Smartphones are now the most popular cameras. According to a study, out of the trillions of photos taken in 2024, smartphone cameras account for 94% of them. Despite this growing number, there is still a quality gap between even the best smartphone cameras and the average mirrorless counterpart. Moreover, while the main cameras get a lot of love, the telephoto cameras on many smartphones are a travesty.
The problem is the size and quality of the sensor itself. Camera sensors are often some of the priciest components in a smartphone, so brands tend to opt for lower-grade sensors for telephoto cameras. It’s also physically impossible to fit multiple large sensors within the smartphone body without the camera modules growing into comically large proportions.
Switchable Dual Telephoto Camera
The HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra solves this issue with an ingenious camera design. The 3.7x medium telephoto and 9.4x super-telephoto lenses on the phone share a single large sensor. This Switchable Dual Telephoto Camera brings the image quality of the telephoto cameras on par with the main cameras of most flagship smartphones. A significant increase in light intake combined with upgraded algorithms achieves an unprecedented level of detail in low light. Supported by the Ultra Chroma Camera, it also has superb detail restoration capability in long-distance, low-light scenarios for effortlessly restoring night atmospheres. The Ultra Chroma Camera precisely controls hue and saturation, solving colour reproduction challenges under high-saturation lighting for more accurate bright colours.
Making the most out of dual-telephoto
A super powerful pair of telephoto cameras unlocks a world of new possibilities for all photography enthusiasts out there. Below are a few of the many wonderful things you can do with the smartphone camera master, the Pura 80 Ultra.
- Photographing concerts and stage events: Nighttime concerts are notoriously difficult to photograph. The distance, the lack of proper light, and flashing multicoloured stage lights can be tricky to capture well, even with professional gear. The HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra uses the large telephoto sensor and the Ultra Chroma Camera to accurately capture the colours while avoiding the usual noise grain.
- Wildlife safaris: With the 9.4× super telephoto, you can fill the frame without spooking animals. The Pura 80 Ultra keeps dynamic range and noise performance comparable to the pictures taken with the main camera. Nighttime safaris are where you can really push the telephoto camera to its limits.
- Portraits with cinematic compression: Telephoto focal lengths make portraits more flattering. The 3.7x telephoto camera with a large sensor gives shallow depth of field and clean subject isolation. You can use the super telephoto lens for even tighter close-ups with shallower depth of field, bringing distant scenery and subjects closer with extreme spatial compression and excellent bokeh.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of things you can do with the telephoto cameras on the Pura 80 Ultra. One thing is for sure; things you thought you could never do with a smartphone camera become possible now. So, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Ultra Lighting HDR Camera
While the telephoto cameras reached typical main camera-level quality, the main camera on the HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra made an even bigger leap with the 1-inch Ultra Lighting HDR Camera. This camera features a large 1-inch sensor with an incredibly high dynamic range of 16EV, more than that of many professional cinema cameras. A large sensor, combined with the large F1.6-F4.0 variable aperture, enables the camera to deliver the industry’s largest light intake.
The Ultra Lighting HDR Camera uses the AI Cinematic Engine to record ultra-high dynamic videos that preserve details in bright and dark areas in the frame. In night scenes with flames, like bonfire concerts, the camera captures clear flame layers with transparent light. Combined with pixel-level colour calibration from the Ultra Chroma Camera, it presents flame effects as realistically as they appear to the human eyes. When shooting backlit portrait videos, the camera controls the highlights exposure while maintaining proper facial brightness.
With its revolutionary dual-telephoto system and 1-inch Ultra Lighting HDR Camera, the HUAWEI Pura 80 Ultra closes the gap between smartphones and professional cameras.