Still the best in the business?

Though predominantly targeted on its Chinese language dwelling market as of late, Huawei has a brand new launch for Western audiences within the flagship Mate 50 Professional. Pricing it at a hefty £1,199/€1,199, Huawei nonetheless needs to compete with Apple and Samsung {hardware}, however it’s a must to scrutinize the broader bundle at this degree too.

As with all current Huawei releases, the absence of GMS and Google app help continues to be a barrier that the majority shoppers received’t need to hurdle. Whereas Huawei claims the app state of affairs is ever-improving, the workaround stays considerably cumbersome and nonetheless can’t present all of the providers or experiences Western audiences are used to.

Previously couple of years, a motive to miss this lingering problem has been Huawei’s best-in-class digital camera experience. However with the Leica partnership over, can Huawei nonetheless lead the cellular pictures area?

As you’d anticipate from Huawei, the Mate 50 Professional is a well-equipped flagship handset. Spotlight options embrace an IP68 score, a multi-day 4,700mAh battery, quick 66W wired and 50W wi-fi charging, and a vivid 120Hz 6.74-inch OLED show. The inclusion of ultra-secure, 3D depth-data-powered face unlock sees a return of a big notch, although this dates the seems to be considerably.

There are some greater caveats right here, although. Regardless of the inclusion of a powerhouse Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, there’s solely 4G modem help onboard. So no 5G connectivity. EMUI 13 is predicated on Android 12 (not Android 13, as you would possibly anticipate), and Huawei guarantees an more and more below-average two-year OS and three-year safety replace pledge.

Nonetheless, the telephone’s spotlight, for me, is the design. The Mate 50 Professional is lighter than rival handsets just like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely, whereas the rear Kunlun glass (which boasts Switzerland’s SGS 5-star glass drop resistance) feels nice within the hand and is immune to fingerprints. Not everybody will love the curved show, however the round, symmetrical “Area Ring” digital camera housing continues to supply a novel look. Huawei gives three colorways: black, silver, and orange (vegan leather-based).

However the true motive to proceed to choose up a Huawei flagship is for the cameras. Powered by a 50MP RYYB major sensor with 10-point f/1.4-f/4.0 variable aperture, 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide, 64MP f/3,5 3.5x periscope digital camera, 13MP f/2.4 selfie snapper, proximity gentle sensor, and laser autofocus, backed by Huawei’s Ximage software program, there’s a lot to sink our tooth into right here.

Let’s take a better take a look at how the telephone’s digital camera bundle performs.

Let’s begin out with a broad number of snaps captured with the Mate 50 Professional earlier than diving into a better take a look at some particular eventualities.

Usually phrases, most photographers will probably be very happy with the outcomes under. Colours are punchy with out veering into irritating oversaturation, advantageous particulars are current, and the principle digital camera flies by way of HDR and low-light environments with out points. The handset’s white stability can also be distinctive, for essentially the most half.

One grievance is that Huawei’s algorithms may end up in the odd underexposed and desaturated picture, whereas particulars can tackle a processed look (possible owing to picture fusion algorithms) in some conditions. Fortunately that’s not a extremely widespread prevalence, and it received’t be a problem for almost all of customers who by no means crop in.

Whereas I’m being actually choosy (which is my job), the comparability with the Galaxy S22 Extremely exhibits the professionals and cons of Huawei’s method to element processing.

In daylight, there’s a comparative degree of element to Samsung’s flagship (Huawei truly overtakes in low gentle). Nevertheless, the trade-off is fractionally sharper-looking shadows and marginally extra aggressive denoise that creates a extra painted look on a 100% crop. There’s not lots in it, however any presumptions that Huawei is nicely forward within the element recreation not maintain up.

HDR and low gentle

Turning to trickier environments, the Mate 50 Professional hangs with the very best. HDR capabilities have lengthy been considered one of Huawei’s strengths, and the telephone stands up nicely subsequent to the mighty Google Pixel 7 Professional on this regard. In our first samples, you’ll discover related spotlight preservation and shadow element between the 2. Nevertheless, the Mate 50 Professional has a little bit of a purple tint within the prime left that appears like chromatic aberration, which might be a results of lens distortion brought on by the vast f/1.4 aperture.

The second picture, above, can also be extremely related. I give the Pixel 7 Professional the nudge on taming scene highlights. Nevertheless, there’s a lot much less shadow noise within the Mate 50 Professional’s image, probably partly because of its distinctive RYYB sensor configuration.

Turning the lights down decrease reveals constantly stable white stability and element seize. Nevertheless, as we beforehand noticed, the Mate 50 Professional is a bit more aggressive in its processing than Samsung, which trades off decrease noise for sacrifices intimately. Personally, I don’t thoughts somewhat grain in my pictures if it leads to much less distracting sharpening.

Oddly, the Mate 50 Professional dials up the colour in low gentle. This might be in a bid to keep away from the desaturation we frequently see with minimal gentle sources. In comparison with the Pixel 7 Professional above, the colour pop finally ends up trying a bit an excessive amount of, for my part.

In comparison with earlier Huawei smartphones, one thing has positively modified on this space of processing. It might be all the way down to shifting algorithms over from its in-house Kirin to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform or to the lack of Leica’s partnership. Both approach, Huawei’s low-light pictures, and particulars extra usually, aren’t fairly as clear as I recall in previous fashions.

Ultrawide and macro

On paper, Huawei’s ultrawide digital camera suits much more into the body than Samsung’s S22 Extremely 12mm, 120-degree lens. It’s truly fractionally broader than the 13mm, 126-degree Google Pixel 7 Professional, making it one of many wider cameras in the marketplace. See the instance under.

Normally, I’d be very hesitant a couple of digital camera this vast. Nevertheless, Huawei’s software program chain supplies rock-solid picture correction, chromatic aberration discount, and denoise. The extent of element preservation is a lower above competing flagship telephones, though it’s nonetheless notably inferior to the principle digital camera. White stability can be a bit hit-and-miss and doesn’t at all times match the principle digital camera.

The 100% nook crop above clearly exhibits superior element and coloration seize, however there are nonetheless telltale indicators of distortion, very like the Pixel 7 Professional. Huawei makes an attempt to right for widespread purple haloing, however we will spot blue artifacts of their place. The Mate 50 Professional additionally makes an attempt to right for its excessive area of view to supply a “flatter” picture; the attitude is simply so-so in its utility, no less than to me. It additionally has a knock-on impact on macro pictures.

Like nearly all flagship handsets, Huawei gives you the choice of an optimized macro mode, mixing imaging from the principle and ultrawide cameras. It really works nicely sufficient however leans extra on the ultrawide digital camera than some competing telephones, which may produce barely odd views in some cases.

Your desire right here will actually rely upon whether or not you prefer bokeh or sharp particulars in your macro pictures. The Pixel 7 Professional does higher on the latter, whereas the S22 Extremely gives good bokeh. I discover the Mate 50 Professional’s perspective too warped right here.

Huawei missed a trick to leverage the telephone’s variable aperture for a lot improved macro capabilities. You may toggle the aperture manually within the devoted mode, and this works nice to handle the dreaded over-powering depth of area impact fairly than utilizing the first lens up shut. Nevertheless, it’s a ache to navigate rapidly. I might fairly that the automated macro mode dealt with it for you. Take a look at the pictures under with the default f/1.4 aperture, f/4.0, and auto-macro settings.

I’d say the consequence’s fairly clear-cut right here. Total, Huawei’s ultrawide setup is healthier than most with regards to becoming extra in your shot in addition to preserving picture high quality to the next customary. Nevertheless, I’m much less confined by the intense area of view and macro capabilities.

Hybrid zoom in contrast

Though it seems to be just like the Huawei Mate 50 Professional digital camera bundle has 4 lenses, there are literally three and a proximity gentle sensor. The third digital camera is a 3.5x optical lens which, whereas a very good decide for portrait images, is a step again for long-range zoom lovers in comparison with the Mate 40 Professional’s 5x optical zoom and positively not near the Huawei P40 Professional Plus and its 10x optical zoom capabilities. However maybe Huawei could make up the hole with its super-resolution zoom know-how.

Broadly talking, zoom high quality is stable for medium-range pictures. Colours and element are advantageous however not fairly as much as par with the principle lens. It’s a lot simpler to identify indicators of sharpening and processing, as is typical for zoom cameras. The one lens setup is restricted to about 5x affordable most degree of zoom. By the point you hit 10x, picture high quality seems to be nearly satisfactory at full body however actually doesn’t maintain up on nearer inspection.

That actually doesn’t sound nearly as good as Google’s and Samsung’s greatest, so how does the telephone examine to its rivals?

At 3.5x, there’s not lots to differentiate between any of the three telephones I ported round for this shootout. At 100%, particulars are sharper than the Galaxy S22 Extremely’s roughly equal digital camera however not fairly as sturdy because the Pixel 7 Professional’s tremendous res zoom — no less than within the heart of the body; Google’s implementation gives poor particulars on the picture edge. Additionally, Huawei’s coloration alternative is healthier than its rivals within the shot above, completely capturing the chilly, crisp look of a winter’s morning.

Issues are somewhat extra attention-grabbing at 10x. The Galaxy S22 Extremely leads in long-distance out of doors pictures owing to its devoted 10x digital camera. The Pixel 7 Professional isn’t far behind, after which the Mate 50 Professional is somewhat behind that. Nevertheless, take a look at the indoor shot under.

With non-ideal lighting, the Huawei Mate 50 Professional’s tremendous res zoom know-how closes in on the Galaxy S22 Extremely’s periscope digital camera. Whereas Samsung nonetheless supplies a softer, extra sensible picture that’s free from sharpening, Huawei’s completely software-based method isn’t far behind in any respect when trying on the full body.

Total, whereas Huawei has taken strides to surpass the competitors within the ultrawide division, the Mate 50 Professional’s zoom capabilities commerce blows with however can’t knock out the very best within the enterprise. Whereas stable out to about 5x, the telephone doesn’t fairly supply the identical degree of element because the Pixel 7 Professional and may’t fairly preserve tempo with the S22 Extremely at longer vary.

Huawei’s portrait pictures stays probably the greatest within the enterprise, providing nice topic publicity and rock-solid bokeh edge detection in each out of doors and dimly lit circumstances. The Mate 50 Professional additionally excels at preserving sensible pores and skin tones and textures with out the oversharp or smeared particulars you’ll nonetheless usually discover on different flagship smartphones. The one disadvantage is that Huawei seemingly dials up the colour punch a bit with portrait mode enabled; that hoodie is crimson, not pink. Fortunately, the look isn’t overbearing, however once more, it’s a little bit of a deviation from the extra sensible method we’ve seen from earlier Huawei flagships.

Sadly, the portrait high quality doesn’t carry over to the selfie digital camera. For starters, the Mate 50 Professional sports activities an unnecessarily vast area of view that leads to very slender faces and a distorted perspective. You may crop the picture, however that doesn’t resolve the issue. The entrance digital camera additionally oversaturates colours a tad so as to add extra pop, but struggles for saturation and element in low gentle. Huawei has clearly prioritized group selfies over picture high quality.

Fortunately, bokeh edge detection is nearly as good as its rivals. Nevertheless, it’s a must to change the digital camera to 1x and allow the Circles impact earlier than Huawei’s portrait mode does something noticeable to the background. Even right here, the blur impact isn’t fairly as pleasing as the sunshine circles you’ll see from different telephones.

The underside line: there are higher selfie snappers on the market. It is a disgrace as a result of the Mate 50 Professional’s portrait pictures is de facto first rate.

As anticipated, the Huawei Mate 50 Professional wields a reliable digital camera array that’ll have you ever nicely lined no matter the subject material. Versatility stays one of many digital camera bundle’s best strengths. It’s an progressive piece of package too. Though the variable aperture controls might be extra user-friendly, it’s a highly effective device for taking higher management over the look of your footage. I actually hope extra smartphones crib the thought in 2023.

That mentioned, I’ve very excessive expectations for Huawei’s digital camera capabilities, and whereas principally stable, there are positively some uncharacteristic drawbacks right here. Hit-and-miss colours, middling zoom capabilities, and a disappointing selfie digital camera take the shine off a setup that’s commanding a premium flagship £1,199/€1,199 price ticket. Whereas there’s nonetheless a very good digital camera bundle right here, it’s tougher to suggest than earlier fashions, particularly when in comparison with the ever-improving competitors.

With Huawei’s major promoting level struggling to face out and the continuing Google ecosystem trade-offs, the Mate 50 Professional is a more durable ask than initially anticipated. Whereas Huawei pictures lovers should discover sufficient to like right here, we’d steer nearly all of shoppers to the wonderful digital camera and fewer compromising software program packages obtainable from the Google Pixel 7, Samsung Galaxy S22, and even Apple’s iPhone 14 collection.