HUAWEI Pura 80 Pro, 80 Ultra Review - Camera Gold Standard
HUAWEI is definitely pushing the limits of mobile imaging again.
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| These two are HUAWEI's best camera phones yet |
The new HUAWEI Pura 80 Series recently impressed the smartphone world with its powerful camera hardware on a sleek and capable body.
Particularly, we have two of the most powerful from that lineup, the high-end Pura 80 Pro and the flagship Pura 80 Ultra.
Is the hype real? Let's see how good these devices really are.
Cameras
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| The cameras |
The two are equipped with identical camera specs at the back, featuring the 50MP f/1.6 1-inch Ultra Lighting Camera w/ OIS and 40MP f/2.2 Ultra-Wide Angle Camera.
The difference?
The 1-inch sensor of the Pura 80 Pro, meanwhile, is paired with AI Cinematic Engine, making it still highly capable of delivering lifelike colors, natural contrast, and stunning videos.
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| Pura 80 Ultra in action |
The 1-inch sensor of the Ultra variant is also said to be 7x greater in quality than its predecessor. It has a real-time TCG-HDR technology designed to achieve the 16EV, the highest in the industry, and 15x better than its previous tech.
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| Daylight 1x |
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| Ultra-wide |
The Pro model highlights a 48MP f/2.1 Ultra Lighting Macro Telephoto Camera with 4x optical zoom and OIS.
Meanwhile, the Ultra model uses a single 1/1.28-inch large sensor, but with two lenses called Switchable Dual Telephoto Camera, a first of its kind.
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| Look at those camera sensors (Ultra model) |
The first one is a 50MP f/2.4 Telephoto Camera with 3.7x Optical Zoom and Sensor Shift OIS. The second one is a 12.5MP Telephoto Camera with 9.4x Optical Zoom and Sensor Shift OIS.
As expected from a high-end HUAWEI device, the phones are capable of capturing some of the most impressive images for a smartphone.
Both have amazing clarity, details, and colors by default. The color science of the Ultra model is just a little truer to my eyes.
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| Natural starburst at f/4.0 |
This even has an adjustable variable aperture from f/1.6 to f/4.0. f/1.6 is ideal if you want more natural blurs on your background, and f/4.0 allowed us to take shots with a real starburst effect even in the dark.
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| The zoom of the Pro mode is not bad |
The zoom of the Pro model is very good, one of the best I've seen, particularly with its 4x optical and 10x digital mode.
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| 5.7x Portrait in daylight |
BUT, the Ultra model is even way better and is close to mind-blowing for a phone. It has a satisfying click when switching from 3.7x to 10x. AND the actual performance is definitely ridiculous.
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| 1x, 2x |
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| 3.7x, 10x |
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| 1x, 2x |
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| 3.7x, 10x |
Shots are super crisp in different lighting conditions, even challenging ones, and in low light.
Don't be surprised to see bokeh background blur effects that will remind you of big cameras with high-quality, fast aperture lenses.
Shooting speed is also incredibly fast, making it good for capturing fast-moving subjects. I find it enjoyable to take photos of my kid while playing and of animals like meerkats and capybaras.
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| 1x, 10x zoom |
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| 89mm snaps |
If you need to capture even faster-moving subjects like speeding cars, sports photography, and more, select the Snapshot mode on its intuitive camera app.
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| Snapshot mode |
Like magic, it freezes even droplets of water from my espresso machine midair.
The 10x mode looks like it was taken using the primary camera of your usual high-end smartphone.
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In my experience, the zoom quality will look really good up to 20x for the Pura 80 Pro and 30x with the Pura 80 Ultra. This is the first time I've seen this level of zoom performance without too much AI alteration going on.
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To my surprise, the pictures are usable even when you zoom in at 50x and 100x.
The Portrait mode is even more amazing here. Edge detection is accurate up to the hair level.
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The Portrait is really good from 1x, 2x, 5.6x, and 10x. The 5.6x has a 134mm equivalent, which brings no noticeable distortion to images.
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| Way better details and more accurate colors than the yellowish and grainy shot from iPhone 16 Pro Max |
When compared to other flagships like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the Pura 80 Ultra shines with brighter exposure, truer colors, and crisper details.
Those who like Portrait shots will definitely enjoy using this.
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| 10x, 20x |
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| 3x, 10x |
Even for macro zooms, the cameras of these phones can perform. Even if you don't attach a macro lens, it can do super crisp macro shots at 3.7x and 10x (optical) for the Ultra model and 4x (optical) and 10x (digital) for the Pro model.
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| Amazing for low light snaps, even with zoom |
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| Food shot in the dark with flash |
HUAWEI also remains one of the best, if not the best, low light cameras for me.
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| Pura 80 Ultra low light |
Even the Pro model is better than a lot of high-end smartphones we've tried. As mentioned earlier, even zooming in the dark is possible.
Both the Pro and Ultra models are technically great in this regard. The Ultra, if you have the extra funds, is just better.
In my experience, I really enjoyed using this for low light cityscapes, Portraits, and even concert shots. Even when I forgot to turn on the Night mode for both moving and non-moving subjects.
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| Ultra-wide to 10x zoom |
HUAWEI said that they optimized their HDR capabilities for backlight shots, making it great for stage shots, particularly for fan meets and concerts.
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| UW, super zoom |
AND yes, their claim is legit. This is so far the best concert phone for photos I've tested yet. Even at 30x and 50x zooms, the quality is not bad. In fact, artifacts and noise are less compared to my other high-end phones.
Keep in mind there's a brief loading time when switching to 10x zoom or higher, as the camera shifts from 3.7x to 10x optical mode.
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| Well-lit selfie |
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| Groufie, it can go quite wide |
For selfies, both are packed with a 13MP f/2.0 Wide Angle camera. While it is still at 13MP, the aperture size is now brighter at f/2.0, coming from f/2.4.
The output from both the Pro and Ultra models is similar.
It can take really wide shots that can easily fit 5 people in one groufie. Even if it isn't a super high-resolution 50MP selfie cam, shots remained crisp with near true-to-life colors in different lighting conditions.
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| Indoor Portrait mode and low light selfies |
It also has good HDR capabilities and minimal noise and artifacts in challenging conditions such as low light. The Portrait mode, while mostly software, is above-average in edge detection and overall quality.
Apart from photography, one of the biggest updates of this phone is its ability to take videos.
While it can't do 8K, both can record high-quality up to 4K 60fps videos with gimbal-like stabilization and up to 10x lossless zoom. With hybrid digital zoom, the phones can do up to 20x zoom. It would have been better if it can do up to 100x video zoom though.
Both are very capable. But the Pura 80 Ultra is generally better overall for me. It can even do natural background blurs at 3.7x mode and above.
They are good for vlogs, product demonstrations, and more.
If you need more stability, like when you are running. It has an effective Ultra Steady mode that crops shots a little, but can still let users record 2.7K resolution at 60fps.
By the way, even for selfies, it has up to 4K 60fps with no crop. It has no OIS, but the general quality, including the skin textures, is good.
The microphone on this is also more than serviceable, especially in quiet environments. This is good enough for vlogs, TikTok, reels, and more. I love the fact that it can do macro videos as well. AND yes, it is okay to do calls.
Build Quality/Design/Multimedia
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| Pura 80 Ultra unboxed: Package includes a 100W power brick, USB-C charger, high-quality textured case, SIM ejector tool, and a pre-installed screen protector |
As expected, the two are very well-made high-end smartphones that are some of the most solid-looking today.
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| Pura 80 Ultra case |
The two have a glass back, metal frame, and curved glass front. The phones are said to be really durable as they are equipped with 2nd-Gen Crystal Armour Kunlun Glass that is up to 25x tougher and 16x more scratch-resistant than regular glass.
Sure durable construction
Personally, it would have been better if they used flatter panels. While it has no noticable ghost touches on the side. Flatter screens have lesser distortion on the pictures on the side. Function over style.
The phones are also equipped with IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance certifications, the highest in the industry today.
Style-wise, I love that HUAWEI builds upon what we love with the Pura 70 Series, the Fashion Next design. It maintains the clean-looking rectangular camera hump featuring the 3 cameras of the phone.
The bump on the Pro is similar to the Pura 70 Ultra last year. It is quite big.
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| HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra camera island |
BUT, the camera island found on the Pura 80 Ultra is even bigger. This is massive for a phone. It makes it less wobbly when tapping the screen on a flat surface.
Both phones are compact enough for the screen size and are slim. They measure at 163 x 76.1 8.3 mm. The Pro model is lighter at 219 grams, while the Ultra variant is heavier at 233.5 grams. The HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra is even heavier than the very heavy 227 grams iPhone 16 Pro Max.
If you're wearing loose pants without a belt, the Pura 80 Ultra might be heavy enough to make them slide down.
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| Top, bottom views |
All the ports and buttons are in standard locations and easy to reach. My only issue here is that the power key that doubles as a fingerprint reader is too small for my hand. My fingerprint unlocking success rate is 80 percent.
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| The volume keys and power button/fingerprint reader |
It would have been better if they had placed it under the display, just like they usually do. It is easier to locate and is simply more efficient.
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| The displays |
The two phones use a 6.8-inch LTPO OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling rate, 1440Hz PWM dimming, and 2848 x 1276 resolution. This has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, making it readable even under direct sunlight.
Basically, this display can compete with most modern flagships in colors, contrast, blacks, and details. Most won't have an issue here. It is amazing to watch YouTube and Viu videos, view the pictures you took, and more.
My gripe is that it only has L3 certification. So, you won't be able to watch Netflix and Disney+ in HD quality, which is sad for a flagship phone line.
Thankfully, the speakers are among the best I've heard. It can go really loud and full-sounding while not being distorted. It even has some sort of bass, which is rare for small devices like smartphones.
Performance
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| Benchmark scores of HUAWEI |
On paper, speed is where the Pura 80 Pro and Pura 80 Ultra are lacking compared to the competition.
Not the fastest high-end phones
Thankfully, in real life, the majority of its target market won't feel the speed difference. Opening most apps is fast, and you can just leave a lot in the background thanks to their use of either 12GB (Pro) or 16GB RAM (Ultra).
For storage, both are packed with 512GB of storage. 512GB is the standard these days on high-end phones, and this allows users to store a lot of apps, games, photos, and other files.
I haven't tried it intensively for gaming, but it runs MLBB and Genshin Impact (default settings) quite well with minimal heating.
This means that the home-baked Kirin chip that it uses is highly optimized, as the company was able to optimize it to the fullest.
Despite the difference in RAM, their speed and general performance are identical and hardly noticeable.
The other weakness of the device is that it only has 4G+ connectivity. HUAWEI is not entirely at fault here, as these limitations are due to the restrictions imposed on the company by the US government.
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| Still capable? |
Thankfully, it has the latest WiFi 7 connectivity, which is really fast and stable in areas with such tech. The 4G+ in our experience, in Bangkok and Manila, is consistent as well. At times, it is even faster and better than 5G.
The other thing that I love about these phones is that they are equipped with a large 5,170mAh battery capacity. While it is not as big as other phones with over 5,500mAh, the actual battery performance is among the best in the flagship world.
Really good battery performance
For example, I was able to use the Pura 80 Ultra as my main WiFi hotspot device from 12 midnight to 5 PM the next day straight. I used it as my main photography and video phone, where I took over 500 items with its cameras in a day, and as a social media smartphone.
Charging is also super quick. Its 100W USB-C power brick was able to charge it from 1 to 100 percent under 50 minutes.
The high-speed 80W wireless charger isn’t part of the package—it's available separately as an aftermarket option
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| EMUI 15.0 |
For software, HUAWEI Pura 80 Pro and Pura 80 Ultra both run on EMUI 15.0 skin. This is technically based on Android with plenty of HUAWEI customizations. This is different from HarmonyOS 5.1 of its Chinese models.
It technically has AI, but it is limited compared to the competition. What you can do is download the likes of DeepSeek to have a pretty reliable AI companion. It also has Hey Celia assistant by default.
What HUAWEI could improve here is the basic AI tasks, such as AI Erase. It is clear that the company has a lot of work to do in this department.
The apps? Thankfully, HUAWEI is continuing to build its AppGallery and has made the installation of both local and international apps easier. Most of the social media apps, editing, and work apps are working well. Getting apps on HUAWEI is not as tedious as before, when the restrictions were still new.
Google apps would work with the help of MicroG, which you need to install just once, and GBox in case the app needs Google Mobile Services to work. GBox and microG are tools designed to provide Google apps and services to devices with no native Google support, like HUAWEI devices. This is a workaround, the only choice of HUAWEI if you can't find the apps you need on the HUAWEI AppGallery, not an official Google service.
HUAWEI told us that these methods are safe to use, and they have added plenty of other security measures to secure the data of their users.
They have a four-step security check that includes detection of malicious behavior, scanning for security vulnerabilities, inspection for privacy disclosures, and manual verification of real identities. HUAWEI also told us that they conduct monthly security checks to detect any malicious in-app behavior, among other threats.
This remains to be seen, but I've been using HUAWEI ever since the ban, and so far, I haven't experienced any major security red flags on the things that I do with my phone.
To be sure, practice makes sure to safeguard your accounts with two-step verifications and other security practices, like with all of your mobile devices, HUAWEI or not.
Pros - Game-changing phone cameras (especially for the Ultra), great build quality, stylish design, long battery life, super fast chargingCons - AI could have been better, SoC is slower than the competition, no 5G, there are workarounds, but no native Google support
HUAWEI Pura 80 Pro Specs
Display: 6.8-inch Kunlun-glass 2nd gen protected LTPO OLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling rate, 1440Hz PWM dimming, 2848 x 1276 resolution at 459 ppi
CPU: Kirin
RAM: 12GB
ROM: 512GB
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.6 1-inch Ultra Lighting Camera w/ OIS + 40MP f/2.2 Ultra-Wide Angle Camera + 48MP f/2.1 Ultra Lighting Macro Telephoto Camera w/ OIS + 1.5 M Spectral Channels Ultra Chroma Camera + Dual LED Flash
Selfie Camera: 13MP f/2.0 Wide Angle
Battery: 5,170mAh w/ 100W SuperCharge, 80W Wireless SuperCharge
OS: EMUI 15.0
Connectivity: WiFi 7, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2 (SBC, AAC, LDAC, L2HC), OTG, GPS (L1 + L5), NFC, GPS (L1 + L5), dual SIM
Sensors: Gravity, hall, gyroscope, light, proximity, gesture, barometric pressure
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, IR Blaster, IP68/69 water and dust resistance, stereo speakers, USB-C, Colors: Glazed Red, Glazed White, Glazed Black
Dimensions: 163 x 76.1 8.3 mm
Weight: 219 g
Price: TBC
HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra Specs
Display: 6.8-inch Kunlun-glass 2nd gen protected LTPO OLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling rate, 1440Hz PWM dimming, 2848 x 1276 resolution at 459 ppi
CPU: Kirin
RAM: 16GB
ROM: 512GB
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.6 1-inch Ultra Lighting HDR Camera w/ OIS + 40MP f/2.2 13mm Ultra-Wide Angle Camera + 50MP f/2.4 Telephoto Camera w/ 3.7x Optical Zoom, Sensor Shift OIS + 12.5MP Telephoto Camera w/ 9.4x Optical Zoom, Sensor Shift OIS + 1.5 M Spectral Channels Ultra Chroma Camera + Dual LED Flash
Selfie Camera: 13MP f/2.0 Wide Angle
Battery: 5,170mAh w/ 100W SuperCharge, 80W Wireless SuperCharge
OS: EMUI 15.0
Connectivity: WiFi 7, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2 (SBC, AAC, LDAC, L2HC), OTG, GPS (L1 + L5), NFC, GPS (L1 + L5), dual SIM
Sensors: Gravity, hall, gyroscope, light, proximity, gesture, barometric pressure
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, IR Blaster, IP68/69 water and dust resistance, stereo speakers, USB-C, Colors: Prestige Gold, Golden Black
Dimensions: 163 x 76.1 8.3 mm
Weight: 233.5 g
Price: TBC
Verdict
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| Best camera phones in the planet? |
The HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra is the new gold standard of camera phones.
If you need the most technically superior cameras on a phone, the HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra is easily the most impressive I've seen and tried so far.
It shoots images as good as some digital cameras with a thicker body on a fairly handy smartphone frame. AND, it is great for both photos and videos.
The HUAWEI Pura 80 Pro is no slouch as well, and its camera capabilities can compete or beat the best of the competition.
The hardware of both is also solid and very premium, despite their few flaws that are beyond their control.
HUAWEI has room to improve its generative AI offerings, especially as competitors have made impressive strides with tools that bring real value to everyday life.
The prices of the phones are yet to be revealed, but they should be close to the pricing in Thailand.
I will update this article once I have the official details.
Multimedia Experience - 4.25
Cameras - 4.7 (Pura 80 Pro), 4.9 (Pura 80 Ultra)
Performance - 4
Battery - 4.5
Average - 4.44/5 (Pura 80 Pro), 4.48 (Pura 80 Ultra)
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