EMUI 10, the latest software update from Huawei for its mobile devices, hasn’t been around for so long. However, in the short time that the software has been available, both in its testing phase as well as in its final form, it has already hit a number of milestones.
The latest such milestone, according to Huawei, is that the number of devices running on EMUI 10 has crossed the 50 million mark.
What is impressive is that all this has been achieved in a very short time span: just 5 months!
A month ago, the Chinese device maker announced that EMUI 10 was up and running on over 10 million mobile devices.
The numbers are not surprising given the pace at which EMUI 10 releases for new devices both as beta software builds as well as final stable builds, have been rolling out over the last few weeks. Huawei has not only moved to update almost its entire premium device lineup from the last 18 months, but it has also bent backwards to accommodate a number of budget devices that, in previous years, would’ve been easily ignored.
Given that the increasing availability of EMUI 10 on Huawei devices (as well as those of sub-brand Honor where it goes by a different name) means that more and more people are now on the latest version of Android, Android 10, it, somehow justifies the company’s commitment to its own custom software and reluctance to join programmes like Android One.
This is not a view that will be shared by the millions of users of Y series smartphones who are likely to miss out on Android 10 after the Chinese company excluded them from its latest EMUI 10 update list.
The number of devices powered by EMUI is expected to increase as Huawei updates smartphones like the Nova 4, Nova 4e and Nova 5T, which launches in Kenya tomorrow.
EMUI 10 brings with it key Android 10 features like updated privacy controls for apps running in the background and requesting sensitive data like that revealing location information, a system-wide dark mode and more.
EMUI 10-specific feature updates focus on performance for graphics with improvements to GPU Turbo, the new file management system introduced in the previous version of EMUI and even a new compiler (ARK) to speed up non-system apps. This is in addition to minor aesthetic touches like a less “squeezed” settings app and a decluttered notifications shade and quick settings.
