We have a hands-on with the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, but now it’s at the office and it’s time for an unboxing.
The phone comes in a full retail box – you get a pretty case, a 100W charger with both USB-A and USB-C ports, a SIM tool, and a cable.
The case has a textured rear panel, but its sides are glossy and a bit slippery. Combined with their contoured edge (which matches the phone’s), they make the phone a bit difficult to pick up from a table.
The display is really impressive. It’s large, but thanks to the tapered edge on all sides feels very comfortable to swipe on. The bezels are also really thin.
Our Pura 80 Ultra unit is the Prestige Gold. It’s not an intense gold color, and it can appear silvery, depending on the lighting conditions.
The first time you pick up the Pura 80 Ultra, it feels really heavy. It’s not well balanced either, because of its enormous camera island. But once we put it side-by-side with the vivo X200 Ultra, the Pura 80 Ultra doesn’t feel bigger or heavier in the hand. In fact, despite its bigger camera island, it’s ever-so-slightly smaller than vivo’s Ultra.
We love the camera island shape on the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra. It’s rounded on all sides and has a steep curve to it, so your fingers glide over it with ease. It lacks the camera-lens-esque knurled metal edge of the vivo X200 Ultra or the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
It feels somehow relaxing to run a finger around the camera island!
Finally, you can feel the physical switch between the 3.7x and 10x zooms! The phone issues a small swooshing sound to complement (or to hide) the physical sensation, but the two act together in a sense. It won’t be to everyone’s liking, but this editor feels it enhances the movement. This phone’s telephoto module is a complex thing of beauty – you should feel it, not hide it!
We’ll now be handing the Pura 80 Ultra to our reviewers – stay tuned for their findings!
