Never mind the S26 Ultra, this new Pro Max has a first-of-its-kind 200MP camera

Huawei unveiled its new camera-focused flagships, the Pura 90 series, at an event in China today. Today’s launch largely focuses on the Pura 90 Pro and Pura 90 Pro Max – the dual successors to last year’s Pura 80 Pro. Notably, the follow-up to the Pura 80 Ultra is missing from the lineup, and Huawei hasn’t shared much on its availability yet. Let’s see what the new phones have to offer.

Design-wise, there is not much difference from last year’s Pura 80 series. We still see the triangular camera island from last year. However, instead of the solid colors of the previous generation, we are seeing a shift towards the gradients that were popular just a few years ago.

The most notable changes in the phone come in the camera. The more premium version, the Pura 90 Pro Max, now features a 200MP periscope telephoto with a 1/1.28″ sensor size – a step up from the 50MP 10x telephoto on last year’s Ultra. However, the zoom has been reduced to only 4x. This suggests that Ultra may come later.

Huawei also says that this is the world’s first 200MP RYYB (red-yellow-yellow-blue) sensor. Huawei has been using RYYB sensors instead of traditional RGB sensors for several years now, and these allow for more natural colors. The telephoto here should be equally capable compared to other devices with 200MP telephoto cameras, including the Oppo Find X9 Pro/Ultra and Vivo X300 Pro/Ultra.

Huawei says the sensor can be used to shoot 200MP RAW photography and near-optical quality videos at 20x zoom.

Meanwhile, the Pro Max sports a 50MP primary sensor, which also supports LOFIC HDR, similar to the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. This allows for better contrast and ensures balanced illumination across the entire frame, especially in low light. The phone also has a 40MP ultrawide-angle camera.

The Pura 90 Pro Max also supports an add-on camera lens with an additional 3.3x optical zoom to enhance the zoom capabilities of the phone. Huawei claims that it can capture lossless shots at approximately 27x zoom.

The Pura 90 Pro also comes with three cameras, but instead of a 200MP telephoto, it only gets a 50MP sensor with 4x optical zoom.

The Huawei Pura 90 Pro and Pro Max have similar internal hardware, including the Kirin 9030S chip along with up to 16GB of RAM. The phones are powered by Harmony OS 6.1, and the interface largely mimics iOS 26 to Liquid Glass.

The Pura 90 Pro comes with a 6.6-inch LTPO AMOLED with curved edges and corners, while the Pro Max gets an even larger 6.9-inch panel with similar features.

The standard Pura 90 was also mentioned at the launch. With a solid set of cameras for a non-pro phone, the Pura 90 gets a slim profile, measuring just 7mm, despite the big 6,500mAh battery.

As for cameras, the Pura 90 gets a 50MP primary, a 50MP telephoto with 3.7x optical zoom, and a 12.5MP ultrawide-angle camera at the back. The phone also has a 50MP selfie camera.

huawei pura 90 series price

The price of Huawei Pura 90 Pro Max starts at 6,499 Yuan (~$950) for the 12GB+256GB variant and goes up to 8,499 Yuan (~$1,250) for the 16GB+1TB variant. The camera extender kit is priced at 1,899 yuan (~$280).

The Huawei 90 Pro price starts at 5,499 Yuan (~$810) and goes up to 7,499 Yuan (~$1,100) for a configuration with the same RAM and storage as above.

The base Pura 90’s price starts at 4,699 Yuan (~$690) for the 12GB+256GB variant and goes up to 5,699 Yuan (~$835) for the 16GB+512GB variant. There is no 1TB version available for this.

All these devices will be available in China starting April 29, while details regarding availability in other countries are unknown. Given the US restrictions on Huawei, you may not be able to use it with any carrier, even if you import it through AliExpress or similar e-commerce platforms.