What you need to know
- Huawei has confirmed that it will begin updating eligible smartphones to EMUI 9.1 starting this week.
- The first Huawei smartphones to be upgraded to the latest version of the company's custom user interface will be the Mate 20 series and P20 Lite.
- EMUI 9.1 will bring an improved GPU Turbo mode, faster system performance, and a few other changes.
Last week, Huawei promised that it will update at least 17 of its smartphone to Android Q in the near future. The troubled Chinese smartphone maker today released a list of devices eligible to receive the EMUI 9.1 upgrade, along with a release timeline.
Huawei is expected to begin rolling out the EMUI 9.1 upgrade for eligible smartphones by the end of this week. The first smartphones to receive the upgrade will be the Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 RS Porsche Design, and the P20 Lite. A total of 13 Huawei smartphones will be upgraded to EMUI 9.1 in July: P20, P20 Pro, Nova 3, Nova 3i, P30 Lite, Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, Mate 10 RS Porsche Design, Mate 9, Mate 9 Pro, Y9 2019, Y6 Pro 2019, and Y5 2019. Only two models are slated to receive the upgrade in August: P10 and P10 Plus.
While EMUI 9.1 is not a major upgrade over EMUI 9.0, it does bring several new features and improvements that are aimed at improving the user experience. EMUI 9.1 claims to improve the read and write performance of the flash memory on compatible phones, thanks to the new EROFS file system. For a smoother gaming experience, EMUI 9.1 includes GPU Turbo 3.0 that is compatible with 25 of the most popular games currently. In addition to greater compatibility, the update also helps reduce SoC power consumption by up to 10%. Other notable highlights include new wallpapers and app icons, AI based one-click volume measurement, as well as easier file sharing between your phone and PC with Huawei Share OneHop. The first Huawei smartphones to launch with EMUI 9.1 right out of the box were the P30 and P30 Pro.
