You’ve probably taken a night shot, zoomed in, and thought, “Why does it look like this?” Apparently, HUAWEI has made a phone camera that can see in the dark, zoom all the way to 100x, and still look clean, but it also has a dynamic range close to MKBHD’s Red camera.
Well, this is the new HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra. And if all of this sounds unreal, I’ll show you how.
Why This Smartphone Camera Is a Big Deal
If you have taken a zoom-in shot during the day, even worse at night, or even a moving subject, you usually end up like this, but not with this phone, because what HUAWEI has done here is insane.
So, they’ve introduced something that we have never seen before on any smartphone: the industry’s first switchable dual telephoto lens with a mechanical shutter that changes the optical path.
And yes, that’s a fancy way of saying that you get two real zoom lenses in one: a 3.7x and a 9.4x optical zoom all inside a single telephoto module, which has a 1/1.28” sensor size. The industry’s maximum light intake on telephoto lens. So, more light equals more details equals cleaner night shots.
But because it does exceptionally well at night, HUAWEI is calling it the Night Vision Telescope, unlike some brands naming features that sound cool but do not do anything at all. This name finally makes sense.
Photography
But here’s where it gets wild because from the main lenses or the wide-angle 1x zoom, zooming all the way to 3.7x and then 10x and even 100x, as you can see, it is not only about the reach but it’s also about the quality because look how crisp the details are even at night.
Usually, on most phones, flagship or not, jumping from the 3x to 10x usually has that annoying color shift, especially the different brightness values as well. And the reason for that is because there are several reasons.
Number one, the different sensor sizes; number two, the different or the separate telephoto lenses. So, that causes the inconsistency.
But because of this HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra’s switchable dual-lens telephoto system, it shares the same large sensor, so consistency is king over here.
Imagine you’re going to your next concert, which is usually at night, right? You could be seated at the back row and see if the artist has a pimple or not.
Of course, the 40 MP f/2.2 aperture ultra-wide-angle lens camera also performed exceptionally well, balancing the highlights and the shadows very well with all of the nighttime photos without any visible distortion at the edges.
And of course, no noises on the darker part of the images too, where it seems like this phone is a dream smartphone when it comes to photography, especially at night.
But another special thing about the cameras is the wide-angle main lens, which has a huge 1-inch sensor, where HUAWEI calls this the Ultra Lighting HDR camera, which has a variable aperture between f1.6 to f4.0.
So whether or not it’s city lights, a combination of a darker or a brighter scene, or taking a photo of a person in portrait mode at night, the details, sharpness, and the balance of the exposure is just ridiculous.
And by the way, this isn’t me adding any effects or any edits to the photos. As usual, it’s straight from the HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra, as I do in any other smartphone reviews.
But what’s new and unique is this sensor because it has the widest dynamic range of any smartphone camera, which has up to 16 stops of dynamic range.
That is crazy, you want to know why? Because not only is it 15x better than the previous Pura 70 Ultra, that is even higher than my Blackmagic 6K cinema camera which has only up to 13 stops of dynamic range.
Not only that because you know that Red V-Raptor camera that fellow tech YouTuber MKBHD uses? Yep, that camera, or this camera, which cost USD 24,500 plus, which is almost like paying a down payment for a condo, and that is only for the price for the camera without even a lens. So that camera, the Red camera, has 17 stops of dynamic range.
Videography
Since the Red camera is a beast when it comes to the video capabilities, let’s talk about the video features on this phone next.
So with this phone having 16 stops of dynamic range, it means that you can shoot video directly into a bright light, like say a filament of a light bulb or street lights, to darker areas of the footage.
And just like the photos that you’ve seen, you’ll be able to capture both the shadows and the highlights very well in just a single shot without the brighter areas to be blown out or not seen and the darker areas, aka the blacks of the video footage, is not grainy or in camera terms, the blacks are not crushed into the unknown.
And together with the great stabilization which the HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra has, it makes this the best smartphone camera for video recording, especially in low light conditions because of this level of the HDR performance which was made possible due to its self-developed Triple Light Enhancement Technology which dynamically adapts to the brightness to get the overall best results.
Pro Variant
Similar to the Ultra, the Pro version is also powered by the same legendary 1-inch Ultra Lighting camera.
This large sensor boosts the light capture, giving stunning detail even in dim conditions or at night. So, this Ultra Chroma camera on the Pro is what makes the night photos tack sharp.
Macro Mode
Then there’s the macro mode, a feature that I do not usually use often if you see in my videos, but many of you still like those really close macro shots.
So, the Ultra Lighting Macro Telephoto camera on the HUAWEI Pura 80 Pro has a massive f 2.1 aperture which captures 40% more light which has a macro telephoto that supports a 5 cm focus distance. So, you can dive into the details invisible to the naked eye.
And this does it extremely well because of the fact that the telephoto lens over here doubles up as a macro camera.
So you can zoom in to the texture of a flower or even a water droplet super effortlessly compared to many phones where you need to stand there doing some weird yoga pose like that and still waiting for the subject to focus.
AI Experience
But to elevate the phone’s overall experience, the AI experience on the phone has been also really great, especially for the AI Imaging Enhancement, the AI Air Gestures, and the AI Messaging as well, where there’ll be an advanced AI Removal tool that will be apparently very powerful and also be available later on as well.
Design & Durability
I know that this video is more on the cameras and of course the AI as well, but real quick, the design is also something that really deserves a shout-out.
Like the Pura 70 Ultra, this also looks ultra-premium with a very unique finish and color with a glazed texture and a bold forward symbol design together with the sunburst pattern for the camera array.
This particular color that I have is called the Prestige Gold and is also available in the Golden Black color for the Ultra variant.
The Pro variant is available in Glazed Red, Glazed Black, and also Glazed White.
Plus, the HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra is built like a tank with the 2nd-generation Crystal Armour Kunlun Glass, which is 25x tougher and 16x more scratch-resistant than regular glass.
And even the Pro model comes with the Kunlun Glass 2nd-generation. And while it’s without the Crystal Armour variant, this Pro variant glass is 20x tougher than standard glass, so you can actually focus more on the shot and not worry about dropping the phone.
Conclusion
So, if you’re wondering, should you care or is this phone for you? Well, if you’re someone who loves to go to concerts and take lots of pictures, travel, or even take lots of low-light scenes and want a cinematic quality video and needs a zoom that actually can really perform, all of that plus a phone camera that is actually legitly exciting to use, then yes, this HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra is a league on its own.
Stay tuned for my in-depth review of this phone, like testing out the battery life, the software, and what I found when I was using this phone daily.
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Related:
HUAWEI Pura 80 Series Launched – https://adamlobo.tv/huawei-pura-80-series-launched/
