Huawei launches Pura 80 Ultra, the first phone in the world with unique switchable telephoto camera

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Chinese phone maker Huawei has launched the Pura 80 Ultra, its newest flagship phone that takes smartphone photography to the next level. The company launches its devices in China only, but this time, Huawei is bringing the Pura 80 Ultra to the global market.

While this isn’t the fastest smartphone on the market, Huawei says the Pura 80 Ultra is the first phone in the world to feature two switchable telephoto lenses stacked on top of one another. The device also stands out from the competition with its unique looking triangle-shaped camera island.

The huge camera island houses a 50MP 1-inch RYYB sensor, a 40MP ultrawide shooter and a 1.5MP spectral sensor that helps enhance the colour accuracy. However, the unique selling point of this device is the 50MP telephoto lens, which is the largest on any smartphone. This telephoto lens supports 3.7x optical zoom and also comes with a motorised periscope module that provides 9.7x optical zoom. This is a bit less than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which came with a 10x periscope telephoto, but Samsung used a much smaller sensor compared to the one on the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra.

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This is the world's first phone that physically switches between two telephoto lenses. This is the world’s first phone that physically switches between two telephoto lenses. (Image Source: Huawei)

As is the case with recently launched Huawei phones, the company hasn’t stated which chipset the Pura 80 Ultra comes with, but speculation has it that the phone is powered by its in-house developed Kirin 9020 chipset. The front of the phone sports a 6.8-inch LTPO OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3,000 nits of peak brightness.

The Chinese version of the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra comes with 5G and satellite connectivity and runs on HarmonyOS 5.1 out of the box, while the global variant will ship with 4G connectivity and run on Android-based EMUI 1.5. The phone also comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage.

Pura 80 Ultra also comes with a new AI Smart Controls button, which, as the name suggests, gives you quick access to frequently used shortcuts like AI lens, flashlight and camera, to name a few. What’s interesting is that this button also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor, which is rare to see in a candybar flagship phone.

The global version of the Pura 80 Ultra will come with a 5,170mAh battery as opposed to the Chinese variant, which packs in a 5,700mAh battery. You also get support for 100W wired and 80W wireless charging. Available in two colourways – black and gold, the Pura 80 Ultra is available for purchase in China for 9,999 yuan, which roughly translates to Rs 1,19,500, but Huawei is yet to reveal the price of the global variant.