Huawei’s Mate 50 Pro with variable aperture camera gets an international launch

Huawei’s Mate series of flagship-class smartphones has always been a showcase for handset innovation, and this year’s Mate 50 Pro continues that tradition, introducing a 50MP Ultra Aperture camera with a 10-size adjustable physical aperture. Unveiled in China on September 6, the Mate 50 Pro has now launched on the international market. 

Huawei continues to labour under the weight of US sanctions, which explains the absence of Google Mobile Services and lack of 5G support in the Mate 50 Pro’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. The Mate 50 Pro also uses Chinese-made Kunlun Glass rather than Gorilla Glass to protect the 6.74-inch, 120Hz OLED display.  

Compared to the Chinese version of the Mate 50 Pro, the international model runs EMUI 13, based on open-source Android, rather than HarmonyOS 3.0, and lacks satellite messaging support due to its use of the Beidou system. 

Here’s how the Mate 50 Pro stacks up against its Mate 40 Pro predecessor: 

The Mate 50 Pro is available in silver or black with a glass back, or orange with a vegan leather back. It offers flagship-class IP68 dust and water resistance, with the glass-back versions certified for immersion in up to two metres of water for up to 30 minutes and the leather-back version able to be submerged in up to 6m for the same amount of time. Huawei also claims a five-star glass drop resistance rating from Switzerland’s SGS for the Kunlun Glass screen. 

The headline feature, though, is the 50MP Ultra Aperture camera, which uses six blades and 10 positions to vary the size of the camera’s aperture – from f/1.4 to f/4.0. In Auto mode the aperture is selected for you, while Professional mode lets you achieve exactly the required depth of field.

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The other rear cameras are a 13MP ultra-wide angle/macro camera (f/2.2) and a 64MP periscope telephoto camera (f/3.5) with 3.5x optical zoom and optical image stabilisation (OIS). The front camera, a 13MP ultra-wide angle unit (f/2.4), occupies an in-screen notch along with a 3D depth-sensing camera for face authentication. There’s also an in-screen fingerprint sensor. 

The Mate 50 Pro is powered by a 4700mAh battery and supports wired charging at 66W, wireless charging at 50W and reverse wireless charging at 7.5W.

The Huawei Mate 50 will cost €1,299 (~$1,250 / £1,160) in silver or black with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, or €1,399 (~$1,350 / £1,250) in orange with 8GB/512GB. 

There’s no word from Huawei on the international availability of other variants such as the Mate 50, 50E or Mate 50 RS Porsche Design.