Huawei Releases HarmonyOS 4 with 20% Boost in Performance and Deeper Customization

Imagine four years ago, when Huawei was pushed against the wall, and had no other choice, but to come up with it’s own operating system. Well, they did release one at the time in the shape of HarmonyOS, but it did little to convince anyone to switch over from Android or iOS.

Since then, the company has been actively investing, and spending time on its software front, and it’s really starting to show. Now, it counts as one of the fastest-growing operating systems, and is not just integrated in mobile phones, but all the electronics that essentially power your house. It’s basically a full fledge eco-system.

HarmonyOS 4

Today, Huawei unveiled the latest version of this system, HarmonyOS 4, and this time around, they’ve made it not only practical for serious tasks but also a lot more fun too (although not everything they’ve introduced is an original idea, keep this in mind).

To start it all off, Huawei has come up with something called the ‘Live Window,’ which is basically a digital version of Apple’s ‘Dynamic Island.’ Honestly, I wouldn’t have expected Huawei to be the first to do this, but here we are… And that’s not all, as they’ve also introduced something called the ‘Moon Window‘ for watches. It’s like a round, 3D version of the Dynamic Island.

In addition to this, HarmonyOS 4 brings a lot of customization, especially for the lock screen. But before we delve in deep into what it offers, I need you to look at these image of some lock screens from HarmonyOS 4:

Tell me that isn’t almost identical to Apple. I mean, a lot has changed too with the fonts, positioning, colors, but you’ll have to agree that there is a degree of similarity.

One more important update is how AI has been added to Xiaoyi, the voice assistant. Due to this, it can now have smarter conversations with you. It can do more things like creating detailed scenes, quickly summarizing information, having natural conversations, and understanding images. While these features are not entirely new, it’s really nice that they are now part of the voice assistant.

Moving forward, another change was the redesigned, and new emojis. HarmonyOS 4 now features more than 1,800 redesigned emojis that are more expressive and relevant to Chinese user habits.

When it comes to the performance aspect, there have been some really good improvements in Harmony OS 4, over HarmonyOS 3. They managed to make it about 20% faster, which is quite a jump, thanks mostly to the Huawei Ark engine.

Now, because they made everything to work more efficiently, the battery also lasts a bit longer, about 30 minutes more than before. And if it matters, the camera app now starts up 57% faster.

HarmonyOS 4 Supported Devices

As for the support, well, these devices listed below will officially be eligible to receive the HarmonyOS 4 update:

Phones

• Huawei P60
• Huawei P60 Pro
• Huawei P60 Art
• Huawei Mate X3
• Huawei Mate X3 Collector’s Edition
• Huawei Mate 50
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
• Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche Design
• Huawei Mate 50E
• Huawei Pocket S
• Huawei P50
• Huawei P50 Pro
• Huawei P50 Pro Collection
• Huawei P50E
• Huawei P50 Pocket
• Huawei P50 Pocket Art Edition
• Huawei Mate 40
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro 4G
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro+
• Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design
• Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design Collection
• Huawei Mate 40E Pro
• Huawei Mate X2
• Huawei Mate X2 4G
• Huawei Mate X2 Collection
• Huawei Mate Xs 2
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 Collection
• Huawei Nova 11
• Huawei Nova 11 Pro
• Huawei Nova 11 Ultra

Tablets

• Huawei MatePad Pro 11-inch performance version
• Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6-inch 2022
• Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6-inch 2021

HarmonyOS NEXT – Huawei’s Developer Only Software

Not only on the front-end, by Huawei’s making sure that it overcomes the most important barrier when it comes to software, which is application support. The company will now be making sure that it can lure in more devs. NEXT will aim to provide a base platform for developers to essentially ‘build up’ the Harmony ecosystem.

Since the release of HarmonyOS, we have been constantly seeking innovation: from flexible architectures that can be large or small, to Super Devices based on distributed technology. A technological breakthrough is only to achieve a better user experience.

Huawei

HarmonyOS NEXT will provide “latest base technology, open capabilities, and development kits” to these developers, and is scheduled to be released in Q1 2024.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.