How to double the storage on your Huawei flagship without buying a new phone

Shipments of Huawei handsets declined 81.6% last year thanks to the harsh restrictions that the U.S. has placed on the company and the sale of its Honor sub-brand. However, it doesn't mean that the firm has stopped providing outstanding customer service. With Huawei's "Internal Storage Upgrade Solution" that the company started last year, those using models from the P10 to the Mate 30 can upgrade their phone from 128GB to 256GB of storage without having to buy a new handset.

If you have nearly exhausted all of the storage capacity on your Huawei device, you can pay a small amount to have the company increase the amount of native storage on your phone   and have it back in your hands in just days.

Huawei has now expanded the service to include last year's P40, P40 Pro, and P40 5G. Other eligible models include:

To increase the storage on a compatible Huawei phone, let's say that you realize that the 128GB storage on your P40 Pro will not be enough but you don't feel like buying a new phone with 256GB of storage. Instead, visit one of Huawei's Service Centers and for a nominal fee, your phone can be upgraded with additional storage.

All you need to do is to visit the nearest Huawei Service Center in China with your P40 Pro in tow. Pay the store 559 RMB (equivalent to $88 USD), and your 128GB P40 Pro is now a 256GB P40 Pro. Huawei charges a different amount for each eligible model and pricing starts at 389 yuan.

 The "Internal Storage Upgrade Solution" website says that the procedure takes 10 days, and is available in China only. The website also points out that Huawei cannot upgrade the amount of memory (RAM) on these phones, only storage. The company gives an example of a phone that has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and says that it can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage.

Instead of having to pay for a new flagship phone, shelling out a reasonable amount of cash will give your Huawei phone additional storage allowing you to install more apps, and keep more videos and photos. Those with an eligible Huawei flagship phone can have this procedure done at one of the more than 1,900 Huawei customer service centers in the country, covering more than 300 cities.

Huawei's website says that there are certain conditions that must be met including one that sounds as though it came right off of Apple's website. If the phone getting the storage upgrade has a cracked screen, the latter must be repaired first before the additional storage is added. This prevents secondary damage from occurring to the device when it is taken apart for the storage upgrade.

The upgraded motherboard is backed by a minimum 90-day warranty. Huawei notes that the work being done is factory-grade quality and is done at facilities that are considered to have an advanced maintenance center with a professional environment, safety, and security. And all of the user's data will be transferred to the new storage drive.