HMS and the Huawei AppGallery – Performance on the P40 Lite
Huawei’s new P40 Lite is set to launch in South Africa during May 2020, offering flagship features and hardware at an affordable price.
The Huawei P40 Lite will be available on 18 May and will be priced at R6,499.
For this price, you receive an impressive FullView display and a modern design – powered by capable hardware. This includes the HiSilicon Kirin 810 chipset and 6GB of RAM.
Like its flagship counterparts, the P40 Lite has an impressive camera system, comprising four lenses – one of which houses a 48MP sensor.
One of the biggest changes the Huawei P40 Lite brings, however, is the integration of Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) with its EMUI 10 operating system, which is built on top of Android 10.
This means that users will have access to an ecosystem which is powered by Huawei’s online services and AppGallery – Huawei’s app store which supports local and international applications.
The Huawei P40 Lite will be one of the first smartphones in South Africa to come with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) as standard, instead of Google Mobile Services.
This does not mean that you will be limited in your app choice, however, as the P40 Lite still uses the Android 10 operating system and has access to all of the tools that go along with it.
The addition of HMS also makes it easier for existing Huawei users to migrate to the P40 Lite, thanks to use of Huawei ID with native applications and functionality.
Additionally, users will be able to access services such as Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, Google Search, and Maps – and the ecosystem provides support for a number of methods to access these applications.
Huawei provided MyBroadband with a P40 Lite smartphone to try out ahead of the official launch, and our experience is detailed below.
Using Huawei Mobile Services
Using the Huawei P40 Lite with HMS is just as easy as using any previous Huawei smartphone, and the great improvements made to AppGallery and HMS made it easy to set it up and downlaod the applications and services of our choice.
When we first fired up the Huawei P40 Lite, we were presented with the familiar Android interface and setup process.
Instead of logging into our Google account, though, we were presented with a prompt to log in with our Huawei ID credentials.
This was simple and easy, and we noted that the setup process also allows you to migrate your data from your previous Android device – even it uses Google Mobile Services – thanks to Huawei’s Phone Clone software.
After your account is set up and your applications and files have been migrated to the P40 Lite, you will be presented with the device’s familiar Android interface.
Using the Huawei P40 Lite provides the same experience as using the company’s previous-generation smartphones, and the device includes the same software features as other flagship devices on the market.
We were also installed a variety of applications on the device – including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and Google Chrome.
AppGallery content selection
One of the biggest changes Huawei has made to its smartphone software ecosystem over the past few years is the overhaul of its AppGallery.
The Huawei app store is pre-installed on all Huawei smartphones, and it now offers a range of applications from international and local developers.
We found that we could access everything from local banking apps to platforms such as DStv Now and Showmax directly from within AppGallery on the P40 Lite.
Additionally, when you search for an app within AppGallery that is not listed on the platform, it provides recommendations on how to install this software from an official distributor, as well as popular alternatives which are available on the platform.
Using these features, we were able to quickly get all of the apps we would ever need working on the Huawei P40 Lite – many of which supported integration with the Huawei ecosystem.
Services such as Google Maps, YouTube, and Gmail were then accessible using web browsers, third-party solutions, and similar alternatives.
Our experience of the Huawei P40 Lite and its Huawei Mobile Services-based operating system was similar to previous Huawei Android devices, and the improved hardware offered by the P40 Lite made for an excellent user experience.
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