Huawei announces Mate 50 smartphones with support for satellite texting

Huawei has announced the Mate 50 series of smartphones. The brand comes with a regular Mate 50, a Pro version and an RS Porsche Design variant. The devices will receive support for sending text messages via Beidou satellites.

The Mate 50 phones can send ‘short messages’ via the Beidou satellite network, making them the first smartphones to communicate with satellites in this way. Apple, Google and Starlink, among others, are working on such satellite communications. The Beidou satellite network operates worldwide.

Satellite telephony is currently not necessarily seen as a replacement for 4G and 5G, but as an alternative if such connections are not possible. For example, users can still call in emergency assistance if they are in remote areas. An analyst says to Nikkei Asia that for the time being, only Chinese chip developers are allowed to make chips that can connect to the Beidou network. It is not clear how much satellite communication costs.

The Getting Mate 50 Phones Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 soc, minimum 8GB memory and at least 256GB storage. There is no support for 5G networks due to US sanctions. The regular Mate 50 gets a 6.7 “OLED screen with a resolution of 2700×1224 pixels and a refresh rate of 90Hz. Behind the screen is a fingerprint scanner, at the top is a camera hole with a 13-megapixel sensor.

There are three cameras on the back. The main camera has according to Gizmochina Sony’s IMX766-50-megapixel sensor. It has a variable aperture that can also be set by the user, from f/1.4 to f/4. In addition, there is a 13-megapixel IMX668 sensor with ultra-wide angle lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera. It can optically zoom in up to five times and supports optical image stabilization. The battery is 4460mAh in size and supports up to 66W wired charging. Wireless charging is possible with a maximum of 50W.

The Mate 50 Pro and RS Porsche Design have a slightly larger 6.74 “OLED screen with a resolution of 2612×1212 pixels and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The Pro version has the same amount of memory as the regular Mate 50, but can be used with twice The Porsche Design always has 512GB UFS 3.1 storage and 12GB Lpddr5 memory.The batteries are also slightly larger with 4700mAh than the regular Mate 50.

The Pro and RS Porsche Design have the same main and wide-angle cameras, but they don’t have the telephoto sensor of the Mate 50. Instead, the Pro has a 64-megapixel sensor and the RS Porsche Design has a 48-megapixel macro camera.

The Mate 50 phones will go on sale in China from later this month. The Mate 50 is for sale from converted and with VAT 875 euros, the Pro costs at least 1190 euros and the RS Porsche Design costs at least 1225 euros. It is unknown whether the phones will come to Europe. The smartphones run Android, but do not receive support for Google services.

On the left the Huawei Mate 50, in the middle the Mate 50 Pro, on the right the Mate 50 RS Porsche Design