Huawei P30 Pro Review

While feature phones were once used exclusively to make calls and send texts, smartphones have evolved to offer far greater functionality to users. From snapping real-time selfies to gaming and streaming content on the move, you're more likely to play Football Manager than call your mum in the modern age. The Huawei P30 Pro has been uniquely designed to leverage this trend, with its ground-breaking quad camera system offering everything from 5x optical zoom to a whopping 50x digital zoom. You really can't go wrong with a refurbished Huawei P30 Pro.

A revamped design for a true market leader

While Huawei's P20 Pro was a stylish handset with an excellent build quality, its successor has been designed with an even slicker and more premium look. To this end, Huawei has stripped back the bezels above and below the screen to the bare minimum, creating a sleek, and dare we say it sexy, aesthetic. This has also reduced the size of the notch that the top of the display to barely a pin-prick, allowing just enough room for the front selfie camera. The screen and protective Gorilla Glass is now curved too, creating an attractive profile that also feels slimmer and almost lighter in the hand!

A more accurate fingerprint scanner

Huawei uses fingerprint biometrics to secure its handsets, but there's no doubt that the scanner featured in the P20 Pro was a little slow and cumbersome. However, the brand has resolved this issue when designing the P30 Pro, with the new scanner enabling you to capture multiple prints and working with genuinely impressive speed and accuracy. It's certainly a beat quicker than many of its contemporaries, and you can even record multiple prints for your thumbs and forefingers.

A display that does more than it says on the tin

Although there may be handsets on the market that have higher-resolution displays (at least on paper), you don't get the sense that Huawei has compromised on the design of the P30 Pro screen. After all, this handset features a sizable and precise 6.47-inch OLED display with a 1080x2340 resolution, which offers high definition and an impressive 19:5:9 aspect ratio. This device certainly produces bright, vivid and clear imagery whatever's appearing on your screen, creating the type of immersive viewing experience that you'd expect from a premium smartphone.

Revolutionising cameras for the Modern Age

Huawei pledged to set a new standard in mobile camera functionality with the P30 Pro, and this turned out to be the biggest understatement since athlete Walter Dix responded to Usain Bolt's record-breaking 100m sprint by declaring 'boy, that man was fast'. Let's face facts; this device features four superb rear cameras, including 40MP, 8MP, 20MP and Time of Flight (ToF) lenses, the latter of which is a depth-sensing camera that's unlike anything else ever seen on a smartphone. Variable zoom capabilities also allow you to get closer to the action than ever before, while incredible low-light performance lets you capture clear images at any time of the day or night!

A huge power pack for all-day use

While smartphones may be getting slimmer and lighter, power packs are becoming larger with every passing launch. The Pro P30 continues this trend, by packing a huge 4,200mAh battery within a sleek frame that's just 8.4mm thick. This also provides more than 24 hours of moderate to heavy use on a single charge, with an average of 30% left in the tank by 7pm in the evening during testing. So, while this handset's power pack may not top the bill in a star-studded specification, it provides a support act that's reliable and worthy of praise on its own merit.

While it can be hard to compare smartphones across multiple brands, we reckon that you'd have to go a long way to see a better smartphone than the P30 Pro. Whether you consider its ground-breaking camera app or its exceptional design, a refurbished P30 Pro has emerged as a genuine pioneer in the smartphone market and arguably offers better value for money than any of its rivals.

5 real-life highlights

1. The translucent silicone case offers a little more functionality and protection
2. The P30 Pro also features 4K video capabilities, enabling you to enjoy immersive films and graphically intensive games at the optimal settings
3. The superb 40MP lens offers unique opportunities to users, and you can leverage this resolution to enjoy upto 50x digital zoom
4. Huawei's improved EMUI interface is more polished and fluid than ever before
5. This handset also features reverse wireless charging, enabling you to charge other Qi wireless devices on the rear of the P30 Pro