Huawei Pura 70 Ultra Review

A few weeks ago, I was in Shenzhen, China, and I was able to check out the new Pura 70 series. Specifically, I got to try the Pura 70 Pro, and if you want to read our first impressions of that phone, you can do so here. Needless to say, I was very impressed by the capabilities of the new flagship smartphone, especially with the camera.

But aside from the Pura 70 Pro, I briefly got my hands on the top-spec Pura 70 Ultra as well. However, my time with the Pura 70 Ultra was rather short. I only had it for one full day, and just like the Pura 70 Pro unit I tried, it was also an experimental unit. This meant I couldn’t run benchmarks or anything similar.

Now, the Pura 70 Series is in the Philippines, and I get to check out the Pura 70 Ultra in full. But the question remains – is it worth getting over the Pura 70 Pro? Most of us were already impressed with the mid-spec Pura 70 Pro, but there are some significant differences between that and the Pura 70 Ultra especially in terms of the camera.

To find out, I suggest you read on in this review.

Design and Construction

In terms of design, the Pura 70 Ultra adopts Huawei’s new design language for their flagship smartphone. It features the revised camera island with a triangle design with a “Mickey Mouse” inspired design. The only telling difference would be the addition of a notch with the XMAGE logo at the bottom.

So essentially the same, right? But if you look at the camera layout, you’ll notice it differs from the Pura 70 Pro. Specifically, the main camera isn’t at the top. Instead, it’s the one in the middle, and there’s good reason for it. The main lens extends when you open up the camera, and it features a red ring around it.

With that, you can already see there’s a lot more in store when it comes to the camera of the Pura 70 Ultra, but we’ll talk about that more later.

The rest of the back panel is different too. The Pura 70 Ultra doesn’t have a full glass back panel like the other phones in the Pura 70 Series. Instead, it features a leather back design with X patterns.

Included with the phone is also a plastic case. It’s not the clear jelly case that we’re used to, but instead, it features a design that matches the color of your Huawei Pura 70 Ultra. It doesn’t have the same X patterns, but instead the new “Pura” design logo. With that, you don’t hide the nice back panel styling of the phone.

But what do you think of the leather-back design? Do you like more than the glass panel on the Pura 70 Pro I tried earlier?

But aside from the different back panel and camera layout, the construction and layout of the phone are the same. The frame is still made of aluminum, which feels very sturdy, but it’s not the most smudge-resistant.

Meanwhile, the volume rockers and power buttons are on the right side, while the left side of the phone remains clean. At the bottom, you’ll find the USB-C port, the loudspeaker, and the dual-sim card slot. At the top, you’ll find the other loudspeaker along with a secondary microphone.

Overall, I like the design of the Pura 70 Ultra. It still feels really nice to hold, and you do get the flagship appeal. It is a bit heavy though, weighing 226g, and you do feel the weight after a while.

Display and Multimedia

Flip the Pura 70 Ultra over, and you are greeted by a 6.8-inch screen. The screen uses an LTPO OLED display with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate with 2844×1260 resolution. Now if those figures sound familiar, that’s because it is the same one used in the Pura 70 Pro.

With that, the display of the Pura 70 Ultra is also really nice. Whether it’s YouTube or Netflix, you can really enjoy watching content on this phone. The colors are quite vivid, and users can also adjust the colors to their liking in the settings.

Not to mention it is quite bright too, making the phone easy to use under the sun. It features a maximum of 2500 nits peak brightness. After using it here in Manila, you can clearly see everything on the screen when you’re outside despite the hot summer days we’ve been having. No need to worry about dropping it too since it is protected by Crystal Armour Kunlun Glass.

With the 120Hz refresh rate, gamers will enjoy playing on this phone. There’s smooth animation all around, but more on gaming later on.

In terms of audio, the Pura 70 Ultra comes with dual stereo speakers, which sound great. In comparison to the Pura 70 Pro I tried in China, they do sound the same which suggest Huawei used the same system. You get a decent sound stage with a nice bass. The mids are clear too, making it great as a portable speaker. More importantly, you will be able to fully immerse yourself while watching your favorite shows on this phone.

Camera

My favorite aspect of the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra are the cameras. Specifically, the rear camera is easily one of the best on the smartphone market today. In terms of specs, the Pura 70 Ultra features a 50MP pop-out main shooter with a 1-inch sensor with sensor-shift OIS, a 50MP macro-telephoto camera, and a 40MP ultrawide.

The results of the photos speak for themselves. You get very sharp images all around, whether you’re zoomed in or out. This allows users to capture whatever kind of subject they want – be it portrait, landscape, or street photography. Users can even take advantage of Huawei’s XMAGE system to make the photos more vivid, somewhat simulating a pro-camera output.

As a result, you can get nice images in almost all lighting conditions. Even at night or low light, you can capture amazing images. The phone’s AI algorithm does a great job, and the larger 1-inch sensor definitely helps too. There are various shooting modes users can play with too, but I personally left it at standard photo mode. Just don’t forget to turn on AI when you’re shooting.

With the telephoto, you can zoom up to 100x. Although as you would expect, it is a bit blurred at this point. But the zoom is amazing even up to 25x. Beyond that, the sharpness and details do start falling off a bit, and you’ll notice the AI algorithm working. It works great even at night, which is something you don’t see often.

Speaking of the AI algorithm, Huawei told us the camera on the Pura 70 Ultra can also capture subjects moving at high speeds, and it will still come out sharp. During our trip to China, we tested this out with an image rotating on a disk, and we did get a sharp photo of the subject.

Here in Manila, I tried it out when my car was on the dyno and the wheels were spinning. As for the results, I’ll let you be the judge of this photo.

The front camera uses a 13MP shooter. It’s nice and clean, and you get sharp images especially when there’s decent lighting.

In terms of video, users can record up to 4K@60FPS, and you get similar results to when you’re taking photos. The stabilization only works at 1080P@60FPS, but there seems to be some stabilization function happening even at 4K. With that, you can be sure to capture some really nice video footage, whether it is for a vlog or cinematic shots.

One of my favorite features of video is the slow-mo function. Aside from the usual 1080P@120FPS, the Pura 70 Ultra can record up to 1080P@960FPS for those hyper slow shots. However, I did notice you do need a lot more light in order to get some quality slow-mo video at 960FPS.

So, it is best used when you’re shooting outside or have some nice studio lights to work with. The time for the 960FPS clip is relatively short too, so you can’t continuously shoot at this framerate for a long time.

For reference, you can check out the gallery below to see some of the photos and videos we were able to capture using the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.

 

Performance and Benchmarks

The Pura 70 Ultra may have a great camera, but it performs really well too. Under the hood, it runs Huawei’s own Kirin 9010 chipset. Our unit came with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, which is a lot. It can easily handle your everyday tasks which includes browsing social media, surfing the net, and even watching videos. Even with multiple apps running in the background, you won’t find this phone slowing down.

As expected, it also runs games without any issues. Playing light games such as Mobile Legends or Asphalt 9 is a breeze for the Pura 70 Ultra. It is a similar story when playing more graphic-intensive titles like Genshin Impact. I managed to max out the graphics settings on this phone, and I did not experience any framerate drops or slowing down.

That said, the phone did slightly heat up when I was playing Genshin Impact, but it’s not as hot as other phones. It feels a tad bit warmer than usual. More importantly, it did not affect my gameplay at all.

With 1TB of storage at your disposal, you can download all the apps you can think of. At the same time, you have more than enough space for the content and memories you will be capturing using the camera of this phone.

To give you a better idea of how this phone performs, you can check out the benchmark scores below.

Antutu – 880083
Antutu Storage Test – 90251
S.Read – 22,831
Speed: 1989.7 MB/s
S.Write – 20,574
Speed: 1793.0 MB/s
R.Access – 46,846
R.Speed: 654.0 MB/s
W.Speed: 597.0MB/s

3D Mark: Wild Life- 5,156

Geekbench 6 CPU
Single: 1333
Multi: 3915

PC Mark Work 3.0 Performance – 10,410

OS, Apps, and UI

If there’s one reason people might not be considering switching to the new Pura 70 Ultra, it is probably because of the OS. Like the rest of the Pura 70 series, the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra runs on EMUI 14.2.

It’s a decent OS, which simulates Android quite well. In fact, it even comes with a host of bloatware, including the Hot Apps folder and more, which is similar to most bloatware you will find in Android smartphones nowadays. There are even ads that play when you click some of the apps, which is quite annoying. But that aside, the main issue is the lack of Google support.

Previously, you’d have to download GBox and run most of the apps through there. However, the Huawei AppGallery has been improved, which is great allowing you to download most of the apps you’ll be using from there. These include Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and even several Google apps such as Gmail, Maps, and Drive.

As a result, it is now easier to use Huawei phones. However, some apps still require the use of GBox such as Genshin Impact for example. But aside from the bloatware, EMUI was great to use. The shortcut features like taking screenshots and the experience are almost identical to your latest Android phone.

There are even AI features you can take advantage of like gesture control, which is a bit hard to use but does work. At the same time, interactive themes which is a great way to pass time if you’re really bored.

Battery and Connectivity

Powering the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is a 5200mAh battery pack. Despite being only slightly larger than usual, the battery lasts an entire day even when you are out shooting content. For reference, I still had around 40 percent battery left, despite shooting the whole day at the dyno. At the same time, I was also listening to music, watching videos, and browsing social media.

When you are really down on battery, there are various power-saving modes available to extend battery life. If a friend needs to charge their phone, you can even turn on reverse wireless charging or use the Pura 70 Ultra as a charger by plugging in USB-C cable.

 

To give you a better idea, using PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery Test, we were able to log 15 hours, 33 minutes, which is a decent score.

It doesn’t take too long to recharge the Pura 70 Ultra either. You get 100W wired fast charging when you use the supplied power brick and cable. It is also worth mentioning that the power brick that comes with the Pura 70 Ultra has both a USB-C and a USB-A port. However, it doesn’t seem to be capable of utilizing both at the same time since the spacing is tight.

Interestingly, there is no 5G connectivity for this phone in the Philippines, and users will be limited to 4G. When I was in China, the Pura 70 Pro did have 5G when I used a local China sim, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here in the Philippines. It is a shame though since this is a flagship model but doesn’t have 5G, which might

Other connectivity features are standard though. These include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, and NFC to name a few.

Conclusion

Overall, the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is a great phone, especially if you love capturing content, whether it be through photos or videos with an impressive camera setup. You have an equally beautiful display to review everything you have taken.

When you are not creating content though, you can use the phone to play your favorite games, watch videos, or surf the internet without worrying about performance issues. Not to mention it looks good too, and it has a strong battery life with fast charging capabilities.

The only downside is that you do not have 5G connectivity, and will be limited to just 4G LTE. At the same time, there is still the issue with the lack of native Google support. This means that some apps will have to be run through GBox or users will have to find a similar APK on the net.

With a price tag starting at PHP 79,999 for the 16GB+512GB variant, it is a lot of money, especially for a phone that does not have Google or 5G connectivity. But if you can overlook those downsides, you won’t regret it.

Get it from Huawei Philippines here. 26

But what do you think of the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra? Out of the three models in the Pura 70 Series would it be your choice? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What we liked:
Really great camera
Beautiful Display
Nice speakers
Capable chipset

What we didn’t like:
No 5G Connectivity
Lots of bloatware
Ads play when you open some apps
Heavy phone

Huawei Pura70 Ultra specs:
6.8 inches FHD+ LTPO OLED @ 2844×1260 pixels, 460ppi, 120Hz refresh rate
Crystal Armour Kunlun glass
Kirin 9010 7nm chipset
1x 2.3GHz + 3x 2.18GHz + 4x 1.55GHz
16GB RAM
512GB, 1TB internal storage
50MP f/1.6-4.0 1-inch, super-concentrated retractable camera
40MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera
50Mp f/2.1 super-concentrated macro telephoto camera, OIS
3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom
4K @ 30fps, 1080p @ 960fps
LED flash
13MP f/2.4 ultra-wide-angle front camera
4K @ 30fps
Dual SIM
WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC
GPS
USB Type-C, USB 3.1 Gen 1
IP68 dust and water resistance
5200mAh Li-Ion battery, 100W wired charging 80W wireless charging, 18W wired reverse and 20W wireless reverse charging
EMUI 14.2
162.6mm x 75.1mm x 8.4mm (dimensions)
226 grams (weight)
Black, White, Brown, Green (colors)