News & Reviews:   HarmonyOS 2.0

HUAWEI HarmonyOS is getting its next upgrade soon, according to one of the company's employees. The last version of the operating system, which is HarmonyOS 2.0, debuted in September 2020 at the Huawei Developer Conference. Therefore, it makes sense for HarmonyOS 3.0 to arrive in this time frame.

The HarmonyOS 2.0 presents an alternative to Google's system and is expected to launch soon. Most would think that only Huawei will be using the OS, but that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, sources claim that a few companies are interested.

Huawei has been working hard to develop HarmonyOS 2.0 and some results are starting to show. As it's still in beta, only selected Huawei devices to have access to it. But now the company is expanding the list of devices in the second beta phase so that more developers can test the OS.

Huawei is gearing up for a wider push for HarmonyOS 2.0 in its smartphones. Earlier this week, it was reported that the company plans for all its upcoming phones to come with the OS pre-installed, at least in China. The good news is that the newer OS was found to perform better in certain areas.

A few weeks ago, HUAWEI had announced that the HarmonyOS will soon be available as an update for current smartphones starting from April. The company also mentioned that the Mate X2 will be the first device to get the update via OTA. If you are wondering what other devices will be getting the update afterward, the answer might have arrived with a leak pointing to all devices with Kirin 710 and above.

Aside from announcing the new HUAWEI Mate X2 foldable phone, Huawei also talked about HarmonyOS last night. HarmonyOS 2.0 beta version has been out for quite some time now and starting from April onwards, some Huawei phones will be getting the upgrade via OTA.

After the trade ban being imposed on HUAWEI, some other Chinese smartphone manufacturers might also worry that they will face the same challenge. We can't deny that HUAWEI took some time to build the HarmonyOS to serve as the alternative to Google's OS. Therefore, if it happened to the others, they will also need some time to develop an in-house OS. Recently, the CEO of HUAWEI Consumer Business Group Richard Yu said that HarmonyOS will be made available for other smartphone manufacturers.

It's already looking like Windows 10 on ARM computers will be a big trend in 2021. There are a few rumours about brands working on laptops with ARM-based chipsets and Huawei is one of them. In fact, a new leak suggests that there would be a Huawei laptop featuring a Kirin 990 chipset.

About two weeks ago, Huawei unveiled the latest version 2.0 of its HarmonyOS. Users who have the more recent Huawei devices (like the Huawei P40) could register for the beta test before 31 January 2021. But the actual update is already being made available to some developers and Huawei's partners.

Today, Huawei has officially released HarmonyOS 2.0 beta program for some Huawei smartphones. At the moment, the Huawei P40 series, Mate 30 series and MatePad Pro will be going public testing first before rolling out. App developers who are interested in HarmonyOS 2.0 can apply for free as well.