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HUAWEI is finally putting a bigger focus on software updates
I can count on one hand how many updates my HUAWEI Mate 9 has received since launch. It’s October 2017, and the Mate 9 sitting in my desk drawer is running Android 7.0 Nougat with the April 2017 security patch. I bet most people would agree that this isn’t acceptable, especially with vulnerabilities like BlueBorne floating around.
Apparently that’s not going to be much of an issue any longer. At a briefing in Shenzhen, China, Dr. Chenglu Wang, President of Software Engineering at HUAWEI, told Android Authority the company is putting a much bigger focus on software updates in the future.
First order of business: updating its legacy phones. The company says Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8 will roll out to the HUAWEI Mate 9 within four weeks after the Mate 10 launches. The company didn’t give an official estimate on when Oreo will roll out to the P10 series, though we do know it’s coming “in the near future.”
The Mate 9 will get some of the Mate 10‘s fancy new AI features, including Smart Tips that prompt you to change your phone settings when it senses you’re in a certain environment. Unfortunately the Mate 9 won’t get the Mate 10’s new AI camera features due to the fact that the Mate 9 doesn’t feature HUAWEI’s AI chip, the Kirin 970.
Dr. Wang also says the update to Android Oreo and EMUI 8 brings Google’s Project Treble to new and old Huawei devices, which means security updates will be much more frequent. The company hopes to release security patches every three months to lower-end devices and every month for higher-end phones.