Huawei Pura 80 Ultra: What Real Users Actually Think

I love this phone and I don't regret one bit buying it, but I don't recommend it to most people. The camera is great — it takes clear pictures of moving things, and both the x3.7 and x10 zoom lenses are great. I find myself using them frequently.

Dxomark has been irrelevant for what... 8-9 years now? If anybody wants a subpar mid range phone from 2020 with a great camera system, go for it but I feel like there's many other better options for the price.

Fucking hell Huawei, I could probably cut myself on this image with how oversharpened it is, the trees almost look cartoony due to excessive sharpening and noise reduction washing out any texture.

Oh my freaking god, the sharpening and denoising is so completely abysmal, holy shit. Do Huawei's photography engineers actually care in any way about fidelity? If they dialed down the denoising a bit, they could dial down the sharpening and actually make it look decent.

Kirin 9020, 6.8in 2848x1276 120hz OLED, 12/512, no official update policy, ships with EMUI 15, 5170mAh, list 1099 euro.

It looks like some photoshop noobie playing with unsharp mask striving for extreme edge separation and sharpness.

Paid scores for marketing.

Dang, 1099€ for Galaxy S22 specs is courageuse lol.

Black looks so much better than gold. So classy.

The phone is too expensive for the specs, entirely relying on the camera to charge the premium. Plus, no Google services and the OS is pretty bad. I used the device briefly, and yeah, the camera setup is fantastic. The 100x zoom feature is not so good though, as much as Huawei claims otherwise.

I guess DxOMark is into way over sharpening.

Sort of an upper midrange phone with a good camera, yet is priced like a high end flagship. I don't see why anyone outside of China would buy this phone especially considering the lack of GMS, but even then there are way better options in China. 1000 nits in auto mode is also pretty low for a phone that costs as much as it does.

P30 pro ruined any chance I had of going to an iPhone since I already had it for 3 years. Safe to say I miss my P30 pro — and now seeing the Pura 80 Ultra with a dual periscope system, mind blown.

I'm just disappointed. It's a VERY good phone, but EMUI 15 just sucks. No AI features, Celia is trash. The OS lacks a lot of features and the video is not as good as the Chinese version. EMUI 15 is just EMUI 14 with a new wallpaper theme.

As someone who doesn't care about benchmarks or 5g and just wants the best camera in the market in my pocket, this is actually the perfect phone. You'll find a number of comparison videos on YouTube all coming to the same conclusion about the pura 80 camera quality anyway.

Aw shucks, no HarmonyOS global. Only thing that ruined it for me is there's no HarmonyOS.

At this point, if you're looking for a high-end phone with a Huawei-like experience outside mainland China, Honor is the better choice. No 5G, stuck on Android 12, lacking GMS, no AI features, heavily restricted functionality, and a chip that struggles to match even the Mate 40. $1400. Holy moly.

Huawei global is garbage, they know it's garbage, and they don't care. Honor is the spiritual successor for Huawei globally. Better to go with them and not reward Huawei for their poor performance globally.

If HarmonyOS 6.0 doesn't go global, I'm done with Huawei forever.

The device looks gorgeous! The pictures you have posted look incredible.

This reminds me of Sony's dumpsterfire, overexposed junk, processed to fk pictures. I miss the days when Huawei knew what they were doing (P30 pro). This year has been awful for camera enthusiasts — the Pura 80 Ultra is one of the absolute worst pictures produced by a 2025 smartphone.

Using an OS based on Android 12 when Android 16 exists is crazy.

My dealbreaker is having no 5G and definitely software that's still based on Android 12.

I would rather buy the Chinese version if you are very serious about buying Huawei. Otherwise, go with a Vivo X200 or another Chinese flagship for the most headache-free experience.

EMUI 15 (Android 12), downgrade battery. Rubbish.

Android 12? No 5G? Ships without Google services enabled? Wtf are they doing?

Lack of NFC payments putting me off.

Same story — purchased EMUI 15 Huawei Mate X6, half the capabilities of my three-year-old Huawei Mate X2 on HarmonyOS. Camera for 2K USD, nothing else on EMUI 15.

Looks like the camera setup has plenty of potential. The bokeh on those images isn't very good and not smooth at all but at the end of the day it is a phone first, camera second.

I would buy this phone again 10 times over. The only thing I wish would work is NFC payments as curve isn't an option for me, aside from that it's been a joy.

I would say yes better than the Pura 70, especially telephoto macro and long range zoom shots. It feels like a revised improved version of the Pura 70.

For me sure I bought this phone. The photography is the only thing I think about. The best mobile camera — the price is not so high for this camera phone.

That switching lens is pretty fraudulent, absolutely not worth $500 extra for the Ultra over the Pro. It straight up won't work while recording video, you're stuck on 3x mode. Its only either 3x or 10x mode, so anything in-between you're stuck with digital zoom.

Only reason I use Huawei is Camera and No-Google! I don't need Google services.

I like the camera. The price is expensive, but it's worth it if I can install Google GMS. Harmony OS cannot sell in the international market.

It's a good camera phone, but as raw power it's more like a midrange.

I'm interested in buying one because of the camera, but I have serious doubts about the software and hardware, especially considering the price. I think it should be cheaper with that outdated processor and, to top it off, no 5G.

I don't care about DxOMark but from experience, the Pura 80 Ultra is indeed unbeatable when it comes to camera. I have the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Pura 80 Ultra. My daughter has the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The Pura 80 Ultra outperforms all of them when it comes to the camera.

I have a Pura 80 Pro. You can install Google Drive and Google Photos and Gmail. I even installed Google Play Games so I can play some mobile games and carry over my profile from my old phone. It works. Not a big deal.

Just bought a Huawei Pura 80 Pro two weeks ago in China. Tried for a week and was aware it is a good phone but I can't install any app to run Gmail or Maps. It has become useless in the US. Don't buy it until it can work together with Android apps.

I love the design and the camera but too limited.

The global version is the downgraded version of the China version. Look at all the AI functionalities that are lost in the global version.