Huawei Pura 70 Ultra Review: Unique Features and Disappointments of a 3 Million Won Chinese Foldable Phone

Recently, small-sized foldable phones have gained significant popularity in the smartphone market. Following the success of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, Apple's foldable phone is also expected to be released this fall. This trend indicates that the era of passport-sized foldable phones is now in full swing, receiving widespread attention from consumers.

I purchased the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra Max to try it out myself, as it was released before the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. While there may be critical views on reviewing Chinese products, I decided to proceed with the review, believing that experiencing various products in the market in detail is essential to accurately convey consumer needs.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra I purchased is a Collector's Edition, bought for 12,999 yuan in China, which is approximately 2.9 million won. This model features 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The product package includes a SIM ejector pin, a C2C 66W charging adapter, and a transparent case.

The Pura 70 Ultra's cover display is 5.4 inches, and the internal display is 7.7 inches, both featuring 120Hz LTPO 2.0 OLED displays. When folded, it has a thickness of 11.2mm and when unfolded, 5.2mm, with a weight of 229g. This makes it thicker and heavier compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has an overall shorter and thicker design compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. The camera module also protrudes higher, and while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has an angular shape, the Pura 70 Ultra is more rounded. In particular, when unfolded, the rounded corners give the impression that a part of the screen is cut off.

While the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has its speakers clustered on one side, the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has one speaker on the bottom right and another on the top left when unfolded. This asymmetrical placement might seem somewhat unexpected.

The display crease of the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is almost on par with that of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. In terms of light reflection, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has slightly less, while the Pura 70 Ultra reflects more. However, it does seem to have some anti-reflective coating.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra's beauty features exhibit characteristics distinctly different from those of Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone. When taking selfies, the excessive retouching makes the face so altered that one might wonder, 'Who is this?' However, these beauty features also apply to video recording, resulting in beautifully shot videos.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is equipped with Huawei's proprietary operating system, Harmony OS. The initial impression is similar to Apple's fluid animations, but internally, it possesses Android characteristics. In particular, the animations when the screen turns on or unfolds are very naturally implemented.

The Pura 70 Ultra offers a convenient feature that adjusts the screen lock method by recognizing which direction the user is holding the phone. For example, if you hold it with your left hand and try to open the screen, the password entry field will appear in a direction that is easy to tap with your left hand. This feature greatly enhances user convenience and is considered a valuable addition that would be beneficial if implemented in Samsung Galaxy phones as well.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is impressively stable and neatly stands when laid flat on a surface in its unfolded state. It sits slightly elevated, making it very convenient to use. This contrasts with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which wobbles slightly when unfolded, and appears to be an advantage derived from the Pura 70 Ultra's camera structure.

The Pura 70 Ultra's internal punch-hole camera is offset to one side, which can make frontal shots feel awkward when using the internal camera. However, when viewing webtoons, this punch-hole camera does not obscure content, enhancing immersion. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, where the punch-hole can interfere with comic viewing, the Pura 70 Ultra's punch-hole does not obstruct the view at all, which is an advantage.

Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Pura 70 Ultra supports AES-based pens, providing a writing experience. This is similar to the Apple Pencil, where the pen itself generates electrical signals to input on the screen. However, the reviewer mistakenly purchased the wrong model (M Pencil) without realizing the difference between M Pencil and M Pen, leading to compatibility issues. The Pura 70 Ultra only supports the 'M Pen 3' model.

The wrongly purchased pen will be returned, and the correct M Pen 3 will be reordered. However, the price of Huawei's pen is quite high, almost on par with the Apple Pencil.

As seen in reviews of other Chinese phones like Xiaomi and Vivo, Chinese phones generally prioritize bright, highly saturated, and aesthetically pleasing photos over realistic ones. The Pura 70 Ultra also produces beautiful results, like adding a bit of 'MSG' to factual images. There is a tendency for contrast to be adjusted during post-processing, and photos taken in bright daylight exhibit vibrant and clear green, blue, and yellow hues.

The Pura 70 Ultra does not allow direct resolution settings for photos. By default, it shoots at 24.88 megapixels, and to shoot at 50 megapixels, you need to enable 'High-Resolution Mode' from the camera app's 'More' menu. However, in this high-resolution mode, real-time processing takes a long time, requiring several seconds of waiting for the result after taking one shot. It is also impossible to take multiple shots consecutively, which is a drawback.

The night photography performance of the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is very impressive. Even photos taken with night mode off show almost no noise in the sky, well-preserved details like railroad tracks, and excellent light rendition. When night mode is enabled, it produces even better results. It received praise for showing no noise in the night sky, delicately expressing both dark and bright areas, and preserving details without making the overall image blurry.

The Pura 70 Ultra is equipped with an RYYB sensor, which differs from standard camera sensors. Instead of the traditional RGGB (Red, Green, Green, Blue) sensor, it replaces two green filters with two yellow (Y) filters. Since yellow absorbs both green and red light, this sensor can significantly increase light reception compared to conventional methods. This is beneficial for improving night photography performance and reducing noise, but because yellow light is a mixture of green and red light, if the photo processing fails to accurately separate the light, the colors may tend towards yellow or green.

The Pura 70 Ultra's slow photo processing speed raised questions about its AP performance. This product is equipped with Huawei's proprietary Kirin 9030 Pro chipset. After conducting Geekbench and 3D Mark tests in a virtual environment, as Play Store apps could not be installed, it recorded a single-core score of 1,046 points and a multi-core score of 4,119 points. This is significantly lower than the Samsung Galaxy S24 standard model (Exynos 2400) with single 3,171, multi 10,915 points, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) with single 3,059, multi 10,689 points, and the iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro) with single 3,769, multi 9,794 points. Considering the core configuration and clock speed, the Pura 70 Ultra's AP performance is definitely lacking compared to the latest flagship models.

While the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 does not feature a vapor chamber, the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra incorporates a vapor chamber combined with graphic materials, creating a structure advantageous for cooling performance. However, despite the presence of a vapor chamber, the device's temperature was observed to rise by approximately 15 degrees. It should be noted that this test was conducted in a virtual environment, so actual usage conditions may vary.