On the 18th of April Huawei unveiled its latest flagship, the Pura 70 series. At the event on Thursday, it was revealed that the new model will retail at between US$898 and $1,381(KES 118,015.16 and 181,491.02). This keeps it in the ballpark of rival flagship models.
Huawei equips the entire Pura 70 lineup, from the base Pura 70 to the top-of-the-line Pura 70 Ultra, with the Kirin 9010 SoC. GSMArena reports that under the hood of the Pura 70 lineup lies an octa-core central processing unit (CPU). One 2.3 GHz core for demanding tasks, 3 cores (2.18 GHz) for everyday tasks, and 4 battery-saving cores (1.55 GHz) for background stuff.
Huawei Pura 70 Features
The Huawei Pura 70 has a 6.6-inch LTPO OLED screen with smooth visuals (120Hz) and sharp quality (2760×1256). It comes with the tough Kunlun Glass. Pura 70 has 12GB RAM with 256GB, 512GB, or even 1TB of storage, but no memory card slot for adding more.
Notably, at 157.6 mm tall, it’s the shortest flagship from the Chinese phone maker in the last 3 years.
The Pura 70 borrows two cameras from its predecessor, the P60: a 13-megapixel ultrawide sensor and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with 5x zoom and optical image stabilisation (OIS). The main camera gets a megapixel upgrade to 50MP while keeping its f/1.4-f/4.0 aperture.
It has a 4,900mAh battery that supports fast wired charging at 66W. Pura 70 offers 50W wireless charging. Furthermore, you can share your power with other devices using 7.5W reverse wireless charging. A Huawei Supercharger adapter comes in the box.
There are four colour options: Sakura Rose Red, Ice Crystal Blue, Snow White, and Feather Sand Black.
Pura 70 Pro and Pro+ Features
The Huawei Pura Pro+ has 16 GB of RAM. It supports Sarena satellite messaging, working with Beidou and Tiantong satellites, this feature will only be available on devices sold in China. Also, these features are not available in the Pro model. At the back, the Pura 70 Pro+ has a woven plaid finish, available in three colour options: Silver, White, and Black.
Huawei Pura Pro makes do with 12 GB RAM, it then shares a similar display, cameras and battery features with the Pro+ model. Huawei sells Pura 70 Pro in White, Black and Purple.
Both phones feature a 6.8-inch LTPO OLED display. This technology allows for a 120Hz refresh rate and a 2,844 x 1,260 resolution. The two models elevate screen protection with Huawei’s proprietary Basalt-tempered Kunlun Glass. Previously exclusive to the Mate 60 RS, this technology offers better scratch resistance and durability.
Huawei Pura 70 Pro and Pro+ feature triple rear cameras. The main 50 MP f/1.4-f/4.0 with OIS is identical to the vanilla Pura 70. The telephoto gets an upgrade to a 48 MP sensor and F/2.1 3.5x lens with OIS. Completing the rear camera system is a 12.5-megapixel ultrawide sensor. The Pro versions of the phone have a “Super Macro” camera that can take super close-up pictures (as close as 5cm.
A 5,050 mAh battery with 100W wired, 80W wireless and 20W reverse wireless charging support powers the Huawei Pro models.
Harmony OS
Huawei Pura 70, Pura 70 Pro and Pura 70+ all have the Harmony OS 4.2. Eric Xu at the Huawei analyst summit, held a day before Pura 70’s launch, declared that growing the HarmonyOS ecosystem was one of the company’s key targets of this year.
Before the US sanctions, the Chinese company was developing Harmony as an Android-based OS. It was originally meant for IoT devices. However, the sanctions forced the tech giant to pivot into making it a full-featured platform for smartphones, PCs and other devices.
HarmonyOS Next, expected for release in Q4, will be a major departure from Android. For the first time, it won’t run Android apps directly. To address this, Huawei is prioritising bringing the top 5,000 popular Chinese Android apps to its new OS. Xu says 4,000 of these were already in the process of moving to Harmony.
“This is a massive undertaking, but we have broad support in the industry and from many app developers. Once we have these first 5,000 Android apps – and thousands of other apps – up and running on HarmonyOS, we will have a real HarmonyOS: a third mobile operating system for the world,” he said.
HarmonyOS will first be developed in the Chinese market and then later expanded to the rest of the world. By the end of Q4 2023, the OS had 4% of the global smartphone market and 16% of the Chinese Market.
Huawei Sales Growth
US government sanctions imposed on the Chinese company 5 years ago led to changes in the smartphone market. Huawei smartphone sales tanked. However, the tide appears to be turning.
Last year, alongside its manufacturing partner SMIC, Huawei unveiled the Mate 60. The flagship model has 5G capabilities and is powered by a Chinese-made 7nm chip. This was a huge breakthrough that was in defiance of US sanctions.
Counterpoint reports that, despite declining sales in the Chinese smartphone market, the Huawei’s Mate 60 series was a bright spot. The launch of the flagship saw Huawei’s consumer unit revenue grow by 17% in 2023. Further, demand persisted at the turn of the year with sales numbers up by 64% in the first six weeks of 2024. Apple’s grip on China’s smartphone market loosened significantly in Q1 2024. Their market share dropped to 15.7%, down from 19.7% a year prior.
Huawei is buoyed by the success of the Mate 60 series and believes the Pura 70 series will do even better. There is an increased belief that Huawei and SMIC can maintain the supply of advanced chips. For the year 2024, it is projected the Chinese company could ship more than 10 million units of these smartphones. Based on projections, handsets are likely to return as the top growth engine for the company.
Pura 70 Series International Sale
With Western countries increasing hostility to Chinese tech, the new series is likely to be a hard sell in lucrative markets. Nevertheless, Huawei has gone ahead and released the phone in specific European markets. Currently, this select European markets can pre-order with regular sales set to commence on the 22nd of May.
Take note, Huawei released the Pura 70 series with different operating systems depending on the region. In China, the phones run Harmony OS 4.2, whereas the global market receives them with EMUI 14.2. Secondly, the Pura 70 Pro+ is exclusively for the Chinese market.
