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The Huawei P50 Pro, in several colors.
It’s time for a wellness check on Huawei, everyone’s favorite beat-up Chinese smartphone vendor. The company is still dealing with all sorts of export restrictions and plummeting market share , but it’s somehow still shipping phones and still in a very weird place when it comes to its Android situation. The company’s latest devices are the Huawei P50 Pro and P50 Pocket, which are finally getting a wider international release after launching in China earlier.
With this international launch, I really like how Huawei is positioning the P50 Pro and P50 Pocket as a pair of devices. The P50 Pro is a regular-old slab phone, while the P50 Wallet is a flip-phone-style foldable. When we reviewed Samsung’s foldable flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip , our main takeaway was that it felt exactly like a regular smartphone when open, and it just folded in half as a neat gimmick. Huawei is building that similarity right into its product lineup and offering two similar phones—one folds in half, one doesn’t. It’s as if Samsung sold the Galaxy S21 and Universe Z Flip 3 next in order to each other.
That’s not to say the phones are the same sizes. The P50 Pro is really a 6. 6-inch device (158. 8×72. 8×8. 5 mm) and costs €1, 199 (~$1, 353) while the Pocket is 6. 9-inches (170×75. 5×7. 2 mm) plus costs €1, 299 (~$1, 465). Huawei says the two phones will be available in “key markets across Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, Europe, and Latin America. ”