Huawei’s P series ended its 12-year reign with the release of last year’s P60.
Today, the flagship series has a new name, relaunched with the Pura 70 series. “Pura” in Spanish means “purity.” This rebranding totally gives a nod to Huawei’s vision of a new beginning and moving forward.
The Pura 70 series began selling in China last month, April 18. While the Philippines is still among those in the list of countries waiting for its arrival in their own shores, PhilSTAR Tech got a hold of the Pura 70 in hot pink during the #DiscoverHUAWEI2024 trip to Shenzhen, China.
It seems like HUAWEI is trying to make everything about its products homegrown. Aside from having the HarmonyOS 4.2 as its operating system, the Pura 70’s processor is the HiSilicon Kirin 9010, which is a 12-core chipset also made by the said tech company.
This chipset was only announced on April 18, alongside the release of the rebranded series.
Today, it is now open for online pre-order with a starting price of P47,999.
Design and display
The hot pink variant is definitely attention-grabbing. Its back panel is matte glass with the HUAWEI logo at the lower left corner, altogether giving it a premium look.Turning the phone sideways, you’ll see the aluminum framing, which somehow resembles the look of the iPhone 12. Adding to that, the flat-edge screen gives a clean-cut feel when holding it.
But the camera island gives the phone a new and refreshing look.
If you remember, the P60’s cameras resembled a koala bear. This time, the Pura 70’s camera layout gives the look of Mickey Mouse.
The Pura 70’s 6.6 inches OLED screen is protected with Kunlun Glass 2, which HUAWEI claims to be “10 times more resistant” to breaking.
You could be waking up in the middle of the night in your dark room and wanting to check the time. With the Pura 70, you don’t have to rise and reach for your watch or phone. You can do your time-check from afar because of its Always-On display.
Initially, the thought was this might contribute to a faster battery draining, but I always go back to the hotel with 40-50% of battery left after a day of photo-taking and video-recording. However, if this feature seems distracting for you, you can always turn it off in the settings.
The Pura 70 weighs 207 grams, which is just a bit lighter than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It also has a dirt and water resistance rating of IP68. You can protect it from dust coming in without additional screen protector or phone case. Also, it can be submerged into water with a maximum depth of 1 and a half meters for only 30 minutes without water damage.
It also has a vapor chamber as its cooling system so it is not prone to overheat at maximum usage.
Cameras and sample shots
The Pura 70 has a triple camera system: 50 MP (Main camera), 12 MP (Telephoto lens), 13 MP (Wide-angle lens) camera setup—which definitely gives the user a great camera experience.
Accurate details and sharp colors are what you’ll get even up to 10x zoom. Ultra-wide shots are also a treat in the eyes, especially under good lighting.
However, in this evening’s ultra-wide shot of the Sanyapo library, a library inspired by the National Library of France, the details got softer and lines are blurry.
Turns out, the Night Mode feature has to be turned on if you want to get that sharp and vibrant finish of a photo. Photos taken with this mode are much clearer, lines are more sturdy, and the colors are more animated.
At the flagship store, we were also able to test out Pura 70’s AI editing tool. Watch this clip here where a HUAWEI staff member wanted to delete a person in the background from a shot taken of her.
Pura 70 series has this feature called “Snapshot,” which helps elevate shots of fast-moving objects like a spinning disk or a moving vehicle. At the same store, we were also able to test this feature out. However, the results are not immediate. You have to wait a few seconds for it to configure the shot.
What we can say so far
We were not able to fully test out the capabilities of the Pura 70, as we were only given a review unit during our time in Shenzhen.
The Pura 70 series is definitely a big jump from its predecessors, with a few enhances here and there. For one, HUAWEI claims that they have increased its anti-shake angle at 91%, which is potentially why its Snapshot feature could capture fast-moving vehicles or objects.
Moreover, HUAWEI is expected to ship over 10 million units of the series globally—which is a big leap from the P60’s 6.2 and 2 million shipments last year.
The brand seems to remain on top of Apple in China, as Apple’s iPhone sales fell by 19% in the first quarter of 2024.
During our time there, HUAWEI was everywhere, even in the Shenzhen museum. It has a wall designated for HUAWEI products through the years.
People we passed by on the trip was either using HUAWEI or any other Android brand there. They use it for daily commute, paying at the cashier, and for work among others.
But this Pura 70 is suitable for content creation—as it is the main game for everybody at this age. It doesn’t matter if you have a big or small sphere of influence, everyone has become their content creator and influencer.
But if you’re going to use it solely for video recording, photo taking, playing games, and streaming movies, the Pura 70 might just be for you to live your content creator dreams.