As you already know, Huawei is adding a new foldable smartphone to its arsenal in the form of the Huawei P50 Pocket. Interestingly, it has a 120Hz 6.9-inch folding OLED panel with support for a 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 888 processor, and a triple camera setup. So can it hold up against other foldable smartphones in the market? Find out in this review
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Let’s admit it, it’s got almost the same form factor as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 with a few minor differences, more especially in the cover display. Speaking of the cover display, we have a circular 1.04-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 340 x 340, which translates to 328ppi.
The cover display shows your notifications and or selfies using the primary camera. It’s also got chrome accents all around, making it look very posh and chic. The unit we have is the white colorway, but it also comes in black and premium edition gold. It feels light at 190g and it does feel solid, thanks to a mix of steel and glass materials. There’s also a jagged pattern at the back resulting in a better grip.
When unfolded, on the right side, we have the hybrid SIM card slot, which can accommodate two SIM cards or one SIM card and Huawei’s proprietary Nano Memory Card.
On the right side, we have the volume button and a fingerprint scanner.
At the bottom, we have the speaker grille and USB Type C port, while situated at the top is the call microphone.
As for the hinge of the Huawei P50 Pocket, it only allows for three positions: closed, fully opened, and partially opened at a 90-degree angle, which we find handy when taking TikTok videos.
Overall, the Huawei P50 Pro is a premium and well-made device, although we still recommend putting on a case on it. Huawei didn’t mention any water or dust resistance, so extra care is a must.
Opening up the folding display, we’re greeted with a large 6.9-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 2790 x 1188 or equal to 442ppi. It does have a 120Hz refresh rate which provides smooth animations and transitions.
The colors are vibrant with deep blacks, sharp texts, and nice viewing angles. In addition, you have a 21:9 aspect ratio which provides an immersive viewing experience, especially when watching movies shot in a wide aspect ratio.
Because this is foldable, a crease can be observed especially if you look at it very closely. We’re yet to see if the crease will get worse after several months, but right now, it’s still looking good.
As mentioned earlier, it supports up to 120Hz refresh rate. We don’t suggest having it turned on all the time since it will drain your battery a lot. Thankfully, you can opt to have the display set to 60Hz refresh rate or use Adaptive display mode, instead.
Moving over to the cover display, you won’t see any difference between it and the main display as they almost share the same panel, but with a lower resolution. From here, you can access the camera shortcut, so you can quickly take hi-res selfies or videos using the main camera without having to unfold the device. You can also read notifications, check on the weather music controls, and see your appointments on the calendar app. We’re hoping Huawei will add more to these in the future.
When it comes to outdoor legibility, we didn’t have any trouble viewing the display since it can produce enough brightness. Also, Huawei added a non-reflective coating to reduce reflection.
The Huawei P50 Pocket has a stereo speaker setup. It sounded average, nothing spectacular. It has decent highs and mids but lacks bass, which is common in most smartphones. But overall, it’s okay for casual binge-watching content on the internet, but we still suggest having a pair of good-sounding TWS or wired Type-C headphones on the side to have an immersive viewing experience.
We’re looking at a triple camera setup consisting of a 40MP primary, 13MP ultrawide, and a 32MP ultra spectrum camera. As for selfies, we have a 10.7MP front camera.
Quality-wise, shots from the 40MP main camera will not disappoint and definitely produces nice images in good lighting condition. It’s quick to focus even with moving subjects. Images taken are sharp, colors are punchy but still accurate. HDR is also implemented nicely and only when the scene requires it.
Portrait photos are also good, although there are times you will see jagged edges, especially in the hair area. A common limitation in artificially blurred backgrounds. Low light portraits, on the other hand, can be a bit of a hit or miss. So make sure to use this when lighting is abundant.
Huawei smartphones have a good reputation when it comes to low-light performance. The camera’s Night mode feature comes in handy in this scenario and can illuminate dark scenes. Although, you’ll need to keep it steady for a few seconds and let the camera’s software do its magic. It’s not perfect, but you definitely won’t end up with unusable night shots.
As for the selfies, photos taken using the front camera look okay. Not exactly hi-res but it will do for social media uploads or video calls. It’s also susceptible to noise and is slow when shooting in low light. You can use the rear camera instead for better quality.
When it comes to video, the Huawei P50 Pocket can shoot at a maximum of 4K at 30FPS. To our surprise, videos taken while walking or even on a bumpy car ride looks smooth and stabilized thanks to its EIS feature. And just like in images, it can capture plenty of details with accurate colors and HDR.
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Software-wise, running the Huawei P50 Pocket is EMUI 12 with Huawei Mobile Services and AppGallery. You also get access to Huawei’s exclusive features such as Huawei Share and multi-screen collaboration if you own other Huawei devices. And you can still sideload Android apps not found on AppGallery.
Checking out the interface, there’s not a lot of adjustment as it’s like any other smartphone that uses a tall screen. there are a lot of preinstalled apps right out of the box. It’s a bit inconvenient as you will have to remove them if you have no use for them.
Out of the 256GB of storage, we got a usable 213GB which is more than enough for heavy users. But if this isn’t enough, you can expand it using a Huawei proprietary NM card for up to another 256GB of storage.
Under the hood, the Huawei P50 Pocket sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G chipset coupled with an Adreno 660 GPU. Memory-wise, it’s available in 8GB + 258GB or 12GB + 512GB configurations. Given the flagship hardware, it runs smoothly in most tasks we threw at it, including taking photos, videos, heavy social media browsing, and gaming. It gets warm, though, after playing for a while, but not to the point that it becomes uncomfortable.
One issue that we encountered though is when switching between apps. There are times that it feels sluggish and some apps tend to restart. We think don’t think it’s in the hardware, though, and we suspect it to be an issue with the software, which we hope can be fixed with an update.
We run our usual benchmarking apps and here’s what we got:
• AnTuTu v9.2.6 – 534,705
• AnTuTu v9.1.7 Storage Test – 59,620, (1,686.7 MB/s Seq. Read, 972.7 MB/s Seq. Write)
• Geekbench 5.4.4 – 761 (Single-Core), 3,165 (Multi-Core)
• PCMark – 12,979 (Work 3.0)
• 3D Mark – 5,864, 35.10 Ave FPS (Wild Life), 1,891 (Wild Life Extreme)
When it comes to connectivity, the Huawei P50 Pocket features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, multi-band GPS, USB-C, and 4G LTE. Yes, sadly this device doesn’t support 5G, which is a downer if you need this type of connection.
As for the battery, it is equipped with 4,000mAh capacity with 40W fast charging and 5W reverse wired charging. No wireless charging here. Although we can charge it from 0-100% in just 40 minutes, which is fast.
PCMark’s battery test rated the battery life at 9 hours and 18 minutes. We run it in our standard video loop test which entails running a 1080p video on loop at 50% brightness, 0% volume, and Airplane mode turned on and we got 14 hours of playback. These results are both decent and can definitely last you a day when used casually. But if you are a heavy user, expect to charge it at least 2x a day.
The Huawei P50 Pocket is not Huawei’s first folding smartphone, although this is its first foldable smartphone to sport a clamshell design. If you dig this design, then you now have another alternative to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3. It has a beautiful design and good cameras. It has a nice display too, but we’re yet to see how it handles creasing over time.
What will probably keep interested buyers from getting this is the lack of 5G and Google apps. The latter concern can be solved with a workaround, but it might be cumbersome to those who just want Google to work right away. As for the price, as of writing, Huawei is yet to release that info, but if they get to aggressively price this against the competition, then we might see that there’s a lot to love about this device.
What are your thoughts about the Huawei p50 Pocket? Let us know in the comments section below!
Huawei P50 Pocket specs:
Main screen:
• 6.9-inch FHD+ (2790 x 1188) OLED, 442 PPI
• 1.07 billion colors
• 120Hz refresh rate
• 1,440Hz high-frequency PWM dimming
• 300Hz touch sampling rate
Cover screen:
• 1.04-inch 340 x 340 OLED, 328 PPI
• 16.7 million colors
• 60Hz refresh rate
• 120Hz touch sampling rate
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G SoC
Adreno 660 GPU
8GB + 256GB RAM (Standard)
12GB + 512GB RAM (Premium Edition)
Triple rear cameras:
• 40MP F1.8 True-Chroma main
• 13MP F2.2 ultra-wide
• 32MP F1.8 Ultra Spectrum
10.7MP F2.2 front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.2
USB-C 2.0, supports DP1.2
NFC
GPS (dual-band), A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS (tri-band), GALILEO (dual-band), QZSS (dual-band), QZSS (dual-band), NavIC
Fingerprint scanner
EMUI 12
4,000mAh battery w/ 40W fast charging, 5W reverse wired charging
Folded: 87.3 x 75.5 x 15.2 mm
Unfolded: 170 x 75.5 x 7.2 mm
190 g
White (Standard), Premium Gold (Premium Edition)
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Antoin Mori says:
My wife and I love Huawei. We still have our Huawei P20 Pro and it is still in very good condition after more than 2 years of using it. But with P50, the lack of 5G can be a problem because we need faster connectivity now. Google apps can also be a problem because some apps is only available in Google Playstore.