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The Huawei P50 Pocket is the very first clamshell foldable smartphone from the company. That device arrived to the office quite recently, and after playing with it for a short time, I’ve decided to share my initial impressions. So, in this article, we’ll cover my first impressions of the Huawei P50 Pocket, while you’ll also be able to see some hands-on images with the device. Those images are placed throughout the article, and in the gallery at the bottom.
We’ve actually talked about the Huawei P50 Pro recently, and I expected this to feel similar to that, but with the foldable factor. Well, I was kind of wrong. The Huawei P50 Pocket feels entirely different in the hand, and it’s larger than the P50 Pro. Do note that we’ve received the specced-out ‘Premium Edition’ of the device for review, though, so it has that special pattern on that back as well, which makes it even more different. It’s a comfortable device to hold, and it sure does have a striking design.
Unique, eye-catching design
The Huawei P50 Pocket is made out of metal and glass. It has quite a few lines on its back, which you can actually feel, as they protrude a bit. It’s a nice feeling in the hand, though, and it does look unique. The phone is slippery, though, as this is glass after all, so keep that in mind. It is large when unfolded, but that’s the whole point. When you fold it, it’s really tiny, and so is its secondary display. We’ll talk about that in a bit. The phone is really thin when unfolded, as it measures only 7.2mm. Even when folded it doesn’t feel too thick due to the curves Huawei implemented, and the fact it’s so small in that form.
The company did a great job with this hinge
Huawei did a really good job with the hinge here. It does want to be folded or unfolded more than it wants to be somewhere in between, though you can unfold it to a certain degree. It is a different feeling in comparison to the Galaxy Z Flip 3, though. Huawei also did a great job with the hinge. You can feel it when you cross your finger over it, but only barely. You won’t exactly see it in your daily usage of this phone, at least I didn’t notice it much during my initial use. The hinge is also completely hidden when the phone is unfolded, and even when it’s folded it looks really nice. On the back, you’ll find two circular cutouts, one for the cameras, and the other for the secondary display. The phone weighs 190 grams, which is not too bad, actually, it doesn’t feel all that heavy. I did use rather heavy phones before it, though, so… this feels light to me.
The main display is gorgeous, high-refresh rate, and very responsive
The main display is a 6.9-inch 2790 x 1188 OLED panel. That is a 120Hz display that can show 1 billion colors, and it’s actually really good. It gets more than bright outdoors, and it’s really silky smooth. The colors pop, and the blacks are deep, as you’d expect. I’ll have more to say in the full review, of course, but the display feels great at the moment, and it’s also quite responsive. This is the display you will use the vast majority of the time, due to the small nature of the secondary panel.
That second display measures only 1.04 inches, and it’s really limited in terms of what you can do with it. You can put widgets on it, to get some use of it. It can be a useful viewfinder for the camera, or a music control display, for example. It is nice that Huawei included it, though it won’t be as useful as the secondary display on the Galaxy Z Flip 3, for example, as that one is considerably larger in comparison. This is also an OLED panel, and it offers a resolution of 340 x 340.
It has an interesting camera setup, and supports 40W charging
Truth be said, I’ve been using this device for a really short period of time. I really don’t have anything to say about the cameras, yet. They do look promising on paper, but we’ll see what we’ll get. The cameras on the Huawei P50 Pro are excellent, though, so I have high hopes for this device as well. It has three cameras on the back, and one on the main display. You can use its main cameras as selfie cameras as well, though, of course, when the phone is folded. The camera hardware is different here, in comparison to the Huawei P50 Pro, so it will be interesting to see how it performs.
The battery performance is also something I cannot comment on yet, but the phone does include a 4,000mAh unit. It supports 40W wired charging, and 5W reverse charging. There is no wireless charging here, which some of you will probably find disappointing, but there you have it. Truth be said, that is not a huge battery, especially considering the size of this display. Huawei is counting on your using the secondary display as well, though, so… we’ll see what it equals to in the full review.
