HUAWEI Mate 10 Pro is already receiving its first update

In case you missed it, it didn’t take long yesterday for attendees at HUAWEI’s Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro launch to notice the device was running a little hot and that the battery was draining unusually quickly for a device fresh out of the box. HUAWEI spokespeople at the event identified it as a “Google bug” and left it at that. A patch was promised and Google acknowledged it was working on something.

Here we are less than 24 hours later and the update is now being pushed out. An email from HUAWEI PR simply states that the Google bug affecting Mate 10 Pro performance has been fixed in the update. While some noted excessive Google Play Services battery drain on the Mate 10 Pro, I didn’t see the same results (although my unit was running hot last night). Either way, all evidence pointed to an issue with Gapps.

Now, typically, a pre-release bug wouldn’t be terribly newsworthy. After all, what do you care if review units have a bug (other than that the reviews might be unfairly skewed because of it)? The reason it’s worth mentioning here is because HUAWEI addressed its less-than-ideal update track record during yesterday’s festivities and vowed to do better.

HUAWEI also told Android Authority in Shenzhen recently it is working on improving its update reputation, not just by issuing updates faster thanks to Project Treble and Android Oreo, but also through a closer partnership with Google on security patches. Considering this issue was flagged a day ago and has already been addressed shows just how quickly issues can be resolved when all parties put their minds to it.

Not all bugs will be this easy to fix, but the fact 24 hours was enough to identify, address and resolve this one bodes well for the future. I wouldn’t hold my breath just yet (and this was clearly more Google’s problem than HUAWEI’s), but if a company wants to change people’s minds about its attitude to updates and fixing bugs, this is how you go about it. Now, if only all bugs had the pressure of imminent reviews looming to get them on the top of the to-do list…