ultrawide angle camera and a 64MP, f/3.5 telephoto shooter able to provide a 100x digital zoom along with a 3.5x optical zoom. Selfies meanwhile gets taken care of by a 13MP front camera housed in a punch hole cutout on the top of the display.
Other features of note includes a 4,360mAh battery that has 66W Huawei SuperCharge fast charging, as well as 50W wireless charging. It also gets an IP68 dust and water resistance rating as well as an under display fingerprint sensor. Connectivity-wise, the P50 Pro will have NFC, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 support, but as mentioned earlier won’t have 5G support. It also comes with stereo speakers but no 3.5mm audio jack. The Huawei P50 Pro will come in two colourways, namely Golden Black and Cocoa Gold.
Huawei P50 Pocket specs
There aren’t too many rivals to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 right out on the market, which is why it’s perhaps quite refreshing to see Huawei come up with an alternative of their own. The Huawei P50 Pocket’s defining feature is arguably its circular cover display that has a diameter of 1.04-inches. The OLED display has a resolution of 340 x 340p, a pixel density of 328ppi and has a standard 60Hz refresh rate with a 120Hz touch sampling rate.
It’s main display meanwhile is a 6.9-inch OLED display with a near 21:9 aspect ratio. It has a 2790 x 1188p resolution and is capable of a refresh rate up to 120Hz. The P50 Pocket’s main display also features a 1440Hz high frequency PWM dimming and a 300Hz touch sampling rate. You’re getting a pixel density of 442ppi on the main display. At 6.9-inches the main display also edges out the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and even the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max in terms of size. It’s 170mm tall, but when folded it’s only 87.3mm in height. Similarly, it’s 7.2mm thick when unfolded and 15.2mm thick when closed
Just like its Huawei P50 Pro brother though, it will come without any support for 5G connectivity despite coming with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor underneath. The P50 Pocket will come with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. It’ll also come with EMUI 12 out of the box and lacks Google Mobile Services.
In the camera department, while it has the same dual ring camera bump as the P50 Pro, one of them has been taken up by the cover display. The P50 Pocket still has a triple rear camera setup though, with a 40MP, f/1.8 main shooter flanked by a 13MP, f/2.2 ultrawide angle camera and a 32MP, f/1.8 ultra spectrum camera. As for its front camera, it gets a 10.7MP, f/2.2 selfie camera in a punch hole cutout on the top of the main display.
Keeping the lights on is a 4,000mAh battery that’s much bigger than the 3,300mAh battery on the Galaxy Z Flip 3. The P50 Pocket also supports 40W fast charging via Huawei Super Charge while the side of the device houses a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. No 5G support of course but there is WiFi 6, NFC and Bluetooth 5.2. One other cool feature is a sunscreen detection function that checks if your face has been properly covered with sunscreen using the rear camera’s flash. The P50 Pocket won’t have an IP68 rating like the Galaxy Z Flip 3 though, nor does it have a 3.5mm audio jack. You’ll be able to get it in two colourways: a regular white P50 Pocket or the gold P50 Pocket Premium Edition.
