HarmonyOS 4 made its debut in the Huawei Mate 60 Pro
In China, the update will arrive on several dozen phones
EMUI 14 a likely alternative for Europe
Operating system Harmony OS 4 first appeared in the model Huawei Mate 60 Pro, whose (non)performance took place two weeks ago. There are still many unanswered questions surrounding the processor of this device, but let’s leave them aside for now. Huawei has now started releasing HarmonyOS 4 for a range of its phones and we bring you our first impressions and experiences. In terms of mobile phones, HarmonyOS has not yet made it outside of China, phones in Europe still rely on the EMUI user interface. The situation is different with tablets or perhaps smart watches, where you will already encounter HarmonyOS regularly.
HarmonyOS 4 is heading to four-year-old phones! In China…
In China, on the other hand, HarmonyOS is spreading quickly and this also applies to the latest version, through the My Huawei application, the fourth generation of this system is already available for several dozen products. I installed the update on a Huawei Mate 30 Pro that I bought in China. Right off the bat, I installed the API discovery app on my phone and I wasn’t completely pleasantly surprised, the app showed that HarmonyOS 4 offers an API matching Android 12.
I don’t want to judge the similarity between Android and HarmonyOS, I don’t have enough knowledge to do so. But still, I was hoping that Huawei would push the API up a notch. In the past, however, we have already experienced that different versions were hidden under one version of HarmonyOS (from an API point of view), so sooner or later a version will probably appear that will be compatible with Android 13 in this respect. At least in the case of the Huawei P60 Pro models or Huawei Mate 60 Pro, which probably won’t look at us.
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The list of new features is still relatively short, at first glance you wouldn’t recognize HarmonyOS 4 from the previous version. And quite frankly – from a user interface perspective, it’s here minimal difference against EMUI 13, which is found in Huawei phones outside of China. At first (second, third, fourth…) glance, it just looks the same. But that is not necessarily a disadvantage, users do not have to get used to anything new. But on the other hand, we want to see innovation.
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Most of the changes concern system security – for individual applications it is clearly displayed, which permissions and in what mode are or are not allowed. You can also easily filter, when and which application used a specific permission. Again, everything is in a simple and clear form. But seriously – how often do you watch this? I’m not one of those people who mindlessly clicks on anything, on the other hand, it’s a bit of a shame that security is the most visible innovation in HarmonyOS. A minor change is the possibility to modify the icon style en masse, but here it is still slightly unfinished (some of the functions promised in the update overview are not actually in the system yet). Huawei currently releases updates every two weeks, and I expect more updates to come.
HarmonyOS 4.0 is a fast system with a minimum of new features
But not to sound negative – I’ve been using an Android 14 phone for a few weeks now. A even the latest version of Android is not full of new features, practically all manufacturers are focusing on gradual development and the year 2023 did not offer any truly revolutionary changes in this direction, and it is likely that it will not be otherwise in the next year either. As such, phones work better and better, and the question is what else can be invented within the user interface. Changes inside the system are welcome and I’m happy for them, saving energy or increasing performance in the order of one percent is fine, but let’s face it – phones already have enough power and the endurance per charge has not changed significantly for several years.
Regardless of the amount of news in HarmonyOS 4, I am slightly sad that support outside of China is at a lower level. While the Huawei Mate 30 Pro already runs on HarmonyOS 4, the newer (and even more expensive) Huawei P40 Pro+ still relies on EMUI 12, in the guts of which Android 10. Yes, I never felt limited in this way by the old version of Android. But I’m sure the phone wouldn’t perform any worse with a newer version of Android. And from the customer’s point of view, it would indicate to me that Huawei has not forgotten about us in Europe. Although a new security update comes every month, a newer version of EMUI would make me happier. If phones 3-4 years old can get the new version of HarmonyOS in China, then something similar would certainly be possible elsewhere. And if Huawei doesn’t want to have unnecessary expenses with EMUI development, then it can release HarmonyOS globally…
Will the Play Store appear in HarmonyOS in the future?
Source: Own
2023-09-23 06:00:57
#tested #HarmonyOS #Android #world
