Huawei P50 Pocket Hands-On – Exclusive First Look and Unboxing Of Their Gorgeously Posh Foldable Smartphone

The Huawei P50 Pocket is their own unique take on what a foldable phone ought to be. As their first foldable offering for Malaysia, the Huawei P50 Pocket is a flagship phone in every respect and has been lavished with the best hardware and materials that the brand can muster but it also has a price to match that starts from RM5,999 and up.

If you’re curious what their latest foldable has to offer, our Huawei P50 Pocket hands-on delves into what their premium foldable has to offer, its specifications, initial handling and what goodies come bundled with the phone.

What is the Huawei P50 Pocket

Launched at the same time as the flagship Huawei P50 Pro, the P50 Pocket is the brand’s first foldable phone that has just been launched in Malaysia and in other regions across the world.

At launch, the Huawei P50 Pocket is intended to be a foldable phone that is as powerful as it is posh, with flagship grade hardware and unique materials used in its construction to match its somewhat lofty price tag with your choice of two potential colourways which have different RAM/storage configurations.

In Malaysia, you’re able to acquire the mainstream P50 Pocket in a milky White finish for RM5,999 that has 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. If you’re looking for something more distinctive, a special Premium Gold edition is available that was created in collaboration with renowned haute couture designer Iris van Herpen that features a subtle yet classy gold finish with her iconic ‘wave’ motifs embossed across the backplate. 

The P50 Pocket Premium Gold edition also has more storage and RAM with 12GB RAM and 512GB of onboard storage though it’s also a bit pricier at RM7,299. Unfortunately, in keeping with many other flagship phones of recent vintage, the P50 Pocket lacks expandable storage.

On paper, the P50 Pocket has sufficiently powerful hardware to go toe to toe with its near peer competition and give a good accounting of itself with a larger display, more storage in its base configuration, a larger battery and a more powerful camera array. 

The Huawei P50 Pocket in White or Premium Gold both have identical hardware and similar specifications in the camera, processor, battery size and other features save for the aforementioned differences in RAM and storage. 

You get a top of the line Snapdragon 888 processor running the show with their own EMUI 12.0.1 firmware. Apps sourced via their own AppGallery store and the phone a large 6.9-inch foldable FHD+ OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a tall 21:9 aspect ratio with an almost invisible crease on account of their new hinge design. Perched just on top of the display is a tiny punch hole for a 10.7MP selfie camera.

Keeping it powered is a 4,000mAh battery with 40W SuperCharge fast charging via a proprietary USB cable and 40W SuperCharge charger. There’s no wireless charging available but the phone is capable of wireless reverse charging selected Huawei devices like their FreeBuds earbuds.

In its folded down configuration, the P50 Pocket’s main draw is a distinctive rounded 1-inch OLED front cover screen flanked by a triple camera array that also utilises a rounded housing. At a glance, the triple camera array features a primary 40MP camera, a 13MP ultra wide angle camera and a 32MP Ultra Spectrum camera which, on paper, is intended to help offer accurate colour reproduction and detail retention when capturing photos. 

Huawei P50 Pocket Hands-On – What’s the Multi-Dimensional Hinge about?

One of the classic challenges of a foldable clamshell is the noticeable crease in the display and the gap in the phone when folded down. In that regard, the P50 Pocket  uses what they call a ‘Multi-Dimensional’ hinge along with the usage of Zirconium-based liquid metal combined with high-strength steel to enhance the sturdiness of the hinge and to also reduce the gap.

To that end, the P50 Pocket has almost no noticeable gap and what is available is thin enough that only a single sheet of paper can pass through..When opened, there’s almost no visible seam though it’s still slightly visible if you’re viewing something with a white background.

The hinge design itself is weighted such that it’s easy to close one handed by simply moving the hinge to a halfway up position whereupon a simple flick of the wrist and a nudge can swing the mechanism closed though opening it requires two hands; presumably to avoid it opening by accident when it’s stored in a pocket or handbag.

Huawei P50 Pocket Hands-On – Build and Design

When held, our P50 Pocket hands-on proved that it’s an extremely premium design with the kind of heft and tactility that only comes if you don’t skimp on materials. In that regard Huawei has lavished the phone with liberal lashings of a unique grade of textured glass and metal.

In terms of form factor, the Huawei P50 Pocket has a foldable clamshell design and display configuration that’s somewhat akin to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G. One of the key advantages of this form factor are its compact dimensions when folded down and the ability to use the main camera array for selfies and wefies rather than integrating an entirely separate camera setup like a conventional candybar style phone.

The overall design consists of a foldable rectangular main 6.9-inch OLED display while the outer chassis has a camera array along with a small touch-capable cover display for notifications, both of which come in side-by-side rounded housings on the backplate. 

The left side of the phone hosts a dual nano SIM card slot while the right side has a volume rocker and power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader. The base of the phone has a USB-C port and one of a matching pair of stereo speakers with the other speaker emplaced just on top of the display while the top is otherwise bare.

To give the P50 Pocket its distinctive textured look that they’ve dubbed as the Huawei 3D Micro Sculpture design, Huawei has added slabs of textured glass over the external chassis that has been engraved to a depth of 0.05mm on the backplate and 0.03mm on the half with the camera array and cover screen, with a three dimensional diamond weave texture that reflects in the light and which lends it extra tactility while repelling fingerprints. 

The higher-end version with a gold finish has a different engraved texture with stylised wings embossed across the entirety of the backplate along with additional RAM and storage.

Unfortunately, the primary 6.9-inch folding OLED display and the external textured glass panels aren’t rated for drop proofing and the phone itself lacks IP68 water and dust resistance so some care needs to be taken to ensure you don’t drop it or get it wet. 

The sides of our P50 Pocket are finished in steel while the hinge itself is covered by a protective steel plate to prevent dust from entering the hinge mechanism. The fittings are both precise and well finished without any gaps where the glass meets the metal which is a level of quality that few other phone manufacturers can match. 

Out of the box, our Huawei P50 Pocket hands-on of the packaging revealed that it comes with the works. The box features a USB-C cable, a 40W SuperCharge charger and a very pleasant bonus – a protective casing. If you manage to preorder the P50 Pocket, you’ll also get RM2,700 in free goodies including a Huawei Watch GT 3 which is quite a bonus indeed.

Weighing in at 190g, the P50 Pocket when folded down has dimensions slightly larger than a ladies make-up compact but when fully unfolded, you get a massive full sized 6.9-inch display and a smartphone form factor that is just 7.2mm thin. This makes it an extremely pocketable and compact design indeed. 

As far as first impressions go, the Huawei P50 Pocket is certainly one of the most gorgeous looking phones that we’ve seen and held in our hands but actual performance is a different thing entirely. Stay tuned for our full-on review where we put it to the test! [UPDATE] You can check out our Huawei P50 Pocket review in all its glory here.

Where to buy the Huawei P50 Pocket in Malaysia

The Huawei P50 Pocket is now available nationwide in Malaysia at all Huawei Experience stores, the Huawei Official Website and at all good dealers and telco partners priced at RM5,999 for the White 8GB RAM/256GB variant and RM7,299 for the Premium Gold 12GB RAM/512GB variant.