HUAWEI Mate 10 to get P20 AI features with Android 8.1

In a briefing with journalists at the launch of the HUAWEI P20, P20 Pro and Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate RS, Richard Yu confirmed that the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro will both receive the six additional AI-detected scenes the P20’s ship with. The added scene detection will arrive with the update to Android 8.1 Oreo, although Yu wasn’t sharing any timeline for when that will occur.

At launch, the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro were capable of recognizing 13 different scenes. This was all down to the neural processing unit (NPU) and the Kirin 970, which the new P20 and P20 Pro share. Those newer devices ship with 19 supported scenes, adding fireworks, document scan, waterfall, group photo, natural colors and macro. Fortunately for Mate 10 owners, you won’t be missing out, with HUAWEI delivering AI updates to its older devices, much like LG recently did with the LG V30 in the wake of the V30S ThinQ.

Despite some manufacturers recently claiming “AI” on everything from battery charging to USB cables (that’s a joke, but you get my point), Yu believes customers will soon learn who’s doing real AI and who’s peddling “fake AI”. Yu said, “HUAWEI will focus on real things, real AI, as it will become more and more important in future…. These other companies are misleading consumers, trying to cheat them.”

Another bonus for Mate 10 owners is the ability in the P20 series to disable the AI-assisted scene recognition. In the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro you were “stuck” with the NPU modifying scenes (or not) based on what it recognized. While in my experience you always got at least one great photo, you tended to need a few to ensure success. The ability to disable the AI in the camera app when you want full control without resorting to Pro Mode is a small victory for humans not quite ready to hand over full control to the machines just yet.

Read more on the P20:

• An afternoon with the HUAWEI P20 Pro camera
• HUAWEI P20 camera explained
• The P20 Pro camera is 10% better than any other phone, according to DxOMark