We subjected the Huawei P50 Pro to our rigorous SBMARK Selfie test suite to measure its performance in photos and videos from an end-user perspective. This article explains how the device performed in a variety of tests and different common use cases and aims to highlight the most important results of our tests with an extract of the acquired data.

Overview

Main specifications of the front camera:

  • 13 MP 1 / 2.8 ″ sensor with 1.22µm pixel size
  • 18mm equivalent lens with f / 2.4 aperture
  • PDAF, EIS
  • 4K video, 2160p / 60 fps, (2160p / 30 fps tested)

Pros

  • Good exposure of the face in photos and videos
  • Wide dynamic range in photos
  • Accurate white balance in photos
  • Wide focus range
  • Low noise levels in photos
  • Good detail in the interior and daytime photos
  • Effective video stabilization
  • Good focus for group video shooting indoors and in daylight

versus

  • Loss of fine detail in low-light photos
  • Occasional autofocus errors in photo mode
  • Occasionally inaccurate skin tone rendering in photos
  • Limited dynamic range in low-light videos
  • Noise on faces in indoor videos and in low light conditions

Huawei P50 Pro beats its stable mate Mate 40 Pro and catapults to the top of the SBMARK front camera ranking.

Thanks to outstanding performance in almost all test areas, the P50 Pro’s front camera is the best or nearly the best for all secondary photo attributes except artifacts, where its score is slightly lower than some competitors due to the quantization of color, which appears especially often in low light conditions.

For video, the P50 Pro equals the performance of the Mate 40 Pro and the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro for first place in the category. The P50 Pro is an excellent choice overall for selfie video shooting, with outstanding results in most areas, including focus and color. However, the compromise between structure and noise is not quite up to the best.

Huawei P50 Pro vs Ultra-Premium selfie scores

This chart compares the overall scores of SBMARK Selfie photos and videos between tested devices and references. The average and maximum scores of the price segment are also indicated. The average and maximum scores for each price segment are calculated based on the SBMARK device database.

Test summary

About SBMARK selfie tests: For scoring and analysis, SBMARK engineers capture and evaluate more than 1,500 test images in both controlled laboratory environments and natural outdoor, indoor and low-light scenes, using the front camera’s default settings. The photographic protocol is designed to take into account the user’s needs and is based on typical shooting scenarios, such as close-ups and group selfies. Assessment is done by visually inspecting images Cons a natural scene reference and making objective measurements on graphical images captured in the lab under different lighting conditions from 1 to 1,000+ lux and color temperatures from 2,300K to 6,500K. For more SBMARK Selfie Test Protocol information, please click here. More details on how we rate smartphone cameras can be found here. The following section collects the key elements of SBMARK’s comprehensive testing and analysis. Comprehensive performance evaluations are available upon request. Contact us to find out how to receive a full report.

Photo

144

Improve

Highest score

Huawei P50 Pro Photo vs Ultra-Premium scores

Photo tests analyze image quality attributes such as exposure, color, texture, and noise under various lighting conditions. Focus range and presence of artifacts on all images captured under controlled laboratory conditions and in real-life images are also evaluated. All of these attributes have a significant impact on the final quality of the images captured with the tested device and can help in understanding the main strengths and weaknesses of the camera.

Exposure

90

Improve

Highest score

Color

99

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Exposure and color are the key attributes for technically good images. For exposure, the main attribute evaluated is the brightness of the face in various use cases and lighting conditions. Other factors evaluated are contrast and dynamic range, eg. the ability to make details visible in both light and dark areas of the image. Repeatability is also important because it demonstrates the camera’s ability to deliver the same rendering when shooting consecutive images in a row.
For color, the analyzed image quality attributes are skin tone rendering, white balance, color shading, and repeatability.

This graph shows the exposure performance of the Huawei P50 Pro on different light levels.

Exposure comparison: The P50 Pro manages a good exposure even in extremely low light conditions of 1 lux.

These samples show the exposure performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in an outdoor scene.

Huawei P50 Pro, precise target exposure, wide dynamic range

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, precise target exposure, slightly lower dynamic range

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, limited dynamic range, highlight clipping

These samples show the color performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in daylight.

Huawei P50 Pro, accurate white balance and color rendering, neutral skin tones, among the best for color

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, slightly inaccurate color rendering (reds), yellowish skin tones

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, accurate white balance and color rendering, natural skin tones

Focus

97

Improve

Highest score

Autofocus tests evaluate the accuracy of focusing on the subject’s face, the repeatability of precise focus, and depth of field. While a shallow depth of field can be nice for a single-subject selfie or close-up shot, it can be problematic in specific conditions like group selfies; both situations are tested. The accuracy of the focus is also evaluated in all real images taken, from 30 cm to 150 cm, and in low light conditions up to the outdoors.

These samples show the focus performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in daylight.

Huawei P50 Pro, shallow depth of field

Huawei P50 Pro, crop: very precise focus, large depth of field, good detail in the background

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, shallow depth of field

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, crop: stable focus (fixed focus), lack of background detail

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, shallow depth of field

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, crop: stable autofocus, shallow depth of field and lack of background detail

Structure

75

Asus ZenFone 7 Pro

Asus ZenFone 7 Pro

Texture tests analyze the level of detail and texture of subjects in images taken in the laboratory as well as in real-life scenarios. For natural shots, special attention is paid to the level of detail in the facial features, such as the eyes. Objective measurements are performed on map images taken under various lighting conditions from 1 to 1000 lux and different types of dynamic range conditions. The charts used are the proprietary SBMARK (DMC) chart and the Dead Leaves chart.

Evolution of the sharpness of the texture with the level of illuminance

This graph shows the evolution of texture sharpness with the lux level for two sealing conditions. Texture sharpness is measured on the Dead Leaves graph in the Close-up Dead Leaves setting.

This graph shows the texture performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in the laboratory under different light levels.

Texture comparison: The Huawei P50 Pro shows a lot of detail in indoor and outdoor conditions, but struggles slightly to maintain high levels of detail in low light.

These samples show the texture performance of the Huawei P50 Pro with a light level of 100 lux and a shooting distance of 55cm.

Huawei P50 Pro, texture, 55 cm

Huawei P50 Pro, crop: good detail on the face

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, texture, 55 cm

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, crop: slightly better detail

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, 55 cm

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, crop: better detail than competitors

Noise

89

Huawei P40 Pro

Huawei P40 Pro

Noise tests analyze various noise attributes such as intensity, chromaticity, grain and texture on real life images as well as graphical images taken in the laboratory. For natural images, special attention is paid to noise on faces, but also on dark areas and in conditions of high dynamic range. Objective measurements are performed on graphical images taken under various conditions from 1 to 1000 lux and different types of dynamic range conditions. The graph used is the SBMARK Dead Leaves graph and standardized measurement such as visual noise derived from ISO 15739.

This graph shows the noise performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in the laboratory under different light levels.

Visual noise is a metric that measures the noise perceived by end users. It takes into account the sensitivity of the human eye to different spatial frequencies under different observation conditions.

Noise comparison: Despite its fairly small sensor, the Huawei P50 Pro keeps noise levels very low, even in low light conditions.

Manufactured goods

77

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Artifact evaluation examines lens shading, chromatic aberrations, distortion measurement on the dot and MTF chart, and ring measurements on the SFR chart in the lab. Particular attention is paid, among other things, to ghosting, quantization, halos and variations of shades on the face. The more severe and frequent the artifact, the greater the point deduction from the score. The main artifacts observed and the corresponding point loss are listed below.

Main penalties for photographic artifacts

This example shows unnatural texture artifacts in low light conditions.

Huawei P50 Pro, artifacts

Huawei P50 Pro, crop: unnatural rendering of textures on skin and facial hair

Bokeh

70

Huawei P40 Pro

Huawei P40 Pro

Bokeh is tested in a dedicated mode, usually in portrait or aperture mode, and analyzed by visually inspecting all images captured in the lab and under natural conditions. The goal is to reproduce portrait photography comparable to that taken with a DSLR and a wide aperture. The main image quality attributes to look out for are depth estimation, artifacts, blur gradient, and bokeh blur spotlight shape. The attributes of the portrait image quality (exposure, color, texture) are also taken into account.

These samples show the bokeh mode performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in an indoor scene.

Huawei P50 Pro, few artifacts in depth estimation but no blur gradient

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, few artifacts in depth estimation, blur gradient with slightly abrupt transitions

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, few artifacts in depth estimation, very natural blur gradient

video

146

Improve

Highest score

About SBMARK Selfie Video Tests

SBMARK engineers capture and evaluate more than 2 hours of video in controlled laboratory environments and natural scenes in low light conditions, indoors and outdoors, using the default settings of the front camera. The assessment consists of visually inspecting natural videos taken under various conditions and carrying out objective measurements on graphical videos recorded in the laboratory under different conditions from 1 to 1000+ lux and color temperatures from 2,300 K to 6,500 K.

Huawei P50 Pro vs Ultra-Premium video scores

The Huawei P50 Pro achieves a selfie video score of 96. A device’s overall video score is derived from its performance and results on a number of attributes in the same way as the photo score. In this section, we take a closer look at these sub-scores and compare the video image quality to the competition.

Exposure

79

Apple iPhone 13 mini

Apple iPhone 13 mini

Color

85

Asus ZenFone 7 Pro

Asus ZenFone 7 Pro

Exposure tests evaluate facial brightness and dynamic range, eg. the ability to make details visible in both light and dark areas of the image. The stability and temporal adaptation of exposure are also analyzed. Image quality color analysis examines skin tone rendition, white balance, color shading, white balance stability, and its adaptation when the light changes.

These video images show the video exposure performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in indoor light conditions.

Huawei P50 Pro, still video, good exposure and wide dynamic range even in this challenging backlit scene

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, still video, occasional underexposure in high contrast scenes

These video images show the color of the Huawei P50 Pro video in a laboratory scene.

Huawei P50 Pro, still video, fairly natural skin tones, but red tones can be slightly inaccurate

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, still video, color rendering and fairly accurate skin tone

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, still video, accurate color rendition and skin tone

Structure

74

Asus ZenFone 6

Asus ZenFone 6

Consistency tests analyze the level of detail and texture of real-life videos, as well as graph videos recorded in the lab. Natural video recordings are evaluated visually, with particular attention to the level of detail of the facial features. Objective measurements are performed on images of graphs taken under various conditions from 1 to 1000 lux. The chart used is the Dead Leaves chart.

Evolution of the sharpness of the texture with the level of illuminance

This graph shows the evolution of texture sharpness with the lux level for two sealing conditions. Texture sharpness is measured on the Dead Leaves graph in the Close-up Dead Leaves setting.

Texture retention in video is good, but slightly outperformed by the other devices in this comparison.

These video images show the performance of the video textures of the Huawei P50 Pro in low light conditions.

Huawei P50 Pro, video plot

Huawei P50 Pro, crop: not as many details as on Asus Zenfone 7 Pro

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, video texture

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, crop: detail similar to P50 Pro

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, video texture

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, better details

Noise

70

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra

Noise tests analyze various noise attributes such as intensity, chromaticity, grain, texture, temporal aspects on real-life video recordings and graph videos taken in the laboratory. Natural videos are evaluated visually, with particular attention to noise on faces. Objective measurements are performed on card videos recorded under various conditions from 1 to 1000 lux. The graph used is the SBMARK visual noise graph.

Spatial evolution of visual noise with the level of illuminance

This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise graph in the video noise setting. SBMARK visual noise measurement is derived from the ISO15739 standard.

Time evolution of visual noise with the level of illuminance

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Visual temporal noise is measured on the visual noise graph in the video noise setting.

These video images show the video noise performance of the Huawei P50 Pro in indoor light conditions.

Huawei P50 Pro, video noise

Huawei P50 Pro, crop: noise is visible indoors and in low light conditions

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, video noise

Huawei Mate 40 Pro, crop: very low noise

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, video noise

Asus Zenfone 7 Pro, crop: noise well controlled in most conditions

Stabilization

81

Huawei Mate 40 Pro

Huawei Mate 40 Pro

The stabilization assessment verifies the device’s ability to stabilize footage using software or hardware technologies such as OIS, EIS, or any other means. The assessment examines overall residual motion on the face and background, smoothness and gelatin artifacts, during walking and panning use cases under various lighting conditions. The video below is an excerpt from one of the tested scenes.

This sample clip shows the video stabilization of the Huawei P50 Pro in outdoor conditions.

Stabilization on the Huawei P50 Pro is very efficient with hardly any frame changes and very little difference in sharpness between frames.

Manufactured goods

87

Apple iPhone 12 mini

Apple iPhone 12 mini

Artifacts are evaluated with MTF and ring measurements on the SFR graph in the lab, as well as frame rate measurements using the Universal Timer LED. Natural videos are visually evaluated with special attention to artifacts such as quantization, hue shift, and face rendering artifacts, among others. The more severe and frequent the artifact, the greater the point deduction from the score. The main artifacts and the corresponding point loss are listed below

Main penalties for video artifacts

This graph shows the ringing video output of the Huawei P50 Pro. This curve shows the normalized edge profile of the maximum ring in the field.

Ringing: The P50 Pro controls ringing considerably better than the Mate 40 Pro and Zenfone 7 Pro.

Let's talk about "Huawei P50 Pro Selfie test" with our community!
Start a new Thread

Philip Owell

Professional blogger, here to bring you new and interesting content every time you visit our blog.