Almost two years passed since the launch of Mate 40 series, Huawei finally debuted its new flagship Mate 50 series today, including Mate 50, 50E, 50 Pro, and 50 RS in China.
Mate 50 features a 6.7-inch 90Hz HDR OLED display panel with 10-bit color depth at 2700*1224 resolution. Mate Pro has the higher refresh rate at 120Hz, it also comes with a larger battery capacity at 4,700 mAh. Camera and image function remains as the highlight of Mate 50 series. Both 50 and 50 Pro are equipped with three rear cameras, but 50 Pro has a 64MP periscope 3.5X optical zoom lens instead of a 1.2MP zoom lens on the Mate 50. On the front, there are a 13MP ultrawide camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 3D ToF sensor for facial unlock. Huawei also addressed its imaging brand XMAGE, which enables the control of camera lenses’ aperture blades. The new imaging brand indicates Huawei’s ambitious to label and promote own brand on image side, following the end of the cooperation with Leica early this year.
Other highlights include the application of ultra-solid Kunlun glass and the capability of sending messages and locations through China’s Beidou satellite navigation system. In addition, Mate 50 series support emergence battery usage model, which allows users to make phone calls up to 12 minutes / scan QR code 4 times under 1% battery capacity. The function would be able to address smartphone users’ battery anxiety.
Despite no 5G connectivity due to US sanction, we believe Mate 50 series satellite communication technique would certainly attract lots of Geeks and some professionals who need to work in rural areas without cellular coverage. Although Apple is believed to announce iPhones’ connection to the satellites soon, we doubt whether this function would be available in China mainland. Therefore, there is no real competitors to Huawei in terms of this special segment.
Mate 50 series are powered by Harmony OS 3.0, which supports file sharing and empowers quickly QR code scanning function by tapping back twice etc.
Mate 50 series comes with three colors: sliver, black and purple. Mate 50 model is priced at CNY 4,999 (US$ 720) for 128GB version. 50 Pro starts at CNY 6,799 (US$ 980) for 256GB version. 50E comes with CNY 3,999 (US$ 575) for 128GB version. Mate RS Porsche version is labelled for CNY 12,999 (US$ 1,870).
Mate 50 series will strengthen the strong premium brand equity and reputation that Huawei enjoys in China, which remains as the key market for Huawei and contributed to 87% smartphone volume share in Q2 2022. As it said during the launch event, the Mate series will be available in China from September 21, but no information about the international availability so far.
