Following a Chinese launch in April, Huawei has just made its new Pura 70 smartphone series available for purchase in South Africa. Of the four models in the range, South Africans will have the choice of the Pura 70 for R20,000, the Pura 70 Pro for R27,000, and the Pura 70 Ultra for R35,000.

In classic Huawei fashion, you’ll also get the Huawei MatePad SE as a promotional gift with your purchase. If those lump sums are too heavy, the devices will also be available on monthly contracts through local network operators. But what are you getting for all that money?

Introducing the Huawei Pura 70

The base model of the series features a 6.6in 1,256×2,760 OLED display. It supports most of the goodies you’d expect to find in a current flagship like LTPO tech that allows a refresh rate of between 1 and 120Hz and a peak brightness of 2,500 nits.

There’s an SMIC-made Kirin 9000S1 chipset inside, along with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The performance of that chip has been called into question compared to its contemporaries but it’s one of the first 5G-enabled Chinese-made SoCs to be available in SA. Although rather curiously, Huawei doesn’t list 5G support on any of the Pura 70 device pages so it seems like local models won’t support the faster network connectivity. Pity, that.

As with previous devices in Huawei’s P series, the rebranded Pura 70 series has a strong focus on photography. The base Pura 70 features a 50MP main shooter with a variable f/1.4-4.o aperture, a 12MP periscope telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom, and a 13MP ultrawide with another front-facing 13MP sensor handling selfies.

As for battery specs, the Pura 70 sports a 4,900mAh Li-Po battery inside capable of 66W charging over a wire and 50W wireless. The models available here will ship with Huawei’s EMUI 14.2 Android skin which is based on Android 12 from 2021 with three colours to pick from; Pink, White, or Black.

Stepping up to Pro

The Pura 70 Pro retains many of the same specs as the base model and a few noteworthy upgrades. It uses the same display as the Pura 70, only this one is slightly bigger at 6.8in. Its resolution is also slightly higher than its non-Pro sibling but both devices hit the same pixel density of 460 ppi (pixels per inch).

The SMIC-made chipset has been upgraded to the newer Kirin 9010 which is said to offer single-digit performance gains over the Kirin 9000S1. It also comes with the same 12GB of RAM inside but storage has doubled to 512GB.

Ultra is pro-er than Pro

The Pura 70 Ultra borrows many specs from its less capable brothers but offers a superior camera array — on paper, at least. It uses the same 6.8in display as the 70 Pro, along with the same Kirin 9010 SoC. There’s 16GB of RAM on offer here with 512GB of local storage. Battery capacity sees an upgrade to 5,200mAh with the same charging capabilities as the 70 Pro and you’ll choose between Black and Green colourways.

The most notable upgrades are photography-focused with Huawei’s inclusion of a 50MP 1in-type sensor which uses sensor-shift optical image stabilisation (OIS) behind a mechanised retractable lens. That is joined by a 50MP telephoto sensor which offers 3.5x optical zoom and its own OIS system, and a 40MP ultrawide. You’ll find a familiar 13MP up front in this one too.

Fans of Huawei’s P series have a lot to look forward to with the new Pura 70 devices. If that’s you and you’ve liked what you’ve read, all three models are available today on Huawei’s online store or on contract from the usual local network operators.