Odd camera designs are all the rage right now, and the latest HUAWEI flagship is jumping right into this trend. The Pura 80 Ultra is the Chinese company’s latest effort, and once again, it doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the photographic experience… but it comes with a familiar set of caveats for anyone keeping up with HUAWEI’s situation.
I recently took the phone on a trip to Dubai and took a whole bunch of samples to test it out, and I think it’s my favorite camera phone of 2025. Because of that, I just wish I could tell any dedicated smartphone photographers to rush out and buy it — but I can’t.
A one-inch camera with a phone attached to it
Paul Jones / Android Authority
I first want to touch on the biggest draw of this phone: its one-inch 50MP camera with variable f/1.6-f/4.0 aperture. This camera excels outdoors, capturing superb detail in the bright sunny conditions of Dubai. The dynamic range is probably among the best I’ve seen for a long time. I took a few shots comparing this to my daily driver, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and there is a clear winner. Check out the video at the top of this article for all my comparison samples.
At a glance, the photos don’t look massively different between Samsung’s top dog and HUAWEI’s new pup, but when you start to look a little closer, the Pura 80 Ultra clearly captures more detail. It handles colors better and more accurately, too, and overall, it just produces a much better photo.
HUAWEI made a big deal about the Pura 80 Ultra at night, suggesting that its one-inch sensor should capture some good, true-to-life pictures. That is mainly true, especially when you compare the results to the Samsung flagship. The primary lens captures much more light, the colors are more accurate, and there isn’t as much noise in the photo from the Pura 80 Ultra compared to the S25 Ultra.
The HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra's main camera gives it a huge photography boost over even the best in the business.
As for video, the Pura 80 Ultra is right up there once again. It can do 4K 60fps only, so no 4K 120fps or 8K, but I can live without these options when both daylight and low light results are so impressive. The image is sharp and has great dynamic range in bright conditions. My favorite thing is how well the phone stabilizes the sensor — it’s almost gimbal-like. Even in low light, the one-inch sensor means it can capture some pretty impressive scenes, whether it’s fish in an aquarium or a fancy boat ride down the middle of Dubai
The HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra offers three additional cameras, including a 50MP f/2.4 83mm 3.7x telephoto, a 12.5MP f/3.6 212mm 9.4x periscope, and a 40MP f/2.2 13mm ultrawide. Let’s talk about the latter.
Compared to the primary camera, the Pura 80 Ultra’s ultrawide is disappointing. For nighttime photography, it produces rather noisy results and doesn’t capture nearly as much detail as you would want. But during the day, it gives you some nice wide shots perfect for vlogs or broader viewscapes.
Paul Jones / Android Authority
In daylight, results are a little better, but there’s some noticeable distortion around the closer parts of the image. I think the S25 Ultra’s 50MP ultrawide lens has a leg up in some scenarios. There’s more detail in the closer section of the scene, but the Pura 80 Ultra grabs more detail in further away subjects. It’s a bit of a “pick what you like” situation.
The Pura 80 Ultra's other innovative trick is its dual lens zoom system, which seamlessly switches lenses based on your optical zoom requirements.
One of the standout features of the Pura 80 Ultra is its dual optical zoom lenses, reaching up to 9.4x optical zoom. HUAWEI told me that the telephoto sensor on the Pura 80 Ultra is the same size as the main camera on the S25 Ultra, which is pretty huge. This dual lens system is different because it automatically switches lenses depending on the selected focal range. The details that the telescope zoom captures are so good. Sometimes, grabbing shots is a little slow, so I suggest not using it to capture moving objects. However, for still subjects, I have no complaints.
What else does the Pura 80 Ultra offer?
Paul Jones / Android Authority
We know the cameras are good, but how else does the Pura 80 Ultra hold up?
Up front, there’s a 6.8-inch 120Hz display, which offers a peak brightness of 3,000 nits — that’s plenty for all viewing scenarios. The battery is also pretty good, with a 5,170mAh capacity that supports 100W wired and 80W wireless charging (with proprietary accessories). Rather strangely, it has a side-mounted fingerprint reader rather than an ultrasonic unit in the screen. I’m not a fan of this choice considering the phone’s premium price tag of ~$1,400.
Despite its excellent camera chops, the Pura 80 Ultra is still a HUAWEI device in 2025, and that means severe software shortcomings.
Sadly, the biggest letdown here is the software. It doesn’t really matter how well the in-house Kirin 9020 SoC performs (it does just fine) because the software would put most people off. Yes, I like the UI; it’s intuitive, friendly, quick, and familiar, but the phone still lacks Google Play services and is running on Android 12 as a knock-on of the ongoing HUAWEI-US trade ban. While I’ve since got it to work, I also couldn’t get the microG workaround to function during my Dubai trip, so I was stuck without most of Google’s products unless I used them directly through a browser. There are other third-party options to access Google Play services, but none are guaranteed to be stable or reliable. I know some people don’t mind taking time to set this up, but it takes far too much effort for most users. The lack of NFC payment support as a result also hampered me quite a bit.
Chinese phones have been leading the industry with one-inch sensors for quite a while, with the OPPO Find X8 Ultra, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and now the Pura 80 Ultra following suit with HUAWEI’s own impressive take on the tech. The camera housing is enormous, but I don’t mind it because it packs an incredible set of cameras… I just wish I could continue using the rest of the phone without the invasive software caveats.