Huawei Pura 70 Ultra hands-on review

02 May 2024


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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • xYG
  • 02 May 2024

A mid range device that sell for 1499 euro?!!!

    • S
    • Shui8
    • xjH
    • 02 May 2024

    Mikey, 02 May 2024I see Huawei's preposterous habit of not using the ful... moreIts since the Leica's days. They decide main shooter focal length are optimal at 27/28mm rather than the wider 23mm. In camera world, focal length below 24mm are considered as 'ultra wide'. Either that or to hide the sharpness fading edge lens effect lol. Anyway u can always get that 'proper' 23mm focal length if switch to x0.9 zoom.

    For example Leica Q & Ricoh GR are using a 28mm fixed focal length. Huawei is good at Super Resolution Algorithm anyway, u hardly sees degrades in quality anyway.

      • K
      • Kamikazebob
      • nxI
      • 02 May 2024

      Huawei literally give you the ability to install and sign into google apps. Just download MicroG from the China AppGallery and then revert location back to wherever you are.

      I am using all google apps (apart from GPay NFC) on my Pura 70 Ultra.

        • S
        • Shui8
        • xjH
        • 02 May 2024

        Nick Tegrataker, 02 May 2024This hands-on review misses out on one very, maybe even the... moreThis is vodoooo lol. A lot of work need to be done to get that kind of static final product from a very fast moving subject.

          • M
          • Mikey
          • N}v
          • 02 May 2024

          I see Huawei's preposterous habit of not using the full sensor and cropping to 27mm is still going strong.

            ZlouBot, 02 May 2024Xiaomi 14 Ultra $1499You get a helluva lot more of a phone for that price tag with Xiaomi (not that I'd ever buy either one of them)

              ZlouBot, 02 May 2024Xiaomi 14 Ultra $1499Yes, but the 14 Ultra offers far superior performance, 5G connectivity, GMS, as well as all the other features that make its price more justifiable than the Pura 70 Ultra's.

                Since the P70 series is finally going global with full 5G support, will the US government be mad as hell?

                  walkman8, 02 May 20241499 euros for 256 gb version with 7nm chipset and no GMS !... moreXiaomi 14 Ultra $1499

                    Bodygard, 02 May 2024Nice try from Huawei but in the West, the average consumer ... moreI wouldn't mind at all having to access Google services through GBox. The only thing stopping me from buying this phone is the insane price. I'm no hardcore gamer, so performance is going to be just fine for me and I can manage without in-house GMS. My main priority would be the cameras, which is pretty much everyone's main priority that is thinking of buying this phone (or a Huawei phone in general). So this instantly means that the Pura 70 Ultra isn't aimed at the average consumer, but more to people like me, who are chasing flawless camera performance on top of everything else. But still, that doesn't justify the price

                      Good cameras, but I honestly expected more. Some shots look uncharacteristically soft/lacking detail whereas some others look defocused and others look oversharpened. Photos have an artificial character to them, reminiscent of an iPhone or a Pixel for me. Clinical in nature, lacking the beautiful imperfections that some noise/some softness would've brought. The Mate 40 Pro perfected that balance and even though these aren't Samsung levels of oversharpening, they're not "perfectly sharp", 1-2 notches too much for me. Oppo and Xiaomi cracked the code of perfectly sharp photos. Huawei seems to have selective sharpening or something, one part of the image is sharp and another isn't. Talk about overengineering.

                      Surprisingly, the best part of the phone is the selfie camera for me. Extremely good and with 3 different magnifications? Great job Huawei.

                      Although this is a niche enthusiast oriented phone, the price for the chipset is just way too much. I think a better phone would be a foldable at this price range like the X Fold 3 Pro. The cameras on the Huawei are good but not so good that they should command that price OUTSIDE of China. In China this is the best phone I'd say if someone doesn't want/need Google services but along with that you get a midrange level chipset? Yikes.

                      Respect where respect is due tho, they DID make their own processor and that's incredible. Best of luck to Huawei and their journey to prove the west wrong. The fact that this phone is so good even after so many restrictions is an achievement. But I don't think that achievement is something the consumer would care when using the phone, they'd rather get tangible benefits and there's nothing huge separating Huawei from others in terms of cameras. They're all good in some areas and not so good in some others so at the end of the day if someone likes the Huawei processing they might go for it but for the cons that this phone has, is that processing style really so worth it? For me it's a no, but for someone else it might be something to empty their life savings on.

                        Bodygard, 02 May 2024Nice try from Huawei but in the West, the average consumer ... moreAlthough I don't like Huawei's pricing at all, the fact of the matter is, this is NOT for the average consumer. The best phone for the average consumer is an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Easy to use and not complicated. This is basically an anti-iPhone phone in a way and with all of the missing features that a normal consumer would need, ofc it's not for an average consumer.

                          Nice try from Huawei but in the West, the average consumer isn't gonna buy a device which doesn't have native google apps (and services). Yeah gbox allows access but isn't the same thing, isn't as smooth, as convenient, as trusty, capped functionality and limited talk between apps etc

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • pXr
                            • 02 May 2024

                            walkman8, 02 May 20241499 euros for 256 gb version with 7nm chipset and no GMS !... moreThey are insane..

                              1499 euros for 256 gb version with 7nm chipset and no GMS ! 🫠 And I thought Sony was niche.

                                Seems like the review phone has already taken quite a few tumbles..

                                  I tought the global version was with emui 14.2

                                    • d
                                    • dec kimbal
                                    • ndi
                                    • 02 May 2024

                                    No 5G outside of China? Why - technilal limitations of the 5G Kirin Chip, or a lack of licences?
                                    Thats a big blow...
                                    Be that as it may - a 1200€ or even 1500€ phone without 5g is dead on arrival.

                                      This hands-on review misses out on one very, maybe even the most important aspect of this phone's camera system - An ability to freeze motion *extremely* well.

                                      https://twitter.com/Hayaponlog/status/1785628341300859146
                                      https://twitter.com/Hayaponlog/status/1784400214826377471
                                      https://twitter.com/Hayaponlog/status/1783793992221753639

                                      From what I have seen, it essentially analyses short-exposure and long-exposure frames, calculates how much movement the subject has made in a given time, then reconstructs a non-blurry version of the long-exposure frame, which will then be combined with the short-exposure frame for HDR.

                                      It's a seriously impressive piece of technology that seems to extremely well, and since It's not a diffusion-based generative AI, there are no weird-looking texts or artificial-looking details that can be seen.

                                      As for the samples shown in this review - It's a throwback to the Kirin-era of Huawei's processing, so unlike on the P50/P60 series, details don't look overprocessed and the 2x digital crop zoom shots look fantastic. It's pretty surprising how much Huawei continues to push the boundary when it comes to imaging technology despite the ban.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • pXr
                                        • 02 May 2024

                                        Yeah that is pretty far from flagship performance, especially considering the insane price Huawei is asking for it, outside of China.

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