Buzz
For me, Huawei has always been a brand serious about smartphones, meticulous in their craft. Their devices, especially the high-end ones, consistently inspire me with their attention to detail and sophistication. The Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche Design still exudes elegance in its design refinement and continues the tradition of investing in quality cameras and hardware.Equipped with a high-quality camera system featuring high-resolution lenses, the main camera can adjust physical aperture. With the top-of-the-line Qualcomm chipset, impressive screen specifications,... these are the hardware highlights of the device.Despite considerable investment, there's a sense of Huawei's overall 'weakness.' It's not about the absence of Google, but rather my personal feeling that the Mate 50 RS Porsche Design is falling behind. Those who appreciate standards from a few years ago might prefer it.Impressive Ceramic Glass Back, Thin and Light
The Mate 50 RS Porsche Design boasts a significantly more impressive back compared to the regular version. While the camera cluster remains the highlight of the entire back, it's not just a regular circle. On the Porsche Design version, the camera cluster is transformed into an octagonal shape with sharp angles, creating a powerful and distinctive focal point.
However, the camera cluster remains sleek thanks to the seamless edges with the back.
In the middle of the back, where there's a different colored green border raised to the same level as the camera cluster, it's another highlight in the design of the device. The premium aspect is demonstrated by a completely solid back. Holding the device feels smooth and soft, without any roughness or discomfort.
In the purple variant, the color effect makes it difficult to notice the protrusion on the back.
Alongside the investments in design, the chosen materials match the device's name and price, completed with a ceramic back and a layer of toughened glass on top.
In my experience, the device feels quite smooth, and the back of the black variant is prone to fingerprint smudges. It's best to use a case.
The included case provided with the device is very suitable and stylish. It's slim, snugly fits the device with a faux leather back, providing a comfortable grip.
Huawei delivers users a flagship with a slim design. Thanks to the curved back and screen, the metal frame is very narrow, creating a visual effect of the device's inherent thinness.
Despite using materials like ceramic, glass, and metal, Huawei still ensures a relatively light weight for the device. Combined with soft curved lines, it enhances comfort and provides a smooth grip during use.
On the left edge are the volume and power buttons.
At the bottom edge are the external speaker, Type C port, and SIM tray.The Screen Trend from Many Years Ago
This is the screen of the Mate 50 RS Porsche Design, an enticing edge-to-edge display with impressive specifications. It features a 6.7-inch OLED panel, 1 billion colors, 120Hz refresh rate, and 300Hz touch sampling rate.Huawei has done a great job with this edge-to-edge display in terms of user experience. Holding it feels most comfortable for usage, even touching the curved part of the screen allows smooth and normal operation. Unlike before, accidental touches are no longer a hassle.
While impressive, Huawei seems to be sticking to old standards in the Android world for this flagship's screen. While a beautiful curved screen used to be a trend, almost every Android phone manufacturer has returned to 'flattening' everything out.While the rest of the Android world has moved on from the 'notch' for many years to embrace the more aesthetically pleasing and less flawed 'hole-punch' display, Huawei is still sticking to the old design for the Mate 50 RS Porsche Design. Although the notch is thinner and horizontally oriented to take up as little content as possible, it still falls short compared to the new Android standards.In terms of technology, the device's screen features an in-screen fingerprint sensor, a long notch housing the selfie camera and TOF 3D lens for biometric security.Camera remains Huawei's Strong Suit
The camera has always been a strong point on Huawei's flagship devices in general. Just like the Mate 50 Pro, this version is also equipped with high-quality camera hardware to compete with other top-notch rivals.
The main camera of the device is a 24mm lens, with a 50MP resolution, integrated OIS, and notably supports flexible physical aperture adjustment from f/1.4 to f/4.0. For photography enthusiasts, tweaking the device's settings to capture desired images in various conditions might be appealing.
Additionally, the device is equipped with a promising 48MP lens with a 90mm focal length, f/3.0 aperture, dubbed by Huawei as 'Super TeleMacro'. Instead of a separate macro lens, this lens serves dual purposes, supporting up to 3.5X optical zoom, 100X digital zoom, and can also be used for capturing close-up details when macro functionality is needed.The remaining cameras include an ultra-wide-angle camera and a 13MP selfie camera, both with the same resolution.Powerful Hardware, Yet Software Remains a Sad Tale
In terms of hardware, the Mate 50 RS Porsche Design boasts Qualcomm's flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 (4nm), offering high-performance power. The device also features 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. The battery has a capacity of 4,700mAh with 66W fast charging.
Inside the box, you'll find a 66W charger, a 66W car charger, and 2 USB-A to Type C charging cables. Also included are earphones and a case, as mentioned earlier.
As usual, Huawei's greatest shortfall in the international market remains Google, as the device runs on the HarmonyOS 3 operating system. The domestic ROM along with the default operating system comes with many Chinese apps that are not useful. While it's still possible to sideload some Google services onto the device, the process is quite complex and everyday usage isn't very smooth. If you're willing to overlook Google for other premium features, then this is a good device.
