Huawei continues to rely on Android derivative EMUI 15 for its smartphones
Together with the Foldable Mate 6, there is also a version of the Huawei user interface, which is still based on Android.
With EMUI 15, you can quickly switch between three apps on the Mate 6.
(Image: Huawei, Screenshot: heise online)
Since 2019, Huawei has been subject to sanctions by the USA and can no longer offer Google services for Android on its smartphones, among other things. In the Chinese domestic market, the company is therefore relying entirely on its gradual in-house development HarmonyOS, which is now said to contain hardly any Google code. Internationally, Huawei continues to market its mobile devices despite the Google ban, and has been doing so for some time with "EMUI", which has so far been little more than one of the usual alternative Android interfaces.
This does not appear to have changed with EMUI 15.0, which is installed on the new Foldable Mate 6. Huawei only mentions a few gimmicks on the lock screen and the fact that foreign users are to be recognized by AI – most likely via the camera – and then no notifications for the owner of the device should be displayed. The biggest functional innovation is the simultaneous display of three apps when unfolded, which is almost a must for a foldable smartphone.
Huawei continues to work with Android
Despite the new version number – EMUI 14.2 was previously – Huawei's Android derivative is therefore not a major leap forward. There is also no information on how independent the system is supposed to be from Google's code. Apparently, Huawei is keeping a loophole open so that it can offer smartphones with Google services again at any time, as the devices have probably already been tested with the current versions. Google itself had repeatedly called for the world's largest Chinese provider of smartphones to be placed on an exemption list before the lockdown so that the devices would not gradually become less secure.
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Meanwhile, however, Huawei has focused on the open ASOP Android with EMUI and can offer the usual operation, but not services such as the Play Store or Maps on its devices. The sanctioned smartphones are also denied 5G radio. Whether and when the sanctions could be relaxed is completely open. They were initiated by decree under the first Trump administration in the US, and during the election campaign Donald Trump, who is now president-elect again, announced his intention to exert further pressure on China.
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