Best Huawei Smartphones You Can Buy Right Now
Huawei has had one of the strangest journeys of any smartphone company. It rose to be one of the biggest smartphone makers in the world — but then the US banned the approval of new phones from the company amidst accusations of spying. Following that, Huawei lost access to Google Services, which is still a major problem for the company. Huawei has, however, continued to make some quality products. While Huawei phones have some good and bad qualities, they have some of the best cameras you can find and the designs are consistently impressive.
The biggest issue is that these phones are not available in the US anymore. Huawei does give most of their phones global launches, making them available in Europe and some parts of Asia. However, regardless of where you buy them, Google Apps support is missing. There have been workarounds for that problem, but not enough to convince people to buy them. Huawei's sales figures have suffered as a result.
However, the company still makes some great phones, and if you're okay with the absence of official Google apps support, they might be worth your money. Here are the best Huawei phones you can buy today.
Huawei P60 Pro
Huawei has two flagship series — the Mate and the P-series. Of the two, the P-series places its focus on aesthetics. The Huawei P60 Pro is one of the best looking Huawei phones you can buy right now, packing in solid specifications in a premium chassis.
On the specifications side, you get a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip powering the phone. It's an older flagship chip, but it will get the job done. The P60 Pro is paired with 8 or 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 or 512 gigabytes of storage. The P60 Pro offers flagship-tier camera hardware, though, with a quad camera setup. You get a 48-megapixel variable aperture primary camera, as well as a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera.
The screen is a 6.67-inch curved LTPO OLED panel with a resolution of 2700x1220 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. Since design is a major focus of the Huawei P-series, you get the P60 Pro in four gorgeous colors — pearl, violet, green, and black. The phone runs on HarmonyOS 3.1 in China, while the European version runs EMUI 13.1. Neither OS has Google Play services support, so you'll have to rely on Huawei's replacement updates.
Huawei P60
The Huawei P60 is the vanilla model in the P60 range, although it carries over some of the P60 Pro's best features. For starters, you get a similar design approach, as the P60 basically looks like a slightly smaller version of the P60 Pro with a flatter display.
The Huawei P60 is powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip as well. It is available with 8 gigabytes of RAM and up to 512 gigabytes of storage. There's also a shared SIM slot that can take an NM card — which is a smaller version of the microSD card — of up to 256 gigabytes. The camera hardware is a step down from the Pro model, but still pretty solid. You get the same 48-megapixel primary camera and the 13-megapixel ultrawide camera, although the telephoto camera on the P50 is only 12-megapixel.
On the Huawei P50, you get the same screen size — a 6.67-inch LTPO OLED with up to 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 2700x1220 pixels. The P60 comes in the same four colors as the Pro — pearl, violet, black, and green.
Huawei P50 Pocket
Huawei has a limited portfolio of phones, but that doesn't mean that the company has missed out on foldables. The P-series gets a third entry in this list, thanks to the Huawei P50 Pocket. It carries the P-series design philosophy in a clamshell flip phone form factor, making for a rather good-looking flip phone.
You get a Snapdragon 888 chip with this device, coupled with 8 or 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 or 512 gigabytes of storage. There's also an NM slot here that uses the shared SIM slot and gives you up to 256 gigabytes of additional storage. The camera hardware is also pretty solid, with a 40-megapixel primary camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 32-megapixel ultra spectrum camera which is designed for enhanced clarity.
Being a clamshell foldable, this phone is able to pack in a lot larger main display. You get a 6.9-inch screen with a resolution of 2790x1188 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. The cover screen is a 1.04-inch circular display with a resolution of 340x340 pixels. The P50 Pocket comes in black, white, and gold.
Huawei Pocket S
Huawei followed up the P50 Pocket with another clamshell foldable phone called the Pocket S. It's a budget flip phone that packs in all the essentials and cuts down on some of the bling that the P50 Pocket offered. You still get a pretty package, and the specifications are decent enough to make this phone a solid buy for the price.
The Huawei Pocket S is powered by the Snapdragon 778G, which is a very capable chip. You get 8 gigabytes of RAM and up to 512 gigabytes of storage. Huawei also added an NM slot for this phone, with a capacity of 256 gigabytes. The camera hardware takes cues from the P50 Pocket as well, with a 40-megapixel primary camera and a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera. The ultra-spectrum camera is missing from the Pocket S, but this seems like an acceptable omission since it is a budget offering. The phone comes with the newer HarmonyOS 3.0.
The Pocket S comes with the same display as the P50 Pocket, which is a 6.9-inch main display running at 2790x1188 pixels with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a 1.04-inch cover screen running at 340x340 pixels. Despite a more muted design, you get more color options with the Pocket S — blue, pink, green, silver, gold, and black.
Huawei Mate X3
Huawei's foldable offerings don't end with its clamshell phones. The company also has a model in its Mate series that offers a book-type foldable design. In fact, the Huawei Mate X3 is the best foldable that Huawei sells right now.
The Huawei Mate X3 is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and comes with either 8 or 12 gigabytes of RAM as well as up to 1 terabyte of storage. Huawei includes an NM slot in this phone as well, which is expandable up to 256 gigabytes. You also get one of the best camera setups that Huawei has to offer. The setup consists of a 50-megapixel main camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera, and an 8-megapixel periscope telephoto.
As far as screens go, the Mate X3 has a 6.4-inch cover display with a resolution of 2504x1080 pixels running at 120Hz. The main display is a 7.85-inch panel with a 2496x2224 resolution screen and a refresh rate of 120Hz. While Huawei's P-series is more about aesthetics, the Mate lineup still looks great. The Mate X3 comes in color options of black, white, light blue, and rose gold, with a Collector's Edition available in white, black, violet, dark green, and gold.
Huawei Mate 50 Pro
Huawei's Mate series is its absolute top-of-the-line one, and the Mate 50 Pro is a premium entry in that lineup. Huawei has a couple of variants here as well. Notably, the Mate 50 Pro gets single and dual SIM variants, and the dual SIM model comes with either a glass back or vegan leather.
Coming to the hardware, the Mate 50 Pro is powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. You get 8 gigabytes of RAM and the storage options are 256 gigabytes or 512 gigabytes. As is typical of Huawei, you get some solid optics on this phone as well. There's a 50-megapixel primary camera with variable aperture, a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera, and a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera. The phone ships with EMUI 13 on the international variant and HarmonyOS 3.0 in China.
The Mate 50 Pro has a 6.74-inch display with a resolution of 2616x1212 pixels and a refresh rate of 120Hz. You can get the Mate 50 Pro in black, silver, and orange.
Porsche Design Huawei Mate 50 RS
If you're looking for a smartphone that is truly unique, Huawei has you covered. The Porsche Design Huawei Mate 50 RS is a phone that the company has put together in collaboration with Porsche Design, and it carries a racecar-like aesthetic. The design isn't for everyone, but it will surely impress some.
Apart from the design, this phone is pretty solid on the hardware specifications as well. You get a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset powering the whole deal, coupled with 12 gigabytes of RAM and 512 gigabytes of storage. The camera hardware is pretty solid and only a small step down from the Mate 50 Pro. The variable aperture 50-megapixel primary camera is carried over, along with the 13-megapixel ultrawide. You also get a 48-megapixel periscope telephoto macro camera. It comes with HarmonyOS 3.0 onboard.
The Porsche Design Huawei Mate 50 RS gets the same display as the Mate 50 Pro — a 6.74-inch panel with a resolution of 2616x1212 pixels running at 120Hz. You get two color options here — blue and purple. Style comes with a price tag, however, as it costs twice as much as the regular Mate 50 Pro.
Huawei nova 10 Pro
If you want a more low-key and pocket-friendly Huawei phone, the Huawei nova 10 Pro is the way to go. It shares some similarities with the Huawei Pocket S but packs in some solid hardware at a more affordable price tag.
The Huawei nova 10 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 778G chip and comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 or 256 gigabytes of storage. The camera setup isn't the fanciest you can get from Huawei, but it will get the job done. You get a 50-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. On the front side, Huawei has added a 60-megapixel ultrawide sensor in addition to the 8-megapixel selfie camera.
Huawei does provide a great screen on this phone, though. You get a 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED with a resolution of 1200 x2652 pixels. The nova 10 Pro comes in four colors — black, silver, green, and violet. It also costs about half as much as the Huawei flagship phones, which is a great price for the kind of hardware you're getting.