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Huawei P50 Pro Audio test

This device has been retested in the latest version of our protocol. Overall, sub-scores and attributes are up to date. For detailed information, check the What’s New article
OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

We put the Huawei P50 Pro through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.
In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview


Key audio specifications include:

  • top side firing + bottom side firing
  • No Jack audio output

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.


Huawei P50 Pro
119
audio
116
Playback
118

158

112

149

125

162

130

162

89

157

125
Recording
126

147

122

146

129

159

142

170

107

145

128

166

Please be aware that beyond this point, we have not modified the initial test results. While data and products remain fully comparable, you might encounter mentions and references to the previous scores.

Playback

Pros

Cons

Recording

Pros

  • Overall good tonal balance in life video and selfie as well as high SPL environments
  • Very good recording loudness when recording selfies
  • Good rendition of distance and wideness

Cons

  • Subpar timbre in memo app
  • Global compression and inaccurate envelope in most cases
  • Unpredictable digital signal processing in noisy environments, and sensitivity to occlusions while recording


The Huawei P50 Pro delivers a contrasted performance in the audio department. In playback, we’d mainly recommend it for gaming thanks to its good spatial performance, and a suitable tonal balance. Music and movie playback are a little less well endowed due to a lack of clarity and strong bass resonances and distortion. As a recording device, thanks to excellent results in volume, good spatial attributes, and a harmonious frequency response in most use cases, the Huawei P50 Pro runs neck-to-neck with such skilled devices as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Exynos), or the Xiaomi 12 Pro. The Huawei P50 Pro is particularly suited for recording in loud environments and makes a fairly good choice for selfie videos and meeting room recordings.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)

The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.


Playback

116

Huawei P50 Pro

163

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Playback score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

In playback tests, the P50 Pro’s stereo speakers provide good results at nominal volume with correct treble and attack, natural midrange, good wideness, realistic distance and satisfying loudness. At maximal volume, however, many artifacts arise, such as bass distortion and resonances, as well as excessive dynamic compression. At softer volumes, the tonal balance’s lack of clarity intensifies, transients become dull, and intelligibility drops. Additionally, strange volume variations often occur. All in all, the speakers are best suited for playing games, but not quite adapted for listening to music or watching movies.

Here is how the Huawei P50 Pro performs in playback use cases compared to its competitors:

Playback use-cases scores


Timbre

118

Huawei P50 Pro

158

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance, and volume dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.

Music playback frequency response


Dynamics

112

Huawei P50 Pro

149

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.


Spatial

125

Huawei P50 Pro

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.


Volume

130

Huawei P50 Pro

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.

Here are a few sound pressure levels (SPL) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
Hip-Hop Classical
Huawei P50 Pro 73.1 dBA 70.1 dBA
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Exynos) 74.1 dBA 70.2 dBA
Xiaomi 12 Pro 69.1 dBA 66 dBA
The following graph shows the gradual changes in volume going from minimum to maximum. We expect these changes to be consistent across the range, so that all volume steps correspond to users’ expectations:


Artifacts

89

Huawei P50 Pro

157

Asus ROG Phone 5

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.


Recording

125

Huawei P50 Pro

160

Honor Magic6 Pro
How Audio Recording score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

The P50 Pro fares incomparably better in recording. It has a fairly spectacular performance in loud environments, thanks to an elevated maximum reachable level without noticeable artifacts, and a harmonious tonal balance in high SPL scenarios. Audio in selfie videos is also on target, with satisfying loudness, sharp attack and a correct envelope, although localizability if a bit blurry. Life videos (made with the rear cameras), on the other hand, exhibit a slightly inaccurate envelope, a narrower sound field, and numerous sonic artifacts. Memos are also lagging a little bit behind, due to a subpar timbre capture, a notable lack of clarity, limited signal-to-noise ratio and, just like in life videos, many perceivable artifacts.

Here is how the Huawei P50 Pro performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

Recording use-cases scores


Timbre

126

Huawei P50 Pro

147

Honor Magic3 Pro+

The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for recording.

Life video frequency response


Dynamics

122

Huawei P50 Pro

146

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.


Spatial

129

Huawei P50 Pro

159

Vivo X Fold

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.


Volume

142

Huawei P50 Pro

170

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when recording.

Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); as a reference, we expect loudness levels to be above -24 LUFS for recorded content:
Meeting Life Video Selfie Video Memo
Huawei P50 Pro -20.1 LUFS -19.7 LUFS -18.5 LUFS -16.9 LUFS
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Exynos) -28.8 LUFS -21.7 LUFS -21.2 LUFS -23.9 LUFS
Xiaomi 12 Pro -25.8 LUFS -23.1 LUFS -20.4 LUFS -20.2 LUFS


Artifacts

107

Huawei P50 Pro

145

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.

Listen for artifacts in this extract, which has been recorded in a busy home environment:


Background

128

Huawei P50 Pro

166

Black Shark 5 Pro

Background evaluates how natural the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.

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