Huawei debuts Android 9 Pie beta program for 9 smartphones

Huawei promised to release Android 9 Pie updates for some of its high-end smartphones starting next week, but before doing that, the Chinese handset maker plans to test out these updates.

 According to Huawei, its new EMUI 9.0 interface based on Android 9 Pie will be officially unveiled later this week at IFA 2018. Also, the first smartphones to receive the update in September will be the Huawei P20 series, which consists of the P20, P20 Pro, and P20 Lite. The Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, and Mate 10 Lite will be next to get the update soon after the P20 series.

The rest of the phones that will receive Android 9 Pie update haven't been mentioned by Huawei, but the latest announcement reveals several others that are likely to get it at some point.

The handset maker kicked off an Android 9 Pie beta program for the following smartphones: Huawei Mate 10, Huawei Mate10 Porsche Design, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei Mate RS Porsche Design, Huawei P20, Huawei P20 Pro, Honor 10, Honor V10, and Honor Play.

The beta testing program is limited to 1,500 participants and will only be launched in China where we expect the updates to be initially released. We believe this is just the first wave of phones to get Android 9 Pie updates, so we expect other Huawei and Honor smartphones to get it later on.