DXOMark does a little trolling
Huawei has released the Pura70 series in the global market, pushing boundaries of what “smartphone photography” actually means. While yes, Huawei no longer has Google on their side and that not a lot of customers purchase their units now, at least globally (they are one of the most competitive brands in China), the brand never lost its innovative spark, as evident by its large European-styled research complex in China. In terms of facility, they nearly go toe-to-toe with Apple!
The main distinguishing feature of the Pura70 series is their design. When Huawei makes flagships, they always make sure it looks unique among the rest. They did this with almost all of their flagships starting with the P10. Yes, the “P” now means “Pura”. Even without Leica, Huawei was able to make the best cameras ever put on a phone, at least according to DXOMark. The previous reigning champion was the Honor Magic6 Pro. Funnily enough, the Magic6 Pro got released in the Philippines the same time DXOMark announced a brand new camera champion. We’re doing a little trolling here.
We will discuss more about the rest of the series later but let’s focus on the Pura70 Ultra for now since that’s what DXOMark used. See, the Pura70 Ultra embodies everything that Huawei stands for. This includes an attractively unique design philosophy, cameras that outmatch some DSLRs, and a great ecosystem to match.
After Leica’s departure, Huawei developed a refracting technology called XMAGE that is now available since the P50 series. Although refracting cameras are not new to the mobile industry, Huawei saw a future ahead and thus developed a more advanced version, to truly match that of retractable lenses found on professional cameras.
The new Pura70 Ultra consists of a 50MP retractable primary camera with apertures ranging from f/1.4-f/4.0. Physical pop-up lenses are never heard of in any smartphone and this unique mechanism explains why the camera island intrudes so much. This is a 1-inch sensor that matches that of other ultra flagships, such as Leica’s Leitz 1 and Xiaomi’s 13 Ultra.
The telephoto, also 50MP, doubles as a macro camera with distances as close as 5cm, and from here, you can zoom up to 35x digitally to your subject to truly get an amazing close-up shot. Finally, there is a 40MP ultrawide camera with 13mm focal length.
The Pura70 Ultra not only is the best camera as per DXOMark but it also broke records. It currently holds the highest score holder for photo, bokeh, and zoom. This means that Huawei’s R&D is being put into good use. Though, practical and realistic uses are still going to be different for each user, of course. Lab tests are great in theory but in practice, the results are going to be much different.
While Huawei may have held the title for the best camera, Honor still has a hold in other areas such as battery and display. Even in selfies Honor still holds the highest score. This we can agree because every pore we have during the opening of the Honor store at SM City San Lazaro is visible and the colors look natural.
Of course, the entire presentation in a tech community will not be complete without mentioning “AI” at least once. The newest buzzword in the lot, right after “Pixel binning’, “virtual ram” “infinity display”, “ultra”, and “pro”. As with all other phones, AI enhancement can be used to make images look livelier.
As for the rest, the Huawei Pura70 Ultra features a 6.8-inch FHD+ LTPO display with 120Hz refresh rate, a 13MP selfie camera (which explains why Honor still remains at no.1 for this category), and Kunlun Glass protection.
Huawei finally did not shy away at the chipset. Kirin is making a comeback starting with the Pura70 series. Here, it is a Kirin 9010 without 5G services, big surprise. The company is working on it though. Although, its development is still kept secret because not much of the specs have been announced, possibly a geopolitical move. However, the rumor mill mentions of a 7nm process (neither from TSMC nor Samsung) and an octa-core CPU comprising of a single unknown 2.3GHz super core, 3x 2.18GHz unnamed processor, and 4x unmentioned 1.55GHz efficiency cores. We don’t even know what GPU it uses. The chipset is manufactured locally.
An integral part of Huawei innovation is satellite connectivity which even Qualcomm gave up upon. This technology is great for people currently in remote areas or during times of disaster when signal towers are unavailable. Only the Pura70 Ultra gets to access it. The global version has no access to this technology because the satellites used here are intended for Chinese users only. The device is also IP68-rated.
Finally, in terms of battery, the phone features a 5200mAh battery with 100W fast wired charging, 80W fast wireless charging, and 20W fast reverse charging. It boots with HarmonyOS 4.2 out of the box which means it might not have local APK support. In the Philippines, the Pura70 Ultra runs EMUI instead without Google.
It comes in two colours for the Philippine market: Green and Black. If you’re ready to sacrifice a kidney or a credit card, it can be yours… for PHP 79,999. The phone has 12GB RAM and 512GB ROM with Huawei’s nanomemory (NM) Card as extra storage.
SPECS:
- 6.8″ FullHD+ (2400x1080px) LTPO OLED, 120Hz refresh rate, Kunlun Glass protection
- IP68 water/dust resistance
- HiSilicon Kirin 9010 (7nm)
- CAMERAS:
- 50MP (Primary, Retractable), f/1.4-f/4.0, 1″ CMOS Sensor, XMAGE, Sensor-shift OIS
- 40MP (Ultrawide), f/2.2, 13mm FOV
- 50MP (Telephoto), f/2.1, 5cm macro, 100x digital zoom
- FRONT: 13MP
- EMUI 14.2 without Google Services, based on HarmonyOS 4.2
- 5200mAh, 100W Fast Charging
- 80W Fast Wireless Charging
- 20W Fast Reverse Charging
- USB-C, Nanomemory, Slot, In-display fingerprint scanner, Virtual RAM
- 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, Dual-Satellite connectivity (China-only)
- Black, Green (Vegan Leather)
- PRICE:
- 12/512: PHP 79,999
Source: Consumer Huawei, GSMArena
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