The Huawei Mate 30 (opens in new tab) and Huawei Mate 30 Pro will ship without Google's all-important suite of Apps and Services onboard. However, Huawei CEO Richard Yu has revealed that Huawei is ready to add them right away, should the Trump Administration's ban prohibiting local companies from doing business with it ever be lifted. This would instantly turn the top-of-the-line Huawei Mate 30 Pro into the Apple iPhone 11 Pro (opens in new tab) and Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus rival it was designed to be.
- Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro launched – but where is Android? (opens in new tab)
- Huawei Watch GT 2 is here with a two-week battery life and domed display (opens in new tab)
- Missed the Huawei Mate 30 event? Here's everything that was announced (opens in new tab)
In our initial review (opens in new tab) of the Huawei Mate 30, we noted that Huawei had hit the nail on the head in terms of hardware, but it's the software (or lack thereof) that's holding it back. Google Apps and Services are the life and blood of Android. Without them, there's no Google Chrome, no Google Maps, and no Google Play Store. The list continues. Instead, Huawei had to come up with a list of in-house alternatives, one of which is Huawei App Gallery — an intended replacement for the Google Play Store.
However, a replacement is it not. The Huawei App Gallery is home to a mere 45,000 applications, versus the estimated 2.7 million on the Play Store. What's even more concerning is that some of the most popular services in the world aren't on there. Netflix is nowhere to be seen, nor are Spotify and Telegram (opens in new tab). Google Docs, Google Google Slides, Google Sheets and the rest of Google's popular tools can't be accessed, either. All of Britain's leading banks are also missing, which means no mobile banking.
Huawei needs Google Play Apps and Services.
- Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro launched – but where is Android? (opens in new tab)
- Huawei Watch GT 2 is here with a two-week battery life and domed display (opens in new tab)
