Tipster calls for one 5G variant of Huawei P50 Pro to launch in October

Huawei's flagship schedule has been fairly the same over the last few years. Early in the year, around springtime, the photography-based "P" series would be released. During the fourth quarter, Huawei would then release its most technologically advanced handsets of the year, the "Mate" series. But the combination of the U.S. bans, chip shortages, and other problems has screwed up this solid release schedule.

The Huawei P50 and P50 Pro finally launched just before July said its goodbyes, and with 5G modem chips hard to get (thanks to the U.S. export rule that prevents foundries using U.S. tech to ship product to Huawei), the new models will not support 5G. But this is okay says Huawei Consumer chief Richard Yu. The latter says that the combination of 4G and Wi-Fi 6 are good enough not to worry about the lack of 5G.

This is actually quite funny considering that Huawei, as the number one supplier of networking equipment on the planet, has been pushing 5G to anyone within earshot. But we can actually give Huawei some leeway here. The company would easily have been the top smartphone manufacturer in the world instead of an expected seventh-place finish this year had it not been for the Trump administration's desire to bury it alive.

And the surprising thing is that the Biden administration has failed to reverse the placement of the company on the Entity List and cancel the chip export rules. Some of the reason for that is the lack of any progress on trade between the two countries.

But if you want a 5G enabled version of the Huawei P50 line, Twitter tipster Digital Chat Station says that there will indeed be a P50 Pro 5G powered by the Kirin 9000 5G chipset. The P50 Pro 4G version is available with either the Snapdragon 888 SoC and the Kirin 9000 chipset. There will not be a P50 Pro 5G with the Snapdragon 888 inside according to the tipster.

The 5G P50 Pro might not see the light of day until the fourth quarter which might indicate that the Mate 50 series will be seriously delayed. And Digital Chat Station also expects a 4G P50 Pro+ to surface as well, later in the year.

The Huawei P50 Pro sports a 6.6-inch curved OLED display with a 1228 x 2700 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. As we said, there will be models powered by the Snapdragon 888 and models sporting the Kirin 9000 SoC. Configurations are available with up to 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage. On the back is a 50MP RBG sensor and a 40MP Black and White sensor. Other cameras include a 13MP Ultra-wide and a 64MP telephoto with 3.5 optical zoom, 20x hybrid zoom, and 100x digital zoom.

This model carries a 13MP front-facing selfie snapper and a 4360mAh battery keeps the lights on. The phone supports 66W fast-charging and 50W wireless charging. HarmonyOS is pre-installed. For those who might have forgotten, this is Huawei's homemade operating system that was developed to replace the Google Mobile Service version of Android following the placement of Huawei on the U.S. Entity List in May 2019.

Considered a national security threat in the states due to its alleged ties with the communist Chinese government, Huawei lost its ability to access its U.S. supply chain which included Google. HarmonyOS will be available for older Huawei phones including the P40, P30 Mate 40, Mate 30 and older. While HarmonyOS will be available for Huawei handsets being used in China, international models will have to put up with the version of Android without Google Mobile Service.

Huawei also has been forced to create Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), its own ecosystem. As of last year, there were over 650 million HMS users in more than 170 countries.