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Huawei P50 series: Imposing cameras meet forced 5G waiver

Jul 30, 2021

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5G pioneer Huawei has to do without exactly this technology in the P50 series, which is only being presented for China. Due to US restrictions, the P50 and P50 Pro may support a maximum of LTE. Sanctions in chip production lead to a bottleneck at HiSilicon, so Qualcomm steps in. The P50 series focuses on the camera again.

So far, Huawei has been able to bring every new launch practically free of restrictions on the stage. In the software sector in particular, after the forced spin-off from Google, the company has built up its own ecosystem with Huawei Mobile Services, the AppGallery and most recently HarmonyOS 2.0, which has also picked up speed outside of China. The other construction site, however, is hardware, as can now be clearly seen from the limitations of the new P50 series.

Already with the new MatePads, with the mixed use of Snapdragon 865 and Kirin 9000E as well as the waiver of variants with cellular communications, it became apparent that Huawei can no longer freely decide which chips and technologies are used in the devices. This can be seen even more clearly in the new P50 series, which was initially only presented for the Chinese market.

Snapdragon 888 and Kirin 9000 without 5G

Since Huawei has not been allowed to manufacture at TSMC for a long time because US technologies are used there, Huawei's chip manufacturer HiSilicon was no longer able to develop new high-end SoCs after the Kirin 9000. The chip introduced with the Mate 40 Pro was deliberately pre-produced in bulk and stockpiled in order to equip future products with it, but these reserves now seem to have been exhausted. This fact now means that most variants of the smartphone in the P50 series are equipped with Snapdragon 888. Qualcomm has an exemption for deliveries to Huawei, but also only for chips without 5G support. That is why the P50 and several versions of the P50 Pro use the Qualcomm chip in a pure 4G variant. Huawei's or HiSilicon own Kirin 9000 is only used in the three larger configurations of the P50 Pro, but also there without 5G, because licenses on US technologies would violate the trade embargo.

Cameras cover a focal length of 13 to 2,700 mm

Apart from this curious and for Huawei also tragic situation, the new P50 series has again been developed with a focus on the camera. The different sensors and lenses of both variants are housed in two huge circles on the back and were again coordinated together with our long-term partner Leica. The P50 uses a large 50 megapixel sensor for the main camera with a 23 mm focal length at f/1.8. These are joined by sensors with 13 megapixels for the 16 mm ultra-wide angle and 12 megapixels for the 125 mm telephoto with f/3.4 and OIS. Including AI-supported digital magnification, Huawei speaks of 80x zoom, which covers 16 to 1,350 mm.

The P50 Pro uses the same sensor for the main camera, but equipped with OIS. An additional sensor with 40 megapixels, 26 mm and f/1.6 is responsible for black and white photography. In addition, the Pro model also has 13 megapixels with f/2.2 for ultra-wide-angle photos, but here with a focal length of 13 instead of 16 mm. The more powerful telephoto works with a periscope again and has a focal length of 90 mm at f/3.5 including OIS. Overall, the smartphone, including the digital magnification, should cover focal lengths from 13 to 2,700 mm (200x). Only the P50 Pro also comes with a laser autofocus, but again for both devices there is a sensor for recording the color temperature of the environment, which now works with 10 instead of 8 channels. The image processing takes place within the engine called “XD Fusion Pro”, the results of which Huawei demonstrated several times during the presentation as being superior to the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Galaxy S21 Ultra.