Huawei pushes its XImage cameras hard here in an effort to make you forget that it's lacking in other areas. Those faults are not by choice on the Pura 80 Pro's part and Huawei does what it can to make them as easy to overlook as possible. For some, Google's separation, a lack of 5G, and a slower chip (which really doesn't matter in this case) are a gulf too far to be bridged. For others (especially photographers), this is just what they've been looking for.
-
Design
-
Display
-
Performance
-
Battery
-
Value
If you’re a Huawei fan who doesn’t mind dropping R25,o00 on a handset, the Huawei Pura 80 Pro has your name written all over it. Not literally, because that would be silly, but the Chinese company has produced another excellent slab of glass and… another kind of glass. Plus various circuits, components, and a camera sensor that should be experienced rather than talked about.
What it still struggles with is what has held the brand back ever since the first Trump administration — software. That isn’t to say it’s a poor experience, it’s just not one that will tempt you over from a fully-featured Android if you’re not already attracted to the phone. Yes, Huawei has alternatives, and yes, you can side-load most of Google’s stuff back onto the phone, but the additional hoops can be off-putting. It’s a stunning phone, otherwise.
Bump on the head
The Pura 80 Pro’s design will either enchant or annoy you. We’re not sure there’s any middle ground. But no matter which side anyone falls on, there’s no denying that it’s entirely premium. The divisive bit comes in with the camera bump, a very chunky affair consisting of a raised, rounded triangle topped by three (further raised) circles.
An LED flash nestles between the two smaller lenses. This bump will absolutely require a case if you’re to prevent it from rocking when on its back, but the rest of the phone’s form is attractive enough that you may choose to forgo the protection.
Smooth glass faces curve toward the 80 Pro’s aluminium frame and, in our black-coloured review handset, make for an attractive sight when fully powered down. Powered up, too, but we’ll get there in a moment.
Much of the action takes place on the bottom edge, where speaker vents, the SIM tray, and the USB-C charge port live. Physical keys reside on the upper-left edge. You know what those do. The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor.
Kirin time
Huawei had done a great job with the Pura 80 Pro’s 6.8 OLED display. At 3,000 nits peak, it handles direct sunlight well, though the screen gloss can get a touch reflective. The curved panel uses the company’s own Kunlun Glass 2 for protection, and aesthetically, it’s a job well done.
But, as curved screens since the invention of curved screens have shown, there’s the odd issue with touch registration from swiping from the edges. Where most of the advanced swiping takes place. At least it’s pretty.
It’s also pretty fast, given what Huawei has to work with. In another world, the Pura 80 Pro would feature the latest Snapdragon silicon. In that world, Samsung’s sales figures might be a touch lower. As it is, the Kirin 9020 processor handles its side of things perfectly well.
12GB of RAM might seem like a low figure for a headline smartphone — sure, 16GB would be better — but you’ll barely notice the difference. Apps pop open or switch for multitasking (once you have the hang of those curved edges) with alacrity, and there was never a time we felt hampered by performance.
Okay, one time. Huawei currently doesn’t have access to 5G chipsets for the international market, meaning that this gorgeous smartphone’s internet speeds are capped at 4G. We could complain about it, but that’s just the way it is. For some buyers, this will be the decider.
Inching ahead
If you’re considering every factor, though, the Pura 80 Pro’s main 50MP camera sensor could crush your objections in other areas. Its variable aperture runs from f/1.6 to f/4.0, offering versatility for your photographic ambitions, but it’s the gigantic 1in sensor behind it that’s really worthy of notice.
The list of phones to include this hardware is tiny, relatively speaking, and the list of phones in South Africa with the feature is smaller still. There’s no need to brag about megapixel count when there’s real tech involved.
The big one-incher, along with the companion 48MP f/2.1 telephoto (which offers 4x optical zoom and shares optical image stabilisation with the main sensor) and 40MP f/2.2 ultrawide will shoot basically anything in any lighting conditions. Better yet, your images will consistently look fantastic. Night Mode is handy but that oversized main sensor means you’ll haul it out less often than expected, while the Pro Mode features are just what serious snappers are looking for.
Anyone can be a serious photographer with the Pura 80 Pro, if only to learn how to tame the sometimes over-zealous AI post-processing. Huawei’s software gets a lot right, but not everything. The company seems to know that, since it’ll allow you to specify specifics. At a price. That price? 12MP photos. All righty then.
Over 5,000
Other features of note? The Pura 80 Pro’s 5,170mAh battery will power through an entire day of avoiding your real job and mucking around on the screen and still have enough to keep you busy for most of an evening. If you’re less prone to avoidant behaviour, topping up the following morning or even on your lunch break is within reach. 66W wired charging makes this a fairly speedy process, but we can’t help but regard the Chinese version of this phone’s 100W charge speed and 5,700mAh battery with envy.
A feature we didn’t actually test, but have no reason to disbelieve, is the IP68/IP69 rating for the Pura 80 Pro. Huawei says it’ll handle high-pressure water jets and extended dunking, but unless you’re a swimmer with a pressure-washer fixation, you probably won’t need all of that. Still, it’s good to know that it’ll survive life’s unseen hazards. The liquid ones, at any rate. For everything else, there’s expensive cases.
Huawei Pura 80 Pro verdict
It’s exceedingly difficult to argue with Huawei’s hardware quality in 2025, particularly with its top-line smartphones. The Pura 80 Pro conforms to the company’s trend of producing the best smartphone it can, and the results are impressive. The drawbacks are the same as they’ve been for years — Google services, which most of us are locked into in one way or another, take an extra round of work to install. This puts the Pura 80 Pro outside of the pick-up-and-go box, meaning you’ll really have to want one to go to the extra effort.
Huawei has gone to extra lengths to make you want one, though. The Pura 80 Pro is one of the few smartphones with a 1in camera sensor living inside its well-engineered chassis, and the list of those that are available in South Africa is even shorter. That alone makes the 80 Pro an essential purchase for anyone looking for the very best pocketable camera available. Design comes in a very close second, with performance trailing a little way behind. It’s as good as Huawei can make it while being squeezed by Americans. Turns out, that’s very good indeed.
