Huawei launches P50 Pocket: A worthy rival to Samsung's Flip3
Huawei has unveiled its first-ever flip-style foldable smartphone, the P50 Pocket, in China as well as for global markets. The handset starts at CNY 8,988 (roughly Rs. 1,06,000) and went on sale in China on Thursday, i.e. December 23. It comes with an OLED main display, a circular secondary cover screen, triple rear cameras, a Snapdragon 888 processor, and 40W fast-charging support.
Why does it matter?
Huawei has launched three generations of Mate X series foldable smartphones, however, the P50 Pocket is the company's first flip-style foldable smartphone. It flaunts a patented multi-dimensional hinge design that leaves no visible gaps when folded, a custom-made 3D structured glass back design, an impressive camera module, and a top-tier processor. It will give fair competition to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip3 model.
The phone's secondary display can be used as mirror
Huawei P50 Pocket features a clamshell-liked flip design, a punch-hole cut-out, a side-mounted fingerprint reader, and a multi-dimensional hinge design. On the cover, it has a circular, protruding camera module and a secondary screen that shows time, notifications, navigation, music player, etc. It can also be used as a mirror and for sunscreen detection. It measures 7.2mm in thickness when unfolded and 15.2mm when folded.
It boots Huawei's proprietary HarmonyOS 2.0 operating system
The Huawei P50 Pocket is powered by a Snapdragon 888 processor, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. Under the hood, it runs on HarmonyOS 2.0 and packs a 4,000mAh battery with 40W fast-charging support. The device offers support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, and a Type-C port. However, it lacks 5G connectivity support.
It flaunts a 120Hz OLED main foldable display
The Huawei P50 Pocket bears a 6.9-inch Full-HD+ (1188x2790 pixels) OLED main display with an aspect ratio of 21:9, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 300Hz touch sampling rate. The 1.0-inch (340x340 pixels) OLED cover screen has a 60Hz refresh rate and 120Hz touch sampling rate.
The device is equipped with a 32MP 'ultra spectrum' camera
The Huawei P50 Pocket sports triple rear cameras, including a 40MP (f/1.8) primary sensor, a 13MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide lens, and a 32MP (f/1.8) "ultra spectrum" camera, which is said to boost color rendering. For selfies, it has a 10.7MP (f/2.2) camera on the main screen.
Huawei P50 Pocket: Pricing and availability
Huawei P50 Pocket's standard edition is priced at CNY 8,988 (around Rs. 1,06,000) for its solo 8GB/256GB model. It is available in Black and White color options. The P50 Pocket Premium Gold Edition carries a price-tag of CNY 10,988 (roughly Rs. 1,29,700) for the 12GB/512GB configuration. The handset will go on sale in China today. Its exact global availability is yet to be announced.
