Huawei launches first product with own operating system

Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which has been caught in the crossfires of the Washington-Beijing trade war, on Saturday unveiled a new smart television, the first product to use its own operating system.

The television will be available from Thursday in China and marks the first use of HarmonyOS, chief executive George Zhao said, adding that it will be marketed by its mid-range brand, Honor.

Huawei revealed its highly-anticipated HarmonyOS on Friday as an alternative operating system for phones and other smart devices in the event that looming US sanctions prevent the firm from using Android technology.

American companies are theoretically no longer allowed to sell technology products to Huawei, but a three-month exemption period—which ends next week—was granted by Washington before the measure came into force.

That ban could stop the tech giant from getting hold of key hardware and software, including smartphone chips and elements of the Google Android operating system, which runs the vast majority of smartphones in the world, including Huawei’s.

Huawei—considered the world leader in fast fifth-generation or 5G equipment and the world’s number two smartphone producer—has been blacklisted by US President Donald Trump amid suspicions it provides a backdoor for Chinese intelligence services, which the firm denies.

Meanwhile, in the Indian market Huawei launched Y9 Prime 2019. The key highlights of the Huawei Y9 Prime include pop-up selfie camera, notch-less display and 4,000mAh battery.

Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 is an upgraded variant of the Huawei Y9 that was launched in India in January this year. The upgraded variant of Huawei Y9 runs on Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9.0. The smartphone features a 6.59-inch full-HD+ (1080x2340 pixels) LCD screen with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by octa-core Kirin 710F processor, paired with 4GB of RAM.

On the optics front, the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 comes equipped with a triple rear camera setup, which sports a 16-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens, and a third 2-megapixel sensor. Also, there is a 16-megapixel sensor on the front, which is a part of the pop-up selfie camera module.

(With inputs from PTI)