HUAWEI Pura 70 Ultra hands-on: Huawei's real problem and the solution with microG

The Pura 70 Ultra from HUAWEI has a great design, a crazy display, a top processor, incredible battery life, a well-thought-out interface and a camera that has no equal. Only HUAWEI has exactly one problem, and it is not the embargo from the US. It is that many people believe you cannot use Google services on HUAWEI smartphones and tablets and that HUAWEI is therefore dead outside China.

Google services with microG

Because of the embargo, there is no Android on HUAWEI smartphones. There used to be the GBox app, which let you bring the Google services to HUAWEI devices with one click. That was a third-party provider where you could not tell who was behind it and what the privacy situation was.

Now HUAWEI uses the microG app. That is a German software project for users who want to use the Google services without sharing their data with Google. It is not made specifically for HUAWEI but can be installed by anyone on any smartphone. It was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and therefore has a very official character. So microG is not a flimsy workaround but a real alternative, even outside HUAWEI devices. Whom you trust more, the federal ministries or the Google corporation, is up to each person.

With that, HUAWEI devices suddenly become devices that you might buy precisely to protect your data.

Setup guides are available on notebookcheck.de and in the video on HUAWEI’s YouTube channel. The links are in the video description. After that you have the complete Google services on your smartphone or tablet: Google Maps, Google Drive, Chrome, and Google Photos syncs with the gallery as if nothing had ever happened. You can also install banking apps without concern, and everything runs smoothly.

The exception: the payment services. Google Pay still cannot be installed, and paying with your phone at the checkout does not work. Anyone who needs that will probably drop out here. For everyone who pays by card, a hell of a trip begins, because HUAWEI’s hardware plays right at the top of the first league.

Display and design

The design has turned out really well. As recently with the MatePad Pro, I am happy about the good build quality and the great look and feel.

• Display: 6.8 inches, LTPO OLED, 120 Hz. Like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, it gets up to 2,500 nits bright, so 500 nits brighter than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
• The edges disappear in a slight curve into the frame, making it look as if the device had none.
• The back is made of faux leather with a futuristic pattern.

Camera

The camera already stands out positively in the design, and in the stylish triangle sit:

• 50-megapixel main camera: The Ultra Lighting camera with an extendable lens has a large 1-inch sensor to capture lots of light.
• 50-megapixel telephoto camera: The macro telephoto camera with an f/2.1 aperture and 35x macro zoom takes macro shots like from another planet.
• 40-megapixel ultrawide camera

In the DxOMark comparison, the Pura 70 Ultra beats all other smartphone cameras, including the S24 Ultra, the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Honor Magic 6 Pro. I do not think much of benchmarks when they have nothing to do with reality. With the shots, though, you can only agree with the benchmark.

Verdict

With the build quality, a fast HiSilicon Kirin chip, the long-lasting 5,200 mAh battery and above all the camera, the Pura 70 Ultra is, for me, one of the top smartphones of 2024. That you get the full Google services without sharing your data with Google is the icing on the cake for me. With its devices, HUAWEI is cleaning up the field from behind. The MatePad Pro thrilled me with its slim design and nearly bezel-less display, then came the MateBook X Pro with 980 g and the Intel Core Ultra 9 with 32 GB of RAM. It is my current work laptop and has pushed my MacBook into the corner.