Huawei’s New Global Release Gives Phone Users The Best Of Both Worlds

Huawei's latest smartphones are some of the best hardware you can buy. And now, the company has announced the global roll-out of new software to introduce the very latest features to a much wider range of handsets than before, including many earlier phones which include full Google services.

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You'll know by now that the most recent releases from Huawei have not included full Google Mobile Services (GMS) features (such as Google Maps, Gmail and Play Store) because of the Chinese brand being included in the U.S. Government's Entity list.

So, until now, customers had to choose between phones with Google Mobile Services but without the very latest software features, or the most up-to-date software but no GMS.

Now, customers with earlier phones who update to this new, latest software can get the best of both worlds.

On the most recent phones, without GMS, the company has overlaid basic open-source Android with its own, very accomplished EMUI software. One of the benefits of EMUI is that it is designed to work on Huawei's phones whether or not full GMS is there.

The latest version of EMUI, version 10.1, was first introduced in March with the arrival of the P40 Series of phones. But it's now been announced that in the coming days it will be rolled out to many earlier phones as well. There's the Mate 30 Series and Mate Xs folding phone (which lack GMS), for a start.

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But the software will also be available to a lot of phones which run full GMS. And it's the arrival of this new OS on those phones which will offer users the benefits of full Google services plus the very latest features.

Here's the list of devices about to be updated to EMUI 10.1: Huawei P30, Huawei P30 Pro, Huawei Mate 20, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS, Huawei Mate 20 X, Huawei Mate 20 X (5G), Huawei nova 5T, Huawei Mate Xs, Huawei P40 lite, Huawei nova 7i.

Several tablets will also benefit, including the Huawei MatePad Pro and Huawei MediaPad M6 10.8".

That's a lot of phones. So, what do you get with this update?

Improved UI

This builds on the always-on display from EMUI 10 and adds a rendered 3-D effect. These are colorful images which sit alongside the time, date and notifications on an otherwise black screen. They look great.

On phones with the fingerprint sensor buried in the display, there will be new unlock animations. Huawei says these have been "inspired by the elements of the earth". To me they look like water rippling, fireworks exploding and a high-tech sphere.

The fingerprint sensor is very fast, so whichever you choose, you don't see it for long.

Beyond that, there's a multi-window feature where you swipe in from the side of the phone and hold for a second until a menu of apps appears, and floating notifications to make it easier to respond to messages, for instance.

MeeTime

No, I'm not mad about the name, either, but it's what Huawei's video-calling application is called. Features include full HD video calling between compatible Huawei devices and clever facial recognition tech to ensure you're visible even if light is low. It can even compensate for poor signal reception by using a Super Resolution Algorithm to compensate for poor image quality. It also works with other devices, such as the Drift Action camera. Note that Mee Time is initially in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. More countries will get it later in the year.

Huawei Share

This has been around for a while and is similar to Apple's AirDrop or the forthcoming Google Nearby Sharing. Read more about that here. This handy, fast and efficient way of transferring files between Huawei devices has been improved to permit high-speed transfers between phones and PCs, tablets and other devices.

Cross-Device Photo Gallery

This works across platforms so that you can browse images together even if some are on your phone and some on your laptop, providing both gadgets are on the same wi-fi network. Available in Europe now, more places to follow.

Multi-screen collaboration

Pick up audio or video calls on your PC instead of your phone, use the phone's cellular connectivity on the laptop and so on. Two devices can be used with just one screen, in other words.

Hey, Celia

If you think Hey, Celia sounds a lot like Hey, Siri, then, let me tell you, so does my HomePod. Celia is Huawei's voice assistant and is quite comprehensively installed across the device and has a lot going for it. Of course, you can dictate text messages but you can do cool things like translate from one language to another in a face-to-face situation. Initially supports three languages: English, French and Spanish and works on the most recent phones, that is the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro, as well as the P40 Series.

The roll-out is coming before the month of June is out and you can check by going to Settings, followed by System and Updates, and then Software Update to see if it's ready to download.

Follow me on Instagram by clicking here: davidphelantech and Twitter: @davidphelan2009

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