Huawei has launched its latest folding phone with the name of the P50 Pocket. It has a small outer notification window, interesting camera technology, and a flush fold.
Samsung has also launched its Galaxy Flip 3 but the P50 Pocket is not being considered as its rival because of US sanctions. Huawei cannot offer full access to Google’s Android platform, and it offers its own HarmonyOS.
The P50 Pocket offers a gap-free fold unlike Flip 3. The outer part has a triple camera block comprising a 40-MP True-Chroma main camera with an F1.8 aperture, a 13-MP ultra-wide with an F2.2 aperture, and a 32-MP “ultra-spectrum” camera, also with an F1.8 aperture.
Those camera modules combine with a multi-spectrum sensor, an “ultra-spectrum illuminator” and an autofocus laser to form an “Ultra Spectrum Camera Matrix” that can help tease out natural tones while also enabling a fluorescent photography mode for capturing details and colors not visible to the human eye. The array supports 4K UHD video capture or Full HD for super slow motion at up to 960 frames per second.
There is a 1.04-inch circular OLED window next to the camera to look at the notifications, schedules, the weather, fitness metrics, turn-by-turn navigation, or just the time.
When it is unfolded, the main OLED screen across the hinge measures 6.9 diagonal inches at 21:9 aspect and has a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, a resolution of 2,790 x 1,188 pixels, and a touch sampling rate of 300 Hz. It’s also reported to support the DCI-P3 color gamut “for authentic tones and picture.”
A Nano Optical Layer is used to reduce glare, and the company states that the handset “unfolds without any sign of creasing.” There’s a 10.7-MP hole-punch selfie cam on the main screen too. Users can also use the main camera for selfies by the touch screen of notifications for higher resolution pictures.
Huawei has the Snapdragon 888 4G mobile platform with an octa-core processor and Adreno 660 GPU. The standard phone comes in white with diamond dappling and has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, while a premium gold model sporting a feather-like shimmer to the outer housing bumps that up to 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.
P50 Pocket has a 4,000-mAh battery and support for 40-W charging (though an optional SuperCharge cable and charger is needed), Bluetooth 5.2 is included with support for high-resolution streaming courtesy of the LDAC codec, Wi-Fi 6 is cooked in as well, and the phone can be unlocked using a face scan or fingerprint reader to the side.
The P50 Pocket is available in China now for a starting price of 8,988 yuan (~US1,400 – though this phone won’t be available to US markets).
