Huawei manages to launch the P50 internationally—at ridiculous prices

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  The Huawei P50 Pro in several colors.

It’s time for a wellness check on Huawei, everyone’s favorite beat-up Chinese smartphone vendor. The company is dealing with all sorts of export restrictions and plummeting market share, but it’s somehow still shipping phones and is in a very weird place when it comes Android. The company’s latest devices are the Huawei P50 Pro and P50 Pocket, which are finally getting a wider international release after launching in China earlier.

With this international launch, Huawei is positioning the P50 Pro and P50 Pocket as a pair of devices. The P50 Pro is a regular old slab phone, while the P50 Pocket is a flip-phone-style foldable. When we reviewed Samsung’s foldable flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, our main takeaway was that it felt exactly like a regular smartphone when open, and it just folded in half as a neat gimmick. Huawei is now offering two similar phones—one that folds in half and one that doesn’t. It would be like Samsung selling the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 next to each other.

That’s not to say the phones are the same sizes. The P50 Pro is a 6.6-inch device (158.8×72.8×8.5 mm) and costs €1,199 (~$1,353) while the Pocket is 6.9-inches (170×75.5×7.2 mm) and costs €1,299 (~$1,465). Huawei says the two phones will be available in “key markets across Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, Europe, and Latin America.”