Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro

This time around, we’re here to compare the best of Samsung and Huawei, at the moment. In other words, we’ll compare the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro. Both of these are big and bold flagship smartphone offerings from the two companies. They are quite different, though, in many ways. They do look different, and feel entirely different in the hand. Their internals differ quite a bit, and even their software.

We’ll first list their specifications, and will then move to compare them across a number of categories. We’ll compare their designs, display, performance, battery life, cameras, and audio performance, as per usual. Before we get started, do note that the Mate 50 Pro comes without Google services, it includes Huawei services. That being said, let’s get going, shall we?

Specs

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro: Design

The moment you lay your eyes on these two phones, you’ll see they’re obviously different. The Galaxy S23 Ultra has sharp corners, and its top and bottom sides are completely flat. The phone is made out of metal and glass. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro, on the other hand, has curved corners, and generally a more curvy design. Its frame is made out of metal, while the phone includes a vegan leather or glass backplate. Do note that we’ve reviewed the model with a vegan leather backplate.

Samsung’s flagship is a bit taller, noticeably wider, and slightly thicker than the Huawei Mate 50 Pro. It is also considerably heavier than both glass and vegan leather Mate 50 Pro models. It weighs 234 grams, while the two aforementioned Mate 50 Pro models weigh 209 and 205 grams, respectively. The vegan leather Mate 50 Pro that we reviewed is a lot less slippery than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is not surprising. And yes, you will feel the weight of the Galaxy S23 Ultra in comparison.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a centered display camera hole, while the Mate 50 Pro includes a notch up top. Both devices have immensely thin bezels. Their rear camera modules do differ quite a bit. Each of the cameras protrudes straight from the back of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The Mate 50 Pro has a circular camera island on the back, that includes all of the phone’s cameras and sensors. Both phones scream “premium”, basically. They feel like truly well-built, premium phones, and they both offer an IP68 certification for water and dust resistance.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro: Display

The Galaxy S23 Ultra features a 6.8-inch QHD+ (3088 x 1440) Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. That panel is slightly curved, and it offers an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It also supports HDR10+ content, and it gets quite bright, actually. This panel goes up to 1,750 nits of peak brightness. The Gorilla Glass Victus 2 can be found on the phone’s front, as it’s protecting the display.

The Huawei Mate 50 Pro, on the other hand, has a 6.74-inch 2616 x 1212 OLED display. That panel can project up to 1 billion colors, and it offers a 120Hz refresh rate. This is not an LTPO panel, though. The phone’s display has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and it is curved. This panel is protected by the Huawei Kunlun Glass, which has proven to be quite tough, even in direct drop tests with the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Now, the Galaxy S23 Ultra technically has a better display thanks to the fact it offers an adaptive refresh rate, and it gets a bit brighter outdoors. Truth be said, however, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro has an outstanding panel, and the vast majority of people wouldn’t even notice the difference. You will notice it if you’re in direct sunlight, but the Mate 50 Pro gets plenty bright too. On top of that, it offers extremely good protection on the front. Both of these displays are great. They offer vivid colors, great viewing angles, and good touch response too.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro: Performance

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy fuels the Galaxy S23 Ultra. That is basically a slightly overclocked variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, one of the best chips on the market. The phone also includes 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. The Mate 50 Pro is fueled by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, while the phone packs in 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is technically the more powerful smartphone. It is newer, and it includes more powerful performance-related internals. Therefore, it’s also technically more future-proof. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro is nothing to scoff at, and you probably won’t even notice the difference in sheer power on the performance side of things. The Mate 50 Pro flies through everything you throw at it, just like the Galaxy S23 Ultra. That Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is an outstanding chip, with great power consumption.

When it comes to regular, everyday tasks, both phones are extremely snappy. Opening and closing apps, browsing, consuming multimedia, photo and video editing… and much more, they both do a great job at those. The same goes for gaming, both phones can run even the most demanding games. You may notice some differences if you run the most demanding ones, but both phones are more than powerful to push through. We were impressed by the performance on both sides.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro: Battery

The Galaxy S23 Ultra features a 5,000mAh battery on the inside. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro utilizes a 4,700mAh battery. Now, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro battery life is not bad, not at all, but the Galaxy S23 Ultra beats out almost every other flagship at the moment. The OnePlus 11 can compete in that regard, but the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery life is just insane. We were able to get around 9-10 hours of screen-on-time on the phone, without a problem. The Mate 50 Pro lingered between 7 and 8 hours most of the time.

Do note that these numbers usually don’t include any gaming, but they include pretty much everything else. That goes for image editing, video editing, browsing, multimedia consumption, messaging, social media networks, and so on. Gaming and other processor-intensive tasks will, of course, have a negative impact on the battery life. That also includes sharing a hotspot, in case that wasn’t clear. Your mileage may also vary, as we have different usage habits, use different apps, and then there’s the signal strength, and so on.

When charging is concerned, the Mate 50 Pro blows the Galaxy S23 Ultra out of the water. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro not only comes with a charger in the box, but it supports 66W wired, 50W wireless, and 5W reverse wireless charging. The Galaxy S23 Ultra does not include a charger, while it supports 45W wired, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 50 Pro: Cameras

Both of these smartphones offer excellent camera hardware, and excellent camera performance too, but… they do differ quite a bit. The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide unit (120-degree FoV), a 10-megapixel telephoto camera (3x optical zoom), and a 10-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (10x optical zoom, 100x Space Zoom). The Huawei Mate 50 Pro includes a 50-megapixel main camera (f/1.4-f/4.0 aperture), a 13-megapixel ultrawide unit (120-degree FoV), and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom).

These two phones have an entirely different approaches to photography. As this is not a full review, we’ll just hit the most important aspects. The Galaxy S23 Ultra does a great job with its main camera. It offers plenty of details, and if you need more, you can always use a full 200MP mode. It does a great job with neon signs, and with HDR, most of the time. The Huawei Mate 50 Pro’s adjustable aperture is not a gimmick, not at all. The phone adapts to the situation, and takes the shot. This is still one of the most consistent smartphone cameras we’ve used. It does a great job in HDR situations, and also in low light.

The ultrawide cameras on both phones are great, and mostly in line with the main unit in terms of color science. The Galaxy S23 Ultra wins the video recording aspect, but not by a lot. It also wins the periscope aspect, but it’s also quite close. We do find the Huawei Mate 50 Pro’s main and ultrawide cameras to be more consistent, as they rarely miss. So… it’s up to you, both are outstanding in the camera department.

Audio

There is a set of stereo speakers on each of these devices. They actually provide really, really good speakers, better than most. The sound is loud, and there’s plenty of detail too. You’ll get some bass out of both smartphones, and there’s no noticeable distortion. We really don’t have much to complain about here.

If you need an audio jack, however, you won’t find it here, on either phone. For wired connections, you’ll need to use the Type-C port, which both of these phones have. For wireless connections, the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei Mate 50 Pro are equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 and 5.2, respectively.