I used a phone you should only buy for the incredible camera

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I ’ve been using a smartphone that I think should be your next camera , but not your next earpiece . I recognize this is quite a big statement and also likely a financially irresponsible one , but it ’s the only way theHuawei Pura 70 Ultramakes much horse sense .

As a earpiece , it ’s both hobbled and irritating . But as a camera , it ’s utterly glorious . The camera is so good , in fact , that the rest of the earphone is much irrelevant .

Promotional image for OuttaFocus. Hand holding three smart phones.

It’s not a phone?

To be clean , the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra function as a smartphone , justone without Google religious service . This means if you regularly use or rely on any Google apps — from Gmail to Maps — it will command effort and loyalty to move aside from them . Huawei ’s app library has significant mess , and using third - political party app storage and APK filesisn’t the effortless workaroundHuawei want you to think it is . Remember , there ’s no Google Play Store here .

The Pura 70 Ultra ’s software is essentially Android , but it ’s shroud deep underneath Huawei ’s own EMUI user interface , which is not as smooth , reliable , or gratifying to use as it should be . All this stand for that you have to make a lot of compromise or be highly anti - Google to contemplate using the Pura 70 Ultra as your lonesome way of put across with the world . face into the specifications in more detail , and you ’ll find that the processor is also technologically deficient to flagship chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek .

It just does n’t boost me to use it all day , but it ’s an entirely different story with the camera . It ’s not just one thing that name it so marvelous — it ’s a combination . And the overall caliber is so telling that you could experiment , diddle , and savour the tv camera in all character of situations , while being confident that it ’ll likely outdo your first moment every meter you intercept the shutter button .

A photo taken with the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I ’ve seldom been disappoint with the results , and it pushes you to take more picture to see what it ’s really capable of . It really is the opposite of the smartphone side .

What’s the camera’s secret?

The closed book to the Pura 70 Ultra ’s carrying out may be the motorize lens housing , whichisn’t a completely new thingfor smartphones , but it is used in a new means here . Huawei says that by extending and retracting the lens from the sensor , it was able to equip a giant 1 - in detector into the Pura 70 Ultra without resorting to using a monolithic tv camera faculty and disconcert the design and ergonomics . certainly , the faculty is large , but less so than on theXiaomi 14 Ultraor theVivo X100 Pro .

you’re able to learn the retractable housing move , and it ’s a pleasing audio that ’s as electronic as it is mechanical . It works alongside a mechanical aperture , which engage between f/1.6 and f./4.0 . You ca n’t hear this working , but youcan see it . It ’s not the first time this engineering has been used on a speech sound either ( theHuawei Mate 50 Profeatured one , andTecno is also working on the technical school ) , but it is the first time it has been paired with the retractable lens living accommodations .

Continuing on , the independent 50 - megapixel television camera is link by a 50MP Macro Telephoto camera for a 3.5x optical rapid climb and superscript close - ups . Used on its own , the main camera ’s 35 mm equivalent blastoff are beautiful , full of vivacious colour , yet still carefully tuned for a unique visual aspect . But when you combine the opthalmic zoom , mechanical aperture , and the retractable electron lens with the massive sensor , you could start create photos that are impossible on any other speech sound .

A photo taken with the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

A truly amazing smartphone camera

There ’s a delicacy to the Pura 70 Ultra ’s depth of field that a Portrait mood can never go for to repeat , and is hard even for genuinely subject smartphone photographic camera to match . As a result , the 3.5x ocular soar becomes far more various than a 5x optical zoom , giving pic television camera - like qualities that I find really pleasing to depend at and open up opportunity to take picture you may normally ignore .

It ’s the same for the Pura 70 Ultra ’s Super Macro modality . Again , we ’ve seen macro instruction modes many times before , but the Huawei phone succeeds where others stumble . Once you get the bent of how it needs to be used , it requires almost no exploit , and what crap it amazing is how few compromises there are when using it . Colors are striking , and focus is sharp and precise , which go me to the final aspect that makes the Pura 70 Ultra ’s television camera so near : detail .

The detail collected by the Pura 70 Ultra ’s camera is astonishing , and it does n’t seem to matter what mode you utilise , as it ’s always pin tumbler - penetrating . This is what makes the Super Macro modal value endure out from the contender , too , as there ’s no compromise when you get secretive to your subject , whether you use the 3.5x optical or 10x loanblend zoom . It all gives you self-assurance in the camera , and that quickly translate into trying raw things because you know it will deliver .

A photo taken with the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra’s wide-angle camera.

Wide-angle cameraAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

Nothing appears artificial

It direct a while before I decided on how to the right way describe the Pura 70 Ultra ’s camera performance , and eventually , I realized that it seldom experience unreal , and I never feel like I ’m activating a “ mode ” or boast to try and take the photo I have in my mind . alternatively , I just habituate the photographic camera normally , and switch between features never come with any trepidation , as it always feels like a focused gimmick made fortaking photosrather than a intersection designed to do many different things to an average standard .

I have revel Huawei ’s smartphone camerassince it part ways with Leicaa few class ago , and some have really impressed , butnonehave reached the top of the Pura 70 Ultra . Huawei has clear taken what it learn about character , emotion , and tone in photographs from its Leica partnership and matched it with a camera that concentrates on the art of picture taking rather than gimmicky mode designed to take hold of headlines rather than prospicient - term attention .

I do n’t have any interest in using the Pura 70 Ultra as a telephone , but I could see myself using the television camera over that of any other smartphone I ’ve tried recently , and I think thateven includes the superb Xiaomi 14 Ultra .

A photo taken with the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra’s 3.5x zoom.

3.5x zoomAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

I thought the days of persuade a camera and a phone around with me were long over , but the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has quickly win over me otherwise . It ’s the first phone I can remember using that I ca n’t commend as a speech sound , but can wholeheartedly recommend as a tv camera .

A photo taken with the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.