Chinese HUAWEI Mate 9 finally gets Oreo-powered EMUI 8.0 update

Beta testing for the Android 8.0 Oreo update to the HUAWEI Mate 9 ended in early November. Now, less than a month later, it looks like the official update is getting ready to roll out to Chinese versions of the handset.

While an OTA update is still nowhere to be seen, owners of certain Chinese Mate 9 variants can manually upgrade to EMUI 8.0 by requesting it via the HUAWEI Mobile Services app. Here are the currently supported models:

• Mate 9 MHA-AL00
• Mate 9 Full Netcom Version MHA-TL00
• Mate 9 Pro Full Netcom Version LON-AL00
• Mate 9 Porsche Edition

Once in the app, you can follow a series of on-screen prompts which will guide you through the upgrade process. The upgrade does not require a factory reset.

Android 8.0 Oreo brings plenty of new features to the Mate 9, including picture-in-picture (PIP), battery optimization, updated design elements, and a stronger integration of Google Assistant. You can read our in-depth review of all the incredible tweaks Google jammed into the latest version of the OS here.

It’s also worth noting that the latest version of EMUI includes a number of useful tweaks that go beyond Google’s Oreo upgrade including a desktop UI mode, HUAWEI-specific AI improvements, and dynamic wallpapers — just to name a few.

What about owners of the global variant? For now they are stuck playing the waiting game. Still, this is a positive sign and hopefully means that the wait for the Oreo-powered EMUI 8.0 is finally coming to an end.