The Huawei Pura 70 is a chic, polished smartphone

I didn’t think much of the Huawei Pura 70 until I got my hands on one. But when I did, I loved it.

The Pura family replaces the previous P-series family. However, it retains Huawei's imaging capabilities and exceptional aesthetics.

A new look

What I liked about the Pura 70:

• Very nice iPhone-esque yet unique-looking screen.
• Speedy charging: wireless (50W), wired (66W).
• Excellent camera.

While I only tried the vanilla model, there's also Pro and Ultra models with the latter sporting a massive 1-inch retractable sensor.

Definitely worth checking out.

PS: The Pura series is 4G only.

Using a Huawei

I’ve previously wrote about how I set up and used the Huawei Mate Xs 2 as a primary smartphone. Turns out there’s an even easier way.

Here’s what I did with the Pura 70:

• Install MicroG from Huawei's App Gallery.
• Set permissions for MicroG.
• Install Aurora Store. (auroraoss.com)

Done.

Using Aurora, it's possible to download apps from Google Play, paid apps are recognised due to MicroG, and apps are easy to update. No need to use GSpace app to run them inside a virtual machine.

MicroG and Aurora Store are long-time, non-Huawei open-source projects created by those who prefer to do Android without Google's invasive tracking.

Apps that worked

Here’s a short list of the apps that worked for me.

• Parking. sg
• DBS IDEALS.
• BlackBerry Inbox.
• Google Photos.
• Google Home.
• Google Docs.

What didn’t work:

• ChatGPT. 🤷‍♂️

The added convenience now makes me relook at some of Huawei’s tablets, which are actually pretty good. Will write again when I get it figured out.