I know the Pura 90 Pro Max is just around the corner, but the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra is still regarded as one of the best camera phones out there — if you care about DxOMark rankings at all, this one’s still sitting at the top. So for this comparison in Faisalabad, Pakistan, I put it head-to-head against the vivo X300 Ultra to find out which of these two „Ultra“ phones actually deserves the spot.
Daylight Photography
Right away, the main lens focal lengths tell two different stories: vivo’s main lens sits at 35mm, while Huawei goes with a more common 24mm. The vivo shot has a slight reddish tone but captures more detail thanks to being effectively closer to the subject. At the telephoto range, the Huawei generally runs brighter, while vivo leans into more vivid colors — though nothing outlandish. At 10x/6.7x the shots are close, but I actually preferred the Huawei since vivo showed more obvious AI processing at 30x versus Huawei’s 20x. At max zoom, honestly, it’s a draw.
Ultra-Wide Performance
The vivo X300 Ultra’s ultra-wide lens is genuinely hard to beat — it came out on top in image quality repeatedly throughout this comparison, both during the day and later at night.
Telephoto & Zoom
This category kept flipping depending on the scene. At the telephoto range I preferred the Pura 80 Ultra for a more natural-looking shot in one location, while the X300 Ultra pulled ahead at 230mm zoom in another, with cleaner text and more detail. At max zoom, both phones consistently held their own, relying heavily on AI processing to smooth things out.
Golden Hour / Sunset
As the sun was setting, the Pura 80 Ultra’s shot was noticeably more vibrant, and I preferred its 10x shot — it even triggered a dedicated sunset mode automatically. At 20x though, the vivo pulled ahead.
Selfies
Handheld (no remote this time), the Huawei was more accurate with hair and beard tones, while vivo nailed the colors of my jersey better. Huawei offers extra flexibility here with a wider field-of-view option alongside the standard zoomed-in framing. Image quality from both was strong across the board.
Portrait Mode
The 35mm main lens gives vivo a real edge in brightness for portraits, but I actually preferred the Huawei for more accurate color reproduction, even though the X300 Ultra was slightly more detailed. The Huawei’s 5.6x portrait shot was genuinely brilliant. vivo’s portrait zoom tops out at 4x versus Huawei’s 5.6x, but the Huawei stayed on top for me overall in this category.
Video Recording
Shooting 4K at both 30fps and 60fps, the Huawei consistently showed more vivid, accurate colors on the front camera, and offers extra flexibility with wider field-of-view options that vivo simply doesn’t provide in some modes. On the rear cameras, both phones performed well, with the ultra-wide field of view running noticeably wider on the Huawei.
Low-Light & Night Mode
This is where things got the most mixed. The ultra-wide lens was a clear, repeated win for the vivo X300 Ultraacross nearly every low-light and night-mode test. Main-lens shots were closer, with the edge shifting scene to scene — sometimes vivo’s brighter output won out, other times I preferred the Huawei’s warmer tone. Telephoto low-light performance also swapped back and forth depending on the shot.
One technical hiccup worth mentioning: on a couple of occasions the vivo saved only a low-resolution preview instead of the final processed shot, which obviously isn’t a fair comparison point — just a glitch to be aware of, not a quality verdict.
For night portraits specifically, the Huawei’s colors looked more true to life, and it stayed more accurate at higher zoom levels too, where the vivo took on a slight greenish tint.
The Verdict
Unlike some of my other comparisons, this one’s a genuinely close call across the board — vivo dominates ultra-wide shooting, especially at night, while Huawei consistently impresses with portraits and color accuracy. Neither phone runs away with this one.
So, who wins this duel for you? Let me know in the comments!
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- Huawei Pura 80 Ultra: amzn.to/4gEkpqF
- vivo x300 Ultra: amzn.to/4cSd2Lc