Review: the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has a one-inch sensor and a retractable lens

Huawei doesn’t have access to Google services or 5G technology. With this in mind, it has to impress using other features. In the case of the Pura 70 Ultra, it’s banking on a one-inch sensor, a retractable lens and an adjustable aperture to do the job. The smartphone’s biggest problem, however, is that it’s too expensive for the odd minor flaw to be overlooked.

Eye-catching back and beautiful display

The back of the Pura 70 Ultra is pretty attention-grabbing. This is down to the unusual shape of the camera bump and the patterned, artificial (or should I say «vegan»?) leather. The material feels nice, and is pleasingly grippy. Every part of the smartphone’s IP68-certified against water. In other words, it can survive for 30 minutes in 1.5 metres of water without being damaged.

On the front, there’s a 6.8-inch OLED display With a resolution of 2488 × 1260 pixels (460 ppi), the picture’s razor-sharp. The colour rendering looks natural, while the refresh rate ranges between 1 and 120 hertz depending on the content being displayed. This makes sure that moving images are smooth, but doesn’t consume unnecessary power for static content.

Camera: good by day, poor by night

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra’s showpiece is its 50-megapixel main camera, complete with one-inch CMOS sensor. In Pro mode, you can set the aperture between f/1.6 and f/4.0 yourself. There’s also a 40-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera with a 3.5x optical zoom and a 13-megapixel selfie camera.

Huawei uses pixel binning for all three rear cameras. This involves combining several neighbouring pixels into one, apparently increasing light sensitivity and improving image quality as a result. The side effect of this? Images end up with a lower resolution – 12.5 megapixels instead of 50 megapixels, for example – and the files are smaller.

Main camera

You can only manually adjust the main camera’s aperture in Pro mode. In every other mode, the camera selects it automatically. You use a slider to choose between a total of nine f-stops. This mostly influences background blurring, but it also regulates light sensitivity in dark conditions.

Despite the nine f-stops, there’s not much of a visual difference between f/1.4 and f/4. However, this is the maximum of any smartphone to date. Besides Huawei (the Mate 50 Pro had a physical aperture with the same specs), hardly any other manufacturer offers it.

I really like the shots that the main camera takes during the day. They have a very high level of detail and natural colour reproduction. Plus, the camera flawlessly copes with strong contrasts.

I’m less pleased with the main camera once night falls. Although the photos look good on the Pura 70 Ultra’s display, the level of detail leaves a lot to be desired when I view the pictures on my 27-inch monitor. Top-of-the-line smartphones from manufacturers such as Google and Samsung have more to offer in this respect.

As for the colour reproduction, it’s a matter of taste. Is it good that the Pura 70 Ultra uses the colouring of the streetlights? Or should it be working against it?

Ultra-wide-angle camera

In daylight, I’m satisfied with the ultra-wide-angle camera too. The level of detail and colour reproduction are good, with distortions only cropping up in the corners.

Darkness proves to be a problem for this camera too. Again, it’s more to do with how the images look on a larger screen than on the phone itself. Night mode goes some way towards compensating for the blurring in the centre of the image, but the effect’s still clearly visible at the edges.

Telephoto camera

The telephoto camera captures good-quality close-ups, with the 3.5x zoom playing a major part of that. Digitally, you can magnify images even further, as the zoom goes up to 10x.

In dark conditions, the telephoto follows the Pura 70 Ultra’s previously established pattern. While the photos look good on the smartphone itself, they’re not great in a large format. Regardless of whether you use automatic or night mode, the telephoto camera delivers better images in low lighting conditions than the ultra-wide-angle camera.

Selfie camera

I like the selfies because of the high detail and natural colours. The selfie camera does a good job of balancing out strong contrasts and achieves a nice blur in portrait mode. Although the images look good on the phone, there are noticeably blurry areas when you look at them on a PC screen. It’s especially striking in spots with a lot of detail, such as my beard in the photo below.

The quality of selfies taken in the dark also leaves a lot to be desired. Huawei might as well revise its entire image processing algorithm when it comes to this.

Good CPU, weak GPU

Following the US boycott, Huawei has stepped up development of its own chipsets again. One of these includes the Kirin 9010 in the Pura 70 Ultra. Its main drawback is that it doesn’t have a 5G modem, meaning it only works via 4G. Although this won’t bother anyone who doesn’t yet have a 5G contract, it’s not particularly forward-looking. Especially since other manufacturers are even offering 5G on entry-level smartphones right now.

The Kirin 9010’s supported by 16 gigabytes of working memory, making the Pura 70 Ultra fit for day-to-day use. Animations run smoothly, apps start quickly and the phone’s quick to process photos. In benchmark tests, however, it doesn’t come close to top-of-the-range chipsets. It’s even left lagging behind mid-range chips – especially when it comes to graphics. The only benchmark in which it’s able to compete with its rivals is the CPU test.

Lack of Google services might be annoying, but you can add them later

Huawei still isn’t allowed to use Google services. Although it’s found a good way around the ban, it hasn’t swerved the issue completely. The Pura 70 Ultra’s operating system, EMUI 14.2, is based on the open-source version of Android. Huawei’s app store, AppGallery, is well stocked, and you can install apps from other sources too. Plus, Huawei’s also developed key services in-house, such as Petal Maps. However, one or two really important apps are currently still absent. While I’d be fine with installing something like PlayerPlus from another source, I’d be very reluctant to do the same with my banking app.

If you’re tempted to get a Pura 70 Ultra or another Huawei device but you’re feeling put off by the lack of Google services, fear not. As my colleague Michelle recently demonstrated, it doesn’t take that much effort to install them later.

Long battery life

At 5,200 mAh, the Pura 70 Ultra’s battery is slightly larger than average. In the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, it achieves a very long runtime at full display brightness. With a score of 10 hours and 57 hours minutes, it’s on a par with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It also outperforms the Xiaomi 14T and the Motorola Edge 50 Pro (used for comparison) by almost two hours.

With the power adapter included and Huawei’s Supercharge fast-charging technology, the Pura 70 Ultra takes up to 100 watts when charging. This means it takes less than half an hour to fully charge the smartphone’s battery from empty. Wireless, it just takes slightly longer. With the matching Supercharge charger, the battery takes up to 80 watts – that’s more than many smartphones can draw via cable.